If you want to succeed in life, then you have to take risks. This is the first lesson that Ramani learnt in his life. Born in the steel city of Bokaro, Jharkhand he was an average student till the time he completed his school studies. But he did not let his grades discourage him. Instead after some soul searching and encouragement from his parents, in 1989 he decided to leave Bokaro and went to Bangalore's MSRIT to study engineering in electronics.

After completing his engineering, he came back to Bokaro and went in for an advanced diploma course in computer science from Uptron. Strangely, taking this course was not something that Ramani had planned on. Instead, it was his friend from Bokaro who wanted to do a computer course from Uptron Institute and asked Ramani to accompany him. However, while his friend didn't join the course, Ramani ended up enrolling for that course. This decision was a turning point in his life.

Ramani later joined the same institute as a faculty for sometime. He soon realized that this was not the ideal career for him and decided to move towards sales and marketing.

Sandeep Ramani, Country Manager-India, Kye Systems Corp, Genius

Education Engineer in electronics from MSRIT, Bangalore and advanced diploma course in computer science from Uptron First job Uptron Institute Best-known qualities Honest, hardworking, complete commitment towards work Immediate goal Make a foray into smaller towns in India to popularize Genius' offerings Fond of Playing badminton, reading fiction and playing with his 11 month old son Favorite adage Take one day at a time

Clambering the rungs of success
It was a small IT-focused company based in Bokaro that gave Ramani his first chance to dabble in sales and marketing and that too for a meager salary of Rs 1,000 per month. However, Sandeep had other plans in his life and soon decided to pack his bags to try his luck in the place where dreams came true - New Delhi.

In 1996, he found a job with New Delhi-based Computer Mart as sales executive and worked there for about eight months. His first break into the world of IT reselling business came with his entry in Comnet Vision when PK Sharma gave him a chance to work with the company's Delhi operations.

After this break, there was no looking back for Ramani. He worked within each and every sphere of the IT reselling business. He joined distribution-focused organizations like Cyber Star and Almasa before becoming the Country Manager at
Genius in 2005.

The turning points in life was when Ramani got the chance to work in Dubai with Western TV at a salary of Dirham 6,500 but didn't go because of his father's failing health. According to him India has got everything and with so many opportunities and MNCs coming up, greater
things can be achieved within the country itself.

On a personal front
Given that Ramani has been in the industry for such a long time, he has managed to make acquaintances across a cross section of people. And most of them have only good things to say about him.

This includes his ex-bosses, with whom he parted on amicable terms. PK Sharma of Comnet Vision remembers Ramani fondly as a person with tremendous zeal for learning. He says that he trusted him implicitly while they worked together and even today when they are in different companies.

"He has got a lot of ability to implement critical things with ease. There were times when he would take business critical decisions for my company and me. I still remember that whenever we had some big orders, we used to work all night and he was always committed towards work," Sharma recalls.

Though he is mostly to be found working, Ramani makes it a point to spend some quality time with his family as well. This is why he especially planned a family trip to Kashmir recently, to escape from the blistering Delhi heat as well.

"Kashmir is one of the most beautiful places that I have ever seen. Everywhere there is natural beauty at its best. If we start going to Kashmir, there would be no need to go towards Switzerland or any other hill station for that matter," he explained.

However, the trip became more than memorable for him as he had a narrow escape from a life threatening natural disaster while going towards Sonmarg. "We were moving towards Sonmarg in a bus and suddenly we realized that we just escaped a big landslide. As a result the road was blocked and all of us had to actually cross the road barefoot to cross the mud and debris of the landslide. It was quite an experience, and I thank god for helping us cross that passage safely," he remembered.

Taking such challenges, personally and professionally, in his stride is something that Ramani is well known for. And this could well be the key to a successful stint in Genius as well.

ZIA ASKARI

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