Nikhil Arora had to learn the importance of self-reliance very early in life. He was forced to. At the age of 18, he was stranded in New York after his father?s friend could not honour the commitment of funding his education in the US. He was pursuing his language studies in Russia, when a family friend offered to undertake the burden of educating him further. So he landed in New York with $200 in his wallet. He checked into a friend?s pad for a few days. But unfortunately his funds never arrived. All he got from his father?s friend was a letter saying that he was not in a position to help him out. And attached to that letter was a $100 cheque.
Nikhil did not know what hit him. His head was in a swirl. He felt that the world was crashing all around him. The easiest thing was to call up his dad. He was about to pick up the phone, but resisted. Nikhil knew his father would be devastated if he heard the news. And in any case, his dad was not in a position to rush the funds required. ?I grew up in a middle class family. My folks always backed my ambitions and I wanted to do well for them. And here I was stuck in America with no back-up. I decided not to tell my dad about my plight.
Instead, I started my fightback.?
So for the next six months, he woke up at 4 am to deliver newspapers. ?The New York Times won me my bread and butter.
It was tough, but I had to do it. So I did my newspaper delivery in the morning and then delivered pizzas in the evening. The fact that someone let me down badly, kept me going.?
It took Nikhil some six months to save money for his education. Only then he called back home and explained his condition. ?I told my dad that I had a problem, but that it was in the past. I still keep that $100 cheque with me. Every time I pass through a crisis I take a look at it. It still keeps me motivated after all these years,? says Nikhil.
Now as the managing director of Intuit India he is responsible for charting the company strategy. For a man who had to chart his life?s course, this was not that difficult a job. He was named vice-president and managing director in August 2011. The brief was to implement Intuit?s in-country business strategy, strengthen partnerships and capitalise on social, mobile and global market trends.
He is especially known for his understanding of the emerging markets?a skill much valued these days. His 18 years of global experience in corporate strategy and marketing in India, Russia (he speaks Russian fluently) and Eastern Europe is now helping Intuit go in the right direction.
Globally, Intuit is a $3.9 billion company, with over 8,000 employees. It serves over 50 million customers in the US and more than 4.5 million companies use QuickBooks, making it by far the most widely used accounting system in the world.
?Intuit?s mission is to be a premier innovative growth company that improves its customers? financial lives so profoundly they can?t imagine going back to the old way of doing things,? says Nikhil. In India we have 550 employees, with offices in Bangalore, Mumbai and New Delhi.
?My major focus at Intuit will be on small businesses. We decided to focus on this key market (small business owners) considering the kind of potential it has and the wide array of unaddressed issues that small businesses face. The Indian small business market contributes 8-10% of the GDP, 40% of the manufacturing segment, and 40% of the services segment,? he says.
?Our long-term vision for India is to create a small business ecosystem in India and be a small business champion. We want to constantly work towards helping small businesses improve their financial lives by being the end-to end business solution provider for them. The first step that Intuit has taken towards establishing its commitment to small businesses has been the launch of Intuit Small Business India Blog in October?an online resource pool dedicated to helping SMEs with starting a business, money & finance, marketing, technology and customer service strategies,? adds Nikhil.
Secondly, in late 2011 Intuit introduced a basic version of QuickBooks Online (QBO) in India and intends to launch the advanced version in 2012. QBO is a bookkeeping and accounting system that organises finances and complies with managerial accounting standards. ?QBO is an easy-to-use, feature-rich online accounting software, for all small business owners. QBO enables small businesses to save time and manage their businesses more efficiently. Today we have a few thousand users using QBO in India,? says Nikhil.
?Our founder always says, ?Fall in love with the problem and not your solution.? We?ve conducted over 5000 hours of ?Follow me Homes??an initiative to instill customer empathy in our employees, help them really understand the pain points that small business owners are faced with so that our products can be designed to best meet their needs. The program involves members our engineers and sales teams spending an entire day with a small business owner to understand how he works, his challenges and his preferences.
?Another thing that I personally like about Intuit is that the company celebrates failure. Leadership through experiment is encouraged, so we don?t limit ourselves to a particular geography or technology vertical. We believe that early, inexpensive failures lead to much larger success in the long term.?
Today when he looks back, there is a lot of satisfaction. Through his own hard work he was able to complete the kind of education that he always desired. Plus, he is probably at the peak of his career. His long runs keep him focused, when away from work. ?Running is a big passion for me. Sometimes I go with a group and sometimes I prefer going on my own. When in a group we try to motivate each other and push. It?s teamwork. And when I run on my own, it?s just me and the road. Thoughts then just start bubbling in and you take the pain all on your own. I love that feeling.?
