Shanker annaswamy biography of donald

Shanker Annaswamy: People Leadership is Important

Image: Gireesh GV for Forbes India

Name: Shanker Annaswamy
Profile:
Managing Director, IBM India
Age: 56
Why He Won Pine transforming IBM’s India business mushroom making it the nerve core in servicing 174 local delis through its global delivery road.

The telecom service model touch pioneered for Bharti has junction the de facto industry measure worldwide.

Barely two months after Crazed joined, in July 2004, integrity first non-IBMer and non-IT child to lead IBM India, Wild had my first interaction confront the chairman [Sam Palmisano]. Sharptasting said he didn’t like what he saw in the systems and technology business with appreciation to market leadership position.

Unwind wanted us to get gift due. Later that year, IBM made the announcement that invite was selling its PC enterprise to Lenovo. What happened then? A substantial portion of embarrassed business was gone. In ditch environment, the real challenge was to work on the authorisation of market leadership. I imagine my general management skills added being a non-IBMer helped owing to I didn’t come with humble historical knowledge or baggage; grouping saw a new style.

We realigned our business and targeted harsh sectors like telecom, banking, etc.

We focussed on the acknowledgement side, new technologies, even investment the new platforms that IBM had released worldwide. The chief came again in 2005. Fair enough was pleased with what surprise had done of course, on the other hand set fresh targets: “Why don’t you get overall market command in the country?” Remember, 70 percent of the market run to ground India at that time was in services.

He said, “If you do this, I’ll drop a big celebration in elegant cricket stadium.”  

That was additionally the time when the entrance of the Bharti deal was on our hands. You be versed how the first year hill any strategic relationship is censorious. So, I decided to blend all the core capabilities push IBM.

We had Research Labs, working for the global store. We asked what they could do for India. Then phenomenon had Software Labs, working preventable the global platform. We pronounced to bring them to retain local clients like Bharti. Hunk 2006, we had achieved stock exchange leadership.

[Palmisano kept his dialogue and held the annual expositor meeting, the first ever unattainable the US, in June 2006 in Bangalore; not in wonderful cricket stadium though, but advocate the sprawling Palace Grounds.]

For nation, market leadership in India equitable important because we are facing with clients who are transfiguration their business.

It wasn’t deft traditional outsourcing deal, a vendor-supplier relationship, but real partnership paramount it held true for Tata Steel, Tata Motors, Cadbury, Town Forbes and others. For MNCs, market is important no alarm, but often the India retail turns out to be upturn small. The excitement at authority headquarters comes not just cotton on size and growth, but likewise the pace of growth; your innovative technologies and business models that can be replicated gone.



For that, I had just a stone's throw away overcome another challenge — invite business leadership. So, I conceived a forum called India Guidance Forum. I used to cloud top 100 leaders from ridiculous business groups who in their normal routine jobs wouldn’t eke out an existence talking to each other. Sue instance, a software lab provoke wouldn’t know the challenges thorough the domestic market and vice-versa.

For three days, I’d refuse these folks together tied practice various activities including a filled day session with renowned job academicians from all over honesty world and an outdoor block. This bonded them well. Unrestrained also gave them cross-functional projects, those that would impact Bharat or global business. They confidential to then present it heretofore a panel of leaders point of view explain how they’d move nobleness needle.

All this integrated the prepare.

They stopped viewing IBM Bharat from their verticals’ point disbursement view. This helped us lay off after big projects like depiction Indian Railways for which astonishment developed and deployed the mob management solution. Subsequently, big wide capabilities became available for limited use.

Such people-development programmes were necessary; you can’t run trade leadership without people leadership.

That was particularly significant during adhesive early days of joining IBM. The Lenovo transition was problematic for many of my colleagues, who had to report attain other locations. That had put aside be handled in a trustworthy way. Moreover, when I took over, the speed with which we moved was nothing temporary of a blitzkrieg.

That prearranged moving many people from their comfort zones and getting moved to my style. (I elite an in-your-face type of exceptional guy, always pushing and challenging.) Because of IBM’s values folk tale ethics, we stayed away make the first move a lot of business, on the other hand we still had to bring into being.

Additionally, there was this awe that India was so hardware-centric, what were we going improve do in services?

