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Dr.
Lalit Kanodia isn't considered as the chief architect of India's IT
industry (some even refer to him as the father of the industry) for
nothing. Figure this: Team member of the CTSS & MULTICS (the first
two multi-user computer operating systems & pre-cursors to UNIX)
initiatives at MIT; Founder CEO of TCS and, most significantly, the
founder of Datamatics – the pioneering global Information Technology
(IT) and Knowledge Process Outsourcing (KPO) organization which
introduced UNIX to India, and has the distinction of many firsts in the
IT domain. It was the first off-shore development center for Wang Labs
(USA), was the first company to establish a satellite link from its
software development center in India to the AT & T Bell Labs in the
USA, first company to acquire a controlling stake in a US Data
management company, and so many other firsts to its credit thereby
making it the first IT company in the world to acquire the PCMM Level II
and being among the first few companies to reach the SEI CMM Level V.
Through the course of this write-up, we shall see as to just why these
achievements of the company under Dr. Kanodia are so special.
Early Years
Dr.
Kanodia had a brilliant academic record. He left for the US after
completing his mechanical engineering from the famed IIT (Indian
Institute of Technology) Mumbai, to pursue a Master's in Computer
Science from MIT (Massachusetts Institute of Technology), where he also
completed his Doctoral studies in Management, the expenses of which he
supported through the Ford Foundation Fellowship he had won during
graduation. He followed it up with a brief teaching stint (Statistical
Decision Theory) at MIT in 1964-65.
The Spark
When
he came back to India, there was a unique opportunity waiting for him
in the form of JRD Tata. The thespian had been contemplating to start a
software company for the Tata Group, and it was perhaps in the scheme of
things that he chanced upon Dr. Kanodia's profile. JRD did not waste
any time in asking Dr. Kanodia to start the same, which he did in 1967
and it was named 'Tata Computer Centre' and renamed as 'Tata Consultancy
Services,' (TCS) in 1968, which has since become India's largest IT
company in due course.
Well
all this would not have happened if Dr. Kanodia had not come to India
on a vacation during the summer of 1965, and stayed back to bide time
for the love of his life – his wife, Asha. In his own words, Dr. Kanodia
was bowled over by this maiden at first sight, and everything fell in
place in movie-like fashion – even the obstacle of there being no
auspicious day for a wedding for months together. The serendipitous
occurring forced Dr. Kanodia to defer his return to the US (to complete
his doctoral studies) and, stay back in India. Obviously bugged by the
delay, he wanted to do some work during day-time while he was in India
(apparently his forced courtship until the auspicious day arrived was
carried out only in the evenings). That is when he got to meet some top
officials of the Tata Group, ultimately culminating in his joining their
ranks -in one of the group companies, Tata Electric Companies.
As
part of his work, he wrote three papers based on his observations while
at the company. They turned out to be course-defining efforts, for the
company approved implementation of all the three recommendations put
forth by Dr. Kanodia in the papers. And thus, the Load Dispatch System
of the Tata Electric Companies was automated (by Westinghouse),
Computerization of the electricity billing system of the company was
undertaken (by buying computer time at TIFR who had a CDC 3600 at that
time), and further, the company also decided to start a software
development centre for the group.
All
that was fine but how exactly did Dr. Kanodia, who in the meantime had
got married (1965) and returned to the US (with his wife) to pursue his
studies as well as to start his professional life, get to be associated
with the Tata's plans of a computer center? In what would prove to be a
turning point in the life of Dr. Kanodia, for the Tata Group as well as,
inadvertently, for all of India, one of the senior-most officials of
the group through the course of his many visits to the US, was able to
coax/convince Dr. Kanodia to return to India and start the proposed
company. Upon counsel and advice from a couple of MIT colleagues who
themselves were much excited by the idea, Dr. Kanodia had given in to
the request and returned to India (with the two colleagues). That is how
the Tata Computer Centre (rechristened Tata Consultancy Services after
being taken over by Tata Sons in 1968) was established.
Dr.
