Suhas Gopinath

Suhas Gopinath *

Brajaraj Mohanty1 & Rajeev Roy2

* Received August 20, 2007; Revised September 12, 2007. The case is based on published materials,website information and personal experience of the authors with Mr. Gopinath

1 Professor, Xavier Institute of Management Bhubaneswar. email: [email protected] Assistant Professor, Xavier Institute of Management Bhubaneswar. email: [email protected]

1.0 THE WONDERKID

On March 1, 2006, CBS News Agencymade the headlines about the Indianwonderkid, Suhas Gopinath. As its ChiefForeign Correspondent Lara Loganreported, six years back, Suhas at the ageof 14 had become the World’s youngestChief Executive. By 2006, he was the bossof a global software company thatspanned over 11 countries including theUnited States. It was a remarkableachievement by any standard. In India,a developing country saddled with thelargest number of the world’s poor, itwas nothing short of a miracle.

Suhas was inspired by none other thanMicrosoft’s Bill Gates. He had set up hisIT Services Company, Global Inc., whilesimultaneously studying in a school atBangalore in India. The Company in itsfourth year employed 600 persons – theyoungest of them was a 10- year old andan advisor on web design. Age was nota barrier for employment in his company.The maximum age of an employee in thecompany was 32 and the average wasaround 21.

2.0 HOW IT STARTED

Suhas wanted to be a veterinarian. Achance visit in mid 1990’s, when he was12, to an internet café, which openednext door to his house, changed his life.His elder brother Shreyas took him thereand he was fascinated at the internet.“He explained me how the internetworks and also opened my email id. Thenext day, I went to school to find that Iwas the only one in the class to have anemail id but I was not satisfied with justthat….. Somehow I liked the touch ofthe mouse and wanted to play with thekey board. I used to sit in the cybercentre all the time. I used to get Rs.30 aspocket money at that time and I usedthe entire money in the cyber café. Whilean hour at cyber café would cost meRs.120, I requested the cafe owner toallow me to work for him after my schoolhours and let me use internet for free.Luckily, he agreed. For the next sixmonths, I learnt how to make web-sitesand was introduced to manytechnologies. I learnt HTML, ASP andevery possible software at the Cyber

© XIMB Published in Vilakshan, XIMB Journal of Management ; September, 2007

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Contributed by: Rajeev Roy, Associate Professor, XIMB, India.

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Café. I opted for self- learning insteadof going to an institute”, says Suhas. “Ihad no knowledge of the Internet. Butwhen I was browsing the internet in acyber café I stumbled on a source codeof a web site. I was fascinated andthought long and hard. I soon launchedmy own website,www.coolhindustan.com,” he adds.That had happened when he was noteven 14 years old. The site was launchedin May 14 2000 and two friends CliffordLeslie and M.N. Vinay helped him inthis effort. “I didn’t have the money tolaunch the website. So I wrote toNetwork Solutions Inc. in the US andthey readily agreed to host the site freeof cost.” Network Solutions also invitedSuhas to its headquarters in San Jose,California. It was the first time he hadboarded a plane and also the first timethat he had gone outside India.

In the US, Network Solutions evenasked him to maintain their website asChief Web Developer at $2000 per weekwith a chauffeur driven car and anapartment. It was quite attractive butSuhas turned down the offer. Hewanted to start his own company ratherthan be employed by a Fortune 500company.

Suhas spent hours at the local cyber caféfiguring codes, reading books on BillGates and Michael Dell and preparing tostart an IT company. He had fortunatelyand accidentally an encounter on aninternet discussion board with a USuniversity student in 2003 who was

interested to join Suhas. Two teenagefriends from Bangalore from his middleclass neighbourhood were also willing tojoin him.

However, his attempt to launch a privatelimited company ran into difficulty, as thelaws in India did not allow a kid of 14 tostart a company. Suhas decided to turnto US where such a law did not exist.Thus, Global’s Inc was set up in Californiaand registered online in San Jose. Suhasinitially planned that his company shouldbe named Globals Solutions but thatname was already taken. He opted forGlobals with himself as its founder, CEOand president. Two years later, it hadoffices in 11 countries and employed over600 people. In the year 2004 – 05 thecompany notched up an earning of IndianRs.2.5 crore.

