Sanjay Kumar prefers the personal touch
And that's just what he did with long-time rival Andrew "Flip" Filipowski, Platinum's founder and ceo. Filipowski-who had once vowed never to sell his firm to CA-could not say no to Kumar at their dinner meet. Not only was Kumar's cash offer one Filipowski could not refuse, but his vision of company and product integration in an increasingly competitive marketplace, Filipowski says, made tremendous sense.
Kumar's foresight for everything that concerns information technology is lauded by almost all who come into contact with him. One of the youngest presidents of a Fortune 500 company-he's only 35-Kumar actually went to college to study medicine but dropped out after a couple of years when he discovered his penchant for computers. His talents were quickly recognised by others too, and eight years after joining CA-which he became a part of when it bought up uccel Corporation, where he was director of software development-he was named president.
Kumar is known for his ability to take on new challenges and bring them to fruition. But while co-workers praise his skills as both businessman and visionary, they are as admiring of his informality and down-to-earth management style. Known to all simply as "Sanjay", his is an open-door policy. He's accessible to any one of CA's 15,000 employees worldwide, says Yogesh Gupta, CA's senior vice-president in charge of product strategy, and the brains behind the company's flagship enterprise management product, Unicenter tng. "He gives a lot, but then again, he also expects a lot back."
Kumar certainly expects a lot from the CA-Platinum merger. The combined companies will result in the creation of a real powerhouse vendor for the new millennium. By exploiting the synergies between both companies' products, markets, manpower and services, Kumar hopes to grow CA's business in new directions, in particular the rapidly expanding field of e-commerce. Just about everything, from shoes to flowers, is sold over the Net these days, he says, and this is only going to increase as businesses get beyond their current Y2K focus. Enterprises need to ensure they remain competitive on the Internet, and the melding of CA's resources with Platinum's will let them to do just that, by providing them with the opportunity to improve all aspects of e-commerce.
Of course, both the Internet and information technology in general know no borders, and so Kumar also plans to continue CA's global expansion. But unlike many other software companies that develop business in emerging market countries, then import talent and know-how back to the West, his aim is to build solid local companies in the former and leave them untouched."My goal is to build a superb facility in all the countries I go into, to hire the top people, pay them above market rates and then leave them there," he says. This approach creates a work environment that is not only rewarding to employees on both a professional and a financial level, but also serves a purpose for the country in question. And of course, it adds to CA as a whole.
Kumar cites cats (Computer Associates tcg Software), the Calcutta-based joint venture between CA and The Chatterjee Group, an affiliate of Soros Fund Management, as a prime example of his strategy to focus locally. Launched in '97 with just three people, the facility now has over 300 employees and continues to expand its business of providing software solutions to local businesses. Based largely upon the success of cats, Kumar plans to open another development centre in India within the next three months.
He attributes a big part of wanting to leave intact the companies he sets up around the world to his South Asian origins. As a Sri Lankan who came to the US with his parents when he was a teenager, Kumar believes that local talent should stay where it is in order to spur the technological growth of developing economies.
But despite his desire to see emerging markets grow and become strong players on the global software scene, Kumar is also a confirmed capitalist, who grabs when the going's good but leaves just as quickly when it gets rough. If countries want to get the best for themselves, he says, it is up to respective governments to create an open, competitive environment for business, then get out of the way. Any country that does not have that spirit, he says, won't be on his list. Is the Indian government listening?