Shiv Nadar

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Shiv Nadar

Born 1945[1]
Moolaipozhi, Tuticorin District, Tamil Nadu, India
Occupation Chairman, HCL Technologies
Founder, SSN Trust
Net worth ▼US$3.9 billion (2008)[2]
Spouse Kiran Nadar
Children One
Website
Official Biography

Shiv Nadar is an Indian entrepreneur, IT executive, educationalist, bridge player, one of India's richest people and the Chairman and Chief Strategy Officer of HCL Technologies. Shiv Nadar founded HCL in the mid-1970s and transformed the IT hardware company into an IT Enterprise over the next three decades by constantly reinventing his company's focus. In 2008, Nadar was awarded Padma Bhushan for his efforts in IT industry. Nadar, nicknamed by friends as Magnus (Persian for Wizard),[3] since mid-1990s has focused his efforts in developing the educational system of India through SSN Trust

Contents

[edit] Early life

Shiv Nadar hails from Moolaipozhi village in Tuticorin District[citation needed] and was born in the prominent Nadar trading community to Sivasubramaniya Nadar and his wife in 1946. Shiv Nadar received his engineering degree from PSG College of Technology in 1968 and started his career in DCM's calculator division.

[edit] HCL - 3 decades of evolution

[edit] First decade - Startup to India's No 1 IT company

Along with Ajay Choudhry (Chairman, HCL Infosystems), Arjun Malhotra (CEO and Chairman, Headstrong), Subhash Arora, Yogesh Vaidya and DS Puri[4][5], Shiv Nadar started Microcomp to sell teledigital calculators in the Indian market[6] under the brand name "Micro2200.[7]

HCL was founded later in 1976 with an investment of Rs 187,000[8] from the 6 founders and added Uttar Pradesh government as a 26% equity partner.[9] While the company focused on building a microcomputer from scratch, it received an unexpected boon when foreign companies like IBM left the country due to the policies adopted by the then Industrial minister George Fernandes in 1977 creating a market space for the microcomputer in India.

In 1980, HCL ventured into the international market with the opening of Far East Computers in Singapore to sell IT hardware. The venture reported Rs 1 million revenue in the first year and continued to address the Singapore operations.[10] In 1981, Rajendra Pawar, Vijay Thadani, S Rajendran started NIIT with Nadar playing the role of investor to address the then fast growing computer education market. Nadar remained the largest shareholder without reatining any management control. Nadar retained his shareholding in NIIT through 2003 at least.

Through 1984, the company focused on designing microcomputers and writing custom applications for clients on these systems. When the Indian government liberalized regulations for import of technology, the computer market was in effect opened for adopting new global technologies. HCL utilized the opportunity to develop Personal computers solutions (called Busybee) and UNIX platform based solutions. In the IT hardware business, the company opened a subsidiary called HCL office Automation that quickly became India's leader in office solutions. By 1987, HCL recorded revenue of Rs 100 crores and featured as India's number 1 company

[edit] Second decade - Transition to software services business

Shiv Nadar looked at marking a place in the global arena after having captured Indian IT leadership. HCL America was setup in 1989. However the move backfired as Shiv Nadar and HCL miscalculated the requirements of the market and the venture didn't succeed in the world's largest market. However in India, HCL consolidated it's market position in the early part of its second decade reaching an inflexion point in 1991 when the government liberalized the economy to provide a level playing field for foreign players. HCL joined HP and created a JV - HCL HP Limited. The JV built solutions to address the local computing market as well as gave HCL it's first experience in outsourced R&D. In the mid 90s, Shiv Nadar added sale agreement with Ericsson and Nokia to distribute their products in India. In 1995, Nadar set a target of Rs 100 billion as target for the HCL Group, a target his group will fall short.[11]

By 1995, HCL became a complex organization with over 40 subsidiaries and Nadar quickly realized that global IT services was the way forward rather than IT hardware. HCL Consulting was formed to address the IT services and the R&D division of HCL-HP was merged into HCL Consulting.[11] The company was renamed HCL Technologies in 1996, the same year the JV with HP broke off.

By early 1998, Nadar had consolidated his business into 5 entities - HCL Technologies (global IT service company), HCL Infosystems (Indian IT hardware leader), HCL comnet (network services company), HCL Perot (IT applications) and NIIT (education services).

[edit] Third decade - Global IT service company

Shiv Nadar took HCL Technologies public in 1999,[11] At the time of IPO, HCL was the second largest IT company with revenue of Rs. 7.23 billion behind TCS (Rs 16.52 billion) but ahead of Wipro (Rs 6.32 billion) and Infosys (Rs. 5 billion) and with the Internet boom in full swing, HCL decided to put complete focus in R&D services to product engineering companies while paying scant attention to the Y2K. When the Internet bubble burst in 2000, HCL was left behind by its competitors because of their headstart in Enterprise application services.

Nadar made an effort to bootstrap HCL with acquisitions in 2001. HCL acquired Apollo Contact center from BT and Deutsche Software Limited (Deutsche Bank's Indian captive software company) to address the BPO and Financial services market. Still HCL continued to underperform competitors through 2005.