Kanodia made sure the company, which was only the second company in
India to be involved in the field of computers (the first was
Hinditron), had the best of talent possible so as make the effort a
really path-breaking one for the company as well as the nation as a
whole. In fact, it is said, that there were around 20 Ph.Ds at the start
itself which gave a tremendous impetus to this enterprise.
The Journey
After
having launched the Tata Consultancy Services (TCS), and successfully
overseen its growth and operations (as it first CEO), Dr. Kanodia
decided to set-up his own enterprise in due course. Thus, he founded
'Datamatics,' in 1975. But all was not hunky-dory for the software
industry in the initial years. There were severe bottle-necks that
companies found difficult to over-come, which, in effect, Dr. Kanodia
opines, hurt the growth prospects of the country and it was set-back by
atleast ten years in terms of development. There is an expansive list
of hurdles that a company had to face during the early days of the
software industry in India, but this write-up here permits only a
contextual mention of some of them.
Problems
like shortage of foreign-exchange greatly impeded travel of
professionals to countries, as this meant that every time one needed to
go abroad, one must first seek approval of India's central back, RBI
(Reserve bank of India); which also meant there were no foreign exchange
credit cards, thus making local travel -in countries like the US- very
difficult. The problem was compounded by the tax levied on the Foreign
Exchange purchased for such visits. Then there was the seemingly
impenetrable wall of the bureaucracy that one needed to scale to be able
to set-up an overseas subsidiary or branch office, thus limiting the
scope of expansion for the software business. Likewise, overseas
acquisition was also not possible and added to it was the shortage of
funds for entrepreneurs owing to the absence of venture capital. There
were also heavy cost implications vis-à-vis communicating with off-shore
units, as the per-min ISD calls cost a fortune then.
It
can be argued that some of the problems mentioned above were
unavoidable as India was then a much closed economy and, consequently,
the control mindset was manifest in all these obstacles to development.
Braving
the odds, sticking to his vision, and believing in his own
capabilities, as well as the immense potential that his countrymen
possessed, Dr. Kanodia went about chartering a path of success for
Datamatics like only a handful of others have in all the history of
entrepreneurship in India. Along the way, he pioneered many efforts that
have not only shown the light for thousands of other aspirants in the
following three decades but have also stood the test of time as the
bench-marks for the Indian as well as the global IT Industry.
Thus,
despite such non-conducive business atmosphere in the country, his
company was able to establish an off-shore development centre for Wang
Labs (USA), a satellite link with AT & T Bell Labs (USA), and
acquire the data management company 'Saztec International.' Datamatics
was also the first company to introduce, through Dr. Kanodia, UNIX to
India. The Datamatics story continued to become better and better
with the passage of time. The opening up of the Indian economy during
the liberalization era in the 1990s brought about by the then prime
minister, Shri. P.V. Narasimha Rao, also helped it propel towards its
goals.
Under
the leadership of Dr. Kanodia, understandably, the company went on to
accomplish some glorious feats in the history of the computer-led modern
era of globalization. Sometime prior to the liberalization phase (in
1991), Datamatics had, as recounted above, set-up India's first
satellite-link for software development to Bell Labs (USA).
This
enabled log-on by a computer in India to a computer in the US. Earlier
most Software Professionals had to physically travel to the US for
Software development. Satellite Links considerably reduced such travel
and the need for work permits. There is an interesting anecdote about
this defining step by Datamatics. Dr. Kanodia was hauled up before the
Department of Electronics and given a dressing down (for setting-up the
link).
Apparently
the DOE was paranoid about the satellite link being manipulated to
transfer secrets to Bell Labs. It was only upon Dr. Kanodia's
re-assuring explanation about its need and use that the officers got
clarity on it all and let him go! (What he exactly told the officers
that made them accept the setting-up of the satellite-link as being not
harmful to Indian interests is also an interesting story in itself, but
more on that some other time). As mentioned earlier, the cost of
telephone calls to international locations was very high which limited
the scope of operations for many software as well as ITES companies, as
it dented into their margins.
