The Believer

Our time has come now, says Ajai Chowdhry, chairman & CEO, HCL Infosystems,
referring to the imminent boom in Indias domestic ICT market, We have worked
for the last three decades for this day.

In a single sentence, Chowdhry effectively articulates not only why he
deserves this awardthe DQ IT Person of the Year Award 2007but also why he
deserves it now. Probably much better than we could have done.

Indias domestic IT marketafter remaining the poor cousin to the global
exports market for longis beginning to get all the attention, not just from the
American multinationals looking for growth but also from the so-far
export-oriented Indian services firms. And this is a market that HCL Infosystems,
under Chowdhrys leadership, can take a lot of credit for building, literally
brick by brick.

And it was the patriotic Chowdhry who led that vision from the front. The son
of a civil servant with a high sense of national pride, it just oozes out as
Chowdhry talks about anything Indianbe it Indian music, his love from
childhood; or memories of garlanding Pandit Jawaharlal Nehru at his fathers
official residence; or talking about beating global PC brands in the desktop PC
market. As Oscar Wilde says, only passion could be that sincere.

A member of the founding team of Hindustan Computers Ltd, the predecessor of
what is today HCL Enterprisecomprising HCL Infosystems and the export entity,
HCL TechnologiesChowdhry is the only one among the five founders who is still
actively running an HCL business. His career: spanning from his days at DCM Data
Products where he worked for Shiv Nadar and Arjun Malhotra before moving with
them to start HCL; to his latest excitement about tapping the growth phase of
Indias domestic market is a journey that almost tells the story of the
evolution of Indian IT.

If the nationalistic Indian in Chowdhry pursued a made in India strategy to
make HCL a brand in IT products, remaining at the top of the desktop PC market
for several years, and, of late, staking a claim on the laptop market, the
rational CEO in him, who was responsible to the shareholders, took a very hard
decision because, for seven years, we did not make any moneyto take on the
distribution of Nokia mobile phones. While growth was the driver behind the
decision, it was a risky proposition considering it was very different from
building products, creating solutions and dealing with computers. It was
three new things at one go. While one can debate whether it has had the desired
effect on HCLs future, it surely changed the distribution business in India.
Contributing toward making Nokia the largest MNC in India, bigger than Unilever,
and creating a distribution footprint that is matched only by the top 2-3 FMCG
companies. Chowdhry has been credited with influencing Nokia to start
manufacturing in India.

Manufacturing in India has remained a relentless pursuit for Chowdhry. He has
not only been active in various MAIT initiatives, he has also been part of every
single committee and advisory group that the Government of India has formed to
study the potential of manufacturing of electronic equipment in India. Many a
times authoring various reports and proposals to incentivize manufacturing in
India.

He has been only moderately successful but is hopeful that the India story of
manufacturing in automobile and steel will sooner or later be extended to
electronics, and that day is not far off.

But Chowdhrys true radical contribution has been the proactive effort to
create what is today a clearly defined market segment on its own rightthe home
marketwith big celebrities endorsement. Not only did HCL release the first home
PC, Beanstalk, way back in 1995, it created retail stores to create a shopping
environment like that of consumer goods, and even established call centers to
support the sales. But, as Chowdhry admits, it had to wait almost a decade
before it became mainstream. Both, the home market and large format IT retail
stores, are today a thing taken for granted.

To be discerning, while it may look that HCL claims to have pioneered
everything in the Indian domestic market, and, whats more, all those claims
seem to be fairly credible, the question to ask is: was there any other way for
it? There is no company of HCL Infosystems size, stature, and breadth that
operates in Indias domestic market that is listed in the Indian stock markets.
While there are clear metrics for measuring the relative performance of services
exports firms, there is virtually no peer for HCL. So it had to try out
everything even if that carried the risk of staggering returns or even burning
of fingers. It had no other way. It had to take those risks.

In short, HCL was ready to take those risks. And the big reason was that it
believed in the market that is India. It believed that sooner or later, this
market would unleash its potential. Whether that was rational thinking or pure
passion is not the point to discuss now. Either way, it helped build the
foundation for an industry that is all poised to take off now.

As the man driving this dream, Ajai Chowdhry deserves the accolades of the
community. The award is a humble recognition of that.

... and his Making

It is difficult to appreciate a writer without knowing his upbringing, his
background, because that shapes his literary opinion, says English novelist and
critic Arnold Benett, the author of the classic, Literary Taste. The same could
be said about political and business leaders.

