Still, he regards his first foray into business - spray painting houses in Delhi with a team of students - as much a learning experience as the second. Since the mid-seventies Kumar (39) had lived with the dream of becoming an independent businessman through a string of jobs, bounding up the ladder but always a step away from autonomy.

"I always wanted to be a part of an enterprise so when PCL wanted to diversify from electric typewriters to computers I took a dip in my salary and stepped over." At the time of the switch, Kumar was assistant manager at the erstwhile Sriram Refrigeration Industries. "My next promotion in such a large organisation would have been a decade later.And then what?" Before it turned a blind corner in the late nineties, PCL was a start-up venture run by six entrepreneurs formerly with HCL. "PCL was a very energetic place to be in with a lot of learning to offer."

Kumar spent eight frenetic years setting up operations in the north, west and east and contributing to the company's growth into a 500 crore group. However, the ride up the ladder once again stopped at the equity-holders-only door. Seeking opportunity, Kumar thought he spotted one in CMS. The Rs 18-crore computer maintenance company just did not have marketing savvy, he thought and told them so.

"I approached them. I felt I could do something for the company if I was on its board." The timing was fortuitous. There was a vacant seat and Kumar's it was to be for a tiny shareholding.

CMS was in for a "culture shock" as Kumar drove the company on a slogan he coined: "18 to 80 in 12 months". In other words, a year to reach a target of at least a four-fold increase in turnover. The companyevolved from being a largely maintenance company into a sales-driven organisation.

Kumar's big break came when Acer, one of the main distributors, went over to Wipro, CMS' rival. But Acer felt it had been unfair to Kumar since he had personally worked very closely with them and the managing director flew down from Singapore to meet him. "Can we offer you a business opportunity?" Kumar was asked.

If he was interested, Kumar could be the founder-director of the Taipei-headquartered LanBit Allion partner company in India through an associate company. Allion made modems and computer peripherals. It took Kumar seconds to say yes and a little longer to gather the resources to start LanBit (India). Some savings apart, a flat owned in Andheri was put on the block and friends pitched in with Rs 3 lakh to cobble together the Rs 26 lakh required. LanBit-Allion (India) started from a business centre in Mumbai in 1995, with branches in Delhi, Chennai, Calcutta and Bangalore.

Today it has 65 employees and has nowexpanded its operations to the UAE where it effectively controls channel partners. It has also diversified into plastic card personalisation printers networking products, CD servers and PC/communication accessories apart from the modems and peripherals. Going after an Indian market that has a 50-crore volume at present, Kumar dreams of making his company "the first genuinely serious Indian multinational in this field."

He has already tapped markets in south-east Asia ("the recession there makes it easier to acquire companies"), through associated companies followed by west Asia and Europe in the next six years. Managing far-flung operations through fragmented organisations owned by entrepreneurs who become CEO-partners is Kumar's approach to consolidation and expansion.

Getting to where he is today has been a guts-for-glory exercise. "I have greyed, balded, look older than I am, smoke more. And if you have a wife who knows your business like mine does, she will often say `you are taking stupid businessdecisions!'"

A quick decision-taker, Kumar married within 15 days of meeting Renu who was with an ad agency that was chasing a payment with PCL. A supportive spouse cheering from the sidelines, Kumar ventured out blithely.

"The IT industry was rated as big in the future so I knew I would always have a job, come what may. The madness was I never thought of failure."

Today, he does. For the industry is also one where giant companies die overnight. "But lurking paranoia of failure is also what keeps one alive and kicking everyday."