Chronicle is pleased to introduce our alumnus, Mohan Kumar (ECE1984), who is a successful executive, entrepreneur, mentor and a philanthropist all rolled into one. Mohan Kumar is currently the Corporate Vice President of Motorola Inc. He was the pioneer in setting up the India center of Texas Instruments and Motorola. He has a passion to support entrepreneurial ventures and has invested in few startups. He is very active in venture forums and communities in Bangalore, India and Silicon Valley.
(For his bio-data, Click Here)
For Chronicle, Rajat Harlalka (Electrical 2005) asked few questions to Mohan Kumar, which might be of some interest to readers:
Q-1: Welcome, sir. Please provide some background info about you to our readers.
I did my B.Tech in ECE (1984) from IT-BHU. After that I joined Texas Instruments in UK to work on DSP design. I was part of the initial team, which setup TI India operations in Bangalore where I was responsible for developing DSP/IC design tools. Later in 1993 I joined Motorola to setup its Communication software operation in India. I continued my journey in Motorola till today where I setup its design operations in China, Australia, South Korea, Japan, Singapore, Malaysia, Italy, & Russia. Currently I am responsible for Motorola’s Mobile Design for Europe & ASIA.
Q-2: You were instrumental in setting up first center of both Texas Instrument and Motorola in India. What drove you to set up these centers and what challenges did you face?
When we started the TI India operations there was no rulebook. For example no one knew how to setup a satellite link, the box containing the satellite receivers came in a bullock cart to our office and we took 3 month to get it working! There was no Software technology parks (STP) and it took us months to explain to customs on why we are importing so many computers when the average Customs duty was 300%!
Motorola experience was different. We looked at India, Brazil & China as options to globalize our design operations and chose India since as we felt that it had maximum potential to grow as a market. Tele density in India was less than 2%. But if we look back over last 10 years China outgrew India and had 200+million mobile subscribers by 2000. India was less than 5m until 2000. Now India is accelerating and mobile subscription is growing at a rapid pace of 5M units a month!
Bangalore was lucky to be chosen by TI since Chennai & Mumbai were the lead runners for the Texas Instrument’s (TI) design operation. Motorola & HP followed to setup its operation in Bangalore because of TI. Rest as we say is History.
Q-3: Under your leadership Motorola India achieved SEI Level 5 in a record time of 2 years. What, do you think, played a crucial role in achieving this?
When we started the Motorola operations in India, we were clear of our goals. We wanted to engineer software scientifically and measure everything we do, including time spent on Specification, Coding, testing, reviews etc. Many of the software projects then had huge cost over runs, difficult to maintain and no one could predict when it will be done, even today I think we have not solved this mess!. Hence we defined a software process and automated as much as possible. We setup training programs where every engineer had to undergo our process & tools training. Software Engineering became Core competence of Motorola India. Products came next. We took the help of CMU’s SEI as our advisors.
No one believed that we will be anywhere near SEI Level 3 certification until we had completed 5 years of operation. But to the worlds surprise Motorola India was assessed at SEI Level 5 in 1994 just 2 years of its operation. This was world’s first commercial software operation to get this recognition; the others were NASA space center & IBM’s Watson Research center. The world noticed India after this event New York Times, Washington post carried front-page articles on this event; even in flight magazines of airlines carried these articles! After this event every MNC in the world queued to India to setup its design or software operation.
Q-4: How do you see the future of the telecommunication industry in general and in India in particular?
India today is at the nerve center of Telecommunication growth. It is the fastest growing market with about 5M subscribers being added every month. By 2011 India should have around 350M mobile subscribers making it one of the 2 largest markets along with China (500M). US by comparison will beat around 180M. The Analog to Digital shift (GSM/CDMA standards) made it possible to reduce overall cost of communication equipments/handsets and hence the airtime costs. This sowed the seed for growth in China and now India. It is projected about 3B+ of the world’s population will have a mobile device by 2011. The next 1B subscribers will come mostly out of developing nations.
The trend is moving from Voice to Data in matured markets now with adoption of 3G and Wi-MAX technologies. In India we might entirely bypass 3G technologies to 4G standards. 4G standards are all about wireless enabling Internet Protocol bringing the desktop Internet experience to mobiles. The key enabler is very high-speed data access (10-100MB/sec) over wireless. It is possible to do this using Wi-MAX even though technical problems like power consumption, mobile handoff in Wi-MAX still remains. We should see this mature in 2008-9.
