Shiana Siruma: Assisting Iconic Brands to Achieve Business Objectives while Maximising Returns

Strata Results is an independent ICT strategy and business transformation services company with a track record of assisting iconic brands to achieve their business objectives and outcomes on time and within budget. Its approach embodies the human, technology, information, and process capabilities, and when combined with sound methodology, differentiated thinking, and practices, produces profound levels of customer and business value.

The company's philosophy is to work collaboratively with its client to 'co-create' the strategies and operating models, allowing each of the members to bring experience and skills to bear.  Its methodology quickly creates aligned thinking while creating a level of challenge or 'stretch' for the client to maximize the benefits possible.

Strata Results' capability reflects a comprehensive and proven approach, using internationally experienced technology leaders.

Leading with Strength and Passion

Shiana Siruma, Vice President – Customer Solutions APAC, Strata Results has been a people's leader for 14 years. She is motivated by the passion for a people-focused environment and flourishes in meeting with global leaders and engaging for impact. She manages strategies for brand awareness and promotes company offerings through various platforms such as social media, TV, radio, and live web streaming.

Shiana is an industry-agnostic executive– having worked in various industries such as IT/Software Development, Banking, Hospitality, Telecommunications, Education, and Outsourcing in a B2B and B2C environment.

She is responsible for forging partnerships and building trust with new clients. Shiana represents SRG's transformative solutions that can fundamentally change the way a business goes to market, behaves as an organization, and makes strategic moves within its industry. She also provides her clients proven ways of delivering mission-critical initiatives at a fast pace that leads to a more successful and accelerated outcome.

Learning from People Around Her

"There's always room for learning. We spend years perfecting our craft and trying to be the best at it but it doesn't mean that we should stop there," says Shiana. The main reason she sticks to her role is that it allows her to meet new, brilliant people every day, and that allows her to learn about their business, their expertise, and their skills, which helps her improve and in the end, share with those who need guidance.

Failing forward made Shiana resilient as she learned to use failure to find success, get through the hardest times without losing savoir-faire.

Crossing the Ocean of Barriers

According to Shiana, creating confidence in speaking up to prejudiced superiors who hesitate her potential because of her title, educational background, race, gender, and marital status was a major factor that created huge hurdles in her journey.

Being knowledgeable, becoming an expert in what Shiana does and doing, every little thing with integrity and transparency paired with brevity and authenticity propelled her status from being "seen but not heard" to "seen, heard and empowered".

Attributes that a Successful Leader Must Possess

Shiana believes the 4 vital attributes below are crucial for leaders to be successful.

• Develop a strong sense of self-awareness – Do what you love and align your values with the organization you lead.
• Passionate with people – Transformational leaders are inspiring and can motivate others to rise to the occasion.
• Ability to swim in any ocean of ambiguity – Adapt quickly, think differently about the current situation, and see possibilities where others may see only problems.
• Dealing with difficult situations with grace and dignity – Look challenges straight in the eye and never lose sight of your values, vision, objectives, and goals.

Strategic Innovation through Researching Industry Trends

Strata Results prides itself on working transparently and collaboratively with its clients, supporting its individual and combined growth for sustainability.  It constantly checks the "pulse" of its projects and the health of its client, to ensure that it is delivering a value-added service. The company is not afraid to modify its approach based on new industry learnings or a specific cultural difference within its client's organization.

The team at Strata Results constantly asks "what is our differentiation?" The company runs regular planning conferences within its organization, focusing on its methodology growth. Topics such as Data mining, AI, Automation, and Customer Experience drive its discussions. Strata Results researches industry trends and ideas and attempts to expand on those concepts and organize them into applicable strategies that it can deploy whilst service a client.

The company runs "wild card" sessions, whereby its Executive Team discusses ideas that may have not been considered before – new offerings "….as-a-service", and how that might benefit its clients, and how to leverage existing data mining software to help optimize and automate its client's business. It negotiates with data mining vendors to be able to provide cost-effective solutions.

Disruptive Technologies' Impact on Today's Innovation

Shiana believes that disruption is the new normal. The ability to rapidly respond to change will move from thriving to surviving. An organization's fate will be determined by its ability to rapidly respond to change as operational resilience changes from being a competitive advantage to being a basic requirement. That's why automation is now a top strategic technology trend, according to major industry analysts.

The role of a leader has drastically changed – from seeing how things are going with their organization to being proactive, creating a sense of urgency to drive change by taking a stand for a better, future state while creating an environment that fosters good relationships so that great ideas can happen. As businesses adapt to technology and innovation, leadership embraces more personal interaction with every member in every corner of their organization – high tech perfectly pairs with a human touch.

The Route Towards the Future

Strata Results shares its CEO's vision – to be the "go-to" organization, to successfully deliver a business transformation where the clients are left with the sustainable skills to further run and improve their enterprise. The company believes that clients want to engage at the Executive level to share "skin in the game". To this end, it creates partnerships with its clients – advising them of the way forward, even if it is not necessarily what they wanted to hear – but is truthful.

Strata Results believes that it is time for the words "ethical" and "consulting" to be placed back into the same sentence. This will take courage, openness, and honesty with its clients and staff.

This is where Strata Results is and will be.

Providing Valuable Advice to Rising Female Leaders

On advising emerging leaders, Shiana says "Self-awareness is the first major step we need to take to reach our destination of choice. Yes, we must do our best but don't let "perfect "get in the way of being really, really good."

Shiana is an optimistic person and so she sees obstacles not as torture or hardships but as ways to make her stronger and more capable. She always tells everyone, especially young women, to take time working on themselves – know and own their mistakes, identify their right and wrong choices. "That helps them know their worth and when they know their worth – they know what they can do, what they can contribute to the workplace and the community. That allows them to choose wisely and never settle for anything less than they deserve. The only thing left is to do all these with faith, a smile, and the wind in their hair.", says Shiana.