From Iran to MVP: Alireza Eshaghzadeh’s Journey in ERP Excellence and Cultural Insights

Mark Smith: 0:06
Welcome to the MVP show. My intention is that you listen to the stories of these MVP guests and are inspired to become an MVP and bring value to the world through your skills. If you have not checked it out already, I do a YouTube series called how to Become an MVP. The link is in the show notes. With that, let's get on with the show. Today's guest is from Oslo, in Norway. He works at Knowit as a senior business consultant. He was first awarded as MVP in 2022. His journey in the field of ERP solutions began in 2012 and has been dedicated to Microsoft Dynamics 365 finance and operations since 2017, with a primary focus on finance and project accounting. You can find links to his bio, social media etc. In the show notes for this episode. Welcome to the show, alizera, hey, mark.

Alireza Eshaghzadeh : 1:08
Thank you for inviting me to this show. It's a great pleasure to meeting you. So, yeah, and my name is Alireza.

Mark Smith: 1:20
Alireza. Put the emphasis on the wrong part, alireza. Where does that originate? Is that a Swedish name?

Alireza Eshaghzadeh : 1:29
No, the name is the two parts Ali and Reza, but Alireza is something like a general name that they used in Iran because I originally came from Iran. In Iran, because I, uh, I originally came from Iran, uh, so I live in, uh uh, norway now around uh, after, let us say, from uh, 2012. So, but my name is something like, uh, al Reza. I have heard that that's many persons, so they just call me Ali, sarah. So this is not something that, uh, this is not something that. This is something I get used to and yeah, but originally the name is two parts Alireza, but yeah, Very cool, I like it, I like it and so.

Mark Smith: 2:15
so how long have you been in Norway?

Alireza Eshaghzadeh : 2:26
Yes, I have. Let us say, from 8 August 2012, I moved to Norway, in Trondheim, to pursue my master degree in global production management, because I have a background in industrial engineering from Iran. And then I moved to Trondheim, in the north of Norway, to pursue my master's degree in the NTNU, and afterward we had the Coaster ERP, which made me okay. This is the one that I want to work with.

Mark Smith: 3:05
Nice and the company you work for. Is that a Swedish-based company? Did it originate in Sweden or is it a Norway-based company?

Alireza Eshaghzadeh : 3:14
It's a Swedish-based, but they have several, let us say, departments in the Scandinavian countries, like Norway also.

Mark Smith: 3:25
Right, right, awesome. So tell me, I always, like you know, when I kick off these podcasts, is to find out about three things with my guests. Which is food? What's the best food to be eating from your perspective? Tell me a bit about your family and tell me a bit about fun. What do you do when you're not focusing on Dynamics 365, finance and operations?

Alireza Eshaghzadeh : 3:52
Yeah, it's a very good start. Let us say, when it comes to the food, for me there is a triangle from the Persian food to the Turkish food and Italian. It's something like my best zone of food. I like Italian food very much and I take the or, let us say, I feel the real taste also from the Turkish and Persian food also, so I like them very much, and the combination of these, for example, in the whole week, is very interesting for me. So, based on this, I like to have different kinds of foods in the whole week, kind of food in the whole week. But I should say that if I just try this triangle in my whole week, so it will be, I get too heavy. So, based on this, I should train so much.

Alireza Eshaghzadeh : 5:06
So, based on this, I am very, let us say, the fan of football. So, and I, I like football very much so and I like, I love to play football. So I, when I was a little bit more flexible and more faster, so I was uh, uh, I was a forward position, but nowadays, uh, after, after, let us say, 2016 and 18, I found I am not fast enough. So, because Norwegians in Norway, so there are many persons that are very fast. So I said, okay, maybe I should change my position. Now I'm playing as a keeper, so, but when it comes to family? So I got married in 2022. And since then we are living with my wife in Norway and we love to travel very much. So this is our whole plan. So she has also the same, let us say, taste as me she has. She liked the seafood. I have an allergy to seafood.

Mark Smith: 6:17
Wow, okay, that's interesting. I want to unpack one thing. I understand Italian food. My wife and I, if we lived in any other country, if we had to move, italy would be the country of choice. The diversity of food that you get across Italy, amazing, amazing, the fresh produce, et cetera. But Persian to Turkish tell me the differences there. You know, I've spent some time in turkey, love it. Um, what's the nuances? Because, if I understand right with my geography, persia was, wasn't that part of turkey? Or just next door to modern day turkey as we understand it now? And what's the differences and the nuances between Persian food and Turkish food?

Alireza Eshaghzadeh : 7:08
Yeah, I think I am a totally wrong person to talk about the history because because sometimes I have I have not a good knowledge about the details there and this is something that may arise some issues if I talk about. But when it comes to the Persia, so it was a very big, let us say landscape, from the East Asia to the Roma, to the West of Europe, and also when it comes to the history, so we have a long history based on this, the same also as Turkey. So they had the Ottoman as the emperor, so they had a very big, let us say emperor on there. But when it comes to the food, so we have many things in, let us say, the same taste, but different, let us say ingredients that they try to use. What is the main, let us say the main thing that we use in Persian foods as, let us say, as little as spices as we can, so let us say as effective as possible. So they just try that. You just feel the taste of the, let us say the meat. So they just try to say, okay, what is the best spices to add to that meat? You can feel that.