Take the case of Ajai Chowdhry, the chairman and CEO, HCL Infosystems. On the
first look, it seems his is a classic example of a typical middle class boy from
a small town risking all he has for making it big. But it is not big dreams that
drove Chowdhry to become what he is, he very humbly admits.

And it is not too difficult to believe that. Despite being at the helm of a
top company (HCL Infosystems was the #1 company in DQ Top 20, Top Ten then, as
Chowdhry himself reminds us, before the export services firms really took off)
for so long, he keeps an unusually low profile.

In fact, many of these facts that he has shared with you today about his
life were not even known to us, says George Paul, executive vice president, HCL
Infosystems, present at our interview session with Chowdhry.

Born to an IAS officer of MP cadre, Jai Krishna Chowdhry, in Mt Abu,
Rajasthan, the young Ajai spent his initial years traveling with his family from
one place to another across the undivided Madhya Pradesh, wherever his father
was posted. But being the youngest in the family, by the time he went to high
school his family had settled in Jabalpur, where his father worked until his
retirement. So he studied largely in Jabalpurcompleting his schooling in the
local Christchurch School and studying Electronics & Telecommunications
engineering too in the home city.

We asked him about his childhood dreams. While he did admit that he looked up
to his father who was a civil servant, he does not recollect any particular
dream to become something or another. Like a typical middle class family, my
father attached all the importance to education, and that is all I can recall.
This is something that he has also adhered to with his sons, he adds.

Beyond Academics

While good education was a top priority, there are two strong impacts that
his upbringing had on him, he says: the pride of being an Indian, and love for
musicboth of which remain with him till today.

He recollects with pride, as a young boy, garlanding Pandit Jawaharlal Nehru
at his fathers official residence.

His whole house had a musical atmosphere. His father was not just a great
lover of music, he wrote poetry in Urdu too (he knew six languages). Ajai fondly
recollects his father writing a piece of poetry, his elder sister setting it to
tune for singing, and he himself accompanying her in Tabla. So it was impromptu
Mushairas at home. But if those were informal, he also recollects some renowned
singers coming for Baithaks at his home.

His love for music continues till date. On the personal front, he still tries
to invite artistes home for a Baithak, sometimes getting singers like Farida
Khanum for a session! He also sings old Hindi songs of Mohammad Rafi, those from
the Black&White Dev Anand movies such as Hum Dono and Guide being his favorites.
But he has extended this passion to corporate patronizing of musical concerts.
The HCL Concert series has helped many young artistes to come to the forefront!

What has helped him keep the passion burning is that his wife, Kunkun, also
comes from a family with a rich musical heritage. In fact, she is the grand
daughter of the famous Thumri singer, Naina Devi. Ajai, who would have probably
pursued a career in music, says his younger son wants to pursue it. His elder
son works for a large consulting firm in the UK.

The Journey

After completing his Engineering degree in Electronics and
Telecommunications in 1972, Chowdhry applied for jobs in three companies,
getting through all three of them. Finally, after much deliberation, he opted
for DCM Data Products. This is where he came in contact with Arjun Malhotra and
Shiv Nadar, who interviewed him for the job.

DCM was just getting into electronics. It was almost like an entrepreneurial
venture, he recollects. Soon after joining, he was sent, along with his
colleague Yogesh Vaidya, to Mumbai to open the office. Starting in Mumbai from
scratch meant that right from scouting for a space (we had to request the DCM
textile business owner to allot us space) to making new customers. All had to be
done by us, and it was this exposure that inculcated the feeling of
entrepreneurship in us, he recounts.

Over the next three years, Chowdhry and the others built the DCM electronics
business and it was at this time that Nadar, who was thinking of starting a new
company, offered about 15 people the opportunity to join his company. Except
for a few of us, others did not take the offer, he says matter-of-factly. So
what prompted him to take the risk?

Honestly, I thought I had nothing to lose. I was 25, unmarried, and if it
did not work out, I could always take another job, says Chowdhry very
convincingly, showing yet another basic quality of his: playing down his
strengths. As anyone coming from a middle class family at that time would vouch,
it could not have been so simple. It was definitely risk-taking, which probably
comes so naturally to him that he doesnt even see it as so.

And, expectedly, his family was not too happy about the decision. My elder
brother had a major role in convincing my parents, he says. But like all good
parents, once they endorsed the decision, his mother gave her savings to him to
invest. That was the money I put into the new venture.

