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Follow UsName: Som Mittal Designation: Head Company: HP Global Services – Asia Pacific - Appointed Nasscom President today, to take charge in January 2008
He hates terming these relationships as “networking” since he feels it connotes something that is done for gain or with a purpose.
For Mittal, December 2005 was unarguably one of the testing times in his career. An HP employee, Pratibha Srikanth Murthy on her way to work was killed by a man who pretended to be a cab driver attached to a transport company. The incident raised plenty of security issues for the BPO industry at large and HP had a major PR issue on its hands.
He admits it was trying time personally. Mittal personally got involved in handling the issue, made efforts to help Pratibha’s family, cooperated with authorities and most important of all, reassured the large community of parents of staffers.
“We invited parents to the campus even before the incident happened, since our BPO employees come at night and parents must know that they are secure and that we provide a secure environment. I spend a lot of time on employee related programs. We do so many things for our employees and then something like this happens and shakes you up,” says Mittal.
To keep Pratibha’s memory alive and also to reinforce the importance of safety and security, last May, the company instituted an awareness week on Pratibha’s birthday in May. A learning center at the company has also been named after her.
Last September, Mittal had a role change and moved from being the head of application services operations and MD of HP GlobalSoft Limited, to senior vice president, Global Services in the Asia Pacific and Japan region. His role is more of a business development role. With offshoring on the rise in Asia Pacific, Mittal has his hands full most of the time.
Mittal: The M&A manager
He has been part of many mergers and acquisitions and JVs, and could well be considered an “acquisition integration” expert. He was part of Digital Equipment Corporation (DEC) when Compaq acquired it in 1998. Then of course, HP acquired Compaq in 2002. He is a strong supporter of M&As and dispels some of the common misconceptions about the fall-outs of buy-outs. “Uncertainty is a lot in the mind. M&A largely turned out good for the company and people. Of course there are challenges- the main one being to look after people’s concerns.”
He adds, “If there’s a time when leadership comes to the fore, its not when there is growth but it is only in times of crisis. We never told them anything that we did not believe in.”
Such a long journey
An alumnus of IIM Ahmedabad and IT Kanpur, Mittal spent his early years in the manufacturing and automotive sector, in companies like Larsen & Toubro, Escorts and Denso. He particularly enjoyed working with the Japanese while at auto parts manufacturing firm Denso. Their attention to detail and well-structured plans were very valuable lessons. “If you think something is perfect they (the Japanese) would improve,” he says.
His exposure to the Japanese way of work stood him in good stead when he joined Wipro in Bangalore in 1989. At the time, Wipro wanted to set up a collaborative venture with Seiko-Epson for OEM sales of fax machines. He did not find the transition from the traditional sector to a new one as difficult as it was for his family, which relocated from Delhi to Bangalore. In fact, his entry into an unknown segment proved advantageous since he brought new perspective into the game. “I could question something fundamental because I did not know how things worked. People were very responsive, and we built a new factory.”
Wipro seemed pleased with the results and three years three years later, Mittal was given a new role of heading a division that dealt with end-to-end business of designing to service of PCs and servers. In 1994, he joined Digital Equipment Corporation (DEC), which was then a listed company as its managing director. It was a challenging time to join as the company was running under losses. In two years’ time Mittal turned around the company’s fortunes and it was back in black. As Mittal is wont to say even now, he attributes the success to people and not strategy or change in management practices.
The company soon started manufacturing PCs and soon became the second largest PC brand after Compaq. In 1998, Compaq acquired DEC and made Mittal its country manager for India. The merger had some complications since Compaq had one listed entity and also a 100 per cent subsidiary on its hands.
Inside Out
Ambition: Add value to people.
Must have: personal conviction
What I would like to change about myself: Better prioritize my priorities
Favorite gizmo: Anything that is simple to use
Hobbies: Playing bridge, watching movies and spending time with friends
Best moments: Excitement of setting up something and seeing it come up
Worst fear: Losing credibility
What ticks you off: People putting up a sham
Favorite destination: Home
Motto: Do your job honestly and as well as you can.
A lesson for life: Don’t take snap judgments of people. Look for the goodness in a person. Help them drop their baggage and recognize their goodness. People are inherently good. It is only the environment that makes them that way.
(This portrait was originally published on Feb. 2, 2007)
The company merged the domestic business with the subsidiary while the original DEC (listed entity) was made into a services entity-Digital GlobalSoft. Mittal offered to run this software company that then had 300 engineers. This operation received good support from the parent and by 2004, DEC got delisted and was subsequently absorbed by Compaq.
Soon it was time for another merger when HP acquired Compaq. Mittal was asked to run the company’s India center operations and was responsible for ramping up HP’s application services division and soon enough the overall application services business worldwide. “HP was more known for infrastructure services. We created a strong capability for applications right from lifecycle-design to development to management and enhancement.”
While HP was doing application services in the past, it was offered as a part of the larger outsourcing deal and not specifically as a service. This changed with the merger. The application team today does work around SAP, application integration, Service oriented architecture and is particularly strong in the communication, media and entertainment segments.
Mittal personal management credo sounds like a negative statement. He believes that the greatest driver is self-generated dissatisfaction. Or in other words: When you feel life has handed you a lemon, turn it into lemonade. Only, in his case, Mittal seems to have made it tequila.