A cozy, little 450 square feet Mumbai apartment holds a very special place in Naresh Wadhwa?s scheme of things. Growing up in extremely trying conditions as a child, that?s where he lived, as a large joint family. ?I recently told my wife that that?s where we would spend the latter part of my life. Today I may have several luxuries, but I am truly myself only when I step into that little flat of mine,? says Cisco?s president (India and Saarc). Naresh today has a very plush unit at Juhu, but he never wanted to sell that old space of his.

Naresh?s grand parents moved into India from the Sindh region after partition, leaving most of their assets. Living in utter penury, his grand father could not afford his children any education. Naresh?s father had to start working at the age of nine. But thanks to his own enterprise, his father was able to pick up things quickly at the workplace. And once he became a young man, the qualified engineers at heavy engineering units needed to reach out to him at every step. ?He was a very skilled worker. He was the ?go-to-guy? wherever he worked.?

Naresh could afford a decent education thanks to his father?s hard work. ?He wanted me to become an engineer. He knew the value of education, because he had none. The day I got into my engineering course, he saluted me,? Naresh says, trying hard to keep his emotions in check. His father is no more today. ?I am disappointed that he is not around to see my success.?

Naresh became Cisco?s India president four years ago, at the age of 39. ?It was not like I was looking to become the top boss at age 39. It just happened. So many people work hard, but only a few get this chance,? he says. ?They say that one should make one?s own luck, but there are several forces at work.?

Prior to assuming the President?s post, Naresh headed the marketing organisation for Asia Pacific based out of Hong Kong. An industry veteran of over 18 years, Naresh joined Cisco India in January 1998 as a sales manager, and was responsible for driving Cisco?s enterprise, commercial and IT services business.

He managed and grew the business four fold and laid a robust foundation for Cisco?s success in the Indian market. Later he was chartered to grow the telecom business in India where he designed some of the largest wins for Cisco globally. His stock within the firm rose rapidly.

?My hard work has helped. I had realised as a student that I could achieve anything if I set my mind on it. I remember studying hard for the second semester during my engineering, after failing miserably in the first. Once I tasted success there was no looking back.?

His early days at 3Com Asia and Wipro Infotech laid a solid foundation for him to gain knowledge and experience. ?At Wipro, I was pitted against stars like Suresh Vaswani (now Dell?s top boss in India). Things like these help you to develop much faster.?

Cisco is benefiting from that experience now. Post recession, Cisco has had to undergo some bit of restructuring once investors started piling the pressure. They had a few bad quarters, and the management had to take a re-look at some of its strategies. The reporting structures had to be simplified and teams were reset.

Naresh says, ?We have had happy customers for a long time. Most of our partners have been with us for a long time, they have grown significantly with Cisco. Our employees are also a happy lot. I myself have been with Cisco for 14 years. Only our investor community was feeling a bit let down, they felt like we are spreading ourselves too far. Therefore, we took a conscious effort to go back and think about how to reward our shareholders. As a company, we are heavily traded as you know. Shareholders felt like we were neglecting them. Therefore, it was our duty to come back. We are now starting to build that investor confidence.?

?Notwithstanding some things happening in India, which are beyond our control, I think that the business is stable.

For example, the commercial business continues to do extremely well for us, which is still less impacted by the recession than the other sectors. Some infrastructure sectors are doing okay. Whatever is not directly impacted by the decisions, policies etc is moving as is. Public sector and service provider business are going through some correction, which will hopefully come back.?

For Naresh, challenges at the work place are just part and parcel of every day life. He has seen life?s harshest realities as a child. Compared to that, his corporate job should be a cake walk. ?I don?t think I will ever retire,? he says, before heading out.