RK Malhotra got through the IIT entrance exam in his first attempt and opted for IIT Delhi's Electrical Engineering stream. After graduating from IIT in 1968, he received many offers from US and UK-based companies, but he opted to stay in the country.

"I joined the Atomic Energy sector the very year I passed from IIT and underwent an one-year training. I was taken
in as a scientific officer under grade C in the nuclear science segment, where I worked for three years," he reminisces.

RK MALHOTRA, MD, OA Compserve

His tenure as a Nuclear Scientist gave him the confidence and energy level to strive for excellence to perfection. He worked under a team to develop and deploy critical atomic instruments in different nuclear reactors at Chennai and Tarapur during that period.

With a desire to continue studies in the management realm, Malhotra left the Atomic Energy and joined IIM Ahmedabad in 1972. After graduating two years later, he joined Larson & Toubro's Mumbai office and worked for six years.

It was in 1990 that IT attracted his attention and he first saw an HCL advertisement asking for franchisee operations. Malhotra knew that it is going to be a risky situation but he was committed to enter the IT arena.

He invested about Rs 6 lakh –a significant part of his provident fund and other personal savings to start the HCL venture in 1990 itself. However, fate had something else in store for him – the HCL venture could not take off well and soon he realized that time was running out for him.

At this time his tryst with IIT and IIM towards perseverance helped him keep a cool head and he started working with Wipro Peripherals–another emerging company of those times in 1991 and got its dealership for printers. The rest, as they say, is history.

RANJAN CHOPRA, Chairman, Team Computers
Even after getting admission into BITS Pilani, Ranjan Chopra gave the all India test for IIT and got selected at IIT Kanpur. He completed his engineering in the electronics and electrical stream in 1978.

RANJAN CHOPRA, Chairman, Team Computers

Being fond of diverse subjects like digital circuits and philosophy, Ranjan was not that happy with the individualistic atmosphere being created within the walls of the IIT-Kanpur classrooms. He feels that the institutes still have an average grade system, which is not that good for the overall upbringing of a student. But overall, it works wonderfully well for developing problem solving capabilities within a student.

When most of Ranjan's classmates were on the lookout for foreign scholarships and studying or settling abroad, he preferred staying in India, working on real-time problems. This was because most IITians working abroad end up being consumed in the research field which he had no intention of pursuing.

Having worked on areas like amplifiers and speaker systems, it was a dream come true for Ranjan when he got an opportunity to work with Phillips, Mumbai in 1983. After working for two years, he moved to Delhi and grabbed an opportunity to work with an Apple distributor as a Service Manager.

After a tour of the European region, he decided to start Team Computers with some friends in 1988. At that point of time, he just invested about Rs 15,000 as they were not doing anything big that time. But gradually he managed to build Team into one of the leading solution providing companies in the country.

SHABBIR IMANI, MD, NEXSTEP INFOTECH
Shabbir Imani graduated from Mumbai's Veermata Jijabai Technological Institute (VJTI) and immediately later appeared for the entrance exam at IIM. As luck would have it, he got through that test as well and completed his MBA in marketing and finance from IIM Kolkata.

He was very clear about taking up a job within India itself with a consumer marketing company. However, when HCL-HP came to the campus and offered him an excellent opportunity as Senior Management Trainee, he took up the assignment. This marked his foray into the infotech arena.

SHABBIR IMANI, MD, NEXSTEP INFOTECH

Shabbir had inherent management and analytical skills, and these were fine-tuned during his studies at IIM Kolkata. He started NexStep Infotech with a clear focus towards solution providing at a time, when this niche was dominated by a handful of giants like Tata Consultancy Services and Wipro Infotech. And within this vertical too, he concentrated on creating high-end software. This business required a mix of technical skills and business perspective, so his MBA and IIM background came in handy.

Having studied at the IIM has also helped Shabbir in multiple ways. According to him, at the end of the day, one is running a business and hence such specialized qualifications help, as one becomes a strong all-rounder on all areas right from HR, to finance to marketing, to sales, to operations.

In the case of NexStep, as a solutions provider, his educational background also helped him in quickly understanding the client's business needs and problems to propose a solution in the shortest timeframe. His stint at IIM has given him a fair amount of ability to take mission critical decisions in a timely fashion. There are many instances where Shabbir and his team have bagged the order by virtue of being able to understand the client's requests in just one meeting, while their peers were interacting with the same client for months.

N Jagannathan, CEO, Fourth Dimension Technologies
N Jagannathan holds a Bachelor Degree in Engineering from the College of Engineering, Guindy and a Post Graduate degree in Business Administration from IIM Kolkata. He graduated in 1985 and majored in Marketing and Systems.

N Jagannathan, CEO, Fourth Dimension Technologies

Prior to setting up Fourth Dimension in 1989, he was working with Godrej and Boyce for four years in the computer peripherals division. He has been spearheading the company as its CEO ever since the company was incorporated.

With today's fast changing business dynamics and technological innovations in the information technology realm, a degree from IIM has helped him in terms of handling the overall operations of the company in a better way. It was at the institute that he learnt to derive the broader perspective that helped him in organization building in a great way.

Today, a successful entrepreneur, Jagan finds time to do meaningful work even outside his business ventures. His philanthropic leanings are also influenced by his time in IIM, as he noticed how the alumni of IIM would willingly donate to the institute to improve the training offered to students.

Today, Jagan is a staunch Rotarian and is involved with various community forums. He believes that by contributing to the society he will help in building up the next generation of thinkers in the country.

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