Interview with Ganesh Natarajan, Nasscom Chairman

This tagline that welcomes you on his personal blog sums up the character of Ganesh Natarajan, CEO of Zensar Technologies, who took over as Chairman of National Association of Software and Services Companies (Nasscom) for 2008-09 on April 7, 2008.

Apart from handling these twin responsibilities, Ganesh also chairs the Outsourcing Forum of the Confederation of Indian Industries (CII) in Western India and is part of the CII Western Region Council. He is also an avid writer, traveller, cricket enthusiast and doting father.

An alumnus of IIT Bombay and Harvard Business School, Ganesh has been at the helm of Pune-based Zensar Technologies, a BPO firm, for over seven years now and has turned it into one of Fortune`s Top 10 global offshore outsourcing companies from India. But being at the top and challenging the obvious are nothing unfamiliar to 50-year-old Ganesh, who became the CEO of Aptech at the age of 33. Disruptive innovation is Ganesh`s personal management style that has helped him carve a niche in the Indian IT space.

Apart from IT, writing is also a passion with Ganesh. He has authored three books on business process re-engineering and knowledge management, and another titled Winds of Change. He also pens regular columns for India`s premier business and IT magazines.

Though an atheist, Ganesh, a typical Cancerian - emotional, hardworking and close to family - is all for caring for others. He feels strongly about HIV/AIDS awareness and is closely associated with spreading education and health awareness among the less privileged communities.

In his first ever media interview after taking over as the Nasscom chairman, Ganesh spoke to Sify.com Business Editor K. Sreedevi about the Indian IT industry, its challenges and the ways to tackle them.

Image: A view of Zensar office in Pune.