Not Just Tech, But Geek-Led Strategy
You're reading Entrepreneur India, an international franchise of Entrepreneur Media.
In 2014, R. Srikrishna, fondly known as Keech, took the reins of a modest mid-sized IT firm following a tenure with HCL Technologies. Over the decade, he has seen several things shape up at Hexaware Technologies, including an acquisition by Carlyle, the acquisition of data consulting firm Softcrylic, onboarding Rahul Dravid as 'Cultural Ambassador, and re-listing on the Indian bourses earlier this year. On February 19, it made a comeback on Dalal Street with an INR 8,750 crore IPO, making it India's largest IT public offering to date.
"When I joined Hexaware in 2014, we were a much smaller company with strengths in ERP and enterprise applications. At the time, the broader IT industry had grown nearly sixfold, while Hexaware had grown less than threefold. The belief then was that midsize companies could not outpace industry leaders. We set out to challenge that, and we did," shares R. Srikrishna, CEO & Executive Director, Hexaware Technologies. The IT veteran, on being asked the boldest move, recalls one hiring- Vinod Chandran, "Appointing someone who had spent nearly three decades in sales, as our Chief Operating Officer...The board was sceptical...It turned out to be exactly the kind of bold bet we needed to scale the company responsibly while staying agile."
However, for Srikrishna, what made both moves bold was not the idea itself but the belief that change at that scale requires full commitment, across levels, and functions. The IT player is giving wings to talent from smaller cities such as Dehradun, Coimbatore and Ahmedabad. They began executing this strategy full throttle in late 2023. This approach has given it a significant advantage over its competitors. It boasts of being already among the largest IT employers in Dehradun. The IIM-Calcutta and IIM-Madras alumnus quips, "In traditional services firms, "geeks" rarely had a real seat at the table... That mindset—geeks leading from the front—is what produced our current edge, and it is exactly what will sustain it as the market gets noisier."
Citing the likes of Mark Zuckerberg, Elon Musk, Jeff Bezos, and Jack Ma, Keech shares, "The best CEOs are also their CTOs, that's the concept. And this will be true not just for tech companies. It will be true for every industry because every industry will be disrupted and rediscovered by a geek." On the way ahead, the Hexaware CEO notes, "Our most important priority now is profitable growth, with a clear ambition to reach $3 billion in revenue by calendar year 2029. That is faster than we have grown historically." The company closed 2024 with USD 1.4 billion in revenue, up 13.7 per cent YoY and plans to focus on product engineering and expanding into the India and Middle East markets.
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
Forbes
23 minutes ago
- Forbes
Closing The Digital Skills Gap: How UNICEF And Partners Empower Youth
As digital technology rapidly transforms the workforce, a global digital skills gap is leaving many young people behind, especially girls and young women. UNICEF and committed private sector partners are equipping the next generation with essential digital, entrepreneurial and AI skills, empowering them to become innovators, leaders and changemakers. Anjali poses with the sewer cleaning robot protoype that she developed at the Atal Tinkering Lab (ATL) at her school in Chhattisgarh, India. UNICEF, along with private sector partners, supports ATLs across India to foster a culture of learning, skilling and entrepreneurship. Why digital skills are essential for today's youth As digital technology reshapes work, too many adolescents and young people are falling behind. Globally, 65 percent of teens lack the digital skills needed for 90 percent of today's jobs, with the widest gaps in low- and middle-income countries and among girls. In many of these places, girls are 25 percent less likely than boys to access the knowledge needed for basic digital tasks. However, 86 percent of employers expect artificial intelligence (AI) and information processing technologies will transform their businesses by 2030. The theme of World Youth Skills Day 2025, 'Youth empowerment through AI and digital skills,' highlights the acute need for an inclusive, ethical and empowering future for all youth. UNICEF's role in youth digital workforce readiness UNICEF is a leader in digital skills programs that prepare young people to take part in a fast-changing economy and become the leaders their communities and the world need. This work is supported by strong private sector partners whose values, interests and corporate philanthropy aims align with UNICEF's goal to create a better world for every child. Private sector partners collaborate with UNICEF in many ways, supplying the knowledge, tools and finances that complement UNICEF's strengths and accelerate young people's path to economic security and opportunity. Trusted private sector partners allow UNICEF to plan long term and scale up programs more effectively. True collaboration and bold innovation can lead to powerful solutions, while UNICEF remains committed to promoting and upholding children's rights as AI policies and practices evolve. How public-private