|
How inspiration became aspiration
Vishal Grover, CEO, SYSTIME, talked to Pooja Gautam
about business, life and passion
 ‘It
is usually more important how a man meets his fate than what it is,' said Karl
Wilhelm von Humboldt a German philosopher. Vishal Grover (36) is a person whose
life has been shaped by this quote. His entry in IT seems like a conspiracy
of fate. His late father, also the owner of the CMS Group of companies sowed
the seeds of interest and profession for his son. An employee of IBM at a time
when the company was booted out of the country in 1976, Grover Sr. decided to
open his own company. He went about this task with the help of his customers
with whom he used to be in constant contact while working for IBM. “He
didn't have enough money to start his own business. The customers he used to
deal with gave him the capital to start his own company,” said Vishal.
Since then, CMS has grown into one of the biggest IT solution
providers in the country. SYSTIME, a 100% subsidiary of the CMS Group, is also
a solution provider. “Most of our clients are Fortune 500 companies,”
said Vishal. He joined the company in 2000. Earlier he had worked with PwC from
1996 to 2000.
One fine day, Grover Sr. got an Apple Mac at home. A curious
kid, Vishal, started playing with it and managed to crash it in ten minutes
flat. “I was a naughty kid. That day, I saw my father fixing what I did
wrong and everything was fine. That got me interested in learning how to fix
things. It was like magic for me,” said Vishal. Born and brought up in
Mumbai, he later went to the University of Michigan to study engineering.
'Opportunities to find deeper powers within ourselves come
when life seems most challenging,' said American writer Joseph Campbell. A couple
of months back, Vishal lost his father. In addition to his responsibilities
at SYSTIME, he is getting involved in the workings of the rest of the CMS Group
Companies as well while dealing with his personal loss. “It's a very difficult
time. I need to travel a lot more now. However, we are recruiting on a good
scale and trying to rationalize the various portfolios within the company,”
he said. This overload of work is also making him stay away from his son. So,
how does he strike a balance between his personal and professional duties? “I
do make it a point to spend the weekends with him. Also, we have video conferencing
set up at my house, so I am in constant touch with him,” he said.
Ask him what has been his most memorable professional experience
and he takes a deep breath. “There have been so many, it’s hard to
just talk about one,” he said. After a moment's thought, he related the
story of one of his clients, a Fortune 500 company. SYSTIME implemented Oracle's
JD Edwards EnterpriseOne, for this client on a tight deadline of 11 months across
six countries. This was a big project, with many large system integrators bidding
across the globe for it. Some of these were players who were already working
with the client on other projects. “While I was confident of our capabilities,
I wasn't blind to the fact that the competition consisted of some big brands
in the industry,” said Vishal. However, SYSTIME was shortlisted to work
on this project and did so successfully.
Ask him what he likes to do when he isn't bogged down with
professional responsibilities and pat came the reply. “I like to play golf,”
he said. This is yet another thing that he thanks his dad for. His father apparently
was a member of a golf club in Mumbai when Vishal was in his teens. Although
his father lacked time for the game, the membership was of the utmost importance
to him. So, he made Vishal go in his place and play the sport. Luckily, Vishal
not only developed a taste for it, he started loving it. So, much so that these
days he is having his son learn the game too. “He seems to enjoy it quite
a bit,” he said, proud of his toddler’s achievements.
Apart from golf, travel is another thing that enthuses him.
Trying different cuisines and meeting new people excites him. “I am a big
time foodie,” admitted Vishal. “I also like to see different cultures
and cities. I am glad that I work where I do and that I am what I am. It gives
me the opportunity and the luxury to do all that I love without hesitation,”
he said.
Vishal Grover is someone who knows what he is and is quite
happy with that too.
pooja.gautam@expressindia.com
|
