Champoo meets Raju!

Note: The blog was written while we, the employees of Satyam Computers looked upon Ramalinga Raju as their role model and highly respected him.

Champoo meets Raju!

If that’s misinterpreted as Champak Chowksi meets Raju Guide (my another wierd travel blog by that name) then that's indeed heights of extreme misinterpretation because one lives in the world of dreams while other brings out the reality. But this time this Raju will definitely cause a stir outclassing Champoo in his own arena. While Champoo wishes to be a self-made entrepreneur like him, he met him in his dreams. Born on 16th September 1954 to a family managing agribusiness, pursued B.Com from Andhra Loyola College, Vijaywada, an MBA from Ohio University with an owner/president course at Harvard, this astute visionary fuelled with ideas foresaw the IT trend and what he set up(with mere 20 employees) thereafter is indeed a success story. Yes, he’s none other then Mr. Ramalinga Raju Byraju, the founder and Chairman of Satyam (named after his father Satyanarayan) Computer Services Ltd. incorporated in 1987.

While Champoo was once asked in one of the competitive exams, during college, about the head of Satyam, pretty ignorant of the corporate battlefield he said C. Rangarajan, the then governor of RBI and aptly he didn’t get through the exam. Exactly a year after, he was somehow closely related to Ramalinga Raju. It was pretty tough to follow this media-shy person but it paid rich dividends not only by the appreciation of Satyam stocks but a personal encounter with him as well-a dreamy affair although. Before this dream, he had an opportunity to witness him grabbing Ernst & Young Entrepreneur of the Year Services award-1999 and Dataquest IT man of the Year-2000.

Few years from now in 2020, it was a Business awards ceremony at Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia where Champoo was to be felicitated for his achievements. To his astonishment, while his name was announced for the Asia Business Leader-2020, he was presented by none other than Asia Business Leader-2002 himself, that’s Raju of the Satyam family. After the awards, while having business lunch together, Champoo had a chance to glide in a conversation on Raju’s journey in building the IT Empire, future ventures and family expedition. Raju shared his experience by gifting him a personal copy of his autobiography signed by him on Champoo’s demand. On being asked about how he feels being the IT giant (with revenues multiplying 20th fold and employee base increasing by half a lac annually) of the globe and richest man ever, he simply said setting up a goal (North Star) made Satyam achieve and distributing and sharing his wealth only multiplied his assets. For him money is simply the by-product of one’s efforts. Besides being far above his peers, he was pretty modest discussing his forays in to FMCG, Infrastructure and Financial ventures and the way he managed to survive the Rupee appreciation in Dollar-dependent business. He implemented in Rupee dealings rather than Dollars for that. Meanwhile, he also encouraged contributing to the society, less privileged people and the soil that brought him up.

If two was a build-up, four is a business. Soon after lunch they were joined by the management of MAYTAS, an infrastructure and property business managed by Teja B. Raju, a Carnegie Melon alumni and youngest entrepreneur to meet Prez Bush, who holds Maytas Infrastructure arm and Rama B. Raju who controls Maytas Properties. They too were here to receive awards in respective categories and the public listing of their company in Malaysia (will be among market toppers in 2020). Soon Champoo proposed for a collaborative effort in few endeavors. While they were about to make tracks (depart), Champoo was enriched by few more facts like ‘Satyam’ and Satyamite were officially coined as a word in English Dictionary which stood for Satyam-Truth and Transformation of a company on its values and Satyamite-for the mighty workforce (like dynamite). “Satyamway” was adopted as a case study by various B-schools and practiced by several organizations. Byraju foundation carved a niche worldwide for its efforts and contribution and others followed its footsteps as well. And lastly the Blogging portal (commercial by then) https://blogs.satyam.com, taking over the biggies in the business, handling millions of quality posts on hourly basis.

Disclaimer: The information conveyed over here is partially based on the facts and partially imagination driven. I’ve taken the facts like education, family background and few other things of Mr. Ramalinga Raju through various sources and the future statements made are solely driven by my thoughts. It may or may not occur the same way as per my dream but in no way its written to hamper the credentials or policies of the organization.