Hot Seat

The risk rider

G V Kumar, Managing Director & CEO of Megasoft, has always enjoyed taking risks and has emerged successful, says Srinivasa Rao Dasari.

G V Kumar

Facing challenges and successfully converting them into opportunities have been a part of life for G V Kumar, Managing Director & CEO, Megasoft. He had to face financial problems at a tender age when he lost his parents while still in school. Kumar was a state ranker in tenth class and got national merit scholarship. He was able to complete his studies and higher education with merit scholarship and bank financing. Be it personal or professional life, taking risks has become a routine for him. He aims at making Megasoft a $100 million company by 2007 and one among global top five in interoperability in the telecom sector in three years. Kumar is an expert in business strategy, wireless technologies and telecom areas, and his vision for the company and self is the same.

Going through different transition phases is nothing new for Kumar. Born in Mumbai, his family is from Tanjore district in Tamil Nadu. His schooling was done at Kumbakonam and Plus-2 in Chennai. He did his engineering from Regional Engineering College (REC) Bhopal with specialisation in electrical engineering and MBA with marketing and finance specialisation from XLRI. He excelled at studies and extra-curricular activities (which often got him into trouble). He secured a state rank in tenth class and was also suspended for six times during schooldays. Typically a backbencher and an active participant in school elections, he managed to be in the first three slots when it came to studies. Kumar does not have any old boys’ network that usually helps professionals get good positions in the corporate world. With his expertise—a rare combination of business strategy and technology, he made it to the top.

His career started with the Godrej group, which selected him from the campus. He acknowledges that his association with Srini Raju, the Founder and Chairman of i-Labs, promoter of TV-9 news channel and former COO of Satyam Computer Services, and Manu Parpia (of Geometric Software Solutions), has greatly helped him.

His last assignment at $1 billion Godrej group was as the CEO of Godrej Telecom during 1997-2000. He was the youngest CEO in the Godrej group and he made it possible in just seven years. At Godrej he played a vital role in expanding the business, setting up new ventures and forging international allia-nces. Prior to Megasoft, Kumar founded a telecom company called XIUS India, for developing cutting-edge technologies in the telecom segment. XIUS developed several patent pending wireless technology IPR in intelligent networking, wireless roaming, and pre-paid wireless areas. Subsequently, Megasoft and XIUS amalgamated in 2004. He was also a part-time faculty member at Bombay University during 1995-2000.

“I am a big risk-taker. In those days, refrigeration and other consumer product segments were most sought after by management graduates. I became the General Manager in just three years, which was rare in a conservative company like Godrej. Even the transition from the North to the South and again to the North was a challenge for me. I have learnt many things by mistakes. I started competing with the best of MBAs. I worked at Godrej for about ten years. Then I decided to get into consultancy for which I was supposed to be based out of Singapore. However, as a result of my association with Srini Raju, I conceived another project and that was how Megasoft was formed. So my earlier plan of doing consultancy has not taken off. Though I am not from an IT background, Srini Raju and Manu have been great mentors to me. I am a self-made person.”

Telecom majors like Airtel, Reliance, MTNL, BPL, and Hutch, apart from global companies including Bulgarian Mobile, Oman Mobile, Sri Lanka Telecom, Teleglobe, GSM Association in London, are the major clients of Megasoft.

The goal, he has set for his company is the vision for himself. He wants to place his company among the global top five in the telecom sector.

Sharing his vision, Kumar says: “I want to make a global company that creates technology IPR in telecom. My dream is to make our company create technologies and move up the value chain. Megasoft will become a $100 million company by 2007 and find place among global top five in interoperability in the telecom sector in three years. Very soon, Megasoft is going to be listed on Nasdaq.”

The total headcount at Megasoft is about 450, including 150 at Hyderabad, 130 at Chennai and 180 at the US and Britain offices. “I am working on my strategy to activate my passion for marketing. For this, I have designed a three-point action strategy. As part of this, our company will identify the right people and talent, identify sales and distribution channels for interoperability technology, enhance operational excellence and lastly invest in technology, apart from upgrading infrastructure. I foresee key challenges in the form of external market’s choice of the right technology and the right people. We need to keep employees motivated.”

A family man, Kumar has two sons. He is a music afficionado and a voracious reader. He also plays chess and tennis. “I represented my college in tennis and have a passion for football. I enjoy reading right from my schooldays. I like books on management, psychology, politico-sociology, astronomy, history and philosophy,” he says.