Venkatesh Kumaran believes in leading a stress free life, and promotes the precious art of the right way of breathing. The country head of Wind River Systems in India, Venkatesh (Venki) has seen the best of men rising to the top especially when his skills are laced with the goodness of soul. And it helps to breathe right to lead a good life, he says.
?Sure, evil minded CEOs too rise to the top. But, he then, will not have a good night?s sleep. I am of the firm view that hard work has to be combined with a mindset of helping people selflessly. That?s the sign of a good leader. To become a good leader, one has to be a good human being first,? Venki says, as we settle down for an unusually long chat that stretched over 150 minutes. Wind River is a leading player in embedded and mobile software.
Born in north Karnataka, Venki had a middle class upbringing that stressed on the importance of education. ?I had to get up at 5 am. There was no other choice. My mother was pretty strict about this, but it was useful. I gained a lot out of studying between 5-7 am; that period of day has a certain pristine quality to it. There was this rule at home that I had to come within the top three slots in class and if I had failed to achieve that goal, I had no freedom to do whatever else I wanted to do.?
That discipline helped and he always finished on top.
The practice of getting up at 5 am only broke when he stepped into college. But the foundation had been laid for future success. During his tenure at Wind River that commenced in 2005, he has been able to attract and retain some of the best of talent in the country. That?s probably not surprising with his innate ability to motivate and inspire people.
His two decades of experience in sales, marketing, management and operations are big source of inspiration for Wind River employees in India, even as the company strives to develop embedded solutions for the aerospace, defence, networking, industrial and mobile markets.
Wind River tapped into him when he was working in Boston with Tata Elxsi. He was managing the company?s software services sales. Here is where he has been able to bring all his experience into play. As devices become smarter, they are seen to have a better say in how people work and live.
Mobile phones have evolved into live content delivery platforms, to medical devices that integrate patient management systems etc. Then there are areas like avionics and defence systems that enable pinpoint control and safety. The challenge for developers is to keep innovation going seamlessly so that devices continue to get faster, reliable and more secure. This is where Wind River plays its part. A leader in embedded and mobile software, Wind River offers a diverse device development portfolio.
?Our solutions are hardware-agnostic, so you can deploy on multiple architectures, including Intel Freescale, PowerPC, ARM, MIPS and others,? says Venki. Wind River technology is found in more than 500 million products. Wind River concentrates on middleware software and operating systems, for information appliances and devices.Their products are used in cellular phones, auto braking systems, routers, digital cameras, projectors, set top boxes, traffic signals etc.
However, Venki considers his stint with Motorola (prior to Tata Elxsi) as the turning point in his life. ?Motorola was a great company to work for. It was a wonderful learning experience. Employee training at Motorola was one of the best. There, one is provided 40 hours of uninterrupted high quality training upon joining office. The company also respects all employees equally and fosters innovation. It was quite said that it could not flourish later.?
An active faculty member with the Art of Living Foundation, Venki is a trained exponent of Sudarshankriya. ?The right way of breathing can keep everyone calm and happy. A stress free life is what Venki likes everyone to lead. ?This is very important. A very healthy body and mind are essential components of any successful life. One has to provide one?s body the best chance for success.?
Quite interestingly, he is also on the management council of an NGO that educates students about responsible journalism. These varied interests keep him going. ?The material things don?t drive me anymore,? he signs off with a smile.