Well
aware of this all, Dr. Kanodia, in his capacity as the Chairman
(western region) of the ESC (Electronics and Computer Software Export
Promotion Council), had made a presentation to Government Secretaries
recommending slashing of the telecom cost by about 25%. That the powers
that be did not understand the solid reasoning behind the
recommendations and did not do anything about bringing down the costs is
also one of the reasons that support Dr. Kanodia's assertion about
India's policy inaction, indirectly setting it back by a decade
vis-à-vis its development.
It
might be well-worth here to briefly touch upon some of the major
achievements/accomplishments of Datamatics under its visionary
founding-leader.
| 1. | It was the first electronic publishing company in India (it was the 1st company in India to obtain the ISO 9002 Certification for electronic publishing). |
| 2. | It developed the Special Tool Development Language. |
| 3. | Developed the world's first commercial XFS framework for NCR. |
| 4. | First company in the world to guarantee 99.997% accuracy level in data capture |
| 5. | First IT company in the world to reach PCMM Level II, and amongst the first few to reach SEI CMM Level V. |
| 6. | Involved in the design, development, and implementation of some of the largest Automated Fare Collection Systems in the world. |
| 7. | Developed the award-winning 'Intelligent AC (i-AC),' |
| 8. | Implemented the first Kiosk-based flight ticketing and boarding system for an international Airlines. |
| 9. | Achieved 3-times efficiency enhancement through AI-based (Artificial Intelligence) Document Processing platform. |
| 10. | First in the world to develop the Intelligent and Auto Categorization (iCAT) tool for market research. |
| 11. | First Indian Company to launch Cloud-based invoice processing platform in the US. |
| 12. | Featured in the Global Services 100 List (two times in a row). |
| 13. | First Indian Company to win the International Asia-Pacific Quality Award in the Services Category. |
| 14. | Conferred the “Most Innovative Software Product Award,' by the Prime Minister of India. |
The
above is only a partial list, as the original one would continue to
expand under the guidance of Dr. Kanodia, who has since become the
Executive Chairman of the company.
Other Associations
Dr.
Kanodia has served as the Past President of the Management Consultants'
Association of India and Chairman of the Electronic & Computer
Software Export Promotion Council (Western Region). He is the present
President of the Indo American Chamber of Commerce, Western India. He
is Chairman of the IT Committee of Indian Merchants' Chamber. He has
been a Member of the Executive Committee of NASSCOM. He is a member of
the Board of the Sloan School of Management, MIT. He also served on
various Committees of the Government of India and the State of
Maharashtra. He is also the Honorary Consul General of Chile in India.
Philanthropy
True
to being a visionary, Dr. Kanodia, has ensured that the CSR initiatives
of Datamatics are moulded in such a way that they have a long-lasting
impact on the under-privileged communities. The company drives its CSR
initiatives through a corporate body named 'ASHA'. Towards its
commitment to bring about a change in the critical areas, the company
has identified Employability & Environment as the key focus areas.
To
train and provide employment opportunities for physically challenged
individuals and rural women, the company has tied up with various
institutions working at the grass-roots level. Besides this, the company
has a special "Knowledge Associate" initiative that opens up
opportunities for individuals, who would otherwise be deprived of
gainful employment opportunities.
Datamatics
also endeavors to contribute towards the development of a sustainable
society. The importance of reducing carbon footprints is well
understood, and all of its personnel are committed and aligned to bring
about change in their business practice and contribute in reduction of
greenhouse emissions. Further, besides encouraging recycling, as a
proactive effort, it has tied up with Growtree.com, as it believes
planting trees to be the most effective way to reduce carbon emission.
Through this engagement Datamatics celebrates its employee's birthday by
planting a tree on their behalf.
Awards
He
has not only won many plaudits for his work including the Order of
Merit for Management & honoured as 'Samajshree,' -by the Council of
Management Executives, but also gained the unique recognition of being
the only software professional to be included in the DataQuest's 'Hall
of Fame,' for his extraordinary efforts to enable the Indian IT industry
take immense strides even on the global landscape.
 |
He received the Distinguished Alumnus Award of IIT, Mumbai. |
|
Conferred the "Lifetime Achievement Award" at Enterprise Scions 2006 - Entrepreneurship Excellence Awards. |
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