Translating ambition into growth

In 1995, Arun Nathani set up Cybage, a technology consulting organisation, with four employees. Shortly thereafter, he was joined by his brother and co-founder Deepak Nathani. Arun mentions that when the organisation was set up, there was no large strategic vision. The Internet was picking up in India, and he felt there was a lot of potential to work on something transcending geographic boundaries. As he puts it, his first product had a “user-friendly interface and was very well received. But after some time it became commercially non-viable with a leading software company giving it out for free!” Arun adds, “I was very ambitious. And one thing that all entrepreneurs have in common is that they are so overwhelmed by the sheer greatness of their ideas that they feel nothing can go wrong. I believe that every industry has a short burst of immense excitement followed by an excruciatingly long period of boredom. When I look back, I think it was a reckless act of gallantry when I decided to jump on the dotcom bandwagon.”

Cybage then moved into the services business and got companies interested in its offshore software development services way back in 1996. Over the next 9 years, in its ‘second phase’ as Arun terms it, Cybage grew through references from its customers. Instead of determining what it should charge its customers, Cybage focused more on what the development of a software cost it and marketed the same accordingly. In Arun’s words, “Marketing came 7 to 8 years after the business existed in the USA.”

The company was on an upward growth path, yet it didn’t have the scale to compete with larger players and scale was clearly becoming the differentiating factor in terms of hiring, expanding, procuring land and so on. The company then decided to focus on systems and processes. As Arun explains, “Then came our journey of system developed approaches. We started our digitisation process in 2004 and today we have a team of about 150 people whose only job is to run Cybage more efficiently. This allowed me to concentrate on making decisions at the board level.”

Till now, the company had been inward focused in its approach to customers. It had consciously chosen to grow organically, remain private and not dilute its stake. Today, Arun is aware that for Cybage’s next phase of growth, external brand building is important to help secure larger deals. The company is also exploring acquisitions to enable it to add the latest that technology brings into its folio.

When it comes to values, Arun acknowledges six stakeholders who are important to him – customers, employees, shareholders, vendors, society and social service organisations/concerns. “In the context of business, the values I believe in are: The power of data is bigger than that of the human ego. The best Einstein in the world is not as sharp as data and that realisation is easy for me. In the process of living in that environment and using that power, instead of just your own decision making, you will focus on building systems which are richer.” In terms of investing in society, CybageAsha and CybageKhushboo are the two CSR initiatives. Arun gives the credit for the work they are doing in this space to his wife. He says, “My wife goes at least once a week to a village, which it could take her about three hours to reach. She spends an entire day there, has lunch with the villagers and checks on the progress being made in terms of initiatives we have undertaken. This requires a different type of passion and dedication and such a thing cannot be measured in money. In the rural areas, we focus only on sustainability – we try to create a livelihood for them, we try to do anything that helps in reverse migration.” For Arun, family businesses go beyond money: “If money is the objective, then you can easily sell the company and live happily after that. That bridge, for Cybage, was crossed about 15–18 years back. Money and fame are important, but there is always something bigger that successful businessmen and entrepreneurs believe in.”

About the next gen, Arun mentions that his daughter recently joined the company, while his son is still studying. Cybage being a private company, Arun’s children are stakeholders from an inheritance perspective.

However, he adds that the “running of the company has got to be professional, the right person should be running it. It will be nonprofitable for the stakeholder if s/he is not capable of running it.” He goes on to say that “technology companies are fairly complex and you need experience. At this stage, there is no specific plan that they are going to run or not run it someday. For all you know, tomorrow they may want to do their own thing…it’s too early to say.”