Srini Rajam served as managing director at Texas Instruments (India) for five years from 1995-2000. For most, that would have been the icing on the cake?the pinnacle of a long and successful career. But not for this highly ambitious and driven entrepreneur. ?When I left TI, people wondered why I was doing this. But I was clear about the move. I wanted to shift and proceed to create a world class technology company from India,? says Srini, settling down in the conference room at his office.
Ittiam Systems was thus born in 2001, fired by this dream. The name was coined from French philosopher and mathematician Rene Descartes? principle ?I Think Therefore I Am?. Ittiam is the acronym derived from that statement. ?Descartes was a big influence. He was a rare genius who was a world class philosopher and a great mathematician. This appealed to me.?
As the chairman and CEO of the yet to be listed Ittiam, Srini feels the journey is somewhere midstream. ?One can say that our dreams have been fulfilled partially. But we have some distance to cover, before we establish ourselves as a world class technology company.?
What Ittiam has managed to achieve over the last decade is creating a hard-driving engineering team focused on cutting edge innovations. Ittiam, which specialises in digital signal processing (DSP) systems in media and communication, has 28 patents to its credit.
?That?s what we have achieved. We have tried to create a very inventive environment in the company and have succeeded in coming up with new patents consistently,? says Srini. ?See, it?s a war for talent out there. One has to win over some of the best talent available. Some students will be invariably attracted to big brands. But we have to attract them with the kind of technology we do. There are some institutes that we really concentrate on?NIT Suratkal for instance.?
Back when he was leaving TI, his colleagues asked him why he couldn?t continue in the company and foster innovation. After all, TI was the best bet for new inventions. ?But I was so driven about doing something independently, and creating a new company out of India.? But have Indian companies been able to show their mettle in the technology space? ?It?s a long journey. And it?s a tough one,? he says.
But Srini is a tough nut to crack as well. He has absorbed enormous pressures in his career, coming out victorious more often than not. Srini, who did his engineering from Madurai did his masters from the Indian Institute of Science. And he was able to breakthrough into TI way back in 1985 as a software engineer, making it known to the world that he had indeed translated his potential as a student into evident results.
During 1993-94, Srini worked in the Asia Pacific region as technical marketing director for TI?s semiconductor products in Asia. In that role, he set up the customer application centres for TI products in Singapore, Hong Kong, Taipei and Seoul. During this time, he also functioned as the Chairman of TI?s Technical Council in Asia. And his big day came when he was made managing director in 1995.
During his tenure, TI India grew to be the largest R&D centre for TI in Asia and had delivered world-class products such as Ankoor (first commercial DSP designed in India) Under him, TI India emerged as a role model amongst R&D centres in India for its product development maturity and technology leadership.
His technology vision has helped Ittiam go up the ranks quickly. Today it specialises in signal processing applications in media processing and communications covering audio-video systems, voice and video over internet protocol, wireless LAN and voice band modems. The solutions cover the entire range starting with core signal processing intellectual property (IP) in the form of algorithms, embedded software, complemented by system software, reference boards and finally complete DSP systems.
In order to provide maximum flexibility to the customers, Ittiam offers options of a one time licensing fee or royalty or a combination of both. Tuning of an IP for a specific application is done against a customisation fee. This has worked well for the firm.
?There is no requirement for an immediate IPO and we are pretty satisfied with the cash reserves. But it could happen later.? Ittiam is venture funded by Global Technology Ventures with participation from Bank of America. Being a privately held company it is not yet ready to reveal financials.
Srini knows the big challenge would come up now. The expectations are going up internally and externally too. Soon Ittiam will have to start flying, as it has been around for some time. ?We are ready for it. All we need is a big bright spark from one our talented engineers and we could have that world beating product.?