was in a desperate shortage of foreign
exchange. I got a paltry $20 in my pocket
before getting on the plane. Aravind had
$500 waiting for me – amazing! I may have
never thanked Aravind for it. It meant a lot
to get started in the US.
AM: In the second year we were the first
to challenge the day-scholars in the student
body elections by fielding and supporting
non-local candidates and taking control
of the student body. Unfortunately it was
painful for us to do fund-raising for any
of our annual cultural events without local
support and [we] ended up carrying out
low key annual events. This change started
providing an opportunity in the future
years for a more balanced student body of
local and outside students.
Some of my other fond memories of
KREC include the ice-cream tasting trips
to Shetty ice cream factory as Mess Manager. Butter chicken with Kerala parota at
Hotel Sadanand (Sads) was our weekend
treat and sometimes we used to walk back
from Surathkal just for fun. Basheer’s egg
burjee and noodles (dabba shop across the
road) were a strong motivation to stay up
all night and study! We also used to visit
the temple on the beach just to feel that we
were not leaving any stone unturned before
the exams! And of course, ending the year
with the beach party.
Mr. Melligeri, you co-founded QuEST
Global in April 1997 in New York.
46
The Shoreline
What was the motivation behind
setting up QuEST Global? What
prompted you to set up in the USA?
AM: We knew that IT companies were
leveraging offshore for creating value to
customers and we didn’t see anyone doing
the same for high-end engineering activities. Looking at the market where we were
working – Automotive and Power Generation – we felt if we could be working right
across the street from the customer and
also provide offshore support, we might
have a good business model. We knew that
we could do financially better than if we
had continued in our previous jobs.
When you set-up in 1997, there
must have been an element
of uncertainty and risk. Please
comment on some of the challenges
that you faced in the initial stages
of QuEST Global and how you
overcame them.
AM: When we decided to start QuEST
Global, (originally called Quality Engineering and Software Technologies), I had just
got married 6 months earlier and didn’t
have a green card yet. However, we felt we
could always get a job if we failed to succeed in this venture. But we made a commitment to leave the [earlier] job and get
100% behind what we were doing and in
no way turn back. Ever since then, we have
never looked back at making bold decisions
such as expanding and bringing global
talent on board, launching our manufacturing business, establishing an SEZ, going
after acquisitions, and getting in and out
of private equity. In every phase of the
business there are challenges with respect
to capital, scale, customers, and the market.
We felt that if we can work on establishing
systems to deal with the challenges instead
of one individual taking on all these things,
we would be successful. This is where we
made the transition from entrepreneurs
to people leading an organization to make
decisions using processes.
Dr. Prabhu, you joined QuEST
Global in 2002, and subsequently
the organization witnessed rapid
international growth. Could you
illustrate how this was achieved?
AP: I can’t take too much credit for the
growth. Aravind and Ajit Prabhu started
the company in 1997. Both were entrepreneurs and had very little work experience –
three years and one year respectively. I had
five years of solid work experience in the
iconic Hewlett Packard. I had risen quickly
in HP and had a very good understanding
of how a large company works – Vision,
Mission, Strategic and Annual Planning,
Project Management, Human Resources
management etc. I took on the back-end
role from day one and started being the
architect of the company’s future. We
were about 250 people when I joined.