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Smart success

Rajesh Nambiar, Regional Head of TCS, tells Srinivasa Rao Dasari that sincere effort and smart solutions are crucial to organisational success

“Technology is only an enabler, while smart solutions play a vital role in making any business model a success. I have always focussed on two aspects—client requirements and infrastructure facilities for the organisation,” says Rajesh Nambiar, Regional Head, TCS (Deccan Park-Hyderabad), about the key to his successful career. Nambiar was instrumental in conceptualising and setting up the Deccan Park, which currently houses about 3,400 consultants, the single largest delivery centre of TCS.

Born in Erumad village in Nilgiri district of Tamil Nadu, Nambiar was a top performer throughout his academic life. He obtained a BSc (Statistics) degree at St Joseph’s College in Trichy. Later he joined the Indian Statistical Institute in Kolkata, one of the ten selected for the post-graduate course.

After his master’s degree with specialisation in Applied Statistics and Data Analysis, Nambiar got several offers during campus recruitment. He opted for TCS, which he considered a dream company to work for.

“I underwent training in New Delhi, which really shaped my life. I had to compete with the best people at TCS. For a student, the focus is on personal accomplishment involving scoring over classmates and fellow students, whereas at TCS it was more about teamwork than individual performance. Later I worked with S Ramadorai, who was then the Senior Vice President.”

In his 16 years at TCS, Nambiar worked at many levels. He began his career as an analyst programmer and database administrator, and worked for both IBM Sweden and IBM Bethesda, in building products on the IBM platform for about four years. IBM projects were in great demand at that time, and he worked on some mainframes TCS had bought in 1987.

The most memorable achievement of his career was the Minneapolis centre, where he steered TCS’ operations in the upper midwest region of the US. He built successful relationships with Fortune 500 organisations such as Target, Best Buy, Northwest Airlines and American Express Financial Advisors. Today, this region has one of the largest branches of TCS. Nambiar was also responsible for initiating TCS’ operations in Montana, working together with the state government. Commenting on the success of TCS, Nambiar says, “We have to develop personal relationships and rapport with the clients, but not in an artificial manner. We have gained the confidence and trust of our clients through sincere efforts and smart solutions for their business problems. We are available to solve our clients’ problems 24x7 even when not related to technology.”

In April 2001, Nambiar returned to India and took over the Hyderabad operations. Since then, TCS’ activities in Hyderabad have multiplied. Nambiar, in particular, focussed on the infrastructure requirements of the company. During his tenure, the headcount rose from 700 to 3,400-plus.

Elaborating on his working style at Deccan Park, Nambiar says, “TCS-Hyderabad is one of the sub-systems of the organisation but we can’t optimise a sub-system. We have to work towards the goal of the organisation.”

At Deccan Park, branch management committees (BMCs) have been formed to encourage employees to take ownership of their responsibilities. These BMCs help employees interact and socialise regularly. “Getting together will increase productivity and innovation. We replicate the best practices at our centre. We take every innovative and useful idea and implement it at the centre. It does not matter from who and which centre the idea comes; we welcome innovative ideas from employees,” says Nambiar.

A family man, Nambiar loves to spend all his free time playing with his children. He enjoys basketball and golf.