The rapid rise of Indian techpreneurs in silicon valley has taken the world by surprise. Today, the growth of Indian diaspora in the US tech industry is at its peak with around 15% of startups in the area being founded by Indians. At the same time, almost every big tech company (Google, Facebook, Microsoft, Cisco, Oracle, etc…) has an Indian at one of its top positions.
It was in early 1980’s when Indian Software graduates first swarmed in the silicon valley. Since then, they have pushed the boundaries of innovation in global technology. Indians have grown up in prominence and influence better than any other ethnic group in the United States. According to the US Census Bureau, Indians stand out as the richest as well as the most educated ethnic group in the country.
So what is it that sets these Indians apart from the rest? In this post, we will briefly discuss the lives of 9 most successful Indian CEOs in the silicon valley and see how they made it to the top:
1. Sundar Pichai, Google:
The CEO of one of the biggest internet companies in the world: Sundar Pichai did not have the privilege of watching television or travelling by car during his childhood. Born and raised in a middle class household, Mr. Pichai used to sleep with his brother in the living room of their two-room apartment that barely had any technology.
Despite facing these hardships of everyday life in India, Pichai had a gleam in his eyes of sheer ambition and relentless pursuit. This helped him stand out and secure his seat in the premier technology institute of the country- IIT. His passion for technology and dedication to his profession landed him jobs at McKinsey and eventually at Google in 2004.
Years of hard work started to pay off when Pichai became the man behind transforming company’s best known products: Chrome Browser and Android OS. He was praised by the Google cofounder Larry Page for his hard work and commitment to the company, who promised to continue to groom pichai.
2. Satya Nadella, Microsoft:
From an average public school student in Hyderabad to CEO of Microsoft in Washington, Satya Nadella dedicated 20 years to the company to reach this position. Unlike most of his counterparts in the list, Satya did not graduate from any pedigreed educational institution.
A son of IAS Officer, Satya completed engineering from Manipal University, followed by Masters in Computer Science at the University of Wisconsin. He started his career with software pioneer Sun Microsystems, before joining Microsoft in 1992. Over two decades of his dedication at Microsoft landed him many senior roles like: VP of R&D Group for Online services division, VP of Microsoft Business Division and President of Server and Tools division.
Under his Presidency of the Server and Tools Division, Microsoft’s revenue from Cloud Services skyrocketed from $ 16.6 billion to $ 20.3 billion. Satya’s quick promotions can also be attributed to his efforts in steering the software giant away from its singular focus on Office products, to mobile and cloud-centred development.
3. Rajeev Suri, Nokia Solutions & Networks:
Taking flight from a B.Tech graduate to becoming CEO of Nokia, Rajeev Suri is the first Indian to head a global telecom equipment producer company. Furthermore, he is among those handful of top executives, who achieved success without any MBA or Masters degree.
Rajeev was just a year junior to Satya Nadella at Manipal Institute of Technology. Both walked and studied under the same roof and went through the same grind and today, both are heading topmost technology companies of the world.
Rajeev’s success at Nokia can be attributed to his decision to move NSN’s service business to India. Before taking over as CEO of Nokia, Suri chiefly contributed to shifting “Nokia Siemens Network’s” services business to India from Munich in 2007. This step turned out to be fruitful from the start and the same division now generates nearly 50% of the company’s total revenues.
4. Shantanu Narayen, Adobe:
Born and brought up in Hyderabad, Shantanu started his career journey at Apple and then worked as a director at Silicon Graphics. Subsequently, he founded Pictra Inc; one of the first companies to come up with concept of digital photo sharing over the internet.
It was only after Shantanu joined Adobe, that his business acumen and leadership skills came into play. While trying to sell Pictra Inc. to Adobe, he was offered job at the latter. Although he could not succeed in selling his company, joining Adobe proved to be turning point in his career. It was Shantanu who transformed Adobe, from a Photoshop & Illustrator product licensor to offering cloud based subscription services. In addition, he was instrumental in Adobe’s $3.4 billion acquisition of multi-media company Macromedia in 2005 before being appointed as CEO of Adobe in 2007.
Today, Shantanu not only works Adobe’s CEO but he is also a Board member at University of California and Dell Inc. On top of that, Shantanu was even selected by Barack Obama, as one of the management advisory board members for the President of the United States. He advises the US government on how to implement the best technology practices. From IT, Software and Education to Government and Politics, shantanu has pioneered every major field, making him one of the luminaries of silicon valley.
5. Sanjay Jha, Globalfoundries:
Hailing from one of the underdeveloped regions in India, the Bihar born Sanjay Jha has emerged as a Semiconductor authority. Besides, he stands among the top paid CEOs in the United States. Starting his career as a senior engineer at Qualcomm in 1994, Sanjay worked on large scale global projects including the Globalstar Satellite phone and the first 13k vocoder application-specific integrated circuit.
