|
Also featured in this
section |
HOW-TO GUIDE
Worried about launching your brand in these tough times? Here is how sharp targeting can prevent it from bombing.
Read full story |
|
|
 |
|
|
|
|
|
“I behave the way I wanted my bosses to behave with me”
|
 |
The world noticed Raman Roy when he founded Spectramind in 2000, when not many in India even knew what BPO stood for. He upped that feat two years later, selling his third-party outsourcing firm to Wipro for more than Rs 4 billion. By 2006, Roy finished his stint at Spectramind and was ready to be an entrepreneur again. Such was the level of trust that a few of his colleagues gave up their jobs and turned up at his house, ready for the next project. For the next eight months, no one got a salary. Yet, their faith in Roy did not waver. No wonder 60% of his senior management team at Quatrro has been working with him for the past 15 years and across different companies. |
| Raman Roy, Chairman & MD, Quatrro BPO Solutions |
I wish people came to work for me
for the way I look, or for some great knowledge that I – and I alone – can impart to them. But my face only attracts those who want |
|
|
to buy Dell computers. People come because I give them what they want from their professional lives. I give them space to work. I don’t look over their shoulders. And I let them do their jobs. It’s really that simple.
Look at Gandhiji. All he had was a bamboo stick and a dhoti. Yet he had the entire nation with him. People quit their homes and jobs for him because he delivered what he committed. And he treated them well.
In my 25-year professional life,
many people have taught me what not to be. I had a tough time with some of my bosses, who wanted me to execute what they wanted. They didn’t set out the broad directions and let me decide how to get there. I still remember the day, 20 years ago, when I had a chat with my supervisor. I told him that I was too expensive a resource to do only what he wanted done.
Today, I behave the way
I wanted my bosses to behave with me. I wanted respect and dignity. I wanted to be given my own space. I wanted to be congratulated for my successes. And I wanted to be rapped on my knuckles for my mistakes.
I genuinely respect people’s capabilities in their areas of specialisation. There are times when people override even my decisions in their areas. And it isn’t about the output alone. It has a lot to do with inputs. I just have to know whether they gave it their best. In the last few years, a lot of projects have failed miserably but I have known that those teams worked very hard. That is what matters.
I am always clear and honest with people.
I don’t commit what I cannot deliver, but once I commit, I make it a point to deliver. The person who worked on the Spectramind acquisition for Wipro, well, we got him with us at Quatrro. I had committed certain things to him at the beginning of our stint, and a year later, I made it a point to check with him whether I had delivered on all those counts.
It’s not that I always agree with what my team says, or that we don’t fight. Some of the people who have worked with me the longest will tell you that we exchange harsh words many a times. I may vehemently disagree with them, but I never disrespect them. At work, we rely on each other. There are times when the entire team’s working on something and I walk in. They will immediately lower their laptop screens or switch off the projector. They will tell me they are not ready for me yet. I respect that.
Actually, I have to thank my wife
for the learning. She’s not a person I can tell what to do. I can ask her to do something and then leave it to her to decide how she wants to do it. I just do the same at work.
AS TOLD TO POOJA KOTHARI
|
|
|
|
EMAIL THIS ARTICLE 
PRINT THIS PAGE