All of them together collected what was then not such a small amountRs 1.8
lakh. But with no concept of VC funding, no banks coming forward to offer loans,
the initial going was anything but smooth. But, finally, the Syndicate Bank
backed them and they could start.

The newly formed company started with selling electronic calculators, and it
was only during 1975-76, that they were able to form a joint venture with the UP
Government for making PCs (since the UP government possessed the license to make
PCs at that time) and thus was born Hindustan Computers Limited. Now better
known as HCL. The name was chosen with a lot of prideof being something Indian.

When HCL was formed, the group came down to Delhi, worked for about a year in
Delhi, from a Barsati that belonged to Arjun Malhotras grandmother. Then, it
dispersed to different parts of the country with Chowdhry being sent to first
Mumbai and then South India for building the companys customer base. From
almost day one, it was pan Indian.

If one looks at HCLs early history, the company was the pioneer whether it
was introducing 4-bit or 8-bit and or even a mini computer but it is only now
that we look back and realize that what we were doing in India was what was
happening in the world. In short, we were the first ones to design and make
everything inside a computer, and were the original innovation house.

HCL Infosystems has been instrumental in spawning the Indian IT industry be
it creating the Indian PC market; Indias largest distribution chain
(distributing Nokia phones); or a training market (by investing in NIIT).

The company formed another JV with HP for bringing risk computers to India.
And this JV, which continued for seven years in a way, introduced the HP brand
name in the Indian market. This relationship also taught HCL how to go global,
how global companies worked, and what were their processes.

The Indian Talent School

HCL has always focused on building dynamic, ambitious and motivated people. And
that means they have to be the best. Even in the early days, they focused on
hiring the absolute best. HCL went to IIM campuses and paid the best
salariesabout Rs 2,000/month those daysto get the toppers

Probably it is this reason why HCL has more often than not been labeled as
Indias manager factory, considering that the company has had the reputation of
providing some of Indias best known managers to the IT industry.

This only happened because being entrepreneurs ourselves we always built an
atmosphere which encouraged entrepreneurship. In HCL we have created an
environment which encourages, where even if anyone makes mistakes one is not
fired; an environment which hires young graduates and trains and moulds them.
The company was the first to offer stock options to its employees, as part of
its initiative to reward and recognize outstanding employees.

Chowdhry is now asking his employees to stretch themselves when it comes to
achieving goals but is an active proponent of introducing a work-life balance
which includes getting a yoga instructor for training employees; and even
appointing a wellness officer.

Belief in the Indian Market

Chowdhrys nationalistic leanings has translated in swimming against the current
to create a large enterprise focused entirely on domestic business that is into
all aspects of the businessmanufacturing, retail, distribution, services, and,
of late, training.

In most of these areas, his efforts have been pioneering and market-making.
Take manufacturing. In the last few years, Chowdhry has been pursuing an agenda
of focusing on the growth of manufacturing in India. He has not just led by
example, as in other cases, but realizing that government policies are critical,
he has worked extensively with industry associations like CII and MAIT to
influence the government to create a conducive environment for manufacturing. He
has also been part of many committees of the government on the area. He feels
satisfied that some of the efforts have paid off and takes the names of his
competitors when he gives examples of those now manufacturing in India. He also
influenced Nokia to set up a manufacturing base in India.

Creating the home market through special products and large retail stores is
another credit that goes to HCL, under Chowdhry. HCL tried to look for this
opportunity when it hardly existed. But instead of backing out, the company
stepped up the activity to create it. It has taken a little longer than
expected, admits Chowdhry.

In distribution too, when HCL entered the business, it was not the usual
logistics-focused distribution company, but it created new rules of
distribution, making Nokia a household name in India. In fact, in the early days
it prevailed upon Nokia to create region specific advertising.

It is not a smooth, everything-good story though. The continuous emphasis on
getting into new areas has many a times not paid off, sometimes resulting in
staggering returns, sometimes failing completely, but it has helped it find its
own path. And create a road for others to follow. In that sense, HCL under
Chowdhry has been a clear market builder.

And now, as Chowdhry claims, part excitedly and part satisfied, our time has
come. He already has a new plan ready to focus on the growth phase of Indian
IT. That, we hope, will be another exciting journey.

Stuti Das

stutid@cybermedia.co.in