Hot seat

“Whatever you choose, go for the kill”

M S Sidhu, managing director of Apara Enterprise Solutions, believes that success comes to those who strive for perfection and face competition head-on. Vinutha V finds that although he has ambitious plans for his company, as an individual he is a contented man

M S Sidhu has always believed that his hard work and creativity would help him excel in whatever field he chose. As a youngster his ambition was to join the merchant navy or become an automobile designer. But destiny had other plans, and brought him to the world of information technology, where the action was. Along with two friends, he founded Apara Enterprise Solutions, an organisation which architects and deploys IT solutions that consolidate, integrate and automate management of information, and protect and secure mission-critical data. Says Sidhu, “In any business such as ours, we set the standards for others. There is no place for pre-determination, and we can always deal with challenges differently.”

Sidhu completed his mechanical engineering while studying in Bangalore. For one who never thought about life beyond Chandigarh, it was in south India that he made his career. He started with Eureka Forbes in their industrial division, and moved to HCL in Hyderabad for a year, then shifted to Wipro Infotech. “These three short stints became a good base to learn the value system in handling customers and selling multiple product lines,” he says. While forming Apara he was involved in a range of activities, including raising capital and forming alliances and winning customer accounts.

He believes that success comes to those who strive for perfection and face competition head-on. “In business we cannot always be logical or rational. I was intuitive enough to either choose the customers or pick the right option.” Sidhu strongly feels that India’s contribution to the global IT market is minuscule, and a lot remains to be done. All Indian IT companies should come together with a single vision to compete against global companies. Sidhu also aspires to give Apara a global footprint and go public within the next three years.

While his dreams for his organisation are very ambitious, as an individual Sidhu is content with life. He believes that once the basic needs of life (food, clothing and a home) are fulfilled, a person should be contented. However, he does have a weakness for cars. He recollects a childhood incident. “When I was around five years old I told my mother that I wanted to own a car that had fans inside. I love international brands, but I’m apprehensive about buying them because of the bad roads in Bangalore.” A nature lover, Sidhu spends his vacations in deep forests, among wildlife and gurgling streams. Bandipur and BR Hills are among his favourite spots. According to him, being a part of nature helps a person remain grounded.

Music, gardening, cycling, and pets are other activities that keep him occupied. When queried about his interest in books, he quips that he is a “visual and sound guy.” But he is quick to add that to update himself on the latest happenings, he reads books on technology, management and corporate/individual success stories.

A deeply spiritual man, Sidhu attends several spiritual programmes and believes in applying the learning in every day life. Giving an analogy he says, “In case an employee or his family member falls ill, I would prefer spending money for the ailment rather than investing in business. It’s imperative for a person to have a human approach, and empathy towards his peer group.”

He says one of the key reasons for his success is that he never keeps any backlog of tasks to be done, and measures every accomplishment through short-term and long-term goals.

Sidhu’s tips for wannabe entrepreneurs includes the following: “Whatever you choose, go for the kill. Do not waste time in eliminating obstacles on the way; instead, try to deal with it to proceed. A leader is always flexible and open to ideas. Give your ears to others’ views and strategies. Never look back once you execute or else you will stop growing.” For him, success is not a destination. “You need to keep setting higher standards and work towards achieving them,” he declares.

The mark he has made so far is just a launching pad for Sidhu. He is set to take up bigger challenges in the future, which means that the best is yet to come.