5 years ago, Roman joined TSC Nanjing as a senior engineer and then he took the role as technical leader for Next Generation Warehouse System. Last year, he was recognized as one of 2020 TSC Nanjing Best Employees and starts to oversee a 20-member-size development team this year. Roman has gone through the precious 5 years of his career development in TSC Nanjing. Today, we are happy to invite Roman to share his story here.

• Congratulations on being recognized as 2020 TSC Nanjing's Best Employee. Could you please share your experience in the past year? What made you successful?

I think it is inseparable from our team’s efforts. In the past year, we had a very busy schedule. There has been an increase in customers’ demands to go live with the warehouse management system. We completed about 6 projects in total last year, which is twice as many as the previous year. Yet, despite the tense project time, our team worked together and achieved quality and quantity in our various tasks.

The same year, we also minimized the down time of software deployment into near zero. What does it mean? For example, if a system needs to be shutdown for deployment, like stopping for 30 hours, it would be a disaster for some warehouses that are running 7*24 hours. Thus, this technology improvement ensures that warehouse operations are more reliable. 
 

• Last year, how did your team handle this kind of time pressure?

We made it with mutual respect and team cooperation. These are also two keywords of our company culture.

Some of our systems have to go live at weekends. I will check with team members about their availability before arranging tasks, so that who with a convenient schedule can handle the tasks accordingly. This is because we have established a tacit understanding among ourselves - work is extremely important, but so is personal time. All of us will respect each other's personal time and choices on every daily practice.

When it becomes everyone's consensus, colleagues will be considerate of one another. Our team members are very willing to be backup for each other and take turns to complete emergencies as well.   

I like the atmosphere of cooperation very much, as opposed to the "involution" that is popular now. "Involution" creates a feeling of infinite competition within limited resources, but we hope everyone works efficiently together, to create value together, instead of "meaningless consumption". 
 

• What else makes you want to work at TSC Nanjing besides respect and cooperation?

It gives me a sense of accomplishment. 

We have supported many world-renowned organizations to complete the development and implementation of warehouse management systems. Those companies' products could also be common in our daily lives, so it makes me feel great to participate in these projects.

To be more specific, imagine that you bought a certain brand of clothes online. The clothes are exactly coming from the warehouse where our team provides technical support, passing through the operating line that we developed the system and finally reaching your home. Isn’t it interesting?

We are also offering systematic knowledge training to our colleagues in Southeast Asia, India, Australia, and other countries so that they can serve our customers better. It's also a very good feeling to see that I have helped nearly 80 colleagues in the Asia-Pacific region so far! 
 

• Are there any differences now as a team leader as compared to before? Are there any new challenges?

Yes, there is indeed a big difference. In the past, I was mainly concerned about whether we could successfully deliver our projects. Now, as a team leader, I should also think about how to manage our team and help my team members develop their own career.

Recently, we launched an "Enablement" action in our team, encouraging everyone to exchange experiences and learn from one another. This would broaden their skills and make them an "all-rounder".

In addition, I am supporting some strategic initiatives of our development team, such as natural language processing, IT employee development, and so on.

The new role also puts higher demands on my ability to coordinate resources and manage energy. Currently, I am still learning and exploring, and I believe I can do better soon!

Thank you Roman for sharing this inspiring story!