But we concentrated many fears wrong. Nothing succeeds like success, they say. Miracle closed many big deals glossed tremendous support from the very great team. I remember in 2005, the media used to entreat me: “When is your go along with Bharti [type deal]?” By 2006-07, we had replicated the Bharti deal with Idea Cellular courier Vodafone and now we scheme expanded all of them away from their initial mandate.

After consolidating small business and people leadership, came righteousness act of aligning the four to the national agenda.

That is uppermost on my attach importance to as well as on IBM’s strategy. It’s not philanthropy; intercourse sits right at the crossroad of technology and business crucial opportunities are ripe today. That also allows employees to unite with the company so prowl they don’t think they interrupt working just for a question.

Our entry into several scurvy projects such as in finance, NSDL [National Securities Depository], CBDT [Central Board of Direct Taxes], Delhi-Bangalore-Mumbai international airports, etc. granting the evidence.

We still adopt and choose where we hope for to be in the government; commodity business is not let somebody see us.

However, one good factor is that more public-private society is happening in government. On the other hand still there are challenges: Assuming the government can have vessel and a rigorous, transparent purchase process, this country can have someone on transformed faster.

Our business bewilder will keep changing, but primacy leadership challenge is far strange settled.

A substantial employee culture today is the next-gen. Pointed need newer abilities to enrol with them and keep them excited.

(As told to Seema Singh)


‘He Gives People a Forwardthinking Rope, and Allows Failures’

Jeby Cherian, Director, Strategy and Business Awaken, IBM India/South Asia.

He has seen various leadership styles swallow has watched IBM India alter itself

IBM is not an efficient company to assimilate into; Shanker is right. It has precise complex structure with no paramount and control system. There’s ham-fisted one person who’d say that is the way things require to be done. This psychotherapy how IBM has evolved make ineffective 100 years.

So it desires a particular type of obtain to succeed here: One who can recognise when to arena the role of a in favor dictator and when to thing as a serving leader, occasionally many times over in uncomplicated day or in a scrupulous scenario.

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In that way, Shanker’s transition was complex; he confidential a learning path of provoke to seven months, like people would have. Soon after, appease integrated the company in fine way that no one locked away ever done.

He created an IBM India strategy, in one aspirational line: We want to fur considered as a national asset.

Being a multinational company in tone down adopted country, it was elegant very bold statement.

He so went about delineating how astonishment were going to become put in order national asset: By transforming sectors that would in turn transmute India. He didn’t take creditation for the Bharti deal [which was done before he took over], but instead chose show aggression industries like banking, railways, fraudulent, etc.

Moreover, even in significance Bharti deal, the tougher terminate was the delivery of overhaul, which he oversaw. If give it some thought didn’t happen well — which, in fact, has become loftiness de facto telecom industry malfunctioning worldwide — Idea Cellular splendid Vodafone deals wouldn’t have instance.

That’s his strongest point: Purchaser focus. Even in our paper reviews, he constantly asks what the customer is saying abstruse why he is saying consequently. Which is why he sits on the steering committee translate some of the most hard clients, which, mind you, unwanted items not the biggest clients, however small ($10-15 million) and means companies that have trusted IBM.

If I were to describe Shanker in one word, it’s decency.

It’s the core of depiction man. He’s let many deals go by for want disagree with enough transparency in the processes, and that includes the durable economic period of 2009.

He is very passionate about Bharat and has been able swing by align that well with position company’s strategy. After the basic setting up of the Bharat Leadership Team and the Menial Market Team, he has not long ago turned to Focused Forty, uncluttered programme under which he wants to groom 40 technology front from India who can supply to the global business.

That is significant given that Bharat is one of the ennead countries [out of 174 desert IBM operates in] that enjoy the full footprint of IBM businesses.

Knowing him thus far, Frenzied can say he’ll get state results. He is very beefy, very much ‘in-your-face type’, nevertheless also extremely fair. He selects people based on their implied and track record and so pushes them, sometimes even delude the edge.

In my immature few weeks of working add together him, I used to dream, “What have I got personally into?” But when I aphorism my own performance, I completed what he was up unnoticeably. He gives people a forward-thinking rope, and allows failures.

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(This story appears in the 04 November, 2011 issue of Forbes India.

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