Alireza Eshaghzadeh : 8:50

So I know that in some cultures spices is something like a legend. So they just add some, several spices to create another or create smell, but in Persia. So they use salt pepper and saffron, which is the main base of our stew and so, and also the kebabs that we have in persian. When it comes to the turkey, so they have another taster. So the pepper that they use, this, a different kind of pepper that we use in Iran. So I like, let us say, the procedure that they have to create the food on the coil. We call it kebab in Turkish and also in Persian, but in American or in British they just say barbecue. So barbecue is something like a kebab.

Mark Smith: 9:46
Yes, yes, yes, yes. Oh, I love anything that comes on a skewer. You know very, very tasty and I love that way of cooking meat. Well, so you know you wouldn't believe this is a tech podcast. We've delved so much into food. Tell me, what was your journey into technology? Where did you start? How did you realize that this was where you wanted to go as a career?

Alireza Eshaghzadeh : 10:16
Yes, when I was a student in my bachelor. So I had the chance to work voluntarily in the research center. So from that time I had the possibility to read the articles about, okay, what is the new methods, how they resolve the solutions, and then from that part I was interested to several aspects in my studies because I studied industrial engineering and industrial engineering is something like engineering and you take one course or several courses from each engineering course, also from the civil engineering, from the mechanical engineering and from all parts of the engineering, so we have one course. So I had a broad insight about other engineering courses, other engineering courses. So then all of them gave me a broad view that, okay, this is something that I want to start, and mostly industrial engineering focuses on optimization, so optimization on each aspect, so how you can optimize. So when I was there, so I was very interested in one course that we had which was inventory management and inventory or production management that we had. And then when I came to Norway, so I chose my master based on what I loved on that time, so it was inventory management and ERP. I remember on the first day. So we had the course which is ERP and PLM systems. I said, okay, we have a solution. They're working with some software called AX 2012. Okay, now we have the. Okay, and I start, say, to get very interested to that part. And I remember that this course is something like different for me. So every time I was on that course, every powerpoint slide, every book that I read on this is something like a hard coded in my mind, so it was very easy to understand for me when it comes to that part and one part of this uh is was based on the approaches that they had in the university to had the various seminars with the companies. So we have possibility to see that what we learn in the school is the same that they will do in the let us say that in the real jobs. So this was something like gave me insight that, okay, I love that. What technology is that? So I tried to learn more, although I was very let's say, there are different courses that we were very busy with that. So I just decided to take my master's thesis in that part. So master thesis in that part.

Alireza Eshaghzadeh : 13:17
So in the 2013, I started my master thesis in the web-based or Azure-based ERP solution for the SMEs. So on that part, I had one year on the specialization master to go deeper to the ERP solutions and I have known, okay what type of ERP solution, what is the pitfalls, how they can implement it. On that time it was, let us say, basically barely used the concept Azure. So most of the times there was a web-based ERP solution. So I had this possibility to have one of the best supervisors and co-supervisor in NTNU. So they gave me a very good insight about the ER piece and I have started my journey with the technology there.

Alireza Eshaghzadeh : 14:14
Then I started working in a Canadian-based company in Norway named CGI so we had a professor there, so they just suggested me to that and then I started to work with the ERP solution, which named Microsoft Dynamics AX at that time. So for me it was something like in two years or the last year, in the 2013 and 2014,. When I started the job it was the same. So it was something like an enabler for me to start the technology. This is the history back, if I can say it.

Mark Smith: 14:53
It's so interesting and so detailed. If you were to look back across your career, and so detailed If you were to look back across your career or even your life for that matter what were some of the key inflection points where you made a decision that set you on a pathway that, if you look back, you're like that was a good decision there. Or it might be a person you know influenced you, you know kind of guided you. If you were looking back, what were those major career inflection points for you that really you know set you on a path to bring you to where you are today, that you, you know, are happy for that? Those events transpired.

Alireza Eshaghzadeh : 16:12
Yes, mark, what a question. So it is something I love, that question. So first of all, there are three things that comes to my mind now. So first of all, it was the approach of thinking that I learned when I was in my master's degree and bachelor In bachelor. So I had a professor named Hamed, so he learned me how to search. When I was in the master's degree, I had Professor Lutzen and my co-supervisor Gottfried. They learned me how I can learn the concepts. So what is the concept behind? So they just learned me how to be effective.

