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A 24/7 career

A visionary leader, PV Kannan, Co-founder and CEO, 24/7 Customer, made his career in the on-line and off-line customer sales and services space. Born and brought up in a small radius, he took a big leap to make his way forward, writes Nikita Upadhyay

Being born and brought up in Chennai, PV Kannan grew up in an entrepreneurial environment as his parents were actively involved in running their own business. His education and first employment, all happened within a five km radius of where he grew up.

The pushing force

Kannan stated that his parents were his prime source of inspiration. They were the one to encourage and motivate him. “My dad instilled the belief that I could achieve whatever I set my heart upon. He would not accept anything other than me being the best and the number one,” informed Kannan.

His father never inculcated perfection in him by pushing him hard but did so by having high expectations and leaving him alone to figure out things for himself. His success in business demonstrated the dignity of labour and convinced him that hard work and focus always lead to success.

Moving ahead

On completion of his CA, one of his seniors introduced him to a colleague who was working with Tata Consultancy Services. “I had never heard of that company and was told that it was a small consultancy firm offering IT services for the US. This concept intrigued me and I went for an interview and ended up with a job with them that evening,” stated Kannan. This gave him the first glimpse of what can be achieved in the services arena and he became a strong believer in the power of technology in solving business problems.

He then migrated to the US and worked in the programming field. In 1994, he started his entrepreneurial venture, launching his first company that was involved in developing CRM solutions for customers, called Business Evolution, based out of Princeton, New Jersey. This was acquired by Kana Software later in 1999.

A big leap

24/7 Customer was his second start-up. Both his start-ups involved his co-founder—S Nagarajan. Sitting in a coffee shop, they charted out a new model for sourcing business processes, and thus 24/7 Customer was born.

“Today 24/7 Customer employs 7,000 professionals across eight delivery centres in India, Philippines and Guatemala. We are the first BPO to provide integrated customer lifecycle management solutions through our multi-shore delivery model,” stated Kannan. He had the privilege and opportunity at an early age, which helped him gain experience to design and build a company.

The first company that he co-founded was engaged in figuring out how consumers connect with the companies by email, chat when online and if they call then how do they describe to the person what they are seeing online. By doing this he had an opportunity to visit various call centers.

“I had a chance to visit at least 50 to 60 call centers all over the US and there I discovered that it was challenging for businesses to operate them. People who were employed in call centres needed to go through extensive training,” stated Kannan. So one of the biggest challenges for him at that time was employing talented people and retaining them in the organization.

Professional front

He allocates most of his time to 24/7 team members and customers. So time management for him is about making sure 75%-80% of his time is divided between these two stakeholders effectively. He makes sure that he interacts with the teams in the organization across the entire spectrum, ranging from one-on-one, group meetings and monthly calls with top 300 managers.

Daily work-life mostly involves being in an outside location, either interacting with his team or with prospective clients.

He is working towards building a team with diverse skill-sets, experience and backgrounds but consistent with the core values of 24/7. He wishes to empower them with the freedom to do what they do best while always focusing on their customers and the internal team members. He espouses the strategic idea of sustaining and expanding the new generation and preparing them for opportunities without growing over-confident too fast.

Close to the heart

Ability to provide answers to consumers who are looking for an easy way to connect with their suppliers enhances his confidence level. Pushing his young employees at 24/7 Customer to reach their potential reminds him of his early days. Interacting with smart, bright young minds and people who think young and feel young is a great motivating factor for Kannan.

The vision of creating opportunities for bright minds in India and many other countries keeps him going. Whenever there is a downtime during business travel, he uses it to catch up on local customs and food and reading. Collecting wine and tending to his vineyard fascinates him. His personal career mirrors that the growth and fulfilment of the company’s vision is the first point of connection for any consumer in the world.

nikita.upadhyay@expressindia.com