Obituary--Ranjan Das, President SAP India

It is difficult to believe that Ranjan is no more. It is more difficult
to believe that we would lose someone like him—so full of
life, so warm and so much a fitness enthusiast—at such a
young age.



Ranjan Das, the President of SAP India, who died of cardiac arrest on
Wednesday morning was just 42. But as they say, a man is not just
remembered for how long he lived on this earth but what he achieved
during his life. In terms of sheer professional accomplishments, Ranjan
did achieve a lot, but equally importantly, as a human being, he exuded
a lot of warmth and energy which is difficult to forget.



I learnt about Ranjan before I met him as the President of SAP India.
After an informal media  round table organized by Oracle,
where some of the executives from the US company were participating,
one of them remarked that Ranjan was about take over as the MD of SAP
India. The other reacted quickly, looking at his India, colleagues,
“You must watch this man. He will do something” And
yes, in my presence.



When I met Ranjan for the first time, I found that there was a lot of
truth in what his ex-colleague—Ranjan worked in Oracle
earlier—said. He seemed confident, but more importantly
sincere about what he wanted to do. In just about half an hour, he was
asking me many fundamental questions about Indian IT user, and noting
down my responses carefully.



Less than one year later, SAP India was in DQ Top 20—for the
first time in the history. Next year—that is in FY
09—it moved a few places up and recorded the highest revenue
among all the software companies, for the first time, dislodging
Microsoft from the top spot. It was not just an achievement for Ranjan;
it was a defining change in India's IT maturity. For the first time, an
enterprise software company was bagging the award. India had clearly
moved to the next phase of growth. Ranjan had a major role in making
that happen.



I called him to invite to receive the award personally on the DQ Awards
Night. It was well before the official invites were sent to winners. He
said he would cancel everything else to be there to receive the award
personally. Typical Ranjan—straight talking, no nonsense. And
he was there, right in time.  



“It was one of the proud moments in his career,”
said a capsule (http://www.sap-tv.com/4740) which SAP TV—an
internal TV unit—made based on the award. Ranjan himself,
however, gave credit to his customers, partners, colleagues, and the
products all the credit, reacting after receiving the award.  



Just before he was leaving, he asked for me—I was speaking to
a few other guests—and reminded about a lunch meeting that we
had earlier planned but canceled at the last moment. We decided we
would do it next time around. This was on September 17 this year.
Little did I know that that would be our last conversation.