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The power of focus

Gowri Shankar Subramanian, CEO, Aspire Systems, shares with Vinita Gupta his mantra for success—a focussed approach

Gowri Shankar Subramanian, the key architect of Aspire Systems, considers a focussed approach the greatest driver to achieve one’s dreams. Subramanian learned this from his own experience when he spent many precious years dabbling in multiple vocations till he found his true calling. He was involved in teaching students for entrance exams, running a circulation library and also ran a free newspaper in Mumbai. “I did so many different things as I did not have a focus in life. Therefore, today I strongly believe that focus is very essential for those who want to achieve success. I was motivated by my former boss to start my own business. Today business is my passion,” says Subramanian.

Aspire Systems is a fast-growing outsourced product development firm. He started the company with a capital of Rs 30,000 (shareholders’ credit) and today it is a $10 million organisation. The major progress happened in the last three years. He says, “Differentiating yourself from others and scaling-up were the two big challenges that I faced, but I never changed my focus. The clear strategy of building a company from scratch and running it profitably was my major achievement.”

Subramanian’s knowledge and experience of the US market, coupled with his ability to spot emerging market opportunities, has enabled him to steer the company into an attractive destination for outsourced product development. He has a Bachelor’s Degree in Mechanical Engineering from Pondicherry University and a Master’s in Industrial Engineering from Texas A&M University. At the A&M University, his research interests focussed on optimising production of printed circuit assemblies.

Subramanian has hands-on experience and expertise in software product engineering, which he acquired during his two-year stint in the US following the completion of his education. His areas of expertise include software product development, marketing and support.

“Employee satisfaction is the key to customer satisfaction,” says Subramanian, revealing his mantra to attract and retain the best of breed engineers in the product development function. His exposure and understanding of the US culture has instilled in him an obsession for perfection, which is also deep-rooted as a culture in his organisation. Today Subramanian’s mission is to build Aspire into an excellent multinational company by bringing together outstanding individuals world-wide to be part of the company’s product development team. His current focus is to drive the organisation to change the way software product companies do product development.

Focussing on the evolving needs of the Indian IT industry, Subramanian points out that to attract foreign companies and investments, the country has to become a favourable place for innovation. He believes that colleges are the best places to nurture talent and the youth should make the best use of the projects handled by them by using these as a platform to build innovative ideas.

Subramanian enjoys reading management books whenever he finds the time. His wife is a CA and is presently working as an engineer with Aspire Systems.

The man likes to be modest about his professional accomplishments. He dismisses his success by saying, “35 cannot really be called an early age to become a CEO.” For him success is “changing the world in some way.”

vinita@expresscomputeronline.com