“It would be difficult for me to think of life without computers”

Trivikram Kamath, Head - Technology, Operations & Finance, Kotak Securities, at the helm of IT desicion-making, is a professionally qualified CA but has always fancied IT, owing to which he took up IT functions. In this column, Dataquest tries to join Kamath's flashback moment as he recollects his brush with IT with his various associations, be it Hindustan Lever Limited, TCS, etc. Excerpts...

 

Initial days...My father worked with an American MNC from mid 1950s. When I visited his office as a schoolboy, sometime in the mid 1970s, I came across a stack of Punch Cards. I am not sure how many people today would have heard of or seen Punch cards. My curiosity about what this was introduced me to the word computer and its capability. In my father's organization the Computer facility or Electronic Data Processing (EDP) as it was called at that time, occupied a whole floor. The sheer capability for a machine to do this function and its size was awe inspiring! That was the first time I heard about IBM.

College days...Later in college I pursued Commerce but was fortunate to have an option to select one subject on Computer Programming; learnt a bit of FORTRAN. Around the same time a cousin of mine who was with the Merchant Navy was transiting through Mumbai. He mentioned that he was carrying Diskettes and how the Customs Officer thought it was Biscuits (sounds like it when you speak fast). I admitted I was no different from the Customs Officer and he then explained about the Personal Computer and Apple. By now I was really interested in Computers and read Computers and Common Sense by Hunt and Shelley. I took up Chartered Accountancy and the paper on System Analysis and Data Processing were a cakewalk.

Career path...As part of the CA course I did a year's training with Hindustan Lever Limited (now Hindustan Unilever Limited). They had recently acquired a few personal computers and I had an opportunity (had to fight for it as there was a rush) to work on them. I was impressed with SuperCalc and the 8 inch diskette with 360 kb of storage! I also met somebody from TCS who organized a tour of the computer facilities - huge Burroughs and IBM Mainframes. I made up my mind that I would pursue a career in Software despite being a Chartered Accountant.

The start...I started my career with TCS and got trained there on programming and initially learned COBOL. My first assignment was supporting an Accounting Package of TCS which was in C; something completely alien to me. Struggled to learn and cope with C with a lot of support from some helpful colleagues. It dawned upon me that the rapid changes in Personal Computers in size and computing power further enhanced by Networking was here to stay. This was bound to help and transform businesses. It was this aspect of IT that I recognized and respected. After 3 years with TCS, I decided to come back to the Finance field.

Banking on IT...I joined a Non Bank Finance Company (NBFC) which had a unique business plan. Over a period of time I realized that Financial Services without adequate Computerised / automated support could not survive and tried to blend my formal education with the practical work experience gained by me. From then on my career path was largely on these lines. However, thanks to the NBFC I was working with, I got an opportunity to work in Treasury, Syndications and Merchant Banking on the front end.

Beyond boundaries...Our progressive CEO at the NBFC was very keen on seeing how we can implement innovative products using technology. He constantly challenged my colleagues and me with futuristic ideas. One such idea led to our developing a telephone based automated trade order placement and enquiry system, for securities broking, way back in 1991/92 using telecom infrastructure available at that time. This in turn led to a colleague and me being involved with the team from IDBI, for a period of 10 months, in setting up the National Stock Exchange of India.

Unwinding...A funny incident occurred when we went for a site visit and an employee of the exchange we were visiting did not realize the purpose of the visit. On being questioned about his opinion on a hardware brand not being used in that exchange, he started praising that hardware and wondered why his exchange had not bought that hardware. The representative from the hardware company, who was present there, was hoping that the earth would split wide open and swallow him at that instant.

Challenges galore...Challenges will always come your way in any career. I have found one of the effective ways to overcome this is to involve all stakeholders and debate and discuss ways and means to overcome the same. It could be something as simple as handling a particular functionality to more complex items such as alternate technologies and investing for the future. Addressing the problem or the challenge rather than whom it belongs to or who has given a suggestion is absolutely key. I have always maintained to this day that everybody has a right and responsibility to contribute to addressing challenges. The collective power of a group far outweighs purely individualist thoughts.

