An Interview with Karan Yaramada, Jade Global CEO: ‘We’re Well-Positioned to be a Strategic Digital Partner for Mid to Large Enterprises in their Digital Transformation Journey’

“We have been ranked on the Inc. 5000 list of fastest-growing private companies in the U.S. for the past nine years in a row.”

Cloud computing platforms and applications are proliferating across enterprises today, serving as the IT infrastructure driving new digital businesses.

Transition to the cloud means more than just a change in pricing. To be successful with cloud offerings, software vendors must retool their operations and remodel their business structures to achieve greater efficiency and adapt to the new realities of lower average sales prices and lower margins.

At the same time, customer expectations are higher, and the risk of turnover is higher due to agility the cloud offers. Software vendors need a sharper focus on customer satisfaction and a clear realization of reduced cycle time in addressing customer issues.

In light of the foregoing, we’re thrilled to present Jade Global.

The company provides enterprise business application implementations, integrations, software product engineering, cloud services, technology advisory, testing, and managed services across diverse industries.

Jade Global brings the right combination of process knowledge, product expertise, technical skills, project management and flexible delivery models to help you accelerate business agility and achieve digital transformation.

The company was founded in 2003 and is headquartered in San Jose, California. Its East Coast headquarters are located just outside Philadelphia in North Wales, Pennsylvania. Jade Global’s European offices are in Reading, UK and Vienna, Austria. Jade’s delivery centers are in Pune and Hyderabad, India and Toronto, Canada.

Karan Yaramada, Jade Global CEO, spoke exclusively to The Silicon Review. Below is an excerpt.

Q. How and why was the company set up? And how did you expand your company and its offerings over the years?

After the Dot Com boom and Y2K bust, I observed a major shift in IT services and business becoming more global by nature. There was an opportunity in the market to start an IT services company that had the culture, competitive pricing, and benefits of a boutique firm, but at the same time could provide customers with large-scale IT projects.

Becoming an entrepreneur virtually overnight was a complete bootstrap, bottom-up undertaking. I spent the first year at Jade Global working simultaneously on three Oracle upgrade projects. Gradually, I surrounded myself with a team and hired Jade’s first employees, tapping into my personal network and circle of friends. Despite the challenges of entrepreneurship, I always kept a long-term vision in mind. As Jade Global grew, we expanded our offerings to include enterprise business application implementations, integrations, software product engineering, testing, support, cloud services, technology advisory, and managed services.

Today, Jade Global is an Oracle Platinum Cloud Select Partner, Salesforce Silver Partner, Dell Boomi Certified Select Implementation Partner, and ServiceNow Silver Partner with additional strategic partnerships with NetSuite, Microsoft, Zuora, and Tableau. Our wide range of offerings allow us to design robust solutions for a variety of industries and client needs.

In February 2017, Jade Global embarked on another major expansion, physically. We opened a second US headquarters located on the East Coast in Philadelphia through acquisition. In early 2019, we set up two new European entities in Toronto, Canada and Vienna, Austria. It’s safe to mention that Jade Global has scaled new heights and continues to grow.

Moreover, we have been ranked on the Inc. 5000 list of fastest-growing private companies in the U.S. for the past nine years in a row.

Q. Can you brief us about the history of your company?

I founded Jade Global 16 years ago after having worked for over a decade in the IT industry. I took the risk to leave my former employer and make myself the first employee of Jade Global, working independently with no paycheck for the first three months. Jade Global began as a small business that handled Oracle support services and upgrade projects.

Today, Jade Global is over 900 employees strong and has strategic partnerships with several vendors (mentioned above). Since 2014, the company has consistently seen 3-fold revenue growth each year.

Q. What were the biggest initial hurdles to building your business and how did you overcome them?

It was difficult to find the right customers during the early stages of the business. I started with a vision and a philosophy, but the customers needed to align with what we wanted to do. With my experience working with KPMG and TCS, I saw the greatest value in having customers who were patient, trusting and willing to give repeat business. We overcame this challenge by finding a few key customers, in the beginning, to build close relationships with. We were always upfront about expectations and delivered consistent work. QuickLogic Corporation, Marine Terminals and Silicon Storage are some of Jade Global’s earliest customers who are still with us today.

In addition, I faced the challenges of being an entrepreneur with little resources and trying to differentiate the business in an already saturated industry. I overcame these hurdles by networking and finding the right people who had experience in similar business ventures.

Q. What are your three biggest accomplishments?

I pride myself in the ability to stay focused on Jade Global’s business mission for the past 16 years. Many people doubted I could grow the company beyond 100 employees without external funding or institutions supporting Jade Global. I am proud that Jade has remained a privately held company and grown from 0-900 employees.         

My goal of keeping Jade Global an employee-owned company throughout its periods of growth is something I am extremely proud of.

Outside of business, I am proud to say that I embarked on a mission to rebuild and redesign my home in Silicon Valley in just five months. This was not an easy task. I was able to accomplish something in months that often takes years. I was lucky to find the right people and contractors to help; a theme that seems to follow in my life! I am proud of the home we built and designed for my family, wife and two children.

Q. What do you think is the most memorable moment in your career?

The most memorable moment was when I quit my job at KPMG BearingPoint on July 1, 2003. I had been working at KPMG as a consultant for about five years. You could say the day was my own ‘Independence Day’. It was a turning point for me personally and for Jade Global.

From that day forward, I started offering my own services and managing a few projects and business development work. I tapped into my network, which is how we got the first Oracle upgrade project with our customer Quick Logic. Initially, the project was already with another large software vendor, but it had not yet started.

I had a connection who knew the CIO of Quick Logic. QuickLogic’s IT Management liked the proposal I had given them and trusted me to take it on! In that next month, I built my own team and closed a fixed price Oracle 11i upgrade deal. This was the project that allowed me to build a Jade Global team. For five months, Jade had its own office at Quick Logic. After 16 years, QuickLogic is still a loyal customer.

Karan Yaramada: A Formidable Leader

Karan Yaramada is the Chief Executive Officer of Jade Global.

An alumnus of Harvard Business School, Mr. Yaramada exemplifies the company’s deep-rooted culture of maximizing value from the latest technology to address some of the biggest business challenges. His commitment to innovation culture empowers Jade’s employees and has helped build a high performing team.

“Jade Global brings the right combination of process knowledge, product expertise, technical skills, project management and flexible delivery models to help you accelerate business agility and achieve digital transformation.”