Coffee Talk #3 - Transformation Is The New Normal

It’s almost December, which means that the Winter spirit is all around in cozy decorations and bustling markets. At LucaNet, we are also preparing for the end of 2022, and before we enjoy the Holidays and the annual Winter party, we are focusing intensely on our Strategy and Budget planning for next year. 

A key contributor to the success story of LucaNet is our colleague Sabeel Asghar, Team Lead People and Organization Strategy, whom we sat down for a quick coffee talk to pick his brain about his work at LucaNet and learn a little more about him.  

Hi Sabeel! First things first, tell us, when did you join LucaNet and what is it that you do here? 

I joined LucaNet in 2019. Over the years, I worked on various projects and programs facilitating the company strategy. However, the projects I have been leading are around Strategy Management and Organization Development.   

What was your first position at LucaNet? 

I started off in the domain of business processes and systems, eventually moving towards organizational development and strategy management. I had a great collaboration with the People team at the time, which sparked my interest in People & Organization topics and, due to our internal mobility opportunity, I moved to their department.  

At the same time, I was accepted into Harvard and thanks to LucaNet’s remote working policy and its training and development opportunities, I was able to study and work at the same time.  

How did that work out for you? 

I continued to study, and I used this newfound knowledge and experience gained from others in my cohort for LucaNet projects as well. I kept my full-time position while also participating in the Harvard Executive Program. That’s how I started my second role at LucaNet, as Senior Organization and Strategy Manager. 

That’s truly amazing! We want to get to know you a bit, so we prepared an icebreaker question for you: If you had to delete all but three apps from your phone, which would you keep? 

Oh, that's a tough one. I like all the apps that I use, they keep me organized and entertained. However, I would probably choose Instagram, because their target marketing is on point and that scares me. Imagine waking up one day and seeing a post about having a hair transplant for 5K in Turkey! (Is this something good or bad?)    

What does a typical day/week at work look like for you? 

Thanks to LucaFlex, it depends on where I am working from. If I am working from home, I start off by brewing myself a nice cup of coffee. If I’m in the office, I will pick up cereal and fruit from the kitchen and jump into my scrum dailies. My day-to-day revolves around managing projects and that’s why I use most of my time in budget planning and strategizing communication. 

What is particularly exciting about your projects now, in your role as Team Lead? 

I'm working on multiple strategic projects supporting our ESG Strategy with colleagues from my team and others at LucaNet. However, for the past year, my main focus has been implementing Salesforce, one of the biggest cross-function global programs at LucaNet. I'm thrilled to be part of a team that unifies our global revenue and commercial processes and migrates data into one system so that all our global customers and partners can have the same experience through better reporting and enhanced processes.

What are the three things that you believe characterize LucaNet and that you would love to still see in five years? 

1. Transformation is the new normal  
2. Leading ESG efforts  
3. Our core: Simplifying finance  

Thanks a lot for sharing insights into your work life at LucaNet! We have one last question for you. Do you have any tips for potential candidates?  

Be bold yet humble and be yourself, the rest all follows with time and experience.