The Race is the Reward

On 6^th November 2022, Globsyn will complete 25 years of its journey. WOW!!! How many times in these 25 years, have I slept with my pillow on my face and said: “This is it! There is no way that I can take it further.” Next day has been another day. Some message, some telephone call, some idea hit my brain or my wife, Ranjana’s brain and we survived to live another day. Then there was also the glorious period. The Infinity launch, the Skills business, our Philanthropy and finally the IBM deal to set up South Asia’s first IBM Centre of Software Excellence. The black Mercedes (I did not have then, I was driving a Maruti 1000) and handing over a cheque of $300,000, from IBM Global Services, Hongkong, as a soft loan to complete our Centre of Excellence. They also helped us with my concept of “SOFTWARE FINISHING SCHOOL and they felt it was a brilliant idea.

The interiors with IBM S390, AS400s and 400 nodes, along with the network was completely done by IBM and their engineers (at a cost, ofcourse!), but the Centre was ready to go. The date fixed was November 6^th 1997 at Techno Campus, which was almost like a barren land in those days, with a small building, housing the Training Centre and the rest was under construction almost perpetually. We got the land and the building (a closed monitor factory) in a dilapidated state in June 1997. In just 5 months, our team transformed the place. Mainframes, nodes, network, landscape, even a small pool and a bridge, where I had visualised students sitting and discussing IT projects, came up. We put some gold fish in the water bed, as well. I remember those days, I used to visit the campus under construction, talk to the workers, gardners etc. and told them: “What you are creating will be only one of its kind in South Asia, so just focus to bring out your best.” And they did.

Sheer romanticism. We went to launch our famous YSM or Young Software Manager Program with the slogan “WORK 6 MONTHS, JUMP 3 YEARS.” And the youngsters jumped in sheer glee, as they found a way out of despondency. We got over 2,500 responses for a 100-seat program and 84 got selected, all of them engineers. While on the technology side, we got a $1million order to execute from IBM Global Services. With all these, Globsyn was well on its way.

THAT WAS 25 YEARS BACK. A lot of water has flown down the river and we have walked many a mile. Skills Development was one such program which gave us an opportunity to earn, grow and diversify. By then, my sons, Rahul and Romit had passed out of their USA and UK Universities and joined my business and played a positive role in the growth and development of Globsyn. When we started, they were in Wellington College, Crowthorne, UK and then onto Syracuse University for their under-graduation and Durham and Imperial for their Grad School, which they finished in 2002.

I was lucky, that after staying for so many years in USA and UK, they did come back to India, to work with and help their father to make his business grow. They came on their own. Today, it is their business. Rahul looks after Education & Training including the prestigious Globsyn Business School we have built. GBS, as it is called, has become the fore runner among B-Schools in India. We have added to it our very own ‘BEYOND EDUCATION’ model, which integrates value-based life with curriculum. It is a unique model and has received the BEST PRACTISES approval from AICTE.

Romit is focused on Technology business, shifted his operations to Dubai and added a financial product under his belt to observe the global market and grow. He recently concluded a 5-year AMAZON contract on AI and ML with about 2,500 to 3,000 engineers, working on sophisticated DATA LABELLING. Globsyn grew hugely during this period. Globsyn India, as is always the case is our Delivery Centre, for all businesses and part of the Corporate HQ. Balance Corporate operations is done from Dubai. 25 years, it’s a long entrepreneurial journey of modern times. We are still private and have not raised any public money. We have worked with Debt and Accruals. This has been possible because apart from me, my two sons have hugely contributed and helped retain the management to themselves, thereby wealth creation has been possible. I know, someday people will talk about this. Our Group. Our journey. Our Philanthropy. Father and Two sons.

It’s been tough! Highly challenging! But immensely satisfying journey!