A passionate sportsperson, Rajiv Nair believes strongly that the zest and zeal that people exhibit in the playing field mirrors in their life as well. For him, sports is a sacrosanct endeavor of honing one's own inherent skills by virtue of competing with your own self and with others.

Interestingly, it was his passion for sports that sparked Nair's interest in car racing. He has fond memories of sneaking out from home in the dead of the night with friends, to go car racing. Remembering those days Nair admits, "During college we were a gang of four or five pals who used to get up in the middle of the night to zoom in our cars. I can still feel the quivering thrill of driving a car at maximum speed." Nowadays, Nair loves to pass time playing golf that he says gives him an opportunity to unwind.

Rajiv Nair, Regional Director, Autodesk India

Education Bachelor of Science in electrical engineering from Lafayette College, USA First job Microsoft India Best-known qualities Honesty, passion and compassion Immediate goal Consolidate Autodesk's business in the country and manage channel relationships. Fond of Playing sports as often as possible Favorite adage Unless you have a passion, you can never be successful.

Steering Microsoft in India
Possessing a Bachelor of Science degree in Electrical Engineering from Lafayette College, USA, Nair has been credited with steering Microsoft's presence in the Indian subcontinent in its seminal years and propelling company's vision of e-governance initiatives.

After his long association of more than a decade with the software giant Nair opted out to do something on his own. His next destination was the booming telecom sector where he started consultancy. He worked in Keymil, a telecom consulting company, for almost three years before making a re-entry into corporate world with Autodesk.

Nair says, "Subsequent to playing a long inning at Microsoft it was time for me look at things with a different perspective and I moved onto telecommunications. But if I can reverse the time machine I would love to go back to my days at Microsoft, that in one simple word was a phenomenal experience."

According to Nair, his entry into the IT industry happened by chance. After completing studies in USA, he looked forward to India as a destination to chalk out his career path. In 1986, when he came back to India and was in the process of assessing various employment options, he got an opportunity to work with Tata Infotech the erstwhile Tata Burroughs/Tata Unisys.

About his rejoining the IT industry Nair asserts, "Although I did not face any major hassles during my stint in telecom consulting, but the only thing that I missed was the contact with corporate world. I was not getting the desired satisfaction and fodder for thought, and these two things drove me again towards the IT industry."

In his new role as Regional Director Nair is responsible for consolidating Autodesk's business in the country and managing channel relationships. To bring the company to the forefront of business, he plans to leverage on skilled manpower both internal and external (channel partners), for he firmly believes that many a good plans fall flat in the absence of skilled manpower, as they are the force behind a successful organization.

Channel connect
Nair's interaction with channel partner has been one of the finest. Channel partners recall him as a person who always maintained a down to earth approach with them and is also a good
listener.

Hemant Chabbaria of Chabbaria Infotech reminisces his first interaction with Nair at the Oberoi Hotel in Kolkata way back in 1994. He says, "Nair has a charming personality that touches a chord and makes one feel completely at ease while interacting with him. He maintained such good relations with partners that he even knew details like how that partner is performing and what is his standing in the channel ecosystem."

Nair also does not underscore the importance of channel partners. For him it is the mutual partnership of vendor and partners that translates into great business deals, he says, "You need loyal partners with area of expertise to leave your mark in the market place."

Time out
Notwithstanding his deep entrenchment in work, Nair is equally famous in social circle as well. His friends more often associate him with his penchant for sports and affable attitude.

Satish Khosla, Nair's ex-colleague and one of the oldest friends said, "Nair is very social and easy going kind of a fellow. He has all the qualities of a pleasant and soft-spoken person; and has the caliber of building good rapport in very short span of time. In spite of his connection with sales and marketing arena, where one has to show aggression at any cost, I have never seen him showing slightest of resentment in personal life."

Khosla still recollects with great gusto his experiences with Nair on the badminton court; Khosla and Nair regularly play badminton at New Delhi's Panchsheel Club.

Nair believes that faith in one's own deeds and area of operations is the mantra for his success. He confers that his strengths- honesty, passion and compassion have allowed him to rise up to the level where he is today. Apart from work Nair's other priority is his family, he strictly makes it a point to spend Sundays with his family.

Anjali Choudhary

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