A Different Sort of Baby-Boomer

Aself-professed nationalist who has been awarded the Udyog Ratan by the

Delhi-based Institute of Economic Studies in 1999 and named a ‘Distinguished

Alumnus’ by IIT Bombay in 2000 for his contribution to IT literacy and IT

industry growth. He has also compered music programs on TV, and spent a year

among tribals without a job–proof of a multi-faceted persona. That’s Achyut

S Godbole.

After metamorphosing companies like Patni Computer Systems, Syntel and

L&T Information Technology from 20-people organizations to 1,600-head

giants, he was named to head the Indian operations of Concio Technologies in

October 2000. As Godbole admits, "Prakash Bhalerao likes to call himself

the serial entrepreneur, I should be called the serial company builder."

Godbole’s latest baby, Concio, operated from Bangalore until Godbole

joined, moving headquarters to Mumbai in January this year. The company is

planning to invest up to $8 million in acquisitions and building infrastructure

at its development centers. Says Godbole: "We probably need only around $5

million, but when some large projects come our way, we don’t want to be

scouting around for funds…therefore, we’ve made the provision now

itself." Concio plans to spend $1 million on its development center in

Mumbai, $2 million in Pune and a further $2 million on acquisitions.

So where did the decision to quit the L&T division stem from? "I saw

in Concio a more entrepreneurial, free and IT-oriented organization. LTITL was

an engineering company moving into IT. Concio, on the other hand, had a purely

IT staff, which you could mould," Godbole explains.

Concio has 20 staffers, most of them from the IITs and IIMs who have worked

on IT implementation in foreign banks. Godbole says of his people, "We’ve

actually managed to get excellent people with excellent project management

skills. I found a good management team. Good networks and PCs are not as much

important as the team and the people." Altogether, Concio has 120 people in

Pune in its 12,000-sq ft center, and is planning to have 50 in Mumbai’s

6,000-sq ft center.

Concio also has an acquisition under its belt–a company called Sixth Sense

in Pune, which it acquired in November 2000. The company does development

projects on Scala, an ERP package. On the kind of companies Concio is targeting

for acquisitions, Godbole says, "We’re looking at companies that have

customer base and technology or skills base, or domain base." And Concio

plans to move up the value chain into IT consultancy, though it will continue

taking up projects for IT delivery.

In Godbole’s opinion, services can happen on three levels: management

consultancy, IT consultancy and IT delivery. "Management consultancy says

what businesses spheres you should be in, what you should shed, your M&A

strategy, and how you should move manufacturing to China and Taiwan. IT

consultancy goes one step below and works on strategies on IT, the Internet,

bandwidth, supply chain and VPN. IT delivery is how to decide which package to

use, how to code, test, implement and maintain."

Godbole attributes the present strength of the Indian IT services industry to

the large-volume, low-priced commodities market–IT delivery. Concio is engaged

in e-business, wireless and CRM. Concio’s centers work onsite, offsite and

offshore. Godbole says, "Most of the Indian companies lack a strong US

presence. What we’re trying to do is build and cement it. And have a very

strong offshore high-quality delivery center." But that will be a

formidable challenge for the company. It currently has a 25,000-sq ft

development center in Santa Clara.

The reason for having a strong US presence is not just that the company is

physically closer to its customers. There’s more to it, as Godbole says,

"If there is development going on in the US and suddenly there is a problem

with visas, and the project is offshore-driven, 20 people can’t take off all

at once and the project is ruined. We have 100 here and 350 in the US, next year

we’ll double that. If required, we can pull out and do the whole project in

Santa Clara or New Jersey." This, in his opinion, provides a comfort

feeling to customers.

In addition to a clear focus, the company also needs to keep an eye on its

size. "If you become too large, any customer is just one among hundreds of

customers," he says. The right size according to him is below 1,000,

between 600 and 800 people. Anything beyond that and it becomes difficult to

maintain responsiveness. "You have to pay extra attention to ensure that

your processes are really well defined and lean, not bureaucratic and

hierarchical."

Godbole’s advice to other company-builders–You should be a facilitator,

making sure that people are having good fun. You are basically working as a

team. If you start micromanaging, disturbing the managers, that will end up as a

complete mess.

Bijesh Kamath in Mumbai