“Integrity Is Fundamental”

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Written by Kanika Goswami

Thursday, 01 March 2007 00:00

Starting out in Jhansi, where his father had a small shop, Ram Agarwal today is the managing director and CEO of Wipro ePeripheral (WeP) Systems. He talked to us about his life, Wipro and his value system.

My father had a small shop in Jhansi. When we were little, I had to spend at least one hour a day at my father’s shop, and for my pains I earned one paisa. Those days, money had value, and it was that one hour every day that taught me mental math and my best people skills, which have helped me through out my life.

I was born in 1946 and grew up in a large and extremely religious family, with three brothers and two sisters. Our father would take us with him when he travelled to Mumbai, Kolkata and other places, on community work. Since I saw so any cities at a very early age, I learnt much more than books could have taught me.

Getting an education. From IIT Kanpur…

I studied in a vernacular medium school in Jhansi. It was a small city -- a hotbed of literature and north Indian culture -- and it had a great mix of different communities, ranging from Maharashtrians to Gujaratis, and of course, Bundelkhandis. Life was very colourful -- I remember celebrating every festival, every year.

I was in the sixth standard when I got a scholarship, starting at Rs 5 a month. In those days it was a princely sum. I was able to qualify for this scholarship throughout my school days.

I read about the IITs (which were just being set up) in the papers and wanted to study there. Although it wasn’t easy, especially for a boy of my upbringing, my parents always encouraged me, and I got into IIT Kanpur. However, I had a lot of trouble settling in for the first three years because my English was bad.

I feel those were my best days. The IIT was a great place to not only study, but also to learn. We would invite great artists like M.F. Husain to the campus. Studies were paramount but other activities too were important. In fact, I got my first taste of the outside world only after joining IIT – for instance, I was introduced to south Indian food at a Kerala restaurant just outside the campus. I also had my first exposure to boys and girls studying together -- a very important learning experience for me. I passed out in 1970 with a B.Tech and a specialisation in civil engineering.

...to IIM Calcutta

Those days, most IITians went abroad for higher studies, but I didn’t. My family wanted me to take the IAS or PCS exam and become a senior government officer, but I had other ideas.

I started to work towards getting into one of the IIMs. It was especially difficult for me because English remained my Achilles heel. Although I couldn’t qualify directly, I was on the waiting list. But it seems I was destined to go. As there had been a number of Naxal attacks in Calcutta, nobody wanted to study there. A large number of admitted students dropped out and I got my chance.

I worked throughout my years of education, earning my passage. While in IIT, I would work in the library and earned Rs 5 per hour. In IIM, there was a provision that if one did well in the first year, one could take a tutorial in the second year, and the payment was very attractive –Rs 200 a month. In addition, I was a private consultant to a company in Ranchi over the weekends. IIM gave me a PGDM, and I specialised in finance, marketing and systems.

Into professional mode

After completing my MBA, I joined the Administrative Staff College of India (ASCI) at Hyderabad as a management consultant, offering consultancy in systems. My family wasn’t too happy with my decision to move to Hyderabad, but finally relented. Their worst nightmare was about to come true – I was all set to marry a girl from a different caste and community. However, she won over everybody in the family, and has since become their favourite.

The ASCI was a great experience. It had a lovely campus, a great lifestyle and Hyderabad was a lovely city. I stayed in Banjara Hills and walked to work downhill to Somajiguda. I later shifted to their computer division, of which I was one of the founder members.

In 1976 I got an offer to join Glaxo in Mumbai, as a management services executive. And Mumbai proved to be another learning experience. Accommodation was limited, and my wife and I had to stay as paying guests while I was working. It was not the best of times and within a year I was ready to move on.

Opportunity calls...and so does Azim Premji!

Opportunity came as a call from Western India Vegetable Products (WIPRO). My meeting with Azim Premji is one of the most memorable in my life. He grilled me for a day and a half, before offering me a job. However, as the salary was less than what I was drawing at that time, I was not able to join him. After a few months, Premji renewed his offer, and finally, after months of meetings, I joined Wipro in 1977, as area sales manager for Maharashtra.

I guess Mr Premji was happy with my work, since within a year I was put in charge of all-India sales for Wipro’s consumer products division. I worked in that capacity for the next five years, before moving to the corporate finance and business planning division in 1983.

In 1985, I took over as financial controller and business planning manager of WIPRO Information Technology Limited.

Working at Wipro

In the 22 years that I have spent with WIPRO, I have had the opportunity to work very closely with Mr Premji. I have seen WIPRO growing in front of my eyes, as I moved around departments almost every three years.

The value systems that the company sets and encourages have made a deep impression on me. These values stay with you – I have never seen a Wipro person lose sight of them.

I founded the peripherals division in 1988 and headed it till 1995, after which I headed Wipro’s PC business, including the joint venture with Acer. I then decided to take a sabbatical and went to Harvard to enrol in the Advanced Management Program. It was a break of sorts. Wipro sponsored me, and when I came back, Mr Premji told me that he wanted to restructure the IT peripherals division into a new company to provide the business independent growth opportunities, which were getting overshadowed by the software business. He could envisage the way it would grow if made into a separate entity. That’s when I offered to head it – it would be the first company in India to be created out of an employee-leveraged buyout.

My colleagues at WeP and I raised the money (almost Rs 20 crores) in a matter of two weeks. It was incredible, and spoke volumes of the team I had, and the faith we had in each other. Almost all the people who were then employees of WeP participated, as well as many ex-colleagues. They have all got good returns for their money.

On the home front

As a child, reading was my biggest hobby. I was not particularly keen on sports, although I used to play cricket. I also played chess very regularly at IIT as well as IIM. But reading continues to be a major area of interest. I read all kinds of books, although my focus is largely on management.

I used to read a lot of Hindi fiction and literature also, but stopped fiction about five years ago. I loved reading Hindi authors, like Subhadra Kumari Chauhan, Vrindavan Lal Verma, Mahadevi Verma, and Nirala.

Thanks to Wipro and Mr Premji’s insistence that no one ought to spend an entire day sitting at the office, I have visited several towns in India and at least 50 countries around the world, although my wife keeps complaining that I have not seen the so-called tourist attractions.

I have three daughters; the eldest one has done her engineering and MBA and is now in Infosys -- she refused an interview with Wipro, because she wanted the job purely on her merit! The second one is a doctor, while the youngest is in Google.

My passion continues to be creating value in the system. I have always received great support as far as my team is concerned, right from the day I started work.

I think the mantra for one’s life should be that integrity is fundamental. I have learnt that at Wipro.