An attorney by education, Kaul began her journey in the Middle East roughly 10 years ago. “I had just come back from Europe and experienced the dot com boom in the US and noticed huge opportunities in this young market,” she says.
Kaul set up a business in Dubai that focused on delivering knowledge based technology and portals. It was then that she began to notice ‘evident’ gaps in the channel ecosystem. “As a reseller, I noticed the distribution space followed a trading mentality and in 2008, I set up Optimus Technology and Telecommunications with one aim in mind- to fill the value gaps in the channel, from the very top of the channel,” she explains.
“Today, I believe this is Optimus’s biggest achievement. It was designed to focus on delivering value in the channel from world class technology products and solutions to technical expertise and capacity building. Optimus has been a frontrunner in transforming the channel ecosystem. Until then, the distribution industry in the region had no concept of ‘value’,” Kaul adds.
Kaul lists entrepreneur enablement and technology execution as her two passions. “I set up the Middle East Entrepreneurs’ Network in 2004 to link international organisations to regional companies in a bid to leverage best practices. A huge part of enabling organisations to do better is helping them understand how technology can help them transform and automate their operations,” she says.
Today, Kaul juggles her time between scouting business opportunities, consulting SMBs on technology applications and start-up strategies and staying up to date with current news and developments. “I like to be informed to be able to make better decisions that help me ultimately stay on top of things,” she explains.
Kaul credits her father for having instilled her with the self confidence that she exudes. “He never once doubted my ability; instead he inspired me to stay focused and turn impossible situations into possible, achievable goals,” she explains.
It is this attitude that has helped her create a tight knit, constantly motivated team within Optimus that believes is the organisation’s primary objective – to deliver value.
“I am a very positive person, I know what I want from my day and I am always satisfied with what I have achieved by the end of that day. My biggest strength is the people I have attracted and retained to work with me. At Optimus, every member of the team truly believes that value is not dependent on a company’s revenues but on the deeper project-based relationships that it establishes in the long run,” Kaul concludes.
