“In
today’s world, customer expectations are changing from doing what you
are told to do to proactively suggesting opportunities for value add…..”
Arvind
Thakur is the CEO & Joint Managing Director of NIIT Technologies, a
leading IT solutions organization, with customers in North America,
Europe, Asia and Australia. With the increase of IT literacy across the
country, NIIT has rapidly grown in its domain, adopting a new approach
to customers, and new robust outsourcing and dual-shore delivery models.
It has over 220 clients across 16 countries in selected industry
segments.
Arvind is an active member of company’s board, overseas
subsidiaries and domestic joint ventures with ESRI Inc. and currently
serves as Director of an innovative venture, Hole-in-the Wall Education
Ltd. He is also on the Board of Management of NIIT University, a not for
profit institution
Early Life & Education
Arvind
Thakur holds a B.Tech degree in Mining Engineering from IIT, Kharagpur
(1976) where he received the Institute Silver medal for ranking first in
the department. Thereafter he pursued post-graduation in Industrial
Engineering from National Institute of Industrial Engineering in 1978.
So the foundations for brilliant career were well and trully laid:
Career Spark
Arvind
commenced his career with BHEL, before joining NIIT in 1985. Under
Arvind’s stewardship, NIIT Technologies was assessed at global standards
of development. It bagged an ISO 9001:2000 Certification and was
assessed at Level 5 of SEI-CMMi and People-CMM Frameworks. NIIT also
received BS 7799 Information Security Management Certification. Arvind
has also acted as an elected member of the Executive Council of NASSCOM,
the association which represents Indian IT & BPO industry.It has
been a wonderful journey for Arvind Thakur to participate in a dream
growth story of IT Industry. While NIIT has always been known for being
the leader in education and training, what is little known is also that
it pioneered a number of things in the software business too.
As a
CEO, Arvind learnt that a leader must create an environment that is
challenging and fulfilling, nurtures a culture of innovation, where it’s
ok to make mistakes when they contribute to organizational
learning.Arvind believes it is for NASSCOM to nurture and enable EC
needs to focus on this high potential area and this should find
reflection in the organization’s structure as well.
The Idea
Arvind
Thakur has always been on a constant search for new services to enhance
business value for NIIT’s customers. To bring the company on a
lucrative path, he transformed the business from a horizontal tech
services to an industry solutions provider, changed the business model
to embrace offerings which focus on delivering business value,
enhancedservice experience to meet changing expectations of customers
and nurtured a culture of innovation to drive “New Ideas &More
Value”.
The company & its success
Leading
NIIT since 1985, Arvind took the responsibility of growing the
company’s IT Services business by evolving the organization from a
dominant training business into a software powerhouse, converting the
art form of programing into an engineering discipline; pioneering
offshore execution, drivingquality culture embracing highest levels of
execution maturity conforming to global standards and reinventing
business post the dot com meltdown to ultimately spin off software
business into an independent listed entity.
According to Arvind,
the best leadership decision he took was to set the direction to remain
sharply focused even at the cost of exiting from some segments, to build
specialization and thereby creating differentiation to compete
effectively. As a result, NIIT’s business doubled during 2004-2008 and
operating margins improved more than one percentage point each year
during 2004-2007. Even during the slowdown of 2008-2010, while revenue
growth slowed, profits continue to increase as a result of this
decision.
During the last few years, NIIT came out very strong
from the economic slowdown of 2008. This wasbecause of the
specialization built in the industry segments of focus. Ever since the
company has embarked on its next phase of transformation to provide
enhanced business value with investments to create new business lines
such as managed services and IP-led solutions. These have helped further
consolidate the company’s position in the market and helped achieve
industry leading revenue growth.
Today NIIT has a strong brand
presence in India, and what works best for it is the specialization it
possesses in the area of Geographic Information System. The GIS has
enabled NIIT to uniquely engage with the Government. According to
Arvind, NIIT has very large and significant engagement with the Airport
Authority of India and Airport Operations Control Centre which manages
10 airports and handles 96,000 flights and millions of passengers. The
displays at airports like Chennai, Kolkata and Guwahati run on NIIT
solutions.
Arvind with its pioneering leadership made NIIT engage
in the largest SAP Implementation Project for comprehensive financial
management systems for Andhra Pradesh government and for theSales Tax
Project for the Maharashtra Government. NIIT is currently executing
CCTNS (Crime and Criminal Tracking Network Systems) Project for Ministry
of Home Affairs to automate all police stations across 5 States. There
are deliberations going on about smart cities and digital world. Arvind
Thakur calls these concepts colossal initiatives.
Awards & Accolades:
|
| In 2012 he was facilitated with prestigious Global Gold Stevie Award as Executive of the Year in Computer Services. |
Professional Affiliations:
|
| Active member of the core team since early years of NIIT and of many industry associations &societies |
| Elected member of the Executive Council of NASSCOM, the association which represents Indian IT & BPO industry |
| Director of an innovative venture, Hole-in-the Wall Education Ltd |
| Board Member of Management of NIIT University |
| Director of NIIT Technologies Ltd., since June 12, 2004 |
| Director of ROOM Solutions Limited |
| Director of NIIT Limited and NIIT GIS Limited. |
| Member of Stakeholders' Relationship Committee and Corporate Social Responsibility Committee |
Quotes |
| In
today’s world, customer expectations are changing from doing what you
are told to do to proactively suggesting opportunities for value add |
| It
is important for a leader to anticipate changes. The dotcom bust of
the late 1990s holds out important lessons on the vagaries of being
unidirectional. |
| A person who stands tall not just in good times but more so during adversity. |
| Today's
youth that is born in the Digital Age are tech savvy and want quick
answers outlining the difference between traditional and digital
communication. |
| I
would say that this focus was our first phase of transformation. We
have now embarked on our next phase of transformation to provide
enhanced business value with investments to create new business lines
such as managed services and IP-led solutions. These have helped
further consolidate our position in the market and helped achieve
industry leading revenue growth. |
| Innovation is a way of life in our industry |
| There’s a huge amount of investment in IT and they are all being directed towards business transformation. |
| The starting point for developing smart cities is to plan them. |
| The
past few years the Government agenda has been to drive technology
adoption and the huge programme of Digital India creates a big
opportunity for all tech providers, including Tier-1 Systems
Integrators. |
| In
the travel space, customers are all mobile, hence the mobile platform
becomes crucial. Every client wants his/her website to be refreshed and
be more responsive and we work closely with them. |
| People
engaged in organizations should have the right capability of leading a
business conversation and not technology conversation with the
customer. |
| Re-skilling
and talent are definitely a concern because things are moving much
faster in the technology world than the availability of talent. The
writing on the wall is quite clear. The world is moving from - in
premise to the cloud, customized work to platforms, to cite a few
changed scenarios. That’s the way the modern businesses will happen and
obviously the solution providers need to change and build those
capabilities in terms of manpower skill sets |
| Golf
is a great social game. It’s the only game which you can play with
people with unequal skills. It’s very rewarding as we can meet new
people and built strong relationships |
| Leaders
have to often carry the cross of others’ wrong doings and
inefficiencies, the global banking sector today, for instance. What
role can good leadership play to counter balance this image? |
| Leaders
need to demonstrate greater transparency and integrity, and ensure
proper governance structures are in place to address perceptions created
by any external wrongdoings. |
| Every crisis presents an opportunity. The opportunity arises from the discontinuity created by the crisis. |
| A
leader in such an environment needs to put in place an effective
performance ethic programme with clear lines of accountability and have
systems in place that transparently track business drivers to provide
comfort to the promoter that things are in control. |
| Effective communication is the key to successful dealings. |
|
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