Grabbing pulse...Today I find myself in a corporate role with responsibility for Operations, Finance and Technology of one of India's leading Securities Broking Companies. The economy and industry is going through unprecedented challenges. With responsibility for a key role in the company my future plans are focused on addressing these challenges, while ensuring that the company continues to be a clear market leader. IT will naturally play a pivotal role in these plans.

Road ahead...It's been over two decades of experience and I think I have been singularly fortunate to see such a variety of change in the field of Computers. From computing power to networking and off course the Internet! Two specific instances of the change come to mind. In the mid 90s we were the proud owner of an email account - one for the whole company! Juxtapose this against the scenario today when we take an official id for granted and have a wide range of free public email service providers, to choose from. I still recall how proud we were when, in my earlier organization, we bought our first RISC based mini-computer supporting 16 users in one location. Today we have 100s of servers each multiple times more powerful than the mini, supporting 1000s of users spread across the globe.

Rewind action...Sometimes it is futile to think back and wonder what we could have done differently because one cannot rewind the clock. All that I can say is that the world would have shaped itself in a different way if some of the developments in this field had taken place earlier. Obviously where I stand today would have also been a different story. It would suffice to say that it has been a wonderful and fruitful journey so far and with the myriad changes taking place at such a rapid pace on Social Media, Mobile technology and convergence we are bound to see many more changes. I can also add that the past provides a good experience to rely upon in the future.

Other shores...It would be difficult for me to think of life without computers or my being involved in them. What career would I have pursued other than what I am doing now? my guess is a career in consulting or perhaps Corporate Law. Why? Both these areas have their challenges. Consulting requires an ability to look beyond what is available and logically arrive at possible solutions. Corporate Law requires not only knowing the law but how it is to be practically applied and how it needs to be interpreted in different situations.

Distressing stress...Very often a question is asked - Don't you think that there is too much stress in the IT field? My answer is simple every field and every job has its pressures. Even for someone who has the job of visiting the world's best hotels and writing a review on them has a pressure. After a few articles he still has to generate enough interest for people to read about his review. After all how different can one super luxury hotel be different from the other in comfort and amenities. So, IT too has its fair share of pressures.

Increasing pressures...There are 2 or 3 reasons why IT pressures seem higher:
a. Non IT people do not understand that good software takes time to build. People will wait for 3 to 5 years for a house of their desire to get constructed, but want state of the art software to be delivered the next day.
b. There are far too many components -hardware, OS, connectivity, applications etc etc and any small problem in any one component results in the "system" not working. Even a poor internet connection will be termed as" IT problem."
c. Problems can occur anytime because today users are spread out across the globe, can access systems 24 hours of the day and processes run through the day and night.

Unwinding well...If we are able to identify these main areas and we put in a plan to tackle this, stress can come down immediately. Educate the user, have a robust development life cycle, put check lists in place and have plans to handle exceptions. You cannot wish it away but can definitely anticipate and reduce it. Often a mere heads up to stakeholders can diffuse the stress across the board. And yes there is no harm in admitting that there is a problem which is being resolved! On a personal note try and leave the office at office when you go home and make it a point to take a break for leave every year. I find travel to be a great relaxant.

A glance...It is important for all of us in this field to realize that we have the potential to make a big difference to all stakeholders. This is the beauty of this field. There can be not better evidence then a look at each of the last 4 to 5 decades. IT has transformed almost every aspect of the world and each of us as individuals. This is the primary reason that I like this field and the fact that it gives you power. Not power in the absolute sense of the word, but power from the fact that you can empower people around you and specially, in our businesses.

Interests...And the all-time favorite question on hobbies and interest. Rather than hobbies I would use the word interests. I am very interested in music - almost any type - Indian Classical, Western Classical, Film Songs, English songs etc. I like singing - bathroom is the only place! Another interest is watching programs on travel, lifestyle, sports, food and other informative stuff. Reading is occasional, although would like to spend more time.