A person’s true nature is revealed in moments of greatest adversity. Some, ike dandelions, stand up tall again and again in spite of tough challenges.
Dr Lil Mohan is one such person. He likes to brave challenges. He treats his job like a battleground, choosing the toughest tasks, and battling to get on top of them. That is why his first job at Sun Microsystems in 1990 could not hold his interest for long. Initially, he enjoyed being part of the action while he worked on the company’s Sun Solaris platform.But soon monotony set in and he started getting restless. So, after working with the company for four-five years as product manager, he decided to throw up the cushy job and test his entrepreneurial skills with a small start-up, Junglee Corporation. “I change jobs when I feel there is something more to do, something more exciting that I absolutely have to do and the old job has reached a stage of comfort.”
Entrepreneurship proved to be all that he had expected and more. Uncertainties, long hours, grit, hard work. But also, a lot of satisfaction. “We started from ground zero. The internet segment at the time was offering an ocean of business. We were the first to come up with a financial business model. Being the early birds, we developed the business and decided to reach out to a wider market, large corporations, etc., convincing them that this was the best way to do business in the coolest possible fashion,” he says proudly.
Junglee was subsequently acquired by Amazon.com. He continued as general manager, responsible for extending the company’s reach to wireless and broadband platforms and devices. He also ran Amazon’s product finder business. “Again, I would say, it was cool stuff we were doing over there.”
There was other “cool stuff” that Mohan had hoped to do. In his youth, he had aspired to be a professional golfer. But since that worried his parents and did not make much practical sense in India at the time, he gave up the idea. Later, he mulled the idea of teaching at business school but didn’t eventually pursue it.
Not that he regrets his choices. He seems to have enjoyed each one of his assignments. Prior to joining Intel, he was vice-president, Software Strategy, Motorola’s Personal Communications Sector (PCS). There he was responsible for developing and driving a consistent software strategy for its handsets.
At Intel, he has earlier been director of Wireless Strategy and Planning for the Mobility Group, where he was responsible for driving strategic wireless communication initiatives across multiple mobile client devices.
Now managing director of Intel’s WiMax Program Office for South Asia and Emerging Markets, Mohan has an important goal before him: to change the direction of third world and developing economies with the introduction of wireless broadband. The aim is to achieve mass deployment of broadband wireless across the country and in parts of South Asia and Africa. “Broadband wireless is set to take off in a big way. There are different challenges for economies like India, China and Brazil as compared to the more advanced markets of Japan, the US or Taiwan. If we can get these places adequately broadband enabled, that would be a major contribution.” But India, quite clearly, remains the main focus area for him. He wants to see wide area broadband deployed in every corner of the country.
The task is challenging, considering that most developing economies have very low ARPUs and equipment has to be brought to a price point. His target is to initially start with 100-200 cities in the country and then address the rural areas.
Mohan is counting on the company’s strength to achieve these tough goals.”Intel has many strengths. It has a strong market presence. Moreover, we have innovative ideas and are putting in a lot of effort and energy into the projects ?? the ability to do that is a plus point. Had the same been undertaken by a start-up, it would never have succeeded. It takes tremendous effort, manpower and long, sustained investment to undertake these kinds of projects.”
Mohan also has a lot of faith in Intel’s workforce. He especially considers the management team state of the art, which looks into every project in detail and sets high quality benchmarks. “If something goes wrong, it is caught immediately. In fact, this is what prevents me from making mistakes.”
He also acknowledges Intel’s knowledge bank with its experienced team of engineers, who offer cutting-edge competition in the market. However, working for a large company sometimes tests his patience when decision-making takes a long, often unnecessary, route.
He believes that his biggest strength is his understanding of the big picture and fitting together all the pieces. When it comes to implementation, he delegates heavily, often keeping one piece of the job to be done to himself. Since the rest is with his team, he usually spends about 20 per cent of his time managing and grooming people on a daily basis, enabling them to work and function better. The remaining 80 per cent is spent on working towards the project. But he is a full-time troubleshooter, always available to assist them. This formula has worked well for him so far.
Mohan also believes in constant selfdevelopment as the key to sustaining interest in one’s work. “I am happy to be in the vanguard, and take up tough situations as they invariably offer a lot of learning,” he says. The only downside, he admits candidly, is that he often forgets to make a separation between work and home life and unknowingly ends up taking out work frustrations at home. “There are times when I find myself getting frustrated if things do not go well, and am not in as calm a state of mind as I would like to be.”
So, though Mohan has not been very successful in mastering his restless mind, he does try his best to spend as much time as possible with his family. After a long tour, before his two children express their resentment at his absence, he wisely takes half a day, or perhaps even a full day, off and works from home. “I would have been happy hanging out with my kids, helping them with their homework, but that is not the case.” On holidays, he takes the children for outdoor sports, walking or trekking.
“My wife and I have an eclectic collection of books, which includes Walter Moores, Thirteen and a Half Lives of Captain Bluebear, Oddball Books, and one on artificial intelligence (which he laid his hands on when he was at IIM, Ahmedabad and it so inspired him that he contemplated doing a Ph.D. on the subject).”
For Mohan, a typical day involves an early start at work and preferably, an early exit too. Mornings are usually reserved for meetings. He also travels frequently to Mumbai and Delhi, meeting customers or officials of the Department of Telecommunications.
After spending 20 years abroad, during which period he did a Ph.D. from Purdue University, Mohan is finding the Indian social system quite challenging to adjust to. “Life is hard here and people have issues working in a non-personal environment.” Also, “it is not very easy for my kids to connect to their grandparents. When I was a child, I grew up in a joint family, where my maternal grandfather and my father had a strong influence on me. As a matter of fact, they used to be a source of inspiration for me. I would listen to them very carefully.”
In such times of contradictions and trouble, Mohan often refreshes himself with memories of his childhood spent in Bangalore. He recalls his laidback schooldays when even written complaints from the principal did not affect him. He used to enjoy breaking the rules ?? skipping classes to go and play with friends, cycle all over the place, or go for golf or field hockey. Sometimes, he wishes he could go back to those innocent, uncomplicated times that inculcated in him a love for life and made him so energetic about everything. Even now, he is in touch with his old friends.
While that may now be a trifle difficult, he still sometimes dreams of breaking out, perhaps doing something unconventional. As he says: “Intel has been fun, but 10 years down the line, I might be doing something completely different.”
