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This article was first published 12 years ago

'The youth get caught in the money game'

Last updated on: July 27, 2011 17:07 IST

Image: Pradeep Rathinam, CEO, Aditi Technologies
Prasanna D Zore

With over 20 years of experience in companies like Microsoft, Lotus and Unisys, Pradeep Rathinam, joined Aditi Technologies as its CEO in 2008 "to take his entrepreneurial learnings at Microsoft to a new level".

And he seems to have taken his learnings to a new level at Aditi. In the five years under his leadership Aditi's revenues have rocketed from $30 million to $90 million while transforming the company from a pure play services provider to IP-based solutions provider.

Speaking with Prasanna D Zore, Pradeep discusses his career lessons, the challenges, his success mantras and advice to India's youth.

Why did you leave Microsoft after 13 years?

When I joined Microsoft there were 6,000 people with the company and when I left, they were 88,000 strong. Microsoft had an extremely entrepreneurial culture -- it was like you almost ran your own independent businesses -- where I got great learnings and grew fast. But then I wanted to take those learnings and go to a place which felt lot more entrepreneurial.

Aditi in those days was roughly a 30 million dollar company in revenues where I came to look after sales and marketing and in two years I took up the responsibilities of CEO. We have had a fantastic run and this year we have 90 plus million dollars in revenues.

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'The most important skill is conviction and connection'


Photographs: Rediff Archives

Career lessons ever since your first job...

One of the most important lessons I learned very early in my career was one of prioritisation. My mantra in those days was to do a couple of things that were the most important ones. There is no point in spreading yourself thin and multi-tasking 15 things at the same time and get mediocre output. Also learning to say 'no' and doing tasks you can best manage has a demonstrable impact on how best you do things.

Because of prioritisation I always had time on my hand as I picked tasks based on priority and those that could bring about a visible change to the organisation. So in my life I always had 30 per cent time on my hand when I could think and plan for the year ahead and beyond.

The other important lesson I learnt over the years was learning to say no and making sure that people are comfortable with that.

As you grow from being an individual contributor where you are primarily assessed on how well you perform a task, how competent you are and how thorough and excellent you are in comparison to the others. As you move to a managerial level and start managing people and conflicts, negotiating between people, you realise that the most important skill is conviction and connection.

Good managers have the right balance between conviction and connection. Conviction really is a voice and connection is a touch. A good manager, a good leader needs to have voice and touch. The conviction point does not mean that you have to pound your table and make a point or convince others about your point of view. Passion, simplicity of logic all makes up for your sense of conviction.

Connection really pieces around listening to people, empathising with them, understanding each other's point of view and how to communicate your point to the people who will implement your vision.

All good leaders over a period of time will achieve these qualities. But any good leader or good manager must learn to prioritise things.

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'Depth of your experiences defines your career growth not how many people report to you everyday'


Values you learnt from your parents and how did these help you in your career?

My father is my ideal in life in the sense that I learnt the most from him. An engineer in the IAF he learnt a lot after doing his MBA from Jamnalal Bajaj in Bombay (now Mumbai), he couldn't use much of that knowledge in his Air Force career but I learned a lot from him. Being disciplined, precise and simple while communicating with others is what I grew up learning by watching him.

There are a lot of things you learn from your parents: how you approach a problem, result-orientation and how to go about achieving them and how you conduct yourself. More than that their experiences in life make the real difference.

Growth in life, as people normally believe, is not about growing vertically in your career. The reality is the depth of your experiences defines your career growth not how many people report to you everyday.

What are the challenges you faced in your life and how did you tackle them?

As a child the thing I had to do regularly was to adapt. We moved around every three years and so adaptability was the key. It also taught me how to work with different types of people from different places and this helped me become a stronger person in dealing with them, understanding their motivations.

The second is as I went to college I became very entreprenerial and started a venture on my own. Those experiences helped me learn a lot about being a salesperson.

I was pedalling through the streets of Delhi selling photo typesetting services for my company in the second year of my college. That experience taught me how to be a salesman the hard way and how to hold a conversation with a potential prospect or a client.

Those experiences helped me become better at the process of selling, which is where I started my career and made me more proficient at handling conversations with people at different levels.

In those days it was getting past the doorman in some buildings in New Delhi and later on in life, it was engaging the attention of executives at senior levels whom I dealt with.

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'You learn by listening to people'


The values you followed in your life and your success mantras...

The values are instilled in you from your upbringing and I have been taught to be transparent and respectful to people and listen to them. You learn by listening to people. This has helped me in every organisation to build the connection or touch piece of my style of working.

The other value is simplicity which I try to portray in my life whether it is a conversation or the approachability of anybody coming to me with suggestions. I have followed simplicity and preciseness in my life and it helps me demystify things.

The third value is honesty and directness. Expectation is the most important aspect of a business or a personal relationship and one should be honest and direct while setting up these expectations.

Your message to India's young from a career point of view...

The opportunities in India in the next 20 years are incredible. I don't see that kind of opportunity in any other part of the world. What really is required (to tap these opportunities) is the will and drive to learn new set of techniques and skills and enjoy while learning and adapting to these new experiences.

I think a lot of people (young Indians) get caught in the money game and fail to follow their passion. The most important thing is if you really like what you do you will excel in it. And if you go chase 30 per cent or 50 per cent more and not like what you are doing, you can get all the money you want but not those experiences that will really help your career in the long run.

It is your search for better experiences and what you learn from them that makes you richer not money.

What skills do you have in mind that will help India's young take advantage of these incredible opportunities?

The one most important area I think is that India's young must attain soft skills and communication skills.

These skills go a long way in shaping careers because as you do business in India or abroad it is good communication that helps you in connecting with people.

In general, Indians are known to be very smart which means we are good at math and logic. And if we add soft skill and good communication to our repertoire it will help the youth scale many obstacles and become world-class entrepreneurs.