Alumni Guest House : Donated by Mr. Mody (Class of '55)

Nikesh Arora (EEE 1989) is currently the VP, European Operations, Google and is a pivotal member of the senior management team at Google. He is the de facto point man for the company's strategic and development plans across the continent and in the Middle East and Africa. Prior to joining Google, he was Chief Marketing Officer and a Member of the Management Board at T-Mobile. He started working with Deutsche Telekom in 1999, during which time he founded T-Motion PLC, a mobile multimedia subsidiary of T-Mobile International. Prior to his career at Deutsche Telecom, Mr. Arora held management positions at Putnam Investments and Fidelity Investments in Boston.

Mr. Arora holds an MS and CFA certification from Boston College, and an MBA from Northeastern University, all of which were awarded with distinction. He has served on the Adjunct Faculty at both Boston College and Northeastern University, developing and teaching courses in business turnarounds, corporate workouts and financial management.

(For his bio-data, please visit http://www.google.com/corporate/execs.html#nikesh)

For Chronicle, Rajat Harlalka (Electrical 2005) took the opportunity to speak with Nikesh Arora to learn about his highly successful career as a management guru, executive director and as entrepreneur. Q-1: Welcome, sir. Please provide some background info about you to our readers. I graduated from IT-BHU in 1989. I remember getting off the bus with a friend from Delhi and stopping at the crossing by Dhanrajgiri and immediately being accosted by seniors. That was almost 20 years ago – since then I went on to an MBA, Masters of Finance and CFA. I have also worked in various continents. But my days at IT-BHU helped define and shape everything I have done – giving me the confidence to address new challenges and make the most of the opportunities I have been offered. Q-2: Please provide an overview of the operations of Google in Europe and the different challenges in front of it. Google is all about helping to democratize access to human knowledge. We provide products and services – like search, email and maps - which help people create, organize and communicate information. Our advertising business – which matches adverts to key words – gives people highly targeted information at the time they are looking for it. It works for both advertisers and users. Google now employs around 2,000 people across Europe, Russia, the Middle East and Africa.

Q-3: The interview you had with Google was very strange in a way. Please tell our readers something about it. Well Google is non-traditional in almost every way - we respect tradition, but not for tradition’s sake. One of Google's two founders, Sergey Brin, arranged to meet me at the British museum. We walked and talked, looking at the exhibits while discussing the future of the Internet. It was one of the most interesting and inspiring conversations I have ever had. It just shows that not all business needs to be conducted from behind a desk. Q-4: Google has always been committed to providing a congenial atmosphere for its employees. Please tell us something about it. We think it's important that people enjoy their working environment – that way they'll produce better quality work. So we try and make it fun, with lots of bright colors, lava lamps and balls. We provide free food. And we have lots of talks about technology and advertising to keep people informed and interested. Every Friday we have a get together – a few beers and some wine, with the odd presentation – to celebrate the end of the week. Given the pace at which we hire people, we often get asked how we manage to preserve the Google culture. Our secret is that our culture is defined by our employees, old and new. So as new employees arrive at Google, our culture adapts, while of course staying true to our founding principles. Q-5: You had also started a mobile multimedia company called T-Motion. Please tell us something about it. After doing my MBA in Boston, I worked at Fidelity and then Putnam – helping to manage money. But after a while I realized that I wanted the challenge of running a business. So with the help of my relationships in the European Telecom industry, I moved to Europe and started doing some consulting work for Deutsche Telekom. While at DT I worked on their mobile business – helping to develop ideas around mobile data, and mobile multimedia. They then supported me as I started T-Motion. We built T-Motion into the mobile data business of T-Mobile. T-Motion was subsequently integrated into T-Mobile - and I worked there first as Head of Product Development and then Chief Marketing Officer. Q-6: You have traveled to many places- from India to London via America and Germany. As a business executive, what basic differences do you see in these places? The interesting thing about travel is how similar human beings are the world over. We have the same needs – the desire for information, communication and a sense of belonging. That's why the Internet is so exciting: just look at how successful search has been globally - that's all about the quest for learning; or email – helping to communicate; or social networking sites – giving people a sense of community. So yes, there are huge differences – language, culture, traditions, religion and wealth – and as a company we try hard to tailor our products to suit the individual needs of different countries. But at heart we are all human – we all want to be respected and to have the power to make choices about our own lives. Q-7: Looking back, how do you feel about your days at IT-BHU? It gave me a great education – and that gave me a fantastic start in life. Q-8 What advice will you give to future aspirants aiming to become executives/CIO? Work hard and be focused on what you are trying to achieve. But remember also to be humble, respect others and treat people as you would like to be treated yourself - that's the way to inspire and lead people. And while you are doing that don’t forget to have fun! Thank you, sir. We hope information provided by you will be useful to engineers who want to become leaders of corporate world.