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Self-belief shapes destiny

Following Mahatma Gandhi’s principles of self-belief, truth and simplicity, and reading the works of great men that provides inspiration to brave it out during tough times, V K Matthews, CEO, IBS Software, reveals his life’s motivations to Renuka Vembu

V K Matthews

An ardent believer and follower of the principles and teachings of Mahatma Gandhi, V K Matthews was truly touched and inspired by the way Gandhi impacted the lives of millions of people. While loyalty and hard-work were instilled into him by his own father, the Father of the Nation motivated Matthews to be a better human being. He recollected, “It is interesting to learn how Gandhiji’s teachings have touched people around him and how a man could change the way the world thinks, with his simplicity, his belief in self and in truth. I believe he is a blessing to the humankind.”

The learning

Born in Kizhakkambalam in the Ernakulam district of Kerala, to an inclusive family of father—one of the founding managers of Federal Bank, mother—a homemaker, two brothers and a sister, his entire childhood was spent in this beautiful village. Schooling from St Joseph’s School, PUC from St Peter’s College, and Engineering from MA College, Matthews moved out of his village boundaries for the first time to pursue Post-graduation in Aeronautical Engineering from IIT Kanpur. It was in this institute that he went ahead with his self-belief and won against all odds. Going against the advice of his friends and well wishers, he contested for the post of Gymkhana Convenor, and won with record votes. This win reiterated and reinforced his belief that ‘reasoning out always wins against arguing in proving your point and in influencing people to think the right way in difficult situations.’

IT was an unheard and untouched subject in his village, and this triggered off his interest further in exploring this area of interest. He said, “Being a typical Arian, I see opportunity in every obstacle that comes my way and challenges in life keep me moving forward. Aeronautical engineering and, more so, aviation business turned out to be extremely fascinating.”

Career path

Matthews started off his career in 1979, as a faculty teaching Computer Programming to officers of the Defence Services, as he in awe of the Defence services, their discipline and love for the nation, but soon enough realized that he could do very little for Defence with the path that he had chosen. After moving to Air India and being there for a span of couple of years, he moved to Emirates and spent 14 years with them. It was here, in almost the decade and half experience that he worked on implementing IT solutions for the airline industry, and realized that there was a great opportunity to provide IT solutions using new-generation technology to the air transportation industry, which was using decades old legacy systems for handling their business and operations. He was also involved in the setting up a joint venture business between the Emirates Group and the Swissair Group for providing IT services for the industry outside North America and Europe.

The knowledge, experience, expertise and understanding in the IT services for the travel transportation and logistics industry, he gained during his tenure with Emirates and Air India, boosted his confidence to setup IBS at Technopark, Trivandrum, in 1997. Matthews simply put it, “I went much against the advice of my friends, family and well-wishers, who thought that I am risking my entire earnings into this business, forgoing a well paid and high profile job at the Emirates. At that time, it was a difficult decision starting up at Trivandrum, when the rest of the world saw Bangalore as the best place in India to start an IT company. But I followed my instincts and I am glad I did that.”

Facing challenges

But setting up his pet project IBS had its share of hurdles for Matthews to overcome. Right from getting funding for the business to gearing up his people to develop skill-sets to battling tough phases of dotcom collapse and international terror attacks, Matthews kept going unfazed and determined. He explained, “Getting airline industry experienced IT people who could work internationally, for IBS was a domain-centric company, and setting up the infrastructure was the first challenge when the business was launched. All my savings from 18 years of working in India and abroad, and whatever ancestral inheritance that I had, was put into the business, either as cash or collateral for bank loans. IBS was started with a paid up capital of Rs 1.76 crore plus a bank loan close to Rs 2.5 crore. 2001-2003 period was extremely challenging for IBS. Technology bubble burst of 2000, September 11 in 2001, and to compound it all, the bankruptcy of the Swissair Group, our joint venture partners in early 2002 had put IBS in very bad shape. But we did overcome the turbulent times without laying-off a single staff.”

The other side

Apart from steering IBS as its CEO, one his greatest achievements is being in the senior management position and becoming the youngest General Manager of the Emirates Group. With time evenly balanced between work, and family comprising wife and two daughters, he also devotes ample time for his hobbies. Listening to soft and soothing music, traveling and reading biographies of great people, like the recent ones he has completed of Bill Clinton and Ambassador Sreenivasan, he felt gave him a clear vision and direction to take on difficult times in life with ease.

renuka.vembu@expressindia.com