Suhas always thought that he should starthis company in Bangalore but wasdisappointed. In a meeting with PresidentAbdul Kalam he requested for relaxationof this age limit so that other youngentrepreneurs could easily set up theircompanies. The President promised hissupport.

Initially Suhas faced many obstacles. Themost important of them being from thepotential customers. When they learn thatSuhas was barely 14, they cancelled theirorders and refused to take him seriously.To overcome this difficulty he startedgrowing a moustache as soon as he begansprouting facial hair, but this also didn’thelp much. Soon on the advice of thefriends he shaved it off.


Word gradually spread around about theability of the Globals Inc. and as Suhashired more and more people and openednew offices, potential customer startedcoming back to Globals and for Suhasthere was no time to look back.

3.0 ABOUT BUSINESS

For Suhas IT was a pastime, which turnedinto an obsession. It was because of hisinterest that he worked on it and laterother friends joined him. Initially it wasa team of four. At the beginning theywent to the extent of offering theirservices free of cost. As most of themwere studying and were interested in thework, they did not mind. Howevergradually they realised that in order tosustain they had to charge the clients. Atthe same time their service charges werequite competitive vis a vis others in thebusiness.

Globals Inc. offered cost effectivesolutions in web, software, mobile andmultimedia. The company designed anddeveloped B2B portals, B2C portals andcorporate websites. In the words ofSuhas “ We aim to bring out robustservices within a mouse click and webelieve in teamwork. Projects areundertaken by Globals to build the skillsof the team members. Most of themembers work from cyber cafes.” By2005 it had established offices in morethan 11 countries and served more than200 clients world wide. Globals alsooffered IT consultancy involvingpractical jargon free advice to clients tocope with first changing and often

complex business. The portfolio ofproducts and services comprise thefollowing:

1. IT strategy.

2. Procurement and partnership

3. Business Process Improvement

4. Information Management

5. Contract Development

6. Web Designing

7. Web Development

8. Content Management System

9. Internet Marketing

10. Media Streaming

11. Custom Application Development/Custom Software Development

12. Industry Solutions

13. WAP

In developing cost effective, innovativeworld class solutions and productsGlobals has made a name for itself andcarved out an enviable place for itself inthe industry. Its has as clients, a numberof companies from small and mediumsized to fortune 500 companies. Everycompany is treated uniquely, taking intoaccount its distinct needs. Its clientsincluded the following well-knowncompanies:

1. Verisign Inc., USA

2. Edunar UK

3. Government of India

4. Opalesque.com, Germany


5. VC4G.com

6. Jain Group of Institutions, India

7. Deepti Electronics and Electro –Optics Pvt. Ltd., India

8. Childern Services Inc., USA

9. Maso Automotives, India

10. Greys Exim, India.

Globals operated on a world wide basiswith offices in 11 countries includingUSA, India, Canada, Bahrain, Italy, UK,Germany, Spain and Australia and inaddition there were operations inSingapore, Norway, Switzerland, SouthAfrica etc.

4.0 WORK CULTURE

Globals is not only a young organisationbut majority of its employees in India andabroad are also young college goingstudents. Many of these are part timersand the average age in Globals is 21 years.

Joining Globals Inc. is open to studentsin the age group of 17 – 22. In order toavoid employment of such young peoplebeing termed as ‘child labour’, Globalsensures that such people worked only onpart time basis from their home wherethey are provided with internetconnections and PC. They are giveninstructions through a message board.Their membership to the Globals networkis free of cost and based on their skill setand not qualifications. Once a candidateis selected he is put on to a project andbecomes a member of the Globals family.Any candidate can apply online if he is

convinced that he can bring in somerelevant skills to Globals.

About the age of employees, Suhas says“the upper limit is 25 years and we arebasically looking for people in their teensor twenties. Enterprise is more importantthan high academic qualifications.” Aboutthe age of Vice President of operations,V.N.D Manohar, Suhas says that he is theoldest member of the team, but Manoharsays “ I may be older but Suhas is moreexperienced. He is the boss.”

During a conversation, Suhas says thathe does not treat his colleagues asemployees. There in a friendlyenvironment just like in a family.

