Siddharth Reddy is a 33-year-old engineer in computer science. He also has an MBA from the University of Poona. He first worked with Emery Worldwide and then struck out on his own.
Today, he's the managing director of SurfGold India.
SurfGold is a Singapore-based company which operates in seven countries in the Asia-Pacific region. This firm is a leading CRM player. Initially, it had a Web-focussed business model, but when Reddy joined SurfGold, the dot-com bubble had burst. So he realised that in order to survive, they would have to become an outsourced solution provider.
Siddharth Reddy, managing director, SurfGold India, told CNBC-TV18, "The domain never changed. We got into loyalty services. The way we did it and with whom we got into business -- that was what had transformed. We realised that as a small company, one big mistake is all we need to fall. In a big conglomerate like say, Walt Disney - they shut down waltdisney.com after pouring in a couple of millions, but it didn't affect them much."
Between 2000 and 2004, things were pretty tough. He recalls a time when they were actually running out of money, but that is also the time some clients came to him and kept their faith. . . and he's grateful to them for that. He also acknowledges that some of them gave him a sense of direction.
He adds, "We are seeing a boom from 2007 onwards. This whole concept of personalisation and customer-centric models is really emerging now. Customer loyalty is a long-term strategy of identifying, retaining and growing in value your most profitable customers."
So, his big customers for his customer loyalty solutions are Hewlett-Packard, Fedex, etc.
There are more and more people asking for these solutions now than 10 years ago. He explains, "When this works in a B2B environment -- whether it's with channel partners or dealers -- it's called partner relationship management. We add more value, create more efficiency and help them build goodwill."
He started with two employees and now has 100 in seven years. SurfGold has offices in Delhi, Bangalore and Mumbai. Keeping his focus on core areas, Reddy believes the company can grow at 35% annually. He says, "As a group, we are about $22 million and India contributes about 15% of that. We've seen compounded growth of 35% year-on-year, and that will continue to be."
"We have just started in Mumbai and we hope to see new business from there because it's really the hotbed of the services market."
SurfGold has its own product development centre which develops their very own technology products, which they license out to their customers.
In another five years, Reddy plans to make SurfGold, Asia's largest loyalty CRM service provider. So, how's he getting there?
He's hired a good team who've expanded their capabilities and he's given them a mantra to chew on: Don't take yourself seriously but take your responsibilities seriously. If they keep this in mind, they are sure going to help him take SurfGold places.
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