For the first eleven years of my work life, I was bouncing around in a few jobs. The most notable of them were corporate planning role in Ashok Leyland and industrial consulting roles in A F Ferguson & Co. While the overall exposure to all aspects of business in a variety of industrial, financial and government situations, they were still analyst jobs, which meant one was carrying water for someone else. 

 

In 1987, I decided to take a real job, and became the CEO of mid-size engineering company in a turnaround situation. Beginning with that position and for the next 13 years I was in profit-centre head situations, running divisions in the Rane Group and EID Parry. It was indeed a wild ride, with hands-on exposure to operations in many plant locations, new projects implementation acquisitions and integration.

 

Since 2000, like many others, I jumped on the IT and BPO bandwagon, heading e-business and BPO divisions in Satyam Computers, finally fetching up as the COO of Mastek Limited, overseeing global IT operations of a midsize firm. 

 

For the past eight years I am on my own, advising a few clients in a variety of entrepreneurial companies in manufacturing, IT, logistics and entertainment service sectors. The most upbeat thing you can say about independent consulting phase is that one has survived for several years now. My bag of tricks contains doing things, as much as advising people.

 

Now to the family. Wife, Vinodha, a former Librarian in the British Council Library. Son, Karthik, a lawyer wanting to specialise in corporate law and litigation. Daughter, Kavya, a journalist about to complete her masters at NYU.

 

Looking back, one has to agree with Erich Fromm about the pointlessness of life, at least work life anyway. Therefore, for the past several years, I am keenly focussed on enjoying myself completely, swimming, walking and reading top-class material to keep myself well-informed. Buying and resurrecting second-hand automobiles is an occasional passion. Nowadays I am staying as far away from management theories as possible, and when slightly under the influence, I can be seen running down management education.