Suhas is also concerned that theemployees who work with the companyget an excellent environment to work andhave adequate opportunities for sports,leisure and relaxation. During a visit toBhubaneswar for an entrepreneurshipseminar, where he was talking to a youngaudience, he explored the possibility ofsetting up a research and developmentcentre in Bhubaneswar. He visitedNandankanan (a zoological park), Puri,Chilka and several other places of interestto find out that, in the event of a R & Dcentre coming up, his employees wouldget sufficient avenues in and aroundBhubaneswar to keep themselvesengaged.

5.0 ORGANISATION STRUCTURE

Globals already has a managementstructure in place. There is a ChiefOperating Officer, Chief Information


Officer, Chief Technology Officer,other department heads and severalregional heads in USA, Spain, Italy,Australia, Bahrain, Canada and

Germany. The names of themanagement team members regionalheads and members of Board byDirectors are given below:

Chief Executive Officer & President Suhas Gopinath

Chief Operating Officer & Senior Vice President, Finance Vinay M.N.

Chief Technology Officer and Vice President, Software Solutions Samuel S Carre

Senior Vice President, e-Commerce & Web Solutions Vantt Chris

Executive Vice President, Worldwide Human Resources Micheal Vaughan

Executive Vice President, Strategy and Marketing Amruta Desai

Management Team

Regional Heads

Regional Head – Dulles, USA Paul Samberg

Regional Head – Madrid, Spain Alberto Sanchexz Plaza

Regional Head – Milan, Italy Giancarlo Ambrosini

Regional Head – South Australia, Australia Abhishek Devraj

Regional Head – Manama, Bahrain Titus Varghese

Regional Head – Quebec, Cannada Manjesh Muthapa

Regional Head, Cologne, Germany. Ehsan Rehman

Chairman of the Board (CEO Deepti Marketing Services) Mr. M.R. Gopinath

Vice Chairman of the Baord (CEO, Globals Inc.) Mr. Suhas Gopinath

Executive Director (COO, Globals Inc.) Mr. Vinay M. N.

Non-Executive Director (Chairman, Jain Group of institutions). Mr. R Chenraj Jain

Non – Executive Director (CEO Deepti Electronics and Dr. Sheshadri M.R.Electro-Optics Pvt. Ltd.)

Executive Director (Legal Counsel, Globals Inc.) Mr. Joshi D.N.

Non-Executive Director (NASA – Washington DC. Dr. Narayan Rao

Board of Directors


6.0 FINANCE AND COST

Globals strategy was to have steadygrowth, low cost pricing and a focus onsmall and medium enterprises. It alsoworked in products like schoolinformation management system whichhas a great potential in the third worldcountries. “While a competitor offers thisproducts at the cost of Rs. 2 lakh we offerit around Rs.15,000/- . We are aiming atsmaller schools,” says Suhas. This is tosome extent explained by the costcompetitiveness of Globals.

One of the other cost aspects was relatedto the setting up of the company. “I didnot register my company in India as onehas to pay taxes and there are otherhassles,” he said. “The rates we chargeare very cheap. If you want to set up yourown site we charge only 300 rupees.”Infact for a client in Frankfurt, Globalsdesigned a corporate website andcharged only about this much.

Speaking about the way that Globalskeeps its cost down, Suhas mentionedabout the salary of talented programmersin the US versus India. In the US, theprogrammers were paid a higher salarybut the actual cost to the company wasmuch higher. In addition to the salarythere were statutory payments to eachemployee. Besides infrastructure costsuch as hardware, software, utility andspace cost got added to the overheads.On the whole, while a twelve man monthproject which took approximately a yearfor a programmer in US and costed aboutone lakh dollar, the same could be

completed in about six months in Indiaand at an approximately cost of Rs.25, 000.

In case of team programmers Suhas gavethe component of cost estimate andefforts required for the typical project asfollow:

Activity Percent of Percent ofComponent total cost total effort

Analysis of 20 15Architectureand Design

Project 28 20Management

Development 52 65& testing

When asked about the general orientationtowards profit, the response was “ thecompany is not a money making machine.Students below 22 can becomeemployees. The aim as of now is to getmore and more students to join. Theywork out of cyber cafes in India wherethey have to pay Indian Rs.15 (1/3 rd of aUS dollar per hour) which is cheap bythe world standards. When Suhas startedout, the rates at cyber cafes were muchhigher but since then rates have droppeddrastically.

