Shiv Nadar: Empowering India’s Technology Landscape | Success Story
Shiv Nadar is an Indian billionaire business magnate and philanthropist. Born on 14th July 1945 Nadar is the founder and the chairman emeritus of HCL Technologies and the Shiv Nadar Foundation. During his career as a businessman, he has won several notable awards including the Padma Bhushan award back in the year 2008.
Brief Overview of Shiv Nadar’s Background and Achievements
Nadar’s contribution to technology has been in the mid-1970s by being one of the founders of HCL. he has also transformed the IT hardware company into an IT enterprise during the period of three decades. It was because of his contribution and efforts in the IT industry he was awarded one of the most prestigious awards, Padma Bhushan back in 2008.
Born in Tamil Nadu in a basic Tamil family completed his studies at Town Higher Secondary School in Kumbakonam. Nadar studied in various schools later and he even received a pre-university degree in the American College, Madurai, and additionally a degree in Electrical and Electronics Engineering from PSG College of Technology, Coimbatore.
Shiv Nadar’s Early Life, Family Background, And Upbringing
Shiv Nadar completed most of his studies in Tamil Nadu itself. He earned his degree in electrical engineering which was the reason for his growth in interest in technology quite early. Born in a Tamil Nadu family his parents were Sivasubramaniya Nadar and Vamasundari Devi. His mother, Vamasundari Devi, is the sister of S. P Adithanar, who is the founder of Dina Thanthi newspaper.
Talking about his educational achievements, Nadar received a pre-university degree from the American College, of Madurai. Additionally, he also earned his engineering degree from PSG College of Technology in Coimbatore. Pre-university is an intermediate level of education. Later, his career only started in the year 1967 when he had begun working for Cooper Engineering Ltd in Pune.
He soon gave up those to begin his own venture. It was in 1976 when HCL was founded with an investment of INR 187,000. Within four years in the year 1980 the company had ventured into the international market with the opening of Far East Computers in Singapore to sell IT hardware. His entrepreneurial journey after founding HCL has been quite great. It was in the year 2020 when Nadar handed his company to his daughter Roshni Nadar.
Roshni Nadar became the first woman chair of a listed IT company and a year later in July 2021 Shiv Nadar also stepped down as managing director of HCL Technologies and he was succeeded by C Vijayakumar.
Shiv Nadar’s Foundation Of HCL Company
Nadar founded HCL Technologies in 1976 with a mere investment of INR 187,000. The company today has reached massive heights in terms of its presence globally. But, the journey of HCL has been full of ups and downs as well as major challenges during its initial stages. At the initial stages of the company, HCL did not have enough financial resources which was one of the biggest challenges for them to sustain in the market.
The company has even been able to tackle the financial crisis during the time of 2008. It had to compete with other major brands like Wipro and Tata Consultancies. With clever and pre-planned strategies from upper-level management HCL was able to earn maximum revenues even during the financial crisis year in 2008.
HCL became one of the most prominent players in the IT industry because it had identified that its competitors already had similar technology to offer to their customers. Company management of HCL started to think about creating a differentiation. The company realized that its competitors were operating in the wrong value zone.
HCL understood that customers’ real value lay in the employee-customer interface. Their strategy ‘Employees First, Customers Second’ was a strategy that they implemented soon after. In this strategy, HCL used their low-level employees to work efficiently by keeping them motivated.
The diversification and expansion of HCL has been huge ever since. The company has entered the international market as well. The company has its head office based in Noida but has delivery centers in the Philippines, Latin America, the USA, and Europe.
HCL’s Diversification Into Various Business Domains
HCL has diversified services and products to stay sustainable in the competitive market. They have always focused on getting things in a strategic way which has helped them come at massive growth even beating some of its competitors in terms of revenue earning and customer satisfaction.
If you visit the official product folio website of the company then we will see that the portfolio is quite huge and diversified as well. Additionally, the company has also got its own set of key offerings which makes their services unique and as well as differentiated from others.
During the financial crisis in the year 2008, upper-level management played a crucial role in generating revenues as well as sustaining the market. Their strategy was to keep their junior-level employees motivated at all times even at half of the salary that they were being paid.
This was quite a unique strategy yet an effective one. Positive results flourished and when compared with its competitors the results made a huge difference.
The company has made several innovations in the digital world, engineering, and cloud computing as well. The company’s end-to-end digital offerings enable enterprises to increase their business resilience, improve their operational efficiency and deepen client engagement.
HCLTech Engineering and R&D services empower enterprises to improve time-to-time profit, accelerate product development and maximize return on innovation. HCLTech’s CloudSmart offerings and services enable organizations to optimize the cloud to accelerate innovation and agility at scale.
