| Saraswathy Nagarajanlistens as K. Nanda Kumar throws light on the rise of Sun Tec, the Kerala-based company that he built up from scratch |
It was the top billing won by his project that led to the rise of the $20 million Sun Tec Business Solutions that went on to put the city and Kerala on the IT global map when Technopark was still in its infancy.
“I had to develop a billing system for the Department of Telecommunications (DoT). Despite competing against some major players in the field we bagged the project as our product was cheaper and effective,” Sun Tec CEO and President K. Nanda Kumar reminisces in a mixture of fluent English and Malayalam that is free of any ‘phoren’ cadences.
Even today, BSNL’s computerised customer-friendly bills that you and I get every month are a result of that project that covers 80 per cent of the population. “It is used in 230 of 330 secondary switching areas,” says the home-grown entrepreneur with evident pride.
Although entrepreneurship runs in Nanda Kumar’s blood, it was not the done thing in the Kerala of the Nineties to throw up a white collar job in a public sector unit to try and start your own company from scratch without a cash-flush father or father-in-law in the background. But that is exactly what the Physics postgraduate from Kollam did.
“I was working in Keltron when the Government of Kerala (1989) came up with the idea of a five-year sabbatical for those who wanted to start their own ventures. If they wanted to come back at the end of the five-year period, they could still join the company. That was a safety net for me when I founded the company in 1990,” recalls Nanda Kumar.
Five years later, Nanda Kumar, by then married to Asha, an engineer herself, made the crucial decision to quit Keltron and captain his own venture. Were there any pressures from his family to continue working in Keltron?
“Not really,” he smiles. “I was keen to have a no-debt model without any long-term liabilities so that I could quit the business at any point of time without burning my fingers. So I began and proceeded in a cautious manner.”
In the meantime he also added a post-graduation in finance management to his academic credentials. What began as a one-man company that operated out of a computer today employs 400 people and has offices in South East Asia and West Asia, Europe and the United States. Among their clients are major banks and telecom players. And all this was achieved with the company still headquartered in Kerala.
“Some of my clients and well-wishers wanted me to shift to the metros. But if all us follow the herd, who will take the initiative to begin something in Kerala? I see it as a challenge and I have no regrets about my decision,” says Nanda Kumar looking around his tastefully done office in Kurvankonam that is filled with artefacts and paintings that showcase Kerala’s heritage and art. The self-confessed workaholic who says “work is relaxing” points out that he has no regrets even about turning down $35 million (in 2000) that was offered for his company or an opportunity to work in Silicon Valley.
The ardent golfer who gets up at five a.m. to practise his swing says the quality of life he values in Kerala would not be the same in another place. “All that we need is political will and the ability to retain our talent. That can give companies in Kerala an edifice to built upon,” he says.
His drive and vision moved the company into top gear and made it a global player by evolving and diversifying the company’s portfolio to suit the needs of the day.
While strengthening Sun Tec’s position as the leader in billing services and solutions for the telecom sector, Nandakumar pioneered the concept of relationship-based pricing for financial institutions and other entities in the service sector. Now Nanda Kumar counts Comcast, Cable One, HSBC, ING Bank, Lloyds TSB, Axis Bank and ICICI Bank among his clients.
His goal, he says, is to see that his company achieves a turnover of $ 100 million dollars by 2010-2012. The challenges are many, he agrees. But he has proved that the tough get going when the going gets tough.
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