Alireza Eshaghzadeh : 17:02
To take the conceptual part of the paper or conceptual part of that function Now I can think about it and then now I can deliver it as a solution, how I can just make it as a solution to the customer. And the third part, when I start the work team a good team or the good, let us say, team members that they, they have social, they have expertise and they help each other, that we just improve, or let us say we improve together. I was one of those that I had this opportunity to when I come back before. So the first thing that I, after 12 years, I I'm very proud of it and I say I'm very lucky to have it, or had it, or and I have it also yet is the team that I had the honor to work with them. So they just uh, transfer the knowledge. They trained me, they, they gave me insight. So what is important in our delivery in the ERP that we should have both short-term and long-term.

Alireza Eshaghzadeh : 18:17
And they learned me to resolve the process, not resolve the issue. So this is something that whenever, after that part, I just want to resolve any other solution, I have this thinking okay, how search, how think, what is the concept behind, and now how I can just resolve it and how can I see it as a process and resolve it. So this is the uh, the part and the last part that I'm totally happy about it. Uh, when I got married, when I had with my girlfriend and she is also from the social side, I got I learned many things from the social side. It's something like before I had, I just see the two doors and afterwards, ok, now can you just rotate and see, ok, there is other. And afterwards, okay, now can you just rotate and see, okay, there is other. Ah, this is something that when I come back before and now I say this is something like unlocking the dimensions. Let us say that I have experienced.

Mark Smith: 19:20
This is amazing. I love that around that understanding the process and not the issue, if you can understand it, and it reminds me in Japanese culture. They are very. They also are very. You know, if something goes wrong, they never blame the individual, they always look to the process. How do we improve the process? Because the process was the error, not the individual, because the process allowed the error, not the individual, because the process allowed the individual to make an error.

Mark Smith: 19:50
And I just think it's a fundamental different way of thinking of a concept. And then I love that idea of thinking, yeah, that there are only two doors and so many people in their career feel that they are locked into only a path. And then that idea that if you change your perspective, you realize there's actually multiple ways that you could go. You're not limited to and it leads to. You know, one of the things that reminded me of Satya he made my understanding was all the staff read mindsets right, and having an open mindset opens you up to possibilities and that affects every part of your life career. I see we're already at time. It's been so interesting talking to you. Before I let you go, I'll finish with one final question, and that is what does the MVP program mean to you?

Alireza Eshaghzadeh : 20:49
MVP program for me is sharing the let's say, the knowledge and experiences that I have for the community. I love this part. This is something that I'm now expert in. So whenever I learn something that I found okay, this is interesting, it can pave the way of doing business for the others, this is something okay. Write it as a blog. So, based on this, I love to work in the Microsoft community forum, especially in the finance.

Alireza Eshaghzadeh : 21:23
So I just check the issues from the other in the community and if I see that this is something like, at least I can give insights on that issue to them, how we have resolved that issue. Sometimes there is a specific question, so there is a specific answer. Sometimes there is a broad question what do you think? So I just try to say that this is the approach that we have used to just give insight, not as a solution, just as an approach, because one of the main things for me is that the team that we are working with it's something like an enabler of which approach you're choosing. So if your team has expertise on that part, so you should just define the approach based on the expertise that your team has. But for the MVP part writing the blog and, let us say, sharing the information, and also not sharing information just focusing on the community. I just try also to let us say transfer this knowledge or transfer this insight to the students.

Alireza Eshaghzadeh : 22:32
I have this opportunity in the last two years that I have a course in the NTNU for the bachelor students, so I just create the labs with the Dynamics 365, finance and Operation, with the real cases for them, and we just start with the very simple concepts, independent of Dynamics. So it's something like an ERP solution. So it's like what is a customer, what is a vendor, what is the process, what does it mean? So then the students have the opportunity to perform the labs to get the knowledge. Okay, it should something. What is the duplicate check? What is the customer, how they can go to the global address book, what is the concept of the global address book? Something like this concept. So they make them ready so next time that they want to find a job, so at least they can say, okay, we have this course. Or, if you love, to pursue your journey, your work journey in the erp. So they have something like a basic and, thanks to the Microsoft Academy, so the students also have a good deal of, let us say, material learning, materials from the Microsoft Learn and in the Microsoft Academy so they can get the vouchers about taking the exam. So this is something also.

Alireza Eshaghzadeh : 23:49
I try to be the pipeline from the work to the students and give them insights, and I see also Microsoft has a good investment here. So this is something that when it comes to MVP life so sharing knowledge, helping as much as I can and also learning this is the part that I love it. I'm not the share person, just a share person. I'm learning from that sharing. So when it comes to the questions from the students, questions from the community, I learn from them. So this is something like not just I'm the result, no, no. So sometimes I'm just reading the questions. I have no idea. I read others' perspective or, let us say, approaches and I learn how they have, let us say, resolved that issue. So this is the nutshell of my MVP life.

Mark Smith: 24:49
Hey, thanks for listening. I'm your host business application MVP Mark Smith, otherwise known as the NZ365 guy. If you like the show and want to be a supporter, check out buymeacoffeecom forward slash NZ365 guy. Thanks again and see you next time. Thank you.