Manuj Desai, Chief Information Officer, Sterlite Technologies, grew up in Vadodara, Gujarat, and spent his time practicing at the rink or on the road Roller Skating, which he began at the age of four and continued at a competitive level until he was sixteen. He was a national champion for ten years in a row and was fortunate enough to be coached by French coaches for international competitions.
“My family gave equal importance to sports as well as education, thus ensuring balanced growth opportunities. My journey taught me lessons, such as sportsmanship, perseverance, working diligently, and having a strong reflex action—having a strategy for competitions, being ready with a fallback plan at all times, managing anxiety, and having flawless execution. It is similar to dealing with corporate culture,” he says.
The lessons from sports became an integral part of his upbringing as he believes such sports prepare the individual for the long haul and teach significant life lessons. Desai’s interest in roller skating also caused him to develop an observant attitude toward life, which sparked his interest in innovations and technology. He says he was more interested in practical applications of technology than in the technology itself.
“A simple ball bearing used in roller skates, if oiled well would produce better results or the harness of the materials used as wheels would determine which would be the ideal surface to use them effectively. It was all about how technology can enable real-life problems,” he added.
Exploring technology, Desai worked in the evenings assembling and troubleshooting personal computers (PC) in his college days which inclined him towards IT and took him into programming solutions. He not only scoured the Indian technological market by working at Paypal and other companies along the way, but also gained international experience.
Before PayPal, Desai worked for the US Department of Agriculture (USDA) for 12 years, developing the As-Is and To-Be abstraction layers for Investments, Business Process & Functions, Application, and Data. He was instrumental in managing Sprint-revenue Nextel’s targets and funding for all midrange information technology solutions.
He moved across continents and took up opportunities & roles in various facets of the entire technology space including, Process Re-engineering, Configuration Management, Audit, Solution and Enterprise Architecture, Testing, Engineering, IT, Application design, Infrastructure, Visualization, Data engineering, Innovation & Analytics.
Desai says, “The thought process was to understand how this entire puzzle fits together and how technology impacts the topline and bottom-line of the businesses.”
Accomplishing his goals with a resilient mindset, he enjoys his quality time with his family by going on long drives as it relaxes him from grueling workweeks. “I also take joy in gardening, especially growing vegetables like chilies, bell peppers, and tomatoes to name a few,” he adds. As a family, they enjoy board games and doing outdoor activities.
Facing the hurdles of life, Desai believes there are no failures, only setbacks, and feels each individual has the capabilities to solve any problem with the focal and perpetual mindset.
“The question is, are we able to give it the necessary effort it deserves. If I focus and look carefully, I will always find a solution. There will be unknown territories or situations one needs to deal with all the time. I feel it is our reaction to such failures which make it a challenge for us to overcome,” Desai says.
Continuing his zeal towards technology, he states technology as an intriguing space that can be overwhelming from time to time when we listen to too many gorgons. To counter this, he advises being in sync with the latest trends/gadgets. However, try relating them to the fundamentals learned as, “All things are difficult before they are easy.”