About the earnings of Globals’employees it was observed that theemployees in India earn between Rs.20,000 to 25,000 a month. (approximately equal to US $ 550 to 650)which is considered as a good wage inIndia but is about one third of what theGlobals employees get (approximately


US $1500) in the western countries.Commenting on this the Head ofFinances, Globals says “For us, moneyisn’t why we work for Globals. Theatmosphere and the fun are much moreimportant to us. There aren’t anyhierarchies here.”

About growth and investment in thecompany, Suhas clarified “Now as mycompany grows, I invest all the profitback into the future of my company. Iwish I could provide employment to allthe talent in our country,” says Suhas. Nowonder many of his classmates are hisemployees.

7.0 UNUSUAL EXPERIENCES

Being a Chief Executive at the age of14, and still not 21, Suhas had his shareof weird experiences – sometimesamusing and pleasant and at othertimes painful.

In 2004, at a seminar on “EducationSystem in India” at Indian Institute ofScience, Bangalore, he was stopped bythe security persons at the gate. “Youare a school boy, this event is for theCEOs.” He picked up his cell phone andcalled the organisers, who rushed to theentrance to usher him in. Everyone wasamused. Suhas knew that it wasnobody’s fault. The security personnel,who has been instructed to allow onlythe CEOs, could hardly know that thisyoung man in jeans and T shirt, lookinglike a college boy, was a CEO of a Globalcompany.

Suhas also had some experiences at hiscollege and with his classmates. Itbothered him, to his embarrassment thathis fellow students called him ‘Sir’, tookpictures of him on his cell phones andasked for autographs.

Suhas cannot forget one of his bad timeafter launching of his first websitewww.coolhindustan.com. The web sitewas to provide Indians all over theworld with a forum to post publicevents, tips for eating out and otherprogrammes which would be ofinterest to overseas Indians. Thewebsite became very popular.However, a hacker in Pakistanattacked the website and replaced thewebsite logo with “Cool Pakistan”.That was a terrible experience andSuhas abandoned the project.

Suhas owns a car, bought out of hisearnings, but doesn’t have a license todrive it around the city as he is too youngto get a license!

As a CEO, he wraps up mega deals,but he couldn’t sign on the dotted lineas legally he was not an adult whenthe Singapore based company, SingT,a Business Process Outsourcingcompany was offering a contract to setup web sites with e-librarycapabilities. This could have given anearning of $22000 but the contract fellthrough because he could not sign thecontract under the Indian law as hewas underaged.


Suhas says that he likes his casual wear,jeans and T- shirts, but most of the timehe is forced to wear blazers. He alsowanted to be himself – never wanted tobe a star.

8.0 EXPERIENCES WITH PAKISTAN

The first experience with his website‘coolhindustan.com’ which washacked by a hacker in Pakistan andmade into ‘coolpakistan.com’ wasquite disheartening to Suhas. Heabandoned the website but he didn’tabandon the idea of opening an officein Pakistan.

Speaking about the Pakistan ITcompanies, he states “There are onlyfive to eight IT companies in Pakistan.A lot of the packages for thegovernment and private sector areoutsourced to the middle east. Thereis great potential in having a base inPakistan.”

While pursuing the idea of setting upa branch in Pakistan, there wereobjections from the CommerceMinistry that no Indian company couldset up office on Pakistan soil. Theobjection faded away when it wasexplained that it was not an IndianCompany but a company set up inCalifornia. The branch office was tofunction under the control of Pakistan’sIndustry Department and theemployees were to be sourced fromPakistan itself. There was a discussionwith the Pakistan Prime Minister Shri

Shaukat Aziz who had promised toallot land near Lahore. Suhas was alsoconsidering Karachi as an alternativelocation. If his dream of setting up aoffice in Pakistan comes true it wouldbe one of the rare achievements whichmany Indians would not dare todream.

9.0 PARENTS’ CONCERNS

Suhas’ father, M.R. Gopinath, aScientist with the Defence Ministry,was happy that his son had chosenwhat he liked and done well duringthe seven years. At the same time hedoes not want Suhas to neglect hisstudies. “To us, it’s important that hegets a degree, education is the mostimportant thing in India” the fathersays. His parents first thought that hewas spending hours just goofing off atcyber cafes and were worried abouthim. “We were very worried about himearlier. Things had changed in the lastthree to four years, his luck haschanged. He still spends too much timeon work and little on studies,” says hismother.