Described by his workmates as technically sound professional with exceptional business skills, Sanjay has held assorted positions from design lead to executive ranks at Qualcomm. Furthermore, in 2008 when Sanjay joined Motorola as Co-CEO, the company’s share in US mobile phone market was just 7%, down from over 50% in the 90’s era. During his tenure at motorola mobility, he transformed the entire company by working in close cooperation with engineers and personally reviewing the key projects. Sanjay was the leading player in reforming the dying motorola and selling it to Google for around $12.4 billion. It was about two-thirds higher than its market value when the company was demerged from Motorola Inc.
6. Sanjay Mehrotra, Sandisk:
Sanjay Mehrotra, the man behind SanDisk, has had his own share of struggle before he could make it to the silicon valley. After getting admission at the University of California, Sanjay applied for visa at the US Consulate in India. However, he had a hard time getting his request approved and was denied US Visa multiple times.
Born into a lower middle class family in India, Sanjay thanks his father who always dreamt big and wanted to send him abroad for further education. As told by Sanjay himself in interviews, it was his father who prevailed upon the counselor at the US Consulate in India. His father explained the counselor that how wrong they were doing, by depriving a student of a golden chance that he’s earned by years of hard work. The officer eventually changed his mind and granted visa to Sanjay.
After reaching United States, Sanjay completed his master’s in computer science and electrical engineering at University of California. He started off his career with Intel and there he met his future business partner and SanDisk co-founder Eli Harari. Together with Jack Yuan and Eli Harari, Sanjay founded SanDisk in 1988. After 27 years the company has a market value of around $18 billion with nearly 9000 employees globally.
7. Nikesh Arora, Softbank Internet & Media Inc.:
The former Google employee, Nikesh Arora’s life story is no less of a rollercoaster. Nikesh is the current President and COO at Softbank Internet and Media Inc. In an interview, Nikesh recalled those days he was struggling to get a job. As told by Nikesh himself, he sent around 450 letters for different job positions but failed to get a response. He has saved a copy of all those letters to remind himself about how he dealt with failures. He further added that he is thankful none of the organizations responded back to his job application, given the success he achieved later in his life.
Nikesh has described himself as an impulsive individual who was always restless when he was young. He used to pack up and leave to explore the world whenever he was getting bored. Despite being an average student, Nikesh won the National Talent Scholarship during high school. The next big moment in his life came when he joined Google. Nikesh headed the Google’s European Operations from 2004 to 2007. In this capacity, he delivered outstanding results and exponentially increased Google’s revenues from display ads. At the same time, it was Nikesh largely contributed in developing YouTube into a robust advertising platform. He went on to holding different prominent positions across the corporate world. As a President and COO of Softbank, Nikesh received $200 million compensation for his period at the company, making him 3rd highest paid executive in the world.
8. Vinod Khosla, Co Founder- Sun Microsystems:
One of the co-founders of Sun Microsystems, Vinod Khosla is listed as a billionaire by Forbes magazine. Born to an Indian army officer, Khosla’s inclination towards technology developed when he read about the founding story of Intel in Electronic Engineering Times. This led him to choose technology as a career option; he was just 14 years old then. After graduating from IIT, Mr. Khosla earned master’s in Biomedical Engineering, followed by MBA from Stanford School of business.
Together with Stanford classmates, Khosla co-founded Sun Microsystems in 1982, a company that created Java programing language. He served as a Chairman at the company till 1984. After this, Khosla started his journey to become a venture capitalist. He rose to prominence very quickly and became a recognized venture capitalist, with plenty of initial successful investments. Besides his role at Sun Microsystems and Khosla ventures, he has co-founded many companies including Daisy systems, TiE and The Indus Entrepreneurs. Khosla has won many awards and recognitions for his contribution to the field of technology and entrepreneurship. He is also a Member of the Board of Trustees of the Blum Center for Developing Economies at the University of California.
9. Francisco D’Souza, Cognizant:
Francisco D’Souza is among the youngest Indian CEOs to have reached this position. He is the CEO and driving force behind Cognizant technologies. Under the tenure of Francisco, Cognizant reached its zenith. Francisco drove the company’s revenues from $1.4 billion, when he took over, to almost $7 billion. The compound annual growth rate stood at approximately 35 per cent. The company became the Fortune 500 company in 2011 and was placed fourth in the list of most admired IT companies in the world, by Fortune magazine.
Francisco’s was born in Kenya and grew up in three different continents. His father was an Indian Foreign service diplomat. As a result, most of his childhood spent traveling from one place to other. He attributes the success of Cognizant to his nomadic childhood that chiefly contributed to his need of learning new languages, making new friends, exploring different cuisines, and absorbing diverse cultures. He strives to promote multiculturalism at Cognizant, maintaining that in order to serve global marketplace, the organization should consist of a multiethnic workforce.
These 9 different success stories give us a fair idea that success is not merely driven by genius or luck, but it is a combination of passion and perseverance.
Taking example from above stories, we can conclude success doesn’t come when we do that one BIG thing. Rather it’s doing several unexciting, tiring and mundane things every single day. It may not feel enough in the short term, but in long term the positive effects compound and lead an individual to becoming hugely successful.
