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The ultimate marketer

Prashanth LJ, Associate Vice-president and Global Head Marketing, Infinite Computer Solutions, explains to Tanu Talwar why he switched over from a career in merchant banking to find his true calling in the marketing field.

After starting his career as a merchant banker with Wipro twelve years ago, Prashanth Laxmanasantra Jayaram’s beliefs in clear institutionalised values and able leadership pursued with a strong vision, have led him to become the Global Marketing Head of Infinite Computer Solutions. The company has crossed several milestones and has grown to become a leading organisation for IT outsourcing and offshoring services, besides being the youngest $100 million Indian IT services company. These accomplishments have been a result of well-designed marketing initiatives and strategies, successfully implemented across every function, aiming to position Infinite as a preferred performance partner for IT companies worldwide.

Career progression

Coming from a close-knitted family in Bangalore, Jayaram is the eldest son. His father worked as an assistant director in the Department of Horticulture with the Karnataka Government, and his mother is a homemaker. After completing schooling from Vijaya High School Bangalore, he went to become a mechanical engineer and joined BMS College of Engineering, Bangalore. However, soon after completing the course, he realised that his true interest was in studying and taking up management as a career. Jayaram reveals, “Even though I took up mechanical engineering, I soon realised that I had a deeper orientation towards marketing and finance.” In order to develop his skills in the field, he further pursued and completed his MBA in Marketing and Finance from ITM Bangalore, in 1995.

The same year, Jayaram joined the merchant banking division of Wipro, where he was assigned the task to come up with a strategic plan as to whether the company should get into banking or not. Acknowledging his dedication and hard work, he was soon promoted to the position of a product manager to handle the launch of the first pre-paid card product, riding on the smart card platform for pre-paid payments and information processing. Later, he joined Verifone, as a business development and product manager to head the e-cash and smart card business initiatives for the APAC region. “During this period I worked with the Reserve Bank of India to define the Indian payment standards called SMARS,” adds Jayaram.

Birth of an entrepreneur

Thereafter, he decided to realise his dreams by putting his entrepreneurial qualities to practice by setting up Worldwide Smartnet, a VC-funded software development company, focussed on developing and implementing host solutions for payment and information transaction processing services. The company’s product portfolio included smart card based multi-application solutions, POS terminal application, middleware and host systems for payment transaction and information processing. Soon after its incorporation, the company entered into a joint venture with Venture Infotek, which later took over the organisation in 2001. Thereon he joined Deutsche Software in April 2003 as a manager, and later moved to TCG Ivega in July 2004, as an associate vice-president, playing a key role in driving and managing the bid management, strategy and marketing functions for these organisations.

Talking about his association with Infinite Computer Solutions as an Associate Vice-president and Global Marketing Head, Jayaram reveals, “There were a number of reasons that prompted me to join Infinite Computer Solutions in 2005. Being a relatively new company in the market, it holds immense potential for growth, thereby giving me the opportunity to contribute my best to its marketing, strategy, branding, communication and bid management functions.”

Discussing about the challenges encountered, Jaya-ram recalls, “Since the time I started my career as a merchant banker to now being a Global Marketing Head I have come across numerous challenges. The magnitude of these challenges have been constantly changing and increasing, while moving across roles and businesses.” However, his competitive attitude of taking risks and meeting challenges head-on to achieve goals has helped him turn every hurdle into an opportunity.

The balancing act

For Jayaram, a constant challenge as a leader has been balancing and synergising individual aspirations with organisational objectives. Conceding that collective excellence is at the core of consistent success, Jayaram believes in the motto of “Work together, win together”. However, in order to achieve this he asserts, “It’s essential to create an environment where every individual is responsible, empowered and mentored to achieve both personal and professional goals. To synchronise the goals of the employees with the objectives of the organisation its necessary to ensure trust and transparency in the team.”

Besides realising and achieving his professional aspirations, Jayaram strongly believes in bringing about an efficacy within the educational system. “I believe that even though our present educational system educates students, it does not make them ready to take on the professional world,” he adds. In order to bridge this gap he aims to start an organisation of like-minded people working towards delivering skill, aptitude and attitude workshops across the country, focussed on assisting talented youngsters to mould their careers by making them more aligned with professional demands.

In his free time, Jayaram loves to play cricket and travel. Being a nature lover, he is passionate about visiting rural areas. He likes to frequent the backwaters of Kabini and the rural regions of Mysore and Hampi.