Many individuals have achieved greatness in individual business and philanthropic pursuits but few can lay claim to have co-created, build and mentored an entire 200 billion-dollar industry that placed a country on the world map. Read about Harish Mehta
“There are thousand of mavericks inspired by Harish and other leaders who will fly the industry and country flag proudly and keep this industry at the top of the totem pole”
A previous essay on leadership in this column listed three traits of outstanding leaders-a focus on nurturing more leaders rather than building a band of followers, clarity on the processes and tools to be used to build sustainable leadership and a balanced approach towards the triple bottom line of profits, people, and the planet. And if there is one leader who walks among us today who epitomises these qualities of true leadership, one name springs to mind from the IT sector is Harish Mehta. A man I am privileged to call friend and mentor for over three decades, whose book “The Maverick Effect” is creating waves in the country today.
The story of Harish Mehta is known to many from the halls of Pune Engineering institution COEP to academic and then employment pursuits in the US and a joint realisation by him and his new bride Shaila that their heart and future lay in India. Joining my own life story to his, I first met him in the early eighties when I, a prospective mini-computer buyer met Harish Mehta, the boss of Hinditron Computers in his office in South Mumbai and was thoroughly impressed by the quality of his vision and his magnanimity, a characteristic that he has displayed in abundance over the years.
While I did not buy the equipment from his company, the interaction started a relationship that led to my joining the industry association NASSCOM when I started my CEO journey at APTECH in the nineties, becoming Chairman of the association halfway through my tenure as the CEO of Zensar in 2008 and eventually becoming Chairman of NASSCOM Foundation in 2010. Throughout my successful corporate and industry roles, and into the last few years of entrepreneurship and investing, Harishbhai remains a WhatsApp message away for advice and discussions.
Many individuals have achieved greatness in individual business and philanthropic pursuits and several like Bill Gates and Azim Premji have also built extraordinary companies that have succeeded beyond expectations in their tenure and well beyond it. But few can lay claim to have co-created, built and mentored an entire 200 billion-dollar industry that placed a country on the world map. The story of Harish Mehta, NASSCOM and the IT industry in India is truly one such exemplar. An idea that germinated through discussions between the co-founders Harish, Ashank Desai, Saurabh Shrivastava and industry leaders of the time-Kohli, Murthy and Nilekani, NASSCOM was then and remains today the single voice of an industry that has transformed the self-image of Indian youth and won plaudits and recognition the world over.
Looking back to the three characteristics of leadership that we have postulated, it is easy to see how well these are borne out at NASSCOM. No one leader owns the mantle of supremacy in NASSCOM and while it was admirably led by the irrepressible Dewang Mehta in the formative years, there are stellar contributions by successive Presidents, Executive Council members, Chairpersons and the thousands of enthusiastic entrepreneurs who make every part of the NASSCOM movement strong and vibrant. For every new initiative, a new leader emerges and takes it to the next level and the baton has never dropped in this wonderful relay race that is touching three decades of existence and surely will take ten million Indians to global success by the time India finishes one hundred years as an independent nation in 2047.
The second admirable leadership characteristic at NASSCOM has been the processes it has developed and the tools it uses to sustain and enhance the dynamism of the collective. When I first joined the NASSCOM Executive Council in the nineties soon after it had been formed, I was quickly inducted into an outreach process where we went around the country and later the world, articulating case stories of success.
When Kiran Karnik became the NASSCOM President at the turn of the millennium, multiple shoots had grown alongside the traditional IT services and BPO and engineering businesses and I led a process to bring the SMEs into our fold and later to showcase the amazing work of Indian companies were doing in all aspects of the product, process, and input innovation. And before and after becoming the Chair of the association, I was party to meetings with think tanks, Senators, and Congressmen, working with Governments in India and in key countries to ensure healthy partnerships, a strong aspect of NASSCOM’s leadership to this day. A loud cheer for Som Mittal, Chandrashekhar and Debjani Ghosh who have seamlessly played their parts of President in taking the movement forward and created and sustained new tools – events, research reports and global outreach to build a success plan for the future.
The triple bottom line aspect is self-evident. IT firms continue to lead in revenue and profit growth, the industry is clearly the aspirational employer for all youth and the impact that NASSCOM Foundation and the constituent companies have NASSCOM have had in country development is unparalleled. There are thousand of mavericks inspired by Harish and other leaders who will fly the industry and country flag proudly and keep this industry at the top of the totem pole. Thank you, Harish Mehta.