Deepak Patel is one of those CEOs who combine financial acumen with technological astuteness. He himself admits that this combination has helped him leapfrog ahead of several others in his career. About 20 years of work experience does not hurt in any case.
Deepak, who is the CEO of Aditya Birla Minacs, has been engineering a series of acquisitions for his company, and these days there is a lot of media attention on the firm. His days with EDS during the time when the company acquired Mphasis must surely be helping him in this regard.
Prior to Minacs, he was managing director and Group COO at Mphasis, and during his time, he was credited with transforming the company?s commodity voice-based business to a high-end, domain-rich knowledge process outsourcing business.
Armed with a bachelor of science degree in mechanical engineering from the MS University of Baroda, he took off to the US to join EDS and did not have to look back at all. His is a success story all the way through. At almost every step of his career his ability and knowledge pulled him through.
At Aditya Birla Minacs, his latest responsibility, Deepak?s vision is to create a global business solutions company which will attain the size of a $1 billion firm in the next three years. The strategy, according to Deepak, is based on the inorganic route whereby it is constantly on the lookout to acquire the right assets. Being a Birla company, Minacs also has the advantage of leveraging its group companies to build new capabilities as a BPO outfit.
Deepak readily admits that the company had missed the IT service boat and that Kumar Mangalam Birla was keen to take the BPO opportunity with both hands.
Minacs is focussing intensely on verticals such as BFSI (banking, financial services and insurance) and TIME (telecom, technology infrastructure, media, and entertainment). Deepak believes that these two areas will help speed up Minacs? growth in the short to medium term.
The firm is actively scouting for acquisitions in banking, financial services and insurance, public and healthcare sectors in the US and Canada.
Recently, it had acquired Compass BPO, the UK-based pure-play finance and accounting services provider, in March and US-based Bureau of Collections Recovery, an accounts receivables management company that serves the credit industry, in June. It spent about $35 million for these acquisitions.
Minacs finished up with revenues of Rs 1,520 crore in 2009-10.
Deepak?s childhood had a distinct Gujarati flavour. Growing up in Baroda, he helped his dad out in the printing business as a youngster. ?It?s in our blood to start young,? he says.
?As a professional, I have never believed in saying ?no? to anything. I was willing to relocate every time my company wanted. This has helped me grow. If I had stayed on in one place for years, I wouldn?t have been able to achieve this kind of success,? says Deepak.
?In life there have been many people who I looked up to initially in my career, but many of them did not take up new opportunities. But I was not willing to let that happen to me.?
Today he?s a contended man. He feels he has been down his chosen path in life. ?But there is plenty of work yet to be done with Minacs. Not too much time to pursue my other interests in life right now,? he adds.
