For Bala Mahadevan, success translates into being a ?change agent?. In his current role as CEO, Orange Business Services, India, he is determined to establish the Orange brand as a partner of choice in the country?
Bala Mahadevan recently joined Orange Business Services as CEO for the India operations, where he is responsible for driving profitable and aggressive growth for Orange India. His other responsibilities include establishing the Orange India brand as a leading communications integrator in the country.
He says that Orange is uniquely positioned in India, along with its traditional areas of strength as a network service provider. The company offers network-related services in the areas of customer relationship management, contact centre, IP telephony, video conferencing, security and cloud solutions.
?Our lack of domestic retail operations in the country, especially mobile, means that we don?t quite have the same brand recall in India compared to, say, Orange in Europe. This is a market dynamic as more international companies invest in India and vice versa,? he says.
The company has a significant focus, investment and footprint in India. Orange Business Services currently employs over 2,300 people in India and, according to Mahadevan, is well placed in the enterprise marketplace with the ability to provide access and connectivity solutions to Indian and global MNCs as well as fulfil their needs in the areas of systems integration, unified communication solutions and remote infrastructure management services.
?We are the only fully integrated communications service provider with a breadth of services, ranging from pure network connectivity to enterprise IT services,? he says.
The acquisition of the Enterprise Services and Managed Services divisions of GTL in 2007 gave the company an edge in its product portfolio as compared to other international service providers. The acquisition, he says, has provided Orange with the ability to be an end-to-end communications service provider by offering network-agnostic, stand-alone services.
?In today?s market scenario, the customer has multiple choices for an IT service provider. The key is to differentiate Orange such that we are placed as the preferred communications solution provider in the mind of the customer,? he says.
Orange Business Services is targeting 1 billion euro from emerging markets by 2015. India is part of this growth plan and Mahadevan expects significant revenues to come in from this market. He is expecting four times growth in the country by 2015.
Orange has advanced solutions for cloud computing, machine-to-machine (M2M), contact centre, etc. He believes that, keeping in mind Indian market conditions, this is the appropriate time to offer cloud computing.
?Companies looking to optimise resources and reduce capital expenditure can use this model. It will also be helpful for companies that face difficulty in finding skilled manpower for IT ventures,? he says. Mahadevan is upbeat about Orange?s M2M solution. It provides M2M consulting, communication and integration services. Solutions like fleet management, smart metering and e-health are becoming increasingly popular. Remote asset monitoring is one such growth area centred on operational efficiency. ?Remote monitoring solutions can provide real-time information on the state of the device and are becoming popular across a wide range of verticals, particularly utilities, green energy, logistics, transportation vehicles, public infrastructure and facility management,? he says.
Mahadevan?s curriculum vitae is impressive with varied experience in the IT services industry across service lines, verticals and geographies over the past 25 years.
He has a track record of making key contributions to the organisations he has worked with as well as for driving growth in them.
Prior to joining Orange Business Services, Mahadevan, an engineering graduate from BITS Pilani, was the India president and managing director for the Computer Sciences Corporation, India. Under his leadership, the company became one of the fastest growing MNC operations in India.
Previously, Mahadevan has also held important leadership positions with HP, Covansys Corporation, Indigo Technologies and Tata Consultancy Services.
One of his particularly memorable assignments was his deputation to Camp Le Juene, North Carolina, a US Marine base, on behalf of McDonnell Douglas, a leading American aerospace manufacturer and defence contractor. His job entailed implementing and training army personnel on a hospital management system for the armed forces.
?There I was, a young computer professional from India, barely acclimatised to the US, standing in front of the Marines. It was a unique experience,? he recalls.
Another fulfilling assignment was when he was deputed to India for a year to lead the implementation of screen-based trading systems for Chennai and other stock exchanges. A team of over 60 was involved in everything from design and development of the application and building the trading floor to training novice users (?starting from what a mouse is?) on the sophisticated system.
?It was a great experience, as it is rare to see such teamwork and perseverance. And when the system finally went live with its first transaction, we all had tears in our eyes,? he says.
As for his strengths, he says these lie mainly in the areas of integrating and streamlining operations, and building strong leadership teams that are motivated and qualified to deliver growth.
He believes in building and nurturing a high performance workforce that is united in its mission, works with passion, and thrives in an apolitical environment. Once that is done, he is happy to delegate because he believes in trusting his teams.
?I have always been successful in developing strong customer relationships throughout my career and this comes in real handy. I do suffer from not getting into too many details occasionally, but then I believe that the empowered team I have built is capable of addressing these areas.?
Integrity is another quality he values immensely. It?s a quality he first saw in his father who, he says, ?walked the straightest line in life, consistently, every day?. Other figures who have inspired him are Michael Jordan, Sachin Tendulkar (when it comes to seeking perfection) and Nasscom chief Som Mittal, who has been a mentor to him. ?I have observed him and learnt a lot from him in terms of what it takes to be a responsible leader,? he says.
As a young man, Mahadevan did not have clear ambitions, apart from the nebulous notion that he wanted to be successful. At school, he was very conservative and reasonably studious, as was expected of a boy who came from a middle-class family with not much exposure.
?By the time I entered college, my personality had bloomed into a talkative, attention seeker and a quick learner about life,? he says. Even so, he could not imagine the kind of success he has enjoyed in his career. Life, says Mahadevan, has been kind to him and taken him to places and situations that have proved to be learning experiences.
?I never had any titular ambitions,? he says. ?I just wanted to be known as being successful in all the assignments that came my way. About 10 years ago, I realised that what I enjoyed the most was being a change agent, to be in a position where one can help people grow. Since then, that has been my focus in the three organisations I have been a part of during the last decade and I hope I have left a lasting impression.?
In his spare time, Mahadevan enjoys cooking for the family, watching cricket, and listening to music. He hates being away from his family, particularly from his ?three-year-old angel?.
He enjoys the intense competition in the telecom industry because he finds it challenging. ?Increasingly, the competition segregation for telcos like us is blurring, as competition in the IT services space is no longer with the traditional telecom companies but gets expanded to IT service providers as well,? he says.
?Also, the number of service providers in the Indian market means the customers now have a wide array of choices before them in terms of which partner to choose. This environment poses a significant challenge for companies like us. The key is to place Orange Business Services as the preferred partner of choice in the minds of the customers.?