partnerships are transforming youth opportunities Public-private sector collaboration can scale programs from concepts to solutions and achieve greater impact at an accelerated pace than either sector can by working alone. Since 1999, fewer young people around the world have been working, even though the number of young people has grown. When youth are not working, studying or in training, their overall wellbeing suffers, diminishing their ability to contribute to future economic development and sociopolitical stability. To flip the script, more young people must be able to identify and access the skills to participate in a digital and green economy. UNICEF and SAP piloted an innovative, scalable workforce readiness program for marginalized youth in Kenya, Nigeria and South Africa that supports learning to earning pathways. The program leverages Generation Unlimited's Youth Agency Marketplace (Yoma), a digital platform that connects young people with social impact tasks and learning to earning opportunities. Scaling digital learning with Yoma: a youth-led innovation The Yoma platform for youth was developed by young Africans seeking to address the stark reality that youth comprise 60 percent of all of Africa's jobless. Since 2022, the SAP and UNICEF partnership has reached over 815,000 and helped improve the lives of 250,000 more through engagement with foundational and digital skills for youth. Overall, thanks to SAP and other partners' support, Yoma has reached over 5 million engagements, which include registering more than 500,000 youth in over eight countries registered to access skilling, earning and impact opportunities through the Yoma ecosystem. Muhammad Abdullahi applies skills he learned from UNICEF Youth Agency Marketplace (Yoma) in Bauchi State, Nigeria, to his work as a health care innovator and employer. Yoma is a digital marketplace for youth to gain individualized learning and align opportunities with their aspirations. Muhammad Abdullahi, a health educator from Azare in Nigeria's Bauchi State, uses his Yoma-acquired skills to inspire change around him. Bauchi State has a high number of children who are out of school. "Growing up in a community like Azare gave me a sense that we need to call on our young people to change the narrative of how our people survive here,' he says. Muhammed used the money he earned scavenging plastic waste to pay for his university tuition. "I was afraid to graduate from university because I may not get a job, but after utilizing opportunities from Yoma, I am a proud health innovator and employer now.' How Skills4Girls builds confidence, STEM access and leadership Investment in girls' education and skills-building forges a critical pathway to dignified work and economic security. About 1 billion girls and women worldwide lack the skills to keep up in today's job market. For teenagers between 15 and 19, twice as many girls (1 in 4) are not working, learning or training compared to boys (1 in 10). With support from several private sector partners, UNICEF's Skills4Girls is closing the gap between the education girls traditionally receive and the digital skills to thrive in today's economy. The Skills4Girls develops girls' skills in STEM, digital technologies and social entrepreneurship areas and bolsters life skills like problem-solving, communication, teamwork and self-confidence. For example, thanks to Sylvamo'spartnership with UNICEF, Skills4Girls expanded its work in countries like Bolivia and Brazil to give girls greater access to STEM education and leadership training, unlocking their individual potential and yielding greater societal benefits. With more than 640 million adolescent girls living on the planet today, programs like Skills4Girls play a crucial role in supporting their growth and potential. Mary Luz, 15, of La Paz, Bolivia, created an award-winning robotic boat to collect trash from rivers and lakes. In Bolivia, only 24 percent of students in STEM are women. A UNICEF Skills4Girls program is teaching Bolivian girls to design and build robot prototypes. In Bolivia, only 24 percent of students in technological and scientific careers are women. Skills4Girls is working to improve that reality and build a better future by teaching Bolivian girls to design and build robot prototypes. 15-year-old Mary Luz from La Paz, Bolivia, dreamed of seeing nearby Lake Titicaca clean – free from pollution and plastic waste. Driven by that vision, she created a prototype robotic boat that collects trash from rivers and lakes. Mary's invention is equipped with weather sensors, a live camera and an anemometer to measure wind speed. With support from UNICEF, her creativity and determination led her to represent Bolivia at the world's largest robotics tournament. Grassroots innovation, generational power Partnerships are a means to an end, not the end itself. Each UNICEF and private sector initiative is a dynamic collaboration to lead young people somewhere better than where they started. And when young people are actively involved in crafting solutions, that goal is often reached faster. Crocs, Inc., one of UNICEF's newest skills partners, has committed to a 3-year partnership to support UNICEF's UPSHIFT, a social accelerator that prepares young people between 10 and 24 to become community