Kala Gopinath, the mother,disapproved that he spent every rupeein the internet café. She was worriedthat Suhas had been a good student butafter discovering the internet he hadbecome an average student. In theBoard examination he secured poormarks in mathematics. She lecturedhim on the importance of doing wellin studies. His parents put pressure on


him to finish school and studysomething practical to get a secure job.Later of course the parents reconciledwhen Suhas was doing well. But hismother was worried that her son ateand slept too little. She put more ofidlis and vegetables on his plate. “Thiscan’t be healthy. Today he lay on thesofa until 4 a.m. working on his laptop.Then at 8:00 he went into the Office”,she complained.

The mother also insisted that Suhas shallhave his office only at a walking distanceso that without using car he can comefor lunch. Accordingly, his office islocated at a five minutes walkingdistance. Suhas enjoys the affectionateinsistence of his mother.

His mother always wanted that Suhastakes his studies seriously, studiesmanagement and like his elder brother,becomes a Vice President in a companywith a good salary. In this contextSuhas mentions, “Initially when mymom used to scold me, I used to giveher Bill Gates’s example. He is my rolemodel.” “My ambition is to set upanother Microsoft” he adds.

Suhas was asked to deliver talks atseveral top management institutes inIndia, including the Indian Institute ofManagement, Ahmedabad. When hismother tells him to studymanagement, he replies, “why studythere? I have been invited there asvisiting faculty.”

10. TIME MANAGEMENT

In the second year of his engineeringprogramme at MS Ramaiah EngineeringCollege in Bangalore, Suhas works forabout 18 hours every day, partly for hisstudies, and mostly as CEO of hismultinational company. In an interviewto Time Magazine he said, “Most of ourbusiness comes from the US market.When the day’s work in done here, byaround 6 pm, I get a couple of hours restand then video conference with clientsand staff in the US working till around 3am”.

Knowing the importance of his job, themanagement of the college has waivedthe attendance requirement for him.Suhas uses this waiver to his fulladvantage. While other kids skip lecturesto watch movies, Suhas misses lecturesto attend seminars and conferences.Unlike other students who believepartying and spending time in Cafes,restaurants and multiplexes, he studiesfor engineering and works for the growthof his company.

When asked about leisure and enjoymentSuhas says, “Whatever little time I get, Ispend it with my family. I cannot affordto watch movies or go for holidays….(of course) one should also make time toenjoy other things in life. With work youget too busy to repent.”

When asked about how he manages histime and what is his inspiration, hereplied, “My role model is Microsoft


Promoter–Chairman Bill Gates. I wantmy company to become anotherMicrosoft. Attending college and runninga company at the same time is not easy.But I’ve learnt to divide and manage mytime well,” says Gopinath.

11. LIFE STYLE, COMMITMENT ETC.

Suhas feels happy about his company. Heseems to be quite attached to it. In 2005when an investment firm from Hustonoffered 100 million dollars for a majoritystake in the company, Suhas refused. Thereason was “Why should I sell my baby”.

In the initial years he had a hard time.Apart from the teething troubles insetting up the company he was too youngto run it. Many clients were not keenabout the company. But after seeing thequality of work they delivered, many ofthem came back.

When asked about how he got some restand leisure, his response was “When Ilook around I see a lot of guys of my agehanging out with their girlfriends. I donot feel bad as I have a mission to makemy company another Microsoft,”Gopinath said “Bill Gates is my rolemodel.”

Suhas could have a Chauffeured drivencar and live in a penthouse or buy abunglow for his parents in a posh localityof Bangalore, but he lives with his parentsin a medium size house and drives a smallcar. He doesn’t wear designer clothes.Ordinary jeans and T-shirts were hisfavourites.

Apart from Business for which he spends18 hours a day, he spends some of hisspare times with his family and to someextent with his dog names Bushy. Hehas no time to go to a cinema hall towatch a movie or to watch cricketmatches.

