Innovecs is a company with a special vibe where you want to return. We are excited to announce that Sergiy Khandogin, who worked at Innovecs from 2011 to 2020 has rejoined the team.
Sergiy will take up the position of Chief Technology Officer. He plans to focus on strengthening the technical expertise of teams in projects and the company as a whole. We talked with Sergiy about his ambitious plans, the unique atmosphere in the company, and corporate values.
— Sergiy, what makes Innovecs different from other companies?
— First of all, I think this is the overall vibe within the teams, which are very close-knit. Plus, Innovecs has always had initiatives, for instance, InnoHub or communities of interest that give people the opportunity to socialize, pursue their hobbies, and find friends within the company in addition to work. At Innovecs, this socialization creates a fertile ground for communication that is not just formal but more personal and friendly.
— There is a transparency leadership concept, which implies an open-door culture and the absence of bureaucracy. Does it apply to Innovecs?
— Absolutely. The company has been committed to such principles before, and, from what I can see, it still is. There are no such blockers when one of the teammates is limited in communication with a colleague or immediate supervisor. That is, communication within the company takes place at various levels, between different projects, both during the work process and outside of it. Communities and corporate events promote communication and help support networking.
— Our corporate values are Innovate, Inspire, Care. How do these values manifest themselves in the company’s life?
— In fact, all our values intersect with each other, and all three can manifest themselves in one activity within the team.
Innovate is everything about development, finding ways to complete a task better, faster, easier, and cheaper. To embody the value of Innovate means to create something new and meaningful that will help teams in their daily work and make work easier and more transparent. And also, it’s about improving and optimizing the product to enhance it for end users.
Inspire is about working within teams and getting tangible results. When engineers develop large enterprise systems, there is usually a lot of work and tasks, but changes are not always visible, especially when there is no direct user feedback. Therefore, the feedback from the client, and the end users, is inspiring.
Mentoring within teams, helping each other, and sharing experiences is an important embodiment of the Inspire and Care values. This also applies to help when entering a new project, and in learning something new, in solving problems. At Innovecs, it is not customary to stumble into a problem alone and look for a way out purely on your own. If someone reaches a dead end, the search for a way out and a solution to the problem always occur collectively. Educational and entertainment events and corporate learning programs are very inspiring.
Due to the full-scale invasion, part of the team ended up in less than comfortable places, away from home and colleagues, someone relocated; and the company switched to telecommuting so that people could work remotely more efficiently. In general, the company supports the team in these challenging times.
— What do you plan to bring to the company, what are your professional plans?
— I returned to help develop expertise and competencies that bring value to clients. At the beginning of the company’s work, the emphasis was more on individual technological skills, but now the focus is shifting to expertise. One of my tasks is to align technical and business expertise to hone and develop each area. Clients often need a solution to a problem, not Java developers or, for example, testers.
We will shift the focus to developing combined expertise, to the symbiosis of technical and business needs, and use our strengths to nurture and develop what we still lack. Moving from a broad front to niche solutions that will be effective for a specific domain is necessary. And vice versa — expanding successful technical solutions to different business areas is vital, starting with related business tasks. This is what clients want: expertise that would allow them not to search for a solution to a problem but to implement and use it.
One of my essential tasks is to build a partnership within the Centers of Competence. This structure will complement delivery for upgrading our teammates, increasing the expertise of teams and the company as a whole so that we can receive and implement more integrated, complex, and interesting projects.