Not many know that Sanjay, who hails from Darjeeling in West Bengal, has already trekked places in Eastern Himalayas like the Nathu La pass among others. "You can call me a wanderer as I love trekking and, if given an option, I would love to pack my bags and just wander off now and then to unknown places," he says.

After completing his initial education at one of the Christian missionary schools there, he went on to pursue his BSc from Government College in 1986 and like most of the other youngsters hailing from business families, joined his family business of transportation.

"Even though I had joined my family business, yet I yearned to something different and I felt that my growth was getting stagnated in Darjeeling." It was then that he joined a CA programme for engineers from the Institute of Engineers in 1988 and after its completion took up his first job at the Bureau of Data Processing in Bangalore where he worked for three years.

Is that all? No...Sanjay is a total techno geek. He reveals that since childhood he was fascinated by gadgets. "My room looked like a workshop where I could try anything new." He admits that he loves to try on any new gadget that comes in the market. "Yet...the bottom line remains that the gadget should have its usefulness", he says. He is such a thorough IT professional that he swears by his laptop, blackberry and his music system.

Innovative Mind at Work
"Since 1998, the time I joined Timex, I have constantly made an effort to introduce new things. But, one which clearly stood out was the phase when we were doing the transition to an open source Linux platform," he proudly claims. Once the transition was successfully done from using proprietary software to open source platform, it led to reduction in the company's infrastructure procurement management costs by as much as about 50%. The experiment was also a sort of a test for other Timex offices, which thereafter successfully moved to the Linux platform once India had shown way.

Commenting on how far IT has moved on since the time, the Timex CIO said that the role of a CIO too has also undergone a massive shift from its earlier avtars. "From being just a caretaker of data center and networks, the CIO has to be now carried along with business. Whereas a CIO was just a utility guy earlier whose sole work was to provide IT related services, his inputs now determine how well the business is conducted," he asserts.

Citing an example of how technology has made changes in the manner, business is conducted, Sanjay says that Timex Watches India, a fully owned subsidiary of privately owned company headquartered in USA, is in the process of opening new retail stores across India which would facilitate collection of sample data of consumer choice and other preferences. "But simply getting and storing of this data would not suffice, we needed to arrange for the data flow." One of the options available to Sanjay and his team was to procure this data from the distributors but there was always the possibility of it being fudged. "What we required therefore was backward integration so that we could pick up the feed from the store itself and for this we required a digital line."

For this to achieve, the erstwhile ignored IT guys were taken into the loop when it came to making crucial decisions about the location of retail stores as it became imperative to find out whether connectivity could be made or not. "From being on the sidelines to center stage, we most certainly have come a long way, and now we are consulted on location decisions as it has become imperative for us to connect and integrate all these new locations where we are opening new stores and manufacturing units thus reinforcing the belief that IT has now become an imperative part of any business," he adds.

Not a Meetings Guy
While most would agree that meetings are a waste of time, none would admit it openly. Sanjay though stands out from the rest and admits gladly that "meetings are most certainly a big waste of time and effort mainly because there have been instances when I have had to sit through meetings where my presence even though was required for a short duration." Meetings according to him result in cropping up of new problems and issues.

Political Management is another area of concern for Sanjay who feels that for a "techie guy like me, political management is something which I am not comfortable with and I am sure that many would agree with it." For instance, if the e-mail of any senior executive is not working then instead of calling for IT support, he would rather call for the CIO which in turn puts a spanner in the work flow of the CIO.

Team Man
'Takes a licking and keeps on ticking'! No wonder he reflects the durability meaning of Timex Watches' first tagline. According to Sanjay, Timex India is a flat organization with no rigid hierarchy system in place for day-to-day activities and perhaps that is one of the several reasons which have made Sanjay stick with the organization even after 8 years of service, something completely unheard of in the present scenario where job hopping is the norm of the day. As the company encourages, free and informal work environment, like any other organization, there have been instances when team coordination becomes difficult in the wake of an individual restricting knowledge sharing.

It is to solve this problem that the company has a repository kind of thing for storing new ideas and ways and means of solving problems. The team members are encouraged to share their new ideas and if the person has contributed to this repository it is taken into consideration at the time of appraisal.

Revealing his success mantra when it comes to handling his team, Sanjay says, "I allow them full freedom and also make them stakeholders in every activity and at the same time give them opportunities to learn."

The team man that he is, on being asked about opposition from peers about any new implementation, Sanjay reluctantly admits of skepticism, yet diplomatically replied, "the best possible way out is undergoing dry runs, presenting proof-of-concepts but since Timex is a very IT-friendly company, it has made life much easier for us."

Likes Doing...
Unlike most of his other techno geek counterparts, Sanjay is a bookworm and therefore feels that he "can never be bored or lonely." Science fiction is what interests him the most, but he "can read anything that comes his way from magazines to newspapers to any fiction book as well."

A music aficionado, Sanjay swears by his music system and is fond of hearing a wide range of music right from regional folk songs to heavy metal, but a complete no-no for him are the Hindi songs.

And, what is his formula for distressing after a long day at work? Pat comes the answer; "My kids who mean the world to me and even though I know that those two are brats, I still feel they are the best in the world."

Future Plans...
Bitten by the entrepreneurial bug, Sanjay already has big plans up his sleeve. "In another 10 years time, I see myself heading or at least being a part of any big startup, preferably, in the telecom sector in the converged networks and VOIP space," says Sanjay-triumphant-in IT profession. The first step to his dream has already been achieved with the completion of the initial phase of testing software.

Stuti Das
stutid@cybermedia.co.in

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