12. AWARDS & ACCOLADES

Suhas employs about 600 persons aroundthe World and was the youngest ChiefExecutive of any Company. The LimcaBook of Records – the Indian Version ofthe Guinness Book of Records – lists himas the “World’s Youngest ChiefExecutive”. He was, at the age of 14, theChief Executive of Globals Inc., and noone else had become Chief Executive ofany Company at that age.

Suhas also got the recognition of beingone of the youngest certified web-developers. After seven days of hisputting up the webpage,“coolhindustan.com”, the US basedNetwork Solutions Inc., a companyowned by Nasdaq-listed Verisign, whichdevelops internet services,acknowledged his ability and certifiedhim as one of the world’s youngest webpage developers.

Suhas has been a model for the youngmen and women, not only India butoutside. Politicians and youngprofessionals have celebrated him as anachiever and as an inspiration. He alsohad meetings with the Indian President,Dr. APJ Abdul Kalam at New Delhi and


Pakistan’s Prime Minister, Mr. ShaukatAziz in Islamabad. The Indian PresidentDr. Kalam and the HRD Minister, ArjunSingh also felicitated him.

In 2004 Gloals Inc. also launched threeunique software products and the BBCand Washington Post acknowledged himas the ‘world’s youngest CEO’.

In 2005, Suhas Gopinath was one of thefinalists of the Infosys EducationWorld Young Achievers Award. In2005, he was also the youngest amongthe 175 recipients of the KarnatakaState Government’s RajyotsavaAward.

In December, 2006, Suhas at the age of20 was selected by the Times of Indiaof Time Group as one of the Youth Iconsfor the year 2006. The other Youth Iconsfor the year 2006 included IndianTennis player Sania Mirza, BollywoodActor Hrithik Roshan, IndustrialistSunil Bharti Mittal, etc. Suhas Gopinathis also a brand ambassador for thePeople for Ethical Treatment of Animals(PETA).

13. SOCIAL PROJECTS

Globals Inc. has been in a position toidentify unfilled market niches. Itdeveloped a software product forschool that allows teachers to easilyenter grades and attendance, whichparents could access electronically andknow whether their children areshowing up to class. Attendance statusand marks could also be seen on a

virtual notice board. The system alsosent SMS alerts to the parents’ cellphones in case of continued absence orpoor performance of a student. Thissoftware was installed in hundredschools in Nigeria and nearly hundredin European countries. It has also beenaccepted by the Kendriya VidyalayaSangathan in India for introduction inall its 870 schools across the country andalso in Mosco and Dubai. Suhas has agrand plan of selling the software tothe private schools also in India wherethere lie a great potential.

Besides the Student ManagementSystem, Suhas is taking initiatives todevelop a GPS based low cost vehicletracking system which would be tailormade for Indian automobiles and forIndian road conditions. He hopes to selleach unit of the tracking system forRs.5000 whereas the cheapest availablesystem now in Indian market costsaround Rs.20,000 and upwards. Thissystem is also likely to have a bigpotential in the third world countries.

14. THE FUTURE

For Globals initial teething troubles werealmost over. But Suhas felt that thoughinitial interest and dedication had madeit successful and he had become the chiefexecutive officer, what mattered was theability to expand the company. The jobof managing the company had becomeeasier because he treated his employeesas family members and friends thanacting like a boss.


Suhas was planning to start managementconsultancy for the industry sector as welland expand services to non-IT areas.

The general thrust in the company wasplaced on quality over quantity, mindover machine and unity overuniopinion. There was no question ofegoistic thought. Everyone workedwith lot of enthusiasm. The work wasmore streamlined and solutions wereachieved within prescribed timeboundary.

Suhas always thought of having hiscompany as an Indian company andlooked forward to shif t theheadquarters in due course to India.However on crossing the 18 year agemark, which entitled him to registercompany in India, he has registered acompany in Bangalore as GlobalsITES.

Suhas has his own dreams for becomingthe Bill Gates in India and setting up acompany, which in due course would belike Microsoft. At an age when otherteenagers are whiling away time in gamesand other pastimes, Suhas was occupiedin drawing a road map for his youngcompany.

Globals Inc. is small but Suhas looksforward to achieve a turnover of Rs.8crore in the next five years. He looksforward to have many more youngtechnical people and expand his businessinto networking solutions andembedded software. At a personal level

he was planning to go to StanfordUniversity and study artificialintelligence.

