?I have zero tolerance for people who are arrogant?

Entrepreneurship and innovation is not the way to go for India. It is the only way,? says Saurabh Srivastava. He is talking from experience. Srivastava started his own IT company, IIS Infotech, way back in 1989 after chucking a top job with Tata Unisys. One of the front-runners in the IT industry, IIS Infotech was acquired by UK-based FI group in a deal valued upwards ?22 million. In the year 2001, FI group was renamed Xansa.

?At that time, TCS and Tata Unisys controlled 70% market share of the industry and spearheading Unisys, I controlled 30% share and everyone thought it was a stupid idea to give it all up,? he reminisces. Being an entrepreneur in those days was not easy. The IT industry was virtually non-existent in India and the country had no standing globally. ?India had a very negative image, especially in terms of exports. We were known to deliver shoddy products,? says Srivastava.

The start was hardly promising. He recalls, ?Those were our early days at IIS and I went on a trip to New York. After making a pitch to a prospective customer, he said, ‘I am very confused, are you offering us IT consulting or do you want it from us. Come, we’ll take you out for lunch.’ I thought they owed me the lunch after making fun of me. So I went along and produced the CVs of my top 10 guys who had all done masters from reputed foreign universities. I asked them if their top 10 guys had such credentials to boast of?? The company became one of the first customers of IIS and Srivastava is not sure if it is still around.

But, to confine the 61-year-old entrepreneur to one title would be doing injustice to the man who dons many hats. Credited with being a co-founder of Nasscom, Srivastava is currently the chairman of Nasscom Foundation, which is the community arm of the Indian software industry association. ?One need leads to other needs, but after a point of time you realise that it is enough. Sure, my company created wealth for me, but I got more satisfaction after co-founding Nasscom, which has been instrumental in building the country’s IT industry, giving India companies that can compete globally,? he states.

But, Nasscom was not the last stop for him. He established The Indus Entrepreneurs (TiE), which has taken up the cause of supporting Indian entrepreneurs. He also started Infinity Venture Capital, which finances and supports start-ups till the time they are mature enough to attract bigger investments. ?There is more fun in creating something new. With Infinity, we created twenty more companies that have changed rules in their own way.? Indiabulls, India Games and Avendus Advisors got their early funding from Infinity.

If quitting a top job with Unisys and starting his own company was a tough call, so was going against his parents? wishes and joining IIT. ?My father was in the civil service and while at school, it was automatically assumed that I would also become an IAS officer.? Srivastava says that he and his two other friends took the entrance exam for IIT ?without studying very hard for it? and secured first, second (Saurabh) and fourth positions. Later, he went on to do his masters from Harvard and thereafter joined IBM.

After years of hard work, Srivastava says that he doesn’t lose sleep over work issues any more. Instead it is societal issues that get him worked up. ?It is the 20% privileged population of India that should do something for the 80% who are underprivileged.?

Having crossed many professional milestones in his life, Srivastava is now involved with many non-profit organisations. He has even helped his wife Rekha set up Sampark. ?God has been kind to me. It will be presumptuous to say that I am what I am today because of my hard work. Everyone who works hard doesn’t get there.? Which is also why flaunting of wealth is a big no-no for him.

Rekha, his wife of 33 years, is a teacher by profession. She has given up teaching to take up the cause of education for underprivileged children now. So, is she proud of him? ?Why not,? comes a reply to which Srivastava quickly adds, ?Rekha is hard to impress.?

So, what was his experience like on his many trips abroad? ?Oh, in the late ?60s, India commanded no respect, it was a failed nation, perceived as a country of beggars, scrounging for food. How people abroad respect you depends on how they respect your country. Indians are first grade people, but the country is second grade because it is run by third grade governments,? he says.

Nevertheless, Srivastava does not undermine the achievements that India has made in the recent past. ?Our country should be a model for the rest of the world. Where will you find people of so many religions co-existing? The point is not that we have flare-ups, the point worth noting is that there are so few of them,? he says.

Talk of India making its mark globally and he again steps back in time, ?It was not easy to build a global industry in those times. IIS came into being in a policy environment where one could not carry more than $8 on a foreign trip and you could only call home twice a day. There was 160% duty on exports. If you look at the IT industry, 99.9% entrepreneurs are first generation entrepreneurs. People with a special drive and resilience made it. Look at other countries: they had all the infrastructure and government funding. We had nothing because the government didn’t know what to do.?

Despite the unfriendly environment, what made him take the big leap? ?I was 40-year- old, operating the second largest IT company in the country. I couldn’t move to TCS as it is also a Tata company and I didn’t want to spend the next 20-30 years of my life sitting in the same office,? he admits.

Running Unisys made him think that the journey ahead would be a cakewalk. ?In one year of setting up IIS, I learnt more than I learnt in my whole life. I realised if I don’t paste that stamp on that envelope, it won’t get posted. And I made many mistakes, too.? He adds that it is good to make mistakes and not let success go to your head. ?It is universally true that everyone who is successful must have got lucky at one point of time. It is always about the right deal at the right time. So the day you start feeling that you are the most important creature, you die. Also, there are a lot of employees in all companies who fuel the feeling that you are God.? Another note of caution that Srivastava adds is that never believe your own hype, because you are the one who put it all up in the first place.

In 2006, Srivastava retired as the executive chairman of Xansa India. So, how is he as a boss? ?I am not a hands-on person but I have zero tolerance for people who are arrogant. I categorise employees in two categories: the employer mentality and the employee mentality. The latter are those whose work adds value to none. ?

While selecting companies for promotion, Srivastava again looks for two kind of entrepreneurs ? those who want to do different things and those who want to do the same things differently. The bottomline is: ?Ideas are available a dime a dozen. The winners are the ones who take it to the market first and at the cheapest price.?