I believe all of us want to make a difference in this world and contribute to its wellbeing.  So, when I completed by Masters from University of Maryland, I returned to India with the mission that to start a company to produce the most technologically advanced and innovative products that would do India proud.  In short, the motivation was to prove that technology products could be built in India.

CIMCON was established in 1988 in India. The word CIMCON comes from combination of two words, CIM (Computer Integrated Manufacturing) and CON (CONtrols).  The first 5 years were spent developing control products that would help control geographically distributed assets of water and power utilities and oil and gas companies.  This involved lot of wired and wireless networking using various technologies such as Leased Lines, UHF/VHF, Satellite, Microwave and more recently mesh networks. Then in 1996, we decided to expand into the USA.  Bringing the automation technology into the USA was financially not feasible due to the huge support infrastructure that would be needed.  So, we decided to focus on FDA compliance software based on my brother's experience. My brother was in the US.  Here again the idea was to help FDA regulated companies reduce cost of compliance using automated software tools.  The compliance product offering was expanded into the Sarbanes-Oxley world around 2002.  Then 3 years ago, we decided to bring a small part of the automation product line into the USA for wireless streetlight automation.

I guess, I am a technology person at heart and like to keep innovating and doing new things.  At some point, things get monotonous and it is best if that part of the business is left to someone else who would find it interesting and would be able to contribute with more energy and enthusiasm.  However, in all our businesses, the key theme has remained the same.  We have been involved with products that help our clients improve efficiency, reduce costs, and increase productivity.

This is a very huge and exciting space. Right now we are focusing on a very small part of this, the streetlights.  Based on one study, in USA alone there are about 68 million streetlights that cost us $18 billion to power and emits 150 tons of CO2.  Similarly, the European Union has 90 million streetlights that cost $45.5 billion to power.  Using our technology, we estimate we can save at least 30% in power and more than 50% in maintenance costs that represents more than $10 billion in potential annual savings for outdoor lighting in the USA alone.  As we all know the cost of heating and lighting even within our homes is a significant spend and you have opportunities to reduce that using internet connected thermostats that can allow you to set your home temperature from anywhere in the world.

 

I believe opportunities are everywhere.  To me opportunity is all about finding a solution to a problem or finding a radically different way of doing something that saves money, improves productivity and in some cases helps us go green.  This implies that you have deep domain knowledge about the problem area and that is built over time.  So, to find new opportunities you need to essentially stick to your domain.  However, the size of the opportunity is the most critical factor when starting a new business. If whatever you come up with only affects a very small part of the society, however good a solution you may create, your business will always be limited.  Hence, when deciding on the space you would like to start a new business always think of the market size and how passionate you are about that opportunity. Do not worry too much about the resources needed to execute it, since if the size of the opportunity is large and you are the right person for it, you will always get someone to invest in your vision.

What are you other interests? 

I strongly believe that everyone has an individual responsibility towards improving the quality of life of others around us.  We have to be able to give back in a meaningful manner.  To be able to do anything in a meaningful way, you need to be able to provide the same discipline that you need in the corporate world.  I have seen lot of people have very good intent, but unless the discipline is there, more is wasted than utilized.  I am working in several ways to help the blind in India to become independent.  Some examples include starting a blind school in a village, providing equipment so that they can learn effectively and establishing businesses for blind people that they can live with dignity.  Also, I like to help passionate entrepreneurs where I can. 

I meet lot of aspiring entrepreneurs who have worked for large companies for 10+years and keep thinking about starting their own.  My advice to them is to go by the gut and not think too much.  The biggest issue I have seen is that many times they get paralyzed with too much analysis.  In today's world someone, somewhere would have done something similar to what you are thinking, but that should not discourage you to start your own.  Most of the time, you find that what brings success is very much different from what you started with.  Business is about continuous innovation and as we know necessity is the mother of invention, so you will innovate to fill a gap that will make you successful.  Regarding opportunities in Energy space, as I said it is a huge market, each one of us spends so much on energy and that will continue to increase hence anything that you can do to reduce it can be huge.  There are two ways to consider this: one is improving efficiency of the equipment producing energy and the other is by optimizing energy use by minimizing wastage. Fortunately, we waste a lot, so there is tremendous potential there and this aspect of savings does not even require large investment.  So, anyone who can take advantage of the technological advances of social media, wireless and some intelligent software algorithms has the potential of making a big impact.

I think key is to have clarity and focus and then believe in that.  Most of the time things don't work out as planned, but if you continue to believe in yourself, things will eventually fall in place.  One final word, name of the game is patience.  There are no short cuts, though the time to succeed has gone down considerably thanks to technology.  Do you best without worrying about the results.