ITs Young Turks

At an age of

twenty-five, he established Datamatics America in 1992 in New York, and was

appointed managing director of Datamatics in 1996. While conceptualizing and

implementing growth strategies, and forging strategic alliances with Fortune

500 companies, Rahul had initiated organizational restructuring and

financial re-engineering for supporting rapid growth.

When I took over, I did not have a specific

vision in mind. That came much later when there arose plenty of

opportunities here in India, says Rahul. There, of course, is a significant

difference from the way his father (Dr Lalit S Kanodia) operated, says he.

IT wasnt as big as it is right now, and technology hadnt redefined the

way we live, the way it has done today. Then technology drove the growth but

nobody could say for sure how the industry would evolve. And now we know

what a long way it has come, and that it is the business opportunities that

are driving growth.

As a part of his vision, Kanodia junior says

cashing on opportunities is what he wants to do. He wants to see Datamatics

in the billion-dollar club in the next 3-5 years. His specializations in

Management Information Systems, an MBA, a major in Business Strategy and

Marketing, and a minor in M&A and Turnaround Management from the US, equip

him with the right tools. He says, Studying abroad not only gave me the

management and analysis skills needed to run the company, but also allowed

us to align our business needs according to the way clients function.

The list of heirs is long but one name we surely

cant skip is Devita Saraf, daughter of Raj Saraf, executive director of

Zenith Computers. Devita calls the shots in a mans world as CEO, UV

Technologies. She began her career six years ago in the marketing department

of Zenith Computers while she was still a student.

Since then there has been no turning back.

Father Raj Saraf, MD, Zenith Computers, says, She is innovative when shes

on business. She thought there was a potential in the luxury products of

electronics, and thats how UV Technologies was created.

Devita has been heading the department for

the last one year and today handles all the marketing activities for Zenith

nationwide, including brand building. Devita had spearheaded the launch of

Indias first education computers and laptops under the sub-brand Topper.

Though Raj Saraf underlines that her vision

is not the same as his had been: My focus has always been on making

technology affordable and bringing in the latest technology in India,

whereas she clearly wants to cater to the high-end luxury market.

Her hands on approach has led her to

personally visit and interact with dealers and partners in cities all across

India. The hands on approach is, in fact, the first thing most of these

entrepreneurs, standing on the threshold of the next wave of growth of the

IT industry, focused on as they joined their respective companies.

Ratul Puri,

executive director, Moser Baer

Ratul Puri, son of founder, Deepak Puri, is

responsible for the overall corporate management and financial control of

the companythe worlds third-largest manufacturer of optical storage media.

Ratul has made significant contribution to the business. Under his

leadership, the Moser Baer finance and corporate strategy team got various

institutions like IFC, Electra partners and EM Warburg Pincus to invest in

the company.

Nitesh Bhandari,

Texonic Instruments






Nitesh Bhandari says, All my focus had been on capturing more and more
business clients. Earlier, we never visited our customers, we waited for

them to come to us. In that sense the way we approach business has

undergone a drastic change, he says. Nitesh has big plans of setting up a

manufacturing facility in India in the next couple of years.

Atul Modi of Modi Peripherals feels the same way

that more than a healthy work environment one also needs to be

people-centric. The first visible change when I joined was definitely the

effort to clearly move away from the lalagiri attitude which is typical in

the channels business. As anywhere, things obviously cannot be single

person driven, he adds.

Vishal wants to take his company to the one

billion dollar mark by 2011. My focus, in terms of business targets, is to

go for globalization and verticalization. Because, for me, I already had the

platform ready but my job is to take it to new heights, and to structure CMS

for the next wave of growthit could be through an IPO or other financing

means.

At thirty-two, he has proved his mettle in

the IT space. Apart from his strategic responsibilities at CMS, Vishal is

leading SYSTIME (a CMS Group company) as president and CEO. SYSTIME is a

global business and technology solutions company and the international

software arm of CMS. Under Vishal, the international business has seen a

phenomenal growth in the last six years, accounting for 25% of the CMS

Groups revenues, and is expected to contribute about 50% of the Groups

projected revenue target of $1 bn in the next five years.