changemakers and innovators. UPSHIFT aligns with Crocs, Inc.'s Step Up To Greatness program values and goals to support building skills and confidence in young people to unlock their potential. UPSHIFT equips youth with professional and transferable skills through experiential learning. Participants identify challenges in their communities and devise local, innovative solutions to address them. For example, in Ukraine, where approximately 1.5 million children are at risk of depression, anxiety and post-traumatic stress disorder, UPSHIFT has equipped young people to take action to address issues they care about the most. One solution is Teenage Island – created by teens for teens – on the social platform Discord. Teenage Island provides a safe virtual space for young people to connect over shared struggles. 'You can get away from unwanted reality. For us, that is the war,' says Oleksii, 22, a Teenage Island member. ofia, 17, hosts a podcast on Teenage Island, a teen-led virtual space offering connection and psychological support to young Ukrainians. UNICEF UPSHIFT participants identify challenges in their communities and devise local, innovative solutions. On Teenage Island, adolescents and young people can talk to a psychologist in group sessions, explore creative writing or dive into fantasy role-playing adventures. The team also launched a podcast series in which Sofia, a 17-year-old Ukrainian, openly discusses grief, mental health and war with a psychologist. Teenage Island exemplifies how partner funding doesn't just support immediate needs but can strengthen systems and services for sustainable progress long after UNICEF's interventions end. Partnering for a brighter future UNICEF's public-private sector partnerships for youth can bring the tech, experience and talent, and critical investment needed to supercharge skills development. Together, UNICEF and partners create scalable, forward-thinking solutions that fast-track young people's access to opportunity and build a brighter future for the next generation. Learn more about UNICEF's private sector partnerships that help bridge the digital divide and support every child's right to learn. UNICEF does not endorse any company, brand, organization, product or service.
Bloomberg
34 minutes ago
- Bloomberg
India and Asean Are Growing Apart. Blame Tariffs
It's still far from clear what President Donald Trump's tariffs will eventually look like. But the pressures they will put on stable trading relationships — even those that don't directly involve the US — are already visible. Ties between India and the 10-member Association of Southeast Asian Nations are already fraying: They're being pushed into different camps, and the free-trade agreement they signed in 2010 could become an unexpected victim of the turmoil. Trump might be the immediate cause of this rift, but, as always, China's massive manufacturing overcapacity is at the heart of the problem. Even if no country knows what rates they or others will face, everyone can be reasonably certain that the mainland's tariffs will be the highest of all. Unfortunately, this also means that there's a big incentive to help Beijing game the system enough that we all trust each other less.
Yahoo
an hour ago
- Yahoo
Carlyle Secured Lending, Inc. Schedules Earnings Release and Quarterly Earnings Call to Discuss its Financial Results for the Second Quarter Ended June 30, 2025
NEW YORK, July 15, 2025 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Carlyle Secured Lending, Inc. ('Carlyle Secured Lending') (NASDAQ: CGBD) will host a conference call at 11:00 a.m. EST on Wednesday, August 6, 2025 to announce its financial results for the second quarter ended June 30, 2025. The Company will report its quarterly financial results on Tuesday, August 5, 2025. The conference call will be available via public webcast via a link on Carlyle Secured Lending's website at and will also be available on the website soon after the call's completion. About Carlyle Secured Lending, Inc. Carlyle Secured Lending, Inc. is a publicly traded (NASDAQ: CGBD) business development company ('BDC') which began investing in 2013. The Company focuses on providing directly originated, financing solutions across the capital structure, with a focus on senior secured lending to middle-market companies primarily located in the United States. Carlyle Secured Lending is externally managed by Carlyle Global Credit Investment Management L.L.C., an SEC-registered investment adviser and wholly owned subsidiary of Carlyle. Web: About Carlyle Carlyle ('Carlyle,' or the 'Adviser') (NASDAQ: CG) is a global investment firm with deep industry expertise that deploys private capital across three business segments: Global Private Equity, Global Credit and Carlyle AlpInvest. With $453 billion of assets under management as of March 31, 2025, Carlyle's purpose is to invest wisely and create value on behalf of its investors, portfolio companies and the communities in which we live and invest. Carlyle employs more than 2,300 people in 29 offices across four continents. Further information is available at Follow Carlyle on X @OneCarlyle and LinkedIn at The Carlyle Group. Contacts: Investors: Media: Nishil Mehta Kristen Ashton +1-212-813-4918 +1-212-813-4763 publicinvestor@ in to access your portfolio