By 2004, the number of companies in HCL was consolidated from five to two - HCL Technologies and HCL Infosystems. Shiv's shareholding in NIIT was recognized as personal investment and HCL Comnet became a subsidiary of HCL Technologies. HCL Perot was sold back to partner Perot Systems for $105 million in December 2003.[12]. S Raman, COO & President, HCL Technologies retired in early 2005 and Nadar promoted Vineet Nayar as President of HCL Technologies and revive HCL's sagging fortunes in the IT services spectrum.

In 2007, Shiv passed the mantle of CEO of HCL Technologies to Vineet Nayar. Shiv remains Chairman of HCL Technologies and it's largest shareholder.

[edit] Non-IT business ventures

Nadar had less success with his ventures outside the IT and software industry. His partnernship with Singapore Telecom to address the now-booming Indian Telecom market was unsuccessful as well as his attempts in the granite and aquaculture business.[3]

[edit] Focus on Education & Healthcare

In 1996, Shiv Nadar founded SSN College of Engineering in Chennai, Tamil Nadu in the name of his father - Sri Sivasubramaniya Nadar. Shiv Nadar takes active role in the college activities including gifting of 1 million HCL shares to the college.[13] In 2006, Nadar announced that the college will promote research apart from ensuring that students benefit from foreign university tie-ups.[14] Nadar joined the Executive Board of Indian School of Business in 2005.[15]In March 2008, Nadar's SSN Trust announced setting up of Seven Vidyagyan schools in UP for rural students where free scholarship will be provided for 100 students from 10 districts of Uttar Pradesh.[16]

Shiv Nadar is a member of the Governing board of Public Health Foundation of India (PHFI). PHFI was started by Rajat Gupta to "redress the limited institutional capacity in India for strengthening training, research and policy development in the area of Public Health"[17]

[edit] Awards and accolades

In 2008, Government of India awarded Shiv Nadar with Padma Bhushan, the third highest civilian award for his contribution to IT industry.[18]

In 2007, Madras University awarded him honorary doctorate degree (D Sc) for his contributions in promoting software technology.[19] Nadar was also recognized as E&Y Entrepreneur of the Year 2007 (Services).[20]

In October 2006, Shiv Nadar received a honorary fellowship from AIMA[21]

[edit] References

  1. ^ Sharma, Vishwamitra (2003). Famous Indians of the 20th century. New Delhi: Pustak Mahal, 220. ISBN 8122308295. 
  2. ^ The World's Billionaires #277 Shiv Nadar. Forbes.com. Forbes (2008-03-05). Retrieved on 2008-03-28.
  3. ^ a b Arvind Padmanabham. Shiv Nadar completes 25 years of success. Rediff. Retrieved on 2008-03-26.
  4. ^ Wanna be a CEO? Join HCL. Indiatimes (2005-04-15). Retrieved on 2008-04-03.
  5. ^ S Raman - President, HCL Technologies (2003-2005) and ex-COO (1999-2003) is also refered to as a founder of the company in various forums
  6. ^ The amazing story of the birth of HCL. Moneycontrol (2007-06-09). Retrieved on 2008-03-26.
  7. ^ HCL Group: The M&A Year. DQ Group (2002-07-25). Retrieved on 2008-03-26.
  8. ^ HCL GROUP - The Change Agents. DQ India. Retrieved on 2008-03-26.
  9. ^ Deep and Deeper. Forbes (2007-06-18). Retrieved on 2008-03-26.
  10. ^ The dark horse of the technology sector. Moneycontrol (2007-05-07). Retrieved on 2008-03-26.
  11. ^ a b c He's back. Business World (1999-11-01). Retrieved on 2008-03-26.
  12. ^ Perot Systems buys HCL stake in joint venture. Dallas Business Journal (2003-12-22). Retrieved on 2008-03-26.
  13. ^ Shiv Nadar gifts HCL Tech shares to Chennai Trust. The Hindu (2001-07-25). Retrieved on 2008-03-26.
  14. ^ SSN engineering college to step up high-end research. The Hindu (2006-03-01). Retrieved on 2008-03-26.
  15. ^ Shiv Nadar joins ISB executive board. The Hindu (2004-10-05). Retrieved on 2008-03-26.
  16. ^ Seven Vidyagyan schools in UP for rural students. Hindustan Times (2008-03-12). Retrieved on 2008-03-26.
  17. ^ Quote from PHFI Website (http://www.phfi.org/)
  18. ^ India Inc shines on civilian honour rolls. The Economic Times (2008-01-27). Retrieved on 2008-03-26.
  19. ^ Honorary doctorate for Balachander, Shiv Nadar. The Hindu (2007-11-11). Retrieved on 2008-03-26.
  20. ^ Honorary Entrepreneur Of The Year 2007 – Services. Ernst & Young. Retrieved on 2008-03-26.
  21. ^ Shiv Nadar conferred ‘Honorary Fellowship’ by AIMA. HCL Press Release (2007-10-09). Retrieved on 2008-03-29.

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