Passion is rare to find. When you do find passionate people, however, you’d be surprised at how passion — coupled with determination, dedication, commitment, and long-spanning stints at what they do best — turns them into affable and effective leaders.

Karsten Krauw is our all-time favorite delivery manager at Alfapeople, over at the client side. He is the man behind the machinery that makes our efforts produce results. He is the busy mechanic that keeps the processes well-oiled and he is the one who keeps it all running.

Karsten is passionate about making the intricate dynamics of Global IT delivery work. His extensive experience with multiple offshore, onshore and nearshore partners (say Poland and India — as one of the bridges he works on) gives him a holistic approach working off both bottom-up and top-down to help optimize work that spills across boundaries while time, deliveries, and high-stakes are all involved.

His LinkedIn profile goes:

“You might do business with a company, but you create results with people”

However, there’s a lot that you won’t read about him off his profile. Before his stint as the delivery manager for support and maintenance for Alfapeople, he’s worked for more than a decade in various companies such as KMD (also stationed in Chennai, India) and as a system architect at TBWA and Ramboll.

From initiation comes value, or so we believe after seeing Karsten in action.

Take his stint in India, for example: Ramboll Informatik was acquired by KMD at the time Karsten was in Chennai, India. He wasn’t just the system architect then. He was, in fact, the go-to guy for queries regarding specific Projects.

Plus, he was also a self-appointed consultant who took on the responsibility to simplify work processes to maximize output between the companies in Denmark and India.

Karsten is a problem-solver, an initiator, and a go-getter. He leads by example and takes on responsibility as naturally as breathing comes to us. His leadership isn’t something he hides in a closet. It’s out there for everyone to see.

Ever wanted to peek into the brains of an able, people-centric, leader? You’d only have to read his post In Outsourcing; It’s Always Your Fault

He brings on the point that it could be totally something else if everyone in the team thought “It’s my fault”.

We concur.

We love him because he takes the effort to travel down to India — it’s another thing that the child in him comes peeping out when he plays Holi.

The team functions well with Karsten at the lead. In spite of the child-side to him, there’s a leader who’s already proven his mettle, and he intends to continue doing just that. He takes time out to provide critical feedback for the entire team — good, bad, or ugly. He spends time to understand individual team members. He strives to motivate and engage them, and that can take high-octane meetings or casual dinners.

Dinners and Holi escapades don’t make Karsten any softer. In fact, he is a tough negotiator who looks for win-win solutions, both sides of the table.

For us, Karsten is a superman in suit.