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Kotak : The crystal ball gazer!

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It is said that winning a boxing match is not about how many punches you hit, but how many punches you take without being knocked out. "If there is something that has brought me this far, it is my ability to take punches. I can only take credit for being prepared to work hard, fail, and be blessed to muster courage to get up again to work harder... even that is God's grace," affirmed Kshitij Kotak, the CEO of Mumbai based solution provider Fortune Grecells.

The most important role he has played as an owner and CEO is creating vision, mission, values and motivating team to embrace and adapt to the strategy that evolves from vision, mission and values.

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JOURNEY BEGINS

Functionally, Kotak has been through the entire gamut of industry roles from the time he got out of college in 1991. As an entrepreneur, he has been a service engineer, in-house technician, handled services, sales, marketing, finance, HR, statutory compliance, off-shore recruiting, website development,

e-shopping business, et al.

Kotak completed his BE in Computer Engineering from University of Poona in 1991. Kotak loved to research back then too and for his final year engineering project, he made an artificial intelligence software that could make computers understand simple, everyday English to execute DOS commands. "We approached C-DAC to do this project and they wanted us to make a Sanskrit to English translator, whereas I wanted to make something that would be of use to the common man. I coded the entire project, something they did at M Tech. level in those days," added Kotak. With few computers in the college labs, he used to attend his college in Pune and would come everyday to Mumbai by train to work the entire night on his dad's PC-XT to pick up Indrayani Express back to Pune at 6 in the morning. "Those days close to about 8 months, trains became my resting place," informed Kotak, recollecting his struggling days.

A Different Direction

After Bachelor of Engineering, he did not wish to go abroad like most of his friends did. He settled to work for a small company into computer hardware and services for a princely sum of `800, out of which 20% was debited under various heads.

In 1993, he became salesman for a computer maintenance company for 8 months, wherein Kotak's job was to sell service contracts and assembled computers in Bombay Stock Exchange. He used to visit every office in BSE Towers and Rotunda.

What actually prepared Kotak for success was his stint at Zenith Computers and his RBI posting. He got formally trained for networking at Zenith and developed a clear understanding about the market including how critical it is to keep computers up and running. He also served at Hindustan Lever (now Hindustan Unilever) for a while and was then made in-charge of the Reserve Bank of India implementation across Mumbai-the biggest order of Zenith in those days. Kotak exclaimed with joy, "What an on-field training it was! Had it not been Zenith, I would not have come far against adversities; may be, I would have found an overseas job like many of my employees in 1999."

MANAGING BUSINESS AT PRESENT

The often quoted saying of Abraham Lincoln-"You can fool some of the people all of the time, and all of the people some of the time, but you can not fool all of the people all of the time" best suits the focused and honest businessman Kotak. He says, "As a businessman, I did not need to tell lies. God has been kind to bless me with friends, customers who do not need to be told lies. For me, that was and still remains a big thing."

Today, we have our business operations to lead growth. Fortune Grecells has Fast+Up services that can get systems and networks up and running within minutes of a crash, outage or even disaster. Even the company's classic maintenance service has high-availability edge and ideally we prefer to work with companies with 50-250 systems and provide them with 360 degree IT infrastructure services. The company along with its channel partners has chalked out plans with our channel partners to increase our footprint pan-India. The company also intends to increase its partner count to 300 by the end of FY13. They would offer high-availability solutions with their branding. High availability for micro small and medium enterprises having between 50-250 users at an affordable price has always been a pipe dream. "We empower our channel partners to make inroads into accounts they never imagined approaching with a unique value proposition that helps them to not only attain new customers, but also improve traction with them and most importantly, being profitable without worries, stress or overwork," said Kotak.

With the company's customer-centric approach, Fortune Grecells nudges its customers to adopt best practices which are in continuous development for the last 20 years. "Our customers know we mean high availability for their systems, their networks, their productivity, and everything that can help them make more money. Today, businessmen understand they lose money, and more importantly reputation when their IT is down or when employees misuse infrastructure," explained Kotak.

WORK-LIFE BALANCE

In Kotak's opinion, balance between professional and personal life is a mirage. "The faster you rush towards it, the farther it goes away. And it is imaginary. We do not live in a perfect world. I have seen Ambanis working late nights at their Ballard Estate office, near my office. I think only a clerk or a carpenter has a perfect work-life balance," said Kotak. However, he has always managed to stand by his family when needed, be it his dad's surgeries, daughter's birth, her 10th standard exams, teaching her Physics, running around for 20 days at the Ministry and lawyers' and being with his friends and relatives for many birthday parties.

Outside work, Kotak loves reading, and watching action, thriller and comedy movies. He also enjoys walking near the sea, chatting with friends and helping others think out of the box.

ROAD AHEAD

Kotak aspires to restore his industry's reputation and respect. "As far as my company Fortune Grecells is concerned, I would like to quit in 7 years, handing it over to the most competent and dynamic employee to run it. Before that I want to take IT's BLACKBOX to its full potential, the way I have envisaged it," signed off Kotak.

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