The Man I Trust To Help Me Cross A Chasm — However Deep & Wide — Anand Deshpande #JeenaIsiKaNaamHain

Despite business leaders, environmentalists and policy wonks crying hoarse over shared mobility being a stepping stone towards sustainable development, there are cities in India where the brand of car one drives, is seen as a status symbol. An outsized importance is given to such matters and it’s rather unimaginable in these conditions that a Founder-CEO of a now billion-dollar company would choose to take a humble auto to commute.

Well, it’s a reflection of not just the individual’s simplicity but also his supreme confidence. Such people don’t require expensive props or artefacts to make their influence felt — and in a very big way. They do it in the most unassuming manner.

This is exactly what happened about a decade and a half back. Persistent Systems was a great innovative company even back then, and their Founder-CEO Anand Deshpande came to visit us at the NASSCOM office in Chanakyapuri in New Delhi.

Yes — he came by in an auto! And the entire office was in awe of the man’s simplicity. It’s a cultural aspect of course. In many parts of the world — particularly in places where even CEOs cycle to work — it may not be a big deal but here it is — even today. Little later, I’ll come to why the world needs more human beings like Anand.

I met him for the first time back in 2003 at an Intel event that showcased innovative companies. That day, Anand held the audience in thrall with his product demo and was met with great appreciation.

Cut to 2005/06 and by then Persistent Systems was a NASSCOM member. The company was already on a very high growth trajectory, and I reached out to him for help to share some of his learnings with other companies. He of course, readily agreed and was extremely supportive.

Then in 2009 or thereabouts, he did something quite remarkable. Along with Prof Ashok Korwar, he conducted a 6-hour workshop on “How To Cross The 50-Crore Chasm”. It was remarkable because at that time we were not deluged by information as we are today, and companies were often guarded about their “secret sauce”. Yet quite remarkably and rather generously, he opened his success playbook to a host of other innovative companies and gently guided them on the do’s & don’ts to reach 50 crores in revenue. The participants lapped it up and went back richer having attended a mini-MBA programme of sorts which covered finance, operations, customer acquisition, culture, and a whole lot of other areas. It was a resounding success and demands grew for its replication in other cities — which we met with his support! For the Pune session, Anand generously hosted us at the Persistent Systems premises. He just didn’t stop at that — he would continue to support in various ways in later years as well. He is a nurturer, and his generosity knows no bounds when it comes to growing an ecosystem.

The most striking thing when I look back is the way Persistent Systems has continued to stay competitive even after all these years. I mean there were so many great companies two decades back that had great promise but as luck (or is it disruption?) would have it, they ceased to exist. Persistent is a part of that extremely rare breed that thrived and continues to do more than ample justice to its name. Anand says every business has to go through the S-curve. You start up, you grow, growth flattens and then you grow again. Persistent Systems with Anand at the helm, has always found the next S-curve with great precision and has been doing so for more than three decades.

We had taken a delegation to the US some years ago and he was there. These visits are extremely rewarding because one gets to meet the human being behind all the success. This opportunity reinforced the humility of this man and my respect for him went up by many notches. The other striking quality about Anand is his adaptability to different kinds of situations and making them work favourably. There’s an old story which I wanted to share. After graduating from the IITs, in the 80s, many Indians chose to go to the US for higher studies. So did Anand. He went to Indiana University. But at that time, it was very expensive for students to send multiple applications, and if one applied to a university where the batch topper had also applied, the chances of rejection were very high. Given the resource constraints students had back them, one had to maximize returns on investment, fashionably called as RoI by the later generations. So, Anand went ahead to put his supreme skills to great use and programmed a grid for his entire batch to track who was applying where and make sure that everyone got a good chance of securing admission in a good university based on their grades and others’ applications. Two things stand out. Innovative thinking was second nature to him even then. And more importantly — his extreme willingness to help others.

Some years back he told me, “Avinash you are made for bigger things.” His words rang a bell and stayed on. Anand is exceedingly well-networked, particularly in the Bay Area and when he sees an opportunity to connect people who can benefit from one other, he will readily do so. At the risk of sounding biased, I will still say that one doesn’t see this quality in too many folks from large IT Services. Again, Anand is an exception. He has inspired me in many ways to see the great significance of the role of connectors in our world. That’s why community-building is something that I am extremely passionate about and keep coming back to.

Whenever I am in Pune, I try and visit him and get to learn about so many nuances that life may have in store.

Today, of course, he has become a legend and one of the leading names in developing Pune’s throbbing tech ecosystem. He also does a lot of work for the government in healthcare and alongside, divides his time for a not-for-profit body (de Aasra) which he established to transform job seekers into job creators.

Anand Deshpande is an extraordinary tech innovator and has done some truly amazing things at Persistent Systems. That company drives entrepreneurial spirit and has been doing so even before the time when the word Intrapreneur became fashionable. So many people I know of, have spent valuable years at Persistent Systems to become entrepreneurs, later. That’s greatness — having the vision to not only grow one’s company but also contribute massively to the ecosystem. Read more about him here in this YourStory article

So that’s Anand Deshpande for you. Never flashy but always generous. The world needs human beings like him.

Thank you, Anand. It’s been a privilege knowing you. And here’s wishing you great health & happiness.