CP Gurnani is the chief executive of Mahindra Satyam, an information and communications technology company headquartered in Hyderabad.
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He is in charge of a workforce of 32,000, with 13,000 working overseas and the remainder in India. Despite what must be heavy responsibilities, he is a cheerful man in his 50s - elegant in a blue suit and yellow tie as he talks about his career.
He trained as a chemical engineer and started his working life in a company that manufactured synthetic yarn. He joined the process control section and found the job repetitive.
"I went up to my boss and said I spend my time waking up shift engineers, I feel like I am running a security guard service," he says.
He was told that it normally took people two years to realise how boring the job was, and so he was moved to another part of the business.
A few years later, in 1986, he realised that the computer industry was the future.
"I was in the right industry in the right time," he says. "I have done every job, played every position on the field and I'm enjoying it now. I've got a great team: I get to talk to you and they get to do all the work."
He lives in Delhi with his wife and two children but travels constantly. When not on the move he likes to watch Hollywood and Bollywood movies, and he has membership in a couple of golf clubs in the capital.
"My ideal Sunday is to tee off in the darkness, be back at 10am and spend the day with the family," he says. "But I've only played seven rounds this year."
q&a
q What does CP stand for? Are you like VVS Laxman, so famous that you are known only by your initials?
a Chandraprakash. It means "moonlight". My parents gave me that name, but ever since I went to junior school I have been known as CP. I'm not as famous as VVS Laxman. In fact, from where I'm from in India, we would call himLaxman, not VVS. I grew up in Rajasthan. There normally the names are very simple. I'm just happy my parents gave me a name [laughs].
q I'm told that more people are now employed in IT in India than in manufacturing?
a I would agree with that. Just to give you an example, I visited one of the world's largest refineries recently, a billion-dollar investment. It is owned by Mukesh Ambani. I came out of the plant and asked "how many do you employ?" I was told 2,000 people, indirectly another 10,000. Mahindra Tech, our sister company, and the company I run, Mahindra Satyam, employ 72,000 people. It is the fifth-largest private employer in India.
q So software companies are labour intensive?
a Absolutely. We are the Savile Row of your business. We do customised, bespoke tailoring. I have to have the people. It is hugely manpower intensive.
q Is there a shortage of trained manpower in India?
a I am not totally reliant on an Indian workforce. The way we have designed it is to be a global company. We have service centres in China, Malaysia, the US, Netherlands, UK. The whole point is we are trying to set up a distributed delivery model.
q The old model of sending everything to be done overnight in India is over?
a The world has definitely changed. I'll give you an example. I was talking to a large banking client with offices all over the world. I told him I would divide the work into level 1, 2 and 3. Level 1 would be dealt with by people in his time zone, while the other two levels would be done elsewhere. He said "why can't you get the skill in your time zone?" He was basically saying if I want to minimise my overhead, I should minimise the interface by people in different time zones. I should put everybody into one room. That's what he wanted. It didn't matter where, but he thought it would be more efficient in one place. And he was right.
q Give me an idea of a typical client?
a Look at it this way: a mature relationship is where a client basically is discussing his strategy with you as a partner. He treats you as his own subsidiary. That relationship is when I am involved in four pillars of his business: people, process, technology and operating matrix. The programme has to deliver the results. It doesn't matter where it happens, whether it's in a call centre or in a shop. Why I love that type of business is that I have a consulting practice, processing, change management, call centre people and others, and I can bring in the best of them to bring in a solution. Let's work together.
Another type of client will set a goal. Perhaps a cost-saving of 20 per cent. You have to figure out how to deal with it.
A third client is more into being better than his competitor. He needs to invest in infrastructure that can support his growth. They need their data services to be increased. Last, but not least, they just give us a project and tell us to get on with it.
q Are you limited by working for different clients in the same industry?
a If we are running on a proprietary service we are not forbidden. Does Microsoft only work with one client, or Oracle, HP or IBM? We can protect intellectual property. But if you want a special technology devised for your company, we do not then sell it to somebody else. And we keep people's secrets very safe. We work with some very secretive companies. Not because it is contractual, but because it is in the spirit of the contract. That is part of the DNA of the company.
q One hears a lot about corruption in India. Are there different standards in private life than public life?
a Corruption is a sign of weakness. We would never pay a bribe … and we have done pretty well. I think the move against corruption should be further encouraged
[ rwright@thenational.ae ]
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