HOT SEAT

The power of positive thinking

Sanjay Nayak, CEO and managing director of Tejas Networks India, is a sports aficionado who loves outdoor activities. He tells Abhinav Singh that he believes in the philosophy of moving ahead in life and staying positive even if things don't move in the direction he wants them to

Sanjay Nayak is passionate about driving on the highway. Once, as a student in the US, he drove all the way from the East Coast to the West Coast and back, covering the entire breadth of the country in a matter of just ten days. He recalls, 'It was once-in-a-lifetime experience. En route we touched many varsity towns and met our Indian friends.' Nayak is a great athlete, and since his childhood loves outdoor activities. He feels that it was his education in a boarding school, Rajkumar College in Raipur, which instilled in him a sense of self-reliance that later kept him in good stead to face challenges in life. Later, when he went to the Birla Institute of Technology in Ranchi, he led the life of a hosteler, and again during his master's at North Carolina University in the US he stayed away from home.

Tennis, cricket, cycling and chess have all been Nayak's favourite activities. He plays tennis often, and is a regular follower of all cricket tournaments. Nayak begins his day with tennis. 'It keeps me in good shape, and I can finish the game in one hour and rush to office after that.' He has been a great admirer of tennis star Pete Sampras, and loves everything about him. Nayak made it a point to witness the Sybase Open in the US featuring Pete Sampras vs Andre Agassi in 1995. He has been a regular attendee at all cricket matches featuring India in Bangalore.

The emerging IT industry and the power of computers have always influenced Nayak. He excelled in academics at school and college, and secured a gold medal during his BE in electronics and communications engineering, then did well in his masters in computer engineering in the US. He says he is fortunate for having got the opportunity to study there. 'The competitive environment and the exposure to international business and culture in the US made me more confident.'

Nayak's perseverance speaks for itself. He has successfully steered Tejas from being a start-up company to one that has made its mark in the optical networking product space under his able leadership. Prior to this, Nayak had successfully set up the Indian operations of Cadence Design Systems, and was also its head of engineering, where he built a team of 150 people.

Having journeyed across North America, Europe and Asia, Nayak feels that travelling has been a great learning experience for him. He has tried new things in different lands. For instance, he tried sea-diving in the Maldives and skiing in the US and Switzerland. Besides his business trips abroad, every year Nayak sets aside some time for his family and takes them on a holiday trip to different places in the world'he recently went to Mauritius and Hawaii along with his family members.

He usually spends his weekends with his family. A movie buff, Nayak likes watch both Hollywood and Indian movies, and makes it a point to go to a theatre to watch a movie at least twice a month. He feels that the ambience of watching a movie can only be had in a cinema theatre, no matter how powerful a home theatre system one possesses. He also likes contemporary pop music, and is a great fan of Lata Mangeshkar.

Nayak says that he never feels stressed, and enjoys his work. 'I have always liked telecommunications, and enjoy attempting new things in the field.' At the helm of affairs now at Tejas, Nayak has proved to the world that India is not only a hot destination for software services, but also has some companies which excel in product development.

abhinav@expresscomputeronline.com