Globals HR strategy of recruiting skilledlocal youngsters, who would be happyto work part time, is key to theirexpansion plans. Domestic expansion forGlobals is guided by the concentrationof engineering and managementcolleges. In places with a highconcentration of such educationalinstitutes, it was felt easy to find localstudents to join Globals as part timeemployees.

It is also in the news that he wished tomove from service based company intoa products based one for which theCompany needed funds. These fundswere proposed to be utilized to openmarket offices and onsite centre inEurope, which had largely remaineduntapped by Indian IT companies.

Keeping with its plan to expand inEurope, Globals has already opened inFrankfurt an R&D businessdevelopment sector. Frankfurt beingthe most important commercial centrein Europe, is likely to become a goodhub for Globals in the Europeanmarkets. The company has some clientsin Germany including the prestigiousaccount of Mercedes Benz for whomGlobals is executing a web applicationproject.

There is also a proposal and talks are inprogress in this regard with a London


based financial institution to sell 20 to25% stake in Globals Inc. to this financialinstitution to fuel the expansion plans.If this happens, expansion could befaster. And later the company can makepublic offerings through which funds canbe raised and the London basedfinancial institution would then be paidoff. Suhas is also actively exploring thepossibility of floating an IPO on theNasdaq.

Simultaneously, there were also otherreports that Suhas was considering apossible takeover of a Chinese firm tomake an entry in the Chinese IT sector.This could be a merger or an acquisition.This would give Globals a foothold alsoin Singapore and Korea.

15. TOWARDS ENTREPRENEURSHIP

Suhas Gopinath is a motivator for youngentrepreneurs. In course of his travellingand lecturing in India and abroad he says“For the economies of third worldcountries to grow, job seekers have totranscend into job creators. Whenever Iaddress the youth, I try to encouragethem to take up entrepreneurship as anadventure. There are a lot of hurdles butthe satisfaction of providingopportunities is huge”.

Balancing work and studies was not aneasy job for Suhas. He admits that lifehas been stressful for him. “As I got moreinterested in the company, my studieswent for a toss. In my Class X exams Iscored 80 per cent, but in I PUC could

barely get 65 percent. Even I try and notbunk too many classes, but clients cannotbe given lame excuses. When I haveexams, I tell them I am unwell….”

In India Globals sti l l faces someproblems when it comes toGovernment projects. Sometimespeople in Government argue thatprojects can be given only to thosecompanies, which fulfil the pre-bidqualification norms and Globals moreoften doesn’t qualify. Suhas is reticenton the approach of Governmentofficials but says, “We too will be aCMM level 5 company soon.”

On the general approach towards workSuhas makes a cryptic statement “Irrespective of success or fame, we needto be down to earth and humble.”

REFERENCES

Times News Network, August 30, 2005, Tuesdayposted at 7:16 pm

Teen Tradegies: Acne, Dating, $22,000 loss,November 11, 2003.

Business Standard “Suhas Gopinath may sellstake to London FI”, Tuesday, September 11,2007.

Sify Business, “20 year old Suhas wants to buyChinese Firm”, Friday, November, 10, 2006.h t t p : / / s i f y . c o m / f i n a n c e / m t /fullstory.php?id = 14328392

http://www.business -standard.com/common/storypage_c_online.php?leftnm = 11& 6 KeyFla…..9.11.2007

“Gopinath, world’s youngest CEO has bigplans”, Rediff News; Nov 10, 2006


“I can’t afford to watch movies”, Times of India;January 11, 2007

“Dares to dream, strives to realise it”, The Hindu;January 13, 2007

“Teenager hopes his firm will become anotherMicrosoft”, Sydney Morning Herald,Australia, November 10, 2003

“17-year-old tipped to become IT tycoon”,Independent Online, South Africa;November 15, 2003

“Indian company loses deal because 17-year-oldCEO is too young”, Daily Excelsior, India;November 3, 2007

“17-year-old CEO a problem”, Taipei Times,Taiwan; November 7, 2003

“He’s 17, single and a CEO !”, CIOL.com, USA;November 10, 2003

“Another Gates in the making! Founder at 14,CEO at 17, what next”, Indian Express, India;November 6, 2003


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