Q
Ajit Prabhu took on Sales and Technology, Aravind took Finance (no surprise!)
and IT, and I took on everything else. Ajit
was good at sales and had to be in the US
[market]. Due to operational reasons he
was stuck in Bangalore. The first important
turning point was when Ajit could move
back to the US within 2 weeks of me
landing in Bangalore. We won our second
strategic customer (United Technologies)
and Ajit could grow business with them in
the US. I continued to ensure Ajit could
exclusively spend time on growing business
through customer acquisitions while not
having to worry about the organization’s
ability to execute the orders to customer
satisfaction, managing costs and producing
target profits year after year. It has been a
fascinating journey!
While India is often viewed as a big
player in the IT solutions sector,
QuEST is largely a manufacturing
and engineering solutions provider.
Given that the industrial growth
in the last few years has seen a
major slowdown, what will be the
strategy of organizations like QuEST
which operate in the traditional
engineering realm?
AM: We believe the global engineering and
manufacturing space is large enough and
the tradition in western countries of buying
products or services within a few hundred
miles will not succeed. Globalization has
started and is here to stay and we have not
seen any kind of slowdown in the sectors
we operate. Our customers do not invest
on their products based on current market
scenario but invest on products based on
predicting the scenario 5-10 years out (their
products might last 20-30 years in the field)
and hence we rarely see our customers
cutting back their investment significantly
apart from small slowdowns once in a
while.
AP: Customers in our sectors are continu-
ing to invest in new products. We have built
a solid foundation for providing customers
various engineering solutions where and
when they need them. Cost, resource flexibility, global reach – one or the other of
these parameters is important for customers each year. Markets are shifting east and
we have a clear advantage in helping our
customers with this shift.
A vast majority of Indian CEO’s are
equipped with an undergraduate
degree in engineering and a
subsequent MBA. Please comment
on this trend that is prevalent
in India. How important is it
for an aspiring entrepreneur to
obtain a postgraduate degree in
management?
AM: What is required to be a CEO is the
ability to look at things rationally & logically, a high level of curiosity, ability to learn
and listen, and ultimately to make decisions. These are not taught in any business
school. Good business schools provide a
platform to network and learn from the
people who have these abilities and to learn
from case studies that show application of
these skills in business scenarios. An engineering degree has helped me personally to
look at things logically and to look at things
in a quantifiable manner.
To succeed as an entrepreneur, you need
an ability to sense the opportunities in the
market and find a different way to fill a
market need with speed of execution (no
degree teaches you this). An MBA mindset
could slow you down if you over-analyse
an opportunity to eliminate risks, and in the
process, the opportunity might pass you
by. Sometimes you may be better off being
ignorant, taking a chance, and jumping in
with the commitment to swim, even when
the tides are high.
At QuEST, we have many engineers and
we have several MBAs. However, almost all
of them have engineering backgrounds, it’s
just the nature of our business.
AP: Speaking like an engineer, MBA
is ‘neither a necessary nor a sufficient
condition’ to entrepreneurship. To be an
entrepreneur, one needs to have an intense
desire to do something on their own – a
desire so intense, that it drives actions to
achieve that goal. MBA does help in the
journey mainly in terms of finding other
like-minded people with whom one can
collaborate. Most companies are started
by a few friends. The era of lone-geniuses
is over. It takes division of labour among
trusted partners to push an idea to a reality.
Most such partnerships are developed in
colleges.
An engineering degree is a good starting
point. Engineers are analytical, creative and
problem solvers. These traits are very useful. Engineers start with a lack of interest
in finance but can quickly master it due to
a good mathematical foundation. But eng