In the late sixties, a young MCA graduate from Trichy, Tamilnadu arrived in Bangalore, landed a job as a Faculty/Trainer for 3,000/- INR, a million dreams in his mind and an invaluable advice from his father: “We all have our own aspirations, our own destiny, our own paths, and our own desires. For real success in life, you have to do your own thing and be prepared to sacrifice what it takes to do it”, Ananth Prasath father’s words were etched in his mind.
His job as Faculty/Trainer was part of a learning curve. Destiny whispered to him, ‘do not venture into
something that is not in your line’. That was the first life lesson he learned by himself as a young man: Listen to your mind, and not to your heart, in your profession. The operative words: In your profession. Outside of it, Ananth Prasath did the exact opposite. He followed his heart’s calling. That was how he started a Trust named after his mentor, idol and teacher, Dr. Radhakrishnan Charitable Educational Trust, viz.. But we are getting ahead of the story.
Ananth Prasath’s professional life as a techie started with a Bangalore, at IBM India, where he was later deputed to IBM Australia. His aspirations took wing when he went on to join the world’s second largest GSM provider, Mobily Info Tech (Etisalat), a Middle-East giant. Next stop, he joined Fujitsu (Infinite Data Systems) and worked for Fujitsu Denmark.
In quick time, Ananth Prasath gained enough expertise, experience, and depth for his mind to get restless to “do his own thing”.
It was a humble beginning, a functional office, three resources, and unlimited drive. Today, KAP Computer Solutions Pvt. Ltd. is on the verge of hitting its first million-dollar turnover, having upgraded to a plush office with 150+ resource professionals, serving 3000+ domestic customers, and over 10+ international clients in the US, UK, Italy, and Ireland, among others.
For most companies, CSR (Corporate Social Responsibility) is akin to an after-thought, at best, and a letterhead extension at worst. But for Ananth Prasath, it was another of his abiding passion. His Dr. Radhakrishnan Charitable Educational Trust called as DRCET, DRCET Plantation and DRCET Library, have grown and evolved with KAP Computer Solutions, KAP Call Center sharing a collective vision, viz. to do the best one can in the chosen field of activity.
In the seventies, Tata Steel ran a popular ad with a tagline ‘We also make Steel’. You could say the same about KAP Computer Solutions, viz. ‘We also deliver Bulk SMS Solutions’. Ananth Prasath is much more than the CEO of an IT Company.
Even as a youth, Ananth Prasath, inspired by Dr. Sarvapalli Radhakrishnan, India’s foremost philosopher, educationist, freedom fighter and former President, has given free coaching to poor students of Government Schools. He has penned books in Tamil on literature, philosophy, life, and given lectures in many schools and colleges, coached study skills to students, mentored child workers to study, given his interest in educating the young and planted more than 10,000+ Coconut Trees around Trichy. He has been featured in the media, has over 25,000+ Internet subscribers to his ‘Thought for the day’, and was Joint Secretary of Sydney Tamil Mandram.
As an IT entrepreneur, Ananth Prasath has built his company brick by brick and attributes the abiding success of his products to “timely delivery, uncompromising quality, innovative products, competitive pricing”.
It’s a complete package – as easy as pushing on a string, and not falling! The key, as he explains, is cutting edge marketing skills. “Understand what the customer wants”, he says “deliver his desire to him, and not just a product or a service, and you have him for keeps”.
Speed is the essence of all implementation, he says, echoing Infosys Chief Mentor, Narayana Murthy. “Today, time is an integral investment for all industry, and the longer it takes, the lesser is the value of this investment”.
A little secret of Ananth Prasath’s success can be attributed to his people management skills. It is not h.r. or p.r., but to coin a phrase, f.r. – filial relationship. Employees as family members are a terrific tonic to boost morale and motivation at the workplace. Ananth Prasath, the Boss is incidental, while Ananth Prasath, the Mentor, is fundamental.
As a CEO, Ananth Prasath is absolutely hands-on and a knowledge accumulating bank, with original insights into turnaround strategies, value optimization, and constantly on the look for Industry’s Next Practices.
His acumen straddles the entire IT landscape as a business/technical/EAI Analyst and in Application Development. And his IT skills sets extend to virtually all IT Platforms, Languages, Databases, IDE, Servers, Scripting Language, Markup Language, Server-side Programming, and MiddleWare Technologies. A Sun Certified Java Programmer (SCJP), Ananth Prasath has also won the IBM
Certified ‘The Best of IBM – Bravo Award’.
His professional accomplishments include having business tie-ups with Amazon, Treebo Hotels, Sobha Limited, DLF, DHFL, Wipro Technologies, DHFL, Dr. Batra’s, HDFC Life, ING Vysya Bank, CGI, Symphony Services, Aditya Birla, Canara Bank, Club Mahindra Holidays, Bharat Petroleum, etc… and defined Methodologies like KAPS Process, Standards, SLAs, Release Notes, Change Management.
All great achievers have inspiration, a mysterious cue behind their belief. For Ananth Prasath, inspiration came unannounced, abruptly, many years ago, on a beautiful spring evening in Trichy at the riverside. His eye accidentally fell on a small fish that was being tossed around a million times by the looming giant-sized waves. The waves pushed the fish to the sand dunes, and then the fish, refusing to give up, waiting for the opportune moment to ride over the returning waves. Each time the fish survived, Ananth Prasath smiled, as if he had glimpsed at some eternal truth. The fish story was his own throwaway moment in his life when he discovered his destiny. Now, get inspired!