Content Delivery over wireless is the most exciting market waiting to happen. Digital TV, Multiplayer wireless games, Music, Mobile Virtual News/Information, Location services, Mobile Commerce are high potential areas.
Q-5: Looking back, how do you feel about your days at IT-BHU?
I joined IT-BHU with trepidations not knowing what I am getting into! After the initial ragging period of 3 month, which was tough those days, I almost gave up hope that I will continue beyond my first year there! But BHU does grow on you and I started enjoying the atmosphere as time progressed. Couple of Sine Die’s helped; I had 2 in my first 2 years!
I used my BHU days to learn more on software & wireless technologies. The library was great and I used to spend most of my time there. Some of the autobiographies & books on leadership were great which inspired me and later shaped my thinking. Since I spent excessive time in library I never scored high in my exams. I felt thrilled if I got a 8.00+ GPA, which was rare!
I used to like Prof Bhattacharya’s class on Electrical and Prof Ghosh (yes on vacuum tubes!!! and transistors). They used to make the class more engaging. I used to love Prof Menon’s math’s class, he was always challenging and I got an ‘A’ grade from him (normally he does not give one!). I am not sure if anyone of them is still teaching, I would love to meet them.
Overall I have only fond memories of ITBHU, its chai shops, late night movies near Ghats, Kashiyatra’s etc. I only wish I could have enjoyed more since one of the best parts of my life was spent there.
Q-6: What advice will you give to current students/recent graduates who are involved with the telecommunication industry?
Times have changed in last 10 years. The growth opportunities are here in India and in Emerging markets like South Africa, China, Russia, and Brazil etc. The best career growth happens here. Gone are the days you have to pack your bag to USA for higher studies. My advice to you is to develop deep specialization earlier in your career, innovation is essential to success in today’s world and this cannot happen without specialization. As mentioned earlier Wireless Technology and contents/applications will be the Hi-tech growth driver for next 5-10 years. Everything that has wires today will be unwired in next 10 years.
Challenging the convention and disrupting the status quo is the key to success for any company or an individual. Developing this trait is essential to success. After all the scams over last 5 years, ethical behavior and transparency has become a necessity for a successful corporate leader.
IT-BHU needs to constantly upgrade its curriculum to adapt to the needs of the industry and emerging technology trends. Apart from technical skills students need to develop the ability to Innovate and work as a team in an increasingly multicultural workplace. These are areas where the Institute can help mold the students.
Q-7: Given your expertise in developing offshore centers, do you also intend to move toward venture capital funding?
I am part of Motorola Venture Funding activities where we evaluate and invest in technology companies. Currently we are evaluating startups in India in wireless content management and application space. We have invested in few companies in India, which are currently going through technology trials.
Q-8: While recruiting, what quality do you look for in the candidates?
We look for primarily excellence or passion in something you have done; it can be academic, project work or papers/research material. Good communication skills and ability to show that you are a team player are other factors we look for in an individual. At senior levels your prior accomplishments and good references are extremely important.
Q-9: What are the future expansion plans in India?
We are expanding our research center in Bangalore India where we will be focusing on products/solutions for India and other high growth markets. For example we are working on speech recognition technologies and its applications in mobiles. This is to enable illiterate people in village to access phone features without using keypad. We are also expanding our software centers in Hyderabad & Bangalore. We are hiring sales/marketing, strategy/analysts in New Delhi/Mumbai. We are also opening our manufacturing facility in Chennai in 2007. Overall Motorola in India will be a growth story for next couple of years.
Q-10: Thank you sir. We hope information provided by you will be useful to our readers who want to become leaders of corporate world.
While signing off I would like to reiterate golden words of Mahatma Gandhi.
“The world has plenty to offers for every man’s needs but not everyone’s greed’.
During the last decade the corporate world was full of Greed and saw many failures. The world is fast moving towards ‘profit with a purpose’ and expects its leaders to show the way. I would urge every one of you to seek your purpose in life and you would enjoy the journey.
My best wishes to all of you for a bright & happy future. You can reach me at ‘mohan.kumar [AT] Motorola [DOT] com’