To be counted amongst the top CEOs in the world is an image statement for the CEO and his company. More so, when one is personally invited by none less than Steve Forbes, president & CEO, Forbes and editor-in-chief of Forbes magazine, the staple read of the CEO community. Well, the privileged one is Lal Chand Singh who founded the Pune-based company, Nihilent Technologies. LC, as he is popularly known, went for a cruise aboard ‘The Highlander’, cruising around New York Harbor with Steve Forbes.

When LC started Nihilent in August 2000, all he had was the burning desire to build a technology outfit that was ‘different’. A Harvard alumnus from the Advanced Management Program at HBS and having spent the better part of his life scouring the globe and building global business alliances, LC’s network of contacts was powerful enough to raise capital. Thus, he got Nedcor, the largest South African bank to invest in Nihilent Technologies.

"The price of analytical tools from MNC vendors is prohibitive and this will limit adoption, and leave aside their effectiveness" LC Singh, president & CEO, Nihilent Technology

Interestingly, LC didn’t tread the beaten path thereafter—to get loads of routine IT services projects from global majors and deliver them in the onsite-offshore model—something that the legions of tech companies are adept at. It would have been easy too considering his circle of ‘business friends’. Instead, LC wanted Nihilent to build processes and intellectual property and address the market with a differentiation. The differentiation that Nihilent offered was "strategic relationship management (SRM)". The basic premise for this differentiation is that while the strategic intent of the organizations demand innovation to repeat competitive advantage, the business strategy demands efficiency to deliver business goals. That is, there is often a conflict between leadership values and managing operations, harming business in the process. Says LC, "Nihilent looks at fulfilling this disconnect between Leadership and Management, offering services of "Strategic Responsibility Management".

LC further claims, "SRM is a positioning aimed at facilitating customer organizations to construct and de-construct their business models without the associated agony of taking business decisions without adequate ‘Proof of Success’. In plainer terms, Nihilent’s business model is made of service lines that comprise application development and maintenance, application integration, CRM, and knowledge management delivered to BFSI and logistics-retailing-distribution vertical segments. Nevertheless, services alone do not make up Nihilent’s portfolio; the company has been investing quite heavily in developing IP and products in select areas. Many of the company’s first projects and product implementations were done at Nedcor, the South African bank that doubled as a client and an investor.

Notable among Nihilent’s milestones is MC3, a knowledge management framework and methodology that the company has patented. The concept of MC3 is based on three basic premises—a) motivating people to collaborate and share knowledge, b) have the technology framework and tools to create, capture, and disseminate knowledge, and c) get the organization to institutionalize the knowledge management practices. Says LC, " This is what is called as a ‘learning corporation’—an entity that continuously learns to survive and grow". MC3 has found favor and acceptance at many organizations in India already amongst MNCs, hi-tech companies, and large enterprises. Outside India, MC3 has been implemented at the South African Revenue Service (SARS) and South African Authorized Securities Depository (STRATE).

One of the important elements of Nihilent’s strategy is the development of IP and products. Known for his panache for products and branding, right from his TCS days where he was in instrumental in TCS’s foray into products with brands like E-X, Masterkey, and Rtwo amongst others, LC is building up a strong products portfolio at Nihilent too. Once again, it is the call of the Indian SME market that beckoned him. With the ThirdDream brand, the attempt is to empower the small entrepreneur with tools that embody global best practices. The ThirdDream brand would be sold through a network of over 800 dealers and resellers in the country. Additional product categories suitable to the SME would get added to the ThirdDream suite from time to time.

With MC3 and ThirdDream, Nihilent would be able to address a large part of the Indian market. Much of Nihilent’s products and methodologies are conceptual though, the products themselves are based on proven concepts and enjoy a cost advantage through seat-based pricing. In addition, the timing for such products is right. Consider the introduction of Kaplan’s Balanced Scorecard (BSC) approach in India. Over 50 % of the large and successful corporations in the US have implemented BSC while in India the trend is just catching up. Says LC, "In India, the price for the analytical toolsets from MNC vendors is prohibitive which will limit the adoption, however effective the tools are".

In terms of size, Nihilent is still small and is yet to accrue scale. Though the company did not reveal financial performance figures, it is estimated that the company’s revenue in 2002-03 would be in the region of Rs 60 crore. Surely, the company is attempting to scale up rapidly. In a brilliant stroke of strategy, Nihilent invited Dimension Data Holdings, the LSE-listed $ 2.5 billion global technology services company to take a 37.45% equity stake. Beyond the equity, Nihilent stands to gain through access to Dimension Data’s business processes, client relationships, and global sales-force. With the 7,500 employees, global footprint, and the several technology subsidiaries that Dimension Data has, Nihilent will be able to scale up into new verticals and new technology markets. The start-up phase for the company has been quite eventful in that the basic direction of the company has been set. LC has also built up the top-level of the organization mostly with people who have had long innings with TCS. With alliances like Dimension Data, client acquisition will be easier. A replication of the proven Indian IT services model through offshore and near-shore development that the company is currently working at would see revenues ramp up rapidly.

Easwar S Nair

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