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Being different and successful

His spirit of adventure took him down the unusual path, and there he created his own success story. Ninad Karpe, Managing Director of CA (India and SAARC), speaks about his childhood and family, life and work, challenges and learnings, to Renuka Vembu

Youngest of B S Karpe and Shobhana Karpe’s three children, Ninad Karpe was the adventurous one. Neither did he go on to become a doctor like his eldest sister nor did he take up engineering as a career option like his elder brother. Karpe graduated in Commerce from Sydneham College, Mumbai, and went on to do his chartered accountancy. He recollected, “My business-like mind took me to pursue commerce. In a middle-class family of the 70s, you were either a doctor or an engineer or nothing. I took the ‘nothing’ path.” Karpe fondly remembers his childhood days of vacationing—shuttling between Goa (where his mother comes from) and a small coastal town called Vengurla (where his father’s side of the family hails from). Being surrounded by nature and greenery, and playing natural games formed an intrinsic part of his upbringing.

Taking a different path

Karpe’s innate ‘spirit of adventure’ remained intact as even an all-India rank in the chartered accountancy examination could not lure him towards the standard corporate career. His adventurous and risk taking personality wheeled him into financial consultancy, instead of taking up a job with high pay and perks. For 13 years, from 1985 to 1997, he worked as an individual consultant. He also taught in educational institutes like HR College for two-three years and had a brief stint as a guest lecturer in Jamnalal Bajaj Institute of Management Studies.

The economic liberalization of the early 1990s opened up the markets for foreign companies to enter India, and the regulated economy became comparatively flexible. Karpe grabbed this prospect of helping companies and NRIs enter and invest in the Indian market. He prepared business plans for companies’ entry strategies. In the meanwhile, he wrote several books on taxation and strategies, and used to travel places. While at one of these speaking circuits, he came across the CEO of Computer Associates (CA).

Birth of an entrepreneur

Karpe explained, “At a time when mid-career changes were not common in India, I shifted from being a consultant to becoming an entrepreneur. While I was preparing the business plan for Computer Associates (CA), I was told to start the company’s operations in India. This is one of my most significant achievements.” He continued, “I handled the entire set-up—designing a logo, making a business plan, looking for talents, searching for office spaces, building visibility and IT infrastructure management and seeding market education. I was an entrepreneur in a corporate job and took over the challenges of building a business momentum.” He has taken the employee count to almost 1500 in a span of 10 years. He has been a catalyst in garnering a huge presence for CA, and building a CA India family in the domestic market.

In the meanwhile, Karpe was also actively involved in the joint venture operations of CA with Satyam. He described this role of his starting afresh once again as ‘taking a deep breath and jumping once again into the sea.’ He is motivated towards building the business momentum for CA in India and his vision is to be a part of the winning team when CA becomes the top software firm in the country.

He loves reading non-fiction books, is an amateur in videography and is into a rare hobby of wine-making. He has been making wines at home for the last 10 years and finds motivation and fascination as he witnesses the grape acting as a catalyst and turning into a drink.

Staying young

His wife, Anjali Karpe, is a school teacher and their two teenage sons, Sahil and Neel—aged 17 and 11 respectively—are students who help him to be in pace with changing times. He likes being in the company of young people who are in sync with changing times and have a clear, different and pragmatic perspective. Karpe added on his rapport with his sons, “Their social behavior pattern, grabbing of timely opportunities, reflection of positivity in thinking, understanding the changing economic scenario, upbeat moods, their capability to connect with reality and thinking big propels me to go further.”

Inspirational principles

Karpe has imbibed a strong sense of ethics, and values like integrity from the late Nani Palkhivala, who has been a great inspiration for him. He feels that Palkhivala was the ‘epitome of integrity and honesty.’ Karpe’s journey is indeed interesting and the thrill of creating something absolutely new keeps him going.

His positive approach towards life and the drive to proceed further and be different is reflected when he maintained, “If you do what others are doing, then you are not adding value or contributing more to anything. I want to understand, explore and do something original in the frontiers of knowledge. Today, there a lot of companies coming in and the mood is different. But if I reflect back on those days, then it has been a fascinating journey with more ups than downs.”

renuka.vembu@expressindia.com