Crossing 10, with Bases Loaded

On July 24 this year, we at Polaris celebrated ten years of operations, becoming one of the first IT companies operating out of Chennai to do so. This is indeed a proud moment for me and for all 4,248 associates at Polaris. As we enter the second decade of our growth, our aspirations are as high, dreams as big and the desire to excel as strong as they were when we started this company in 1993.

When Polaris was established in 1993, we were fortunate in two aspects–first by having a strong client in Citibank, and second, in having a strong and dedicated team of professionals who were capable of delivering high levels of client satisfaction and building an extended relationship with the client.

“People, and not strategy, are the most important business drivers... It is happy people who make up a happy company” ARUN JAIN

Since inception, Polaris has been providing solutions for the banking, financial services and insurance (BFSI) industry and chose to retain a sharp focus on building competencies in the BFSI sector through best people, best infrastructure and best processes to support complete offshorability of projects. 

The next evolutionary step was to acquire competence in banking products’ domain and back-end operations’ domain.

Towards this end, Polaris recently acquired OrbiTech Solutions, a technology subsidiary of Citigroup. One of the largest IT mergers ever in the Asia-Pacific region and definitely the largest in the Indian IT industry, this has catapulted the merged entity into the league of the global 10 solution providers in the BFSI space. We’ve also established Optimus Outsourcing Company Limited, a wholly-owned subsidiary, to provide business process outsourcing functions focused on existing and future clients in the BFSI arena. Optimus has acquired the assets of iBackoffice, a BPO startup in Bangalore, to jump-start its operations.

Through these initiatives, Polaris has today evolved into a global software company that provides comprehensive products and solutions to several multinational clients across 20 countries.

A successful organization is always driven by committed people. Polaris’ growth is testimony to this philosophy: Forbes Global has listed Polaris among Forbes 200–Best under a Billion in the world. People, and not strategy, are the most important business drivers and happy people make a happy organization. This paradigm has been the basis for many of the unique practices we have at Polaris. Through the Konark initiative, the high achievers (known as Konarks) at Polaris participate in the company’s brainstorming and strategic thinking sessions. We believe that once leadership is viewed as a necessity even at the micro level, it will begin to see the philosophy of a winning organization in a whole new light. This paradigm is given life through Lakshya, the annual goal-setting program exercised by the organization.

Ten years on, we at Polaris, can look back with a sense of pride at our achievements and take some time off to reflect on the institution that we have built. I have fond memories of the enthusiasm and camaraderie exhibited by Polarites, present and past, in successfully creating this edifice of human endeavor. Ten years into its existence, Polaris is now at a crucial moment in its growth curve where it is transitioning from a pure-play software services company to a comprehensive IP-led solutions company.

While we have been orchestrating this shift in focus, we still have a long way to go in terms of building the necessary infrastructure in terms of geographic sales and marketing efforts and product development efforts to be able to really mine the benefits of an IP-led solutions strategy. But we have the right people and the right resources to face this seemingly daunting task. And like I mentioned earlier, Polarites love nothing more than a challenging task.

Arun Jain



The author is chairman and managng director of Polaris Software Lab