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Raising the bar

His learnings and inspirations as a youngster have led Krishnaswamy Subrahmaniam, President and MD, CSC India, to constantly motivate himself to be a better human being and a professional. By Sudipta Dev

Krishnaswamy Subrahmaniam is a man who does not rest on his laurels. He believes that his achievements are constantly changing with the newer ones making the earlier appear less significant as he keeps raising the bar for himself. It was Subrahmaniam’s simple background and the values that he had ingrained from his parents that drove him to constantly excel and create new milestones in his career.

“I am from a middle class family with great emphasis on family needs, education, honesty and sacrifice for others. I witnessed the way my parents sacrificed for the sake of rest of the family, so that all can be successful,” said Subrahmaniam. He drew his inspiration from both his parents who taught him how to face challenges, aim for perfection and maintain a balanced view of life.

Subrahmaniam acknowledges that he had learnt the value of tolerance from his teachers and later from his seniors at work, on how to perform towards a goal, take decisions and execute them successfully.

The foundation years

Following his initial schooling at Nagercoil, a town close to Kanyakumari, the family moved to Bangalore where Subrahmaniam did his middle and high school. Later, he went to Chennai to do his pre-degree and Electrical Engineering. His days at the College of Engineering, Guindy, made him a well rounded student. “That phase not only gave me the professional education, but also gave knowledge in so many areas, which helped me in my career growth,” recollected Subrahmaniam.

He added that his take away from his teachers have been diverse at different points of life, “But the crux of every teaching inspired me and taught me how to achieve success in whatever I do, by putting the failures behind, if any. Furthermore, I learned to get myself enthusiastic by self motivation—to push further for achieving higher levels of professional goals and raising the bar for myself to be a better man.”

As a student, he took part in many unusual sports and games like rowing a single scull (boat) or playing bicycle polo. But the significant wins were the Rifle Shooting Championship in Tamilnadu, at state level, and being adjudged the Best Shot, as well as being positioned third in all-India level through NCC.

Career milestones

Subrahmaniam joined ITI, through campus placement. He was the chief engineer managing many innovative projects and was in charge of the technology center for electronic switching transfer of technology. His significant achievement was his efforts towards business transformation of the electromechanical manufacturing plant to an electronic manufacturing plant. “I won the import substitution award from ELCINA for my product on automated testers. The other significant achievement was re-engineering telecom systems in India for US based clients, as well as exporting systems designed and manufactured under my leadership to the US and other parts of the world, including a custom designed IC chip—something significant a couple of decades ago,” he added.

Later, he left ITI to pursue his career at Covansys India, the offshore center of a pioneering US IT services company. He contributed towards the growth of the organization by expanding its offshore from around 150 people to over 6000 in a span of 13 years. His significant achievements included getting the company assessed at Level 5 in both CMM and PCMM, in the first ever assessment across all divisions of the company—a first in the IT industry. “For three years in a row, I led the company into being recognized by the Mercer survey as the top 10 Best Companies to work for in India and by Hewitt as top 15 best employer in India survey, and also being honored as the CEO of the year by IT People award, which is a significant recognition of my professional career,” he said.

In 2007, CSC acquired Covansys. After the time spent on integrating the two entities in India, he was made the President and Managing director of CSC in India. “Currently, I am responsible for the growth of the organization in India which has an employee count of over 19,500 based in India and abroad, and also contributing towards the client satisfaction and profitability for the deliveries made out of India,” stated Subrahmaniam.

The greatest motivation factor for him is an opportunity to lead and turn around things under difficult circumstances—the greater the challenge the higher the motivation. “The fact that someone trusted you with the challenge in itself is a motivating factor, in addition to self motivation,” pointed out Subrahmaniam.

As a team builder he looks at himself as a catalyst to make things happen. “Even when individuals have different strengths and weaknesses, as a team I am good at ensuring we are better than the sum of all,” he asserted.

Looking ahead

Subrahmaniam believes that the year ahead is one of the most challenging for the whole industry. While the economy shows signs of recovery, it is also vulnerable and one has to be ready for sudden swings. The IT industry will grow cautiously and there will be job and career opportunities for those who have good skills and experience. It is time for the under performers to work towards their own performance improvement.

He also feels that this is the time for the young leaders to sharpen their skills and be ready for the next boom. There is no time for complacency. He advices, “If you were good till yesterday, it may not be good enough for today. There is a constant need for reinvent yourself to keep up with the pace with which the time is changing along with the market dynamics. And above all, one needs to learn to be patient to achieve the long-term goals and not get disappointed or discouraged by short-term setbacks.”

Personal point

Subrahmaniam’s wife Malini is an entrepreneur. She runs a creative technology company engaged in graphics and art for Web, learning, multimedia, animation and movies. His mother continues to inspire him to be what he is.

His interests are varied—astronomy, photography, a little bit on blogging, cooking, travel, cocktails and parties, music, movies, remote control toys, hanging out with friends (if time permits), community service, etc.

His dream for CSC India is to make it more sought after by his clients and by job aspirants—in short, to be the most wanted by choice and make it the best place to work. “And for myself, I dream to be able to change the life of a few thousand people for a better future by my personal efforts,” said Subrahmaniam.

The issue that is closest to his heart is healthcare for the poor—from prevention to cure and care. Subrahmaniam rues that currently, he is unable to devote much quality time in that area, but hopes that he will be able to do more in the future.

sudipta.dev@expressindia.com