Previous Occupation: Branch Manager, Computer Point, Hyderabad. It was during 1987 – 91, the company was engaged in IT retail and educational services.
Present Occupation: Co-founder, MD & CEO Choice Solutions Ltd, based in Hyderabad with 11 offices in India and also part of Choice Solutions Inc., US.
We are in the business of “Best in class IT management and IT Solutions” working in many technology areas and services including IT consulting, Business consulting, Data center consulting, Cloud services and IT infrastructure solutions.
Sector: IT Infrastructure and IT services
Work Experience: 25 Years
Interests – Professional/Personal:
Professional: Networking, Reading management books and lectures on leadership
Personal: Vacationing with family, photography, and attempting to be fit and participating in games

Tell us about yourself – your profile, recap your professional life after your under-graduate education including your career progression.
I was very interested into environment sciences associated with Physics, which helped me to with my Masters in Atmospheric physics at University of Roorkee, currently known as IIT, Roorkee.

After completing my post-graduation I had applied for the position of scientist in a private organisation in their R&D department and after interview they offered me a position in their EDP department (currently called IT department) working on VAX PDP 11, which had punch cards and tapes as their input devices with 8/16KB memory. I was part of managing payroll processing and inventory management in that manufacturing organisation.

After the management trainee position, I joined Computer Point, Hyderabad in their educational services and taught for several years and was promoted as head of the branch, including sales and technology. During this time I was rated as one of the best teachers or instructors in the area of IT education in the country. I was there till 1991.

The drive to become an entrepreneur, without business background, led me to my present profession that I co-found with my childhood friends. With no funding and listing in the stock markets we still managed to be afloat and did reasonably well for ourselves and our 550 employees in India with revenues over 90 Crores.

Through hard work and unstructured leadership skills, I brought the organisation to this level but my limited business knowledge led me to PGPMAX.

Describe your fondest memory at ISB.
Making great friends at this age and being called “Chief Negotiating Rep” in the class, and having fun with classmates in all terms including the once at ISB, FDC – Brazil, Kellogg school of management and Wharton are all fond memories.

With the knowledge and experience gained at ISB, tell us something that you will do differently in your professional life?
Choice Solutions Ltd, the company I co-founded and where I currently work, went through challenging times in order to meet market and customer expectations in the newer technologies.
ISB learning gave me insight to fix those issues and build new strategies to take Choice Solutions to the new era. The education helped me a lot in realising my personal aspirations and meeting stakeholders expectations in near future.

What are some new trends in your current work industry that can be shared as valuable knowledge-transfer?
Customers are looking for Opex model rather than Capex model in their buying and solutions deployment models. They are getting leaner, greener and more efficient with their IT infrastructure and solutions. In next few years the business will be driven by cloud solutions with stronger SLAs as their basic parameters.
Along with few colleagues at Choice Solutions, I am also co-authoring a book on cloud solutions for both business and technological needs. It should be released in next four months.

If you have to sum up ISB in one word: De-rusting of your brain @ PGPMAX

What are the areas that you can contribute in to ISB?
I can contribute by providing guest lectures to students on the Indian case studies in subjects of my interest and be part of growth team providing the insights required for being updated in their syllabus.
I will also help with placements for PGP through CAS and also with promoting ISB for future PGPMAX students.

Any other suggestions or feedback?
The involvement of the dean and his team with PGPMAX students is important for keeping the content updated and as per the industry needs. This will help in keeping the ISB flag high.

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