HCL’s Role In Technological Innovations And Contribution To IT Sector
HCL is a company that is primarily in the business of providing a range of software services, business process outsourcing, and as well as infrastructure services. HCL Technologies began as the R&D Division of HCl Enterprise, a company that was a contributor to the development and growth of the IT and computer industry in India. The company had developed an indigenous microcomputer back in the year 1978, and a networking OS and client-server architecture in 1983.
HCLTech has had a very strong presence in India from the time of its inception, contributing to the cause of nation-building through advanced technology solutions. For one of the largest Fortune 500 Asia-based oil and gas exploration and production companies with a highly complex data network and IT Infrastructure, HCLTech provided complete network, communication, and IT infrastructure management solutions with a very high level of security data. The company also helps India’s largest stock exchange manage 10 million transactions per day with sub-second latency.
Shiv Nadar who has always been a core member of the success of the company has always tried to explain that no matter where you are in the hierarchy, you must accept any task that is given to you. Second, there are limitations to what you can accomplish on your own. Therefore, it is teamwork that should be done so that work becomes easier.
Leadership Qualities And Management Approach of Shiv Nadar
HCl vision statement states, ‘To provide innovative, professional and personalized services to clients, associates, and employees. We shall be sensitive to the needs of individuals forming a subject of our intervention.
Nadar’s vision was very much similar as well which is why he had decided to start the company in the first place. His significant contribution to the IT sector has helped several businesses and companies to sustain in the market. Additionally, it was one of the first companies to introduce computers in India before IBM and Apple.
The approach and strategies taken by the upper-level management throughout HCL’s business career have been to the point and innovative as well. Under the leadership of Shiv Nadar, the company has been able to take strategic decisions to handle several challenges and as well as sustain in a competitive market.
Shiv Nadar has always helped others grow and he has even started taking philanthropic initiatives as well. He had found that a heavily populated country like India lacked young trained employees who were ready to take up jobs in the IT sector.
Nadar, who had always valued education above anything else from the beginning, had decided to give something back to the community. He founded several educational institutions that helped the young minds of India set foot in a growing industry like the IT industry.
Shiv Nadar’s Philanthropic Efforts And Contributions To Education And Healthcare
As already mentioned earlier, Nadar always prioritized proper education towards success. He saw that in a country like India youngsters majority of them lacked trained employees in the IT sector which was one of the fastest growing sectors in the world. So it was in the year 1996 when Shiv Nadar started the SSN College of Engineering in Chennai along with providing 1 million of shares. This college was started in memory of his late father.
In the year 2006, Nadar announced that SSn College of Engineering will be promoting research apart from ensuring that students benefit from foreign university tie-ups. In the year 2008, Nadar’s SSN Trust officially announced the setting up of two Vidyagyan schools in UP. These schools were for rural students. It was in these schools that around 200 students would be getting free scholarships from over 50 districts of Uttar Pradesh.
Nadar visited Town Higher Secondary School in Feb 2011 when he donated computers and other equipment. He had served as the chairman of the board of governors, at IIT Kharagpur until 2014.
Awards and Recognition Received By Shiv Nadar For His Contribution
- In 2008, the Government of India awarded Nadar with a Padma Bhushan, the third highest civilian award, for his contribution to the IT industry.
- In 2007, Madras University awarded him with an honorary doctorate degree
- He was awarded E&Y Entrepreneur of the Year 2007 (Services)
- In 2011 Nadar was amongst Forbes’ 48 Heroes of Philanthropy in Asia Pacific
- In April 2017, India Today magazine ranked Nadar #16th in India’s most powerful people of 2017 list
- Shiv Nadar has committed more than $1 billion to philanthropy.
Shiv Nadar says that being paranoid is okay. He says that he is fearful but that doesn’t mean that he acts out of fear. He has always believed that the paranoid strive for the best, but are always prepared for the worst.
Everyone needs to exploit and identify every crisis point that challenges the business. Determination and hard work always pay off, which is one thing that we can learn from the success story of Shiv Nadar.
Valuable Lessons That Entrepreneurs and Leaders Can Learn From Shiv Nadar’s Journey
Entrepreneurs and leaders will always feel inspired by the journey of Shiv Nadar being a simple boy belonging to a small village in Tamil Nadu to be one of the richest and most powerful men in the world. Shiv Nadar has always worked hard in his academics and soon understood the importance of technology and its demand in the future.
He has inspired not just entrepreneurs and leaders but also regular people to find the right path and be determined to work on it. He has always thought that education is key to success which is why he has always been inspiring the young minds of India to come forward and be the next Shiv Nadar of India.
Conclusion
Shiv Nadar, the 78-year-old has changed the IT industry in India by bringing innovative products and services. His company, HCL has helped several companies. He wants the young minds of India to educate themselves and create a better future for themselves as well as for the country.
Shiv Nadar is empowering students and as well providing education facilities to the rural students. Nadar’s mission and vision to help the future generations has proved the importance of education in the future.