HCL Shiv Nadar - A True business legend

Shiv Nadar. HCL. A true legend of our times.

One of my role models from a very young age. and perhaps the longest serving MD and CEO of any IT company I know of.

1976 to 2021 45 years as CEO and MD of HCL, one of Indias big five home grown IT company, with annual revenue exceeding USD 10billion others being TCS, INFOSYS, WIPRO, TECH MAHINDRA and Cognizant.

Among the Pantheon of Indian IT industry stalwarts including Wipro Azim Premji, TCS FC Kohli, Infosys Narayana Murthy he is perhaps unique for following reasons.

1. Visionary leader. Started a PC hardware company in India 1976. The same year as Apple. AND MUCH before IBM, Compaq and Dell made PCs. Vineet Nayyar, ex CEO HCL, used to say, if Shiv had started HCL in Silicon Valley the company would be 10 times the current size. India was a socialist country then.

2. A small town boy making it big. Imagine what was India in 1976.  Public sector and Govt jobs provided most employment. you needed a dozen govt permits to even produce a light bulb. Labor laws were very strict. private sector was not wide and deep. Few big business houses concentrated around Mumbai, Delhi and Calcutta provided decent employment. No one from a small town, esp from deep down South India, ever made it big.

3. Performance beats pedigree. This man had no business man father. he was not backed by a powerful business house. He had no fancy IIT, IIM, Harvard, Stanford education. He came to New Delhi for employment in DCM, with just a dream and passion.

4. Global impact. Now after 45 years after running a very profitable company, providing high quality employment to thousands of people over 4 decades, having created subsidiaries in 46 countries, having 250 of the fortune 500 companies as clients, creating HCL foundation and Shiv Nadar University touching the lives of millions of people with philanthropic work. 

5. Giving back to society. He is among India's richest billionaires. What's even more impressive is he is always IN Top 3 on the generosity list of giving away wealth.

I was an employee of HCL. They took the risk of employing a mechanical engineer as a product manager for their Toshiba and HP notebook business back in 1996. And that's the beginning of my long innings in the IT industry. 

It's also a matter of pride for me, I'm from the same college as Shiv Nadar, PSG college of technology, Coimbatore. There was a computer lab, back in 1988 in our college, which was completely sponsored by Shiv Nadar. 

I know many friends who worked in HCL for many years, who became CEOs of many Indian and American MNCs. All of them extremely proud of working in HCL, the original talent factory of Indian IT industry. They were among the best, were paid well and given challenging assignments at a very young age. 

Very few could have done what he did. He is and always will be a legend of our times.

SIR - RESPECT, SALUTE.

BY NASH 

21 JULY 2021.

https://m.economictimes.com/tech/information-tech/shiv-nadar-steps-down-from-hcl-technologies-board-becomes-chairman-emeritus/articleshow/84552335.cms

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