We’re celebrating a remarkable milestone — Achyut Koulgi’s 25 years with ORBIS America. To mark the occasion, our marketing team, Ashley Reynolds and Morgan Pentin, asked Achyut to reflect on his journey from Senior SAP Consultant to Vice President, the evolution of the company and industry, and the experiences that have shaped his career along the way. From the early days of weekly travel and impromptu happy hours to navigating a rapidly changing SAP landscape, Achyut has been a constant and driving force behind ORBIS America’s growth. Get to know the person behind the role — his proudest moments, favorite memories, and what still excites him about the road ahead.
Background
Q: What year did you join ORBIS America, and what was your role at the time?
A: I joined the team in May 2001 as a Senior SAP Consultant. At that time, I was assigned to the Rittal project as a Production Planning Consultant.
Q: What originally attracted you to the company?
A: I met Richard Reiss and Michael Winkelmann at Siemens Automotive in Newport News, VA. I was then employed by my previous consulting firm, and I was working on a project at Siemens Automotive where Richard and Michael also happened to be working on another project. From what I remember, that is when they asked me about joining ORBIS. After a couple of meetings with them, I realized that I liked the long-term approach and that the team felt like a family. I had other offers at that time, but I am glad that I chose ORBIS.
Q: Did you imagine back then that you’d still be here 25 years later?
A: Of course not. When I joined ORBIS America, it was a small team. Having worked in larger companies prior to ORBIS, it was not easy to adjust to working with a small team that was also with a different “culture”. Initially I was not sure if I would fit in, but after a few months I started feeling more comfortable and the employee-centric friendly culture made it easy.
Career Journey
Q: How has your role evolved over the years?
A: I started as a senior consultant, working on projects but I also took initiative to help the company grow and started working on sales activities. This led to being promoted to my current role as Vice President, which gave me the official responsibility of managing all operations of the company with Michael. To this day, I still work on projects as a senior consultant but lately it is less hands-on work in the system and more driving projects.
Q: What project or accomplishment are you most proud of during your time with the company?
A: There are many projects to name, but the most prominent ones are Areva, BRP, Ferrostaal, Kimball, Trelleborg, and of course Hörmann. All these projects had special requirements that needed innovative solutions that challenged me to think out of the box or learn new modules, functions, and processes. These projects helped me grow in terms of knowledge and experience.
Company Growth and Change
Q: What’s something about the early days that would surprise newer employees?
A: Being a small team and being like a family, most of us would spend time together outside of working hours. We frequently went for happy hours or visited each other over the weekends. We used to travel to customer sites on a weekly basis therefore we were together all the time, except Klaus who would be all alone in the office for many months.
Q: How has ORBIS America changed the most since you started?
A: First, it has grown both in terms of the number of employees and overall business. Not just ORBIS America, but ORBIS as a whole has experienced significant growth worldwide. As a result, we have welcomed a wider range of cultures and personalities into the team. With this expansion, however, the administrative side has also become more complex. At the same time, weekly travel has decreased to perhaps once a quarter, which has caused opportunities to spend time together outside of work hours to drastically decrease. We still make an effort to maintain the original culture by organizing office events and meetups, but COVID introduced a new culture of working from home, which makes it more difficult to sustain the cohesiveness and “family” feeling we once took for granted. To address this, we are continuing to support and maintain our culture through a hybrid working model.
Q: How has the industry evolved over the past 25 years, and how has the company adapted?
A: As ORBIS mostly works in the mid-size manufacturing industry, I can provide insights into that industry. Up until 2010, the projects were larger in terms of scope and client team size. Companies would implement SAP by heavily customizing it to fit their unique business models and processes. On the consulting side, consultants typically specialized in a single module or specific processes within that module. But over the last 15 years, the projects have become much leaner. Companies now tend to use more standard SAP processes that require less customization. At the same time, consultants are expected to have knowledge across multiple modules, which has led to smaller teams. The implementation duration has also shortened. Additionally, companies are focusing more on process automation which has given us more opportunities to work with the latest technologies like mobile devices, machine integration, and connecting with outside companies.
Q: What do you think has stayed consistent about the company despite all the change?
A: Employee centric policies. Example is, though the health care costs have exponentially increased over the years, we still try to make it reasonable for employees and at the same time maintain the same higher benefits levels. As mentioned, we still try to maintain the cohesive and family culture within the company. The team works together in a friendly environment.
Lessons and Wisdom
Q: Looking back, what advice would you give your younger self on day one?
A: I would say, “Don’t hesitate to take initiative to bring changes to make the company better. The company is open to new ideas and will support you in getting them implemented.”
Q: What excites you most about the future of the company?
A: There is huge potential for growth. With the team we now have and the new direction from our HQ, we are on the path of even more growth. It will likely take another year to get traction, but I am confident that once it starts, the growth will pick up speed rather quickly.
Fun/Personal
Q: What are some memorable work-related moments?
A: There are many but let me list a couple of them.
In the early 2000s, Klaus had a CD for a software called “Encarta”, an encyclopedia. It came with a geography game. Klaus and Michael used to play this game at lunchtime. Klaus, being the strongest in geography, would win most of the time.
In the week of 9/11, I was on a project at Kimball Electronics, in Jasper IN. That was the most difficult week for all of us. Since all flights were cancelled, I had to drive all the way from Jasper, IN to Herndon VA.
Q: How do you like to spend your time outside of work?
A: Being with the family. Also, until about 4 years ago, I used to do long distance running so I would spend lots of time training for marathons. Since the last 4 years, running has been replaced by vocal music. I take lessons in Indian Classical Music and spend time practicing and honing my skills.
Q: If you had to describe your 25 years here in three words, what would they be?
A: Learning, stability, and fun.
