The inspiring story of Suresh Kamath

• Born on- 1950

• Studied – Electronics and telecommunication engineering from national institute of

engineering, Mysore, 1975

• Mtech from iit,chennai,1982

• Initially worked at TCS and GENIE COMPUTERS

• Rare combination of technologist, entrepreneur and academic whose work has enriched
contemporary society.

• Founder and managing director at lasersoft infosystems ltd

• 25 banking products installed in 35 leading banks like abn amro,sbi,hsbc etc.

• Has been aquired by polaris in oct’2009

Suresh Kamath, the managing director of Chennai based Laser Soft Infosystems Ltd is an
unusual man. Unlike most other entrepreneurs, he does not aspire to create a business empire;
his sole ambition is to provide employment to 10,000 people. He also plans to reserve 40 per
cent of the jobs for the disabled.

Suresh started Laser Soft in 1986 with just Rs 200 and five people. Today, the company is a
force to reckon with in the banking software arena.

In recognition of his commitment to the disabled,

• President of India A P J Abdul Kalam felicitated Suresh with the Best Employer award in
December 2005.
• He also won the Best Employer award from the Tamil Nadu government.
• He has been awarded the NCPEDP shell Helen Keller Award for giving equal rights and
gainful employment to persons with disabilities.
Ambition as a child

He comes from a poor family. They lived in a one-room-kitchen house in Mysore. Though his
father struggled very hard, he did not let his penury affect the lives of his children.
Unemployment, depravation, hardship pained him and right from his school days his ambition
was to create employment in this country. As a child he was motivated by Mr Laxman Rao - one
of his teachers at school who always advised me to do something for the country.

He heard tales of poverty and struggle from his father and grandmother. How his father could
study only up to the 10th standard, as he did not have money for further education. His mother
too did her schooling only till the 8th standard. But all this hardship did not stop them from
encouraging us to continue with our studies. He was the eldest among my siblings and took up
the mantle of setting an example. Encouraged by his performance - he was always a rank holder
– his younger siblings too did very well in studies Kamath wanted to be a doctor, so that he
could treat his ailing grandmother. Though he scored around 87 per cent in the pre-university
course and was ranked 28th in the entrance exams, low marks in chemistry (67 per cent) dashed
his medical education dreams.

As far as his career was concerned, his father gave me full freedom and he decided to study
engineering. he joined the National Institute of Engineering in Mysore in 1975 in electronics and
then did my M Tech in computer science from the Indian Institute of Technology, Madras.

Life after graduation

He was keen to start my own company immediately after my post graduation. But since he did
not have any job experience he was advised against any such move. So, I joined Tata
Consultancy Services and worked for a year. He noticed that all the major Indian software
companies were into services; they were not into creating products and it disappointed me. he
was convinced that India could create excellent products thanks to the huge talent pool available
here. While at TCS he found that most of his colleagues aspired to go abroad to further their
career. But he was not interested in overseas assignments.

Even at IIT, he was the only student in our batch of 20 who did not go abroad after studies. On
hearing of my ambition, many of my friends ridiculed me and even called me a 'fool'! I took
their scorn in my stride. However, his parents were very supportive. They encouraged him not to
pay heed to what others were saying and encouraged me to strive to give shape to my ambition.

After TCS, he joined another company that was into hardware because he wanted some related
experience. he worked there for three years.

Starting Laser Soft

When he was 28, my father told me to get married. he decided to marry the girl of his choice. By
then he had decided to quit my job and start my own company, he told his fiancee of my plans
and asked her if she still wanted to marry me. She said, 'Yes. I have faith in you.'

On May 1, 1986 he launched his company. He intentionally chose May Day as it was also
labours' day.

With initial capital of Rs 200 and five technical people from NIIT the company was launched.
He told them, 'I will give you whatever I can afford but all of us will draw the same salary.' He
did not even try to hire any engineers, as he was convinced that they won't work for a small
company like mine. Also, he strongly believe that you don't need engineers for programming.
What you need is logic. He also wanted a team that would be the foundation of the company,
who would remain with the company.

Why Laser Soft? Because the word laser - meaning accuracy and precision - appealed to him,
and soft is of course from software. Our office was a room in my house, and our first job was to
get visiting cards and letterheads printed.

First client

They decided to focus on banking and healthcare. Banking because it was a gargantuan sector
and had huge potential. At that time automation of the banking system was a faraway dream.
They approached the State Bank of India and Apollo Hospitals and told how our products could
facilitate their work. SBI admitted that they had a six-month backlog in the DD purchase for
Madras Fertiliser Ltd. Since they did not have computers, they requested SBI to allow them to
work in the bank in the evening. They agreed.
For Kamath, fields were new. He spent the mornings at Apollo, learning operations like
inventory management, laboratory protocols, outpatient services, etc, and afternoons at the SBI
extension counter to learn banking, to understand the work flow and logic of both fields. Not
having a computer of their own, Kamath and his team spent nights at the bank to write the
software. "Those were the days when a PC cost an arm and a leg," he says. Soon, the bundles of
pending cheques vanished, and the bank counter started counting its money more swiftly.

First product

Their product for SBI was out in two weeks' time and the backlog was cleared within a month.
Their first product was thus a big success. Both SBI and MFL were very happy and they were
paid a remuneration of Rs 5,000. Everything was done manually. On any given day the branch
could take only 25 bills from the exporters. Their product, readied in a week's time, was
exclusively for handling export bills. From 25 bills, they were able to handle 200 bills a day and
the profit of the branch zoomed to Rs 55 crores (Rs 550 million).

End of first year

By the end of the first year, their turnover was Rs 128,000, and their staff strength had doubled
to 10. With Rs 1000 as monthly salary, they could manage. After the success of the export bills,
SBI assigned more work to us. As our work pressure increased, they hired more people and by
the end of the second year they were 25 people and our profit stood at handsome Rs 600,000. In
five years' time, they computerised 70 SBI branches all over India.

Parthasarathy

Then one morning in 1987 Parthasarathy - they call him Partha - came to meet him. He was
disabled and was not an engineer but had undergone a computer course that the government had
offered in an institute. He told Partha, "I like to employ people like you." And it was not a
wrong decision. Partha had an amazing zeal and his disability did not stop him from being
mobile. He thought it was the right model for any industry to follow.

He was not doing any charity by employing him because my company benefited more from
Partha than vice-versa. He has noticed that physically challenged people are more committed
than others but unfortunately we pay scant attention to them. Business houses talk about
attrition. He told them, 'Look at these people, they will never leave you.'

Disabled-friendly office

He decided to make the entire office disabled-friendly. Their ground floor is now exclusively for
the disabled people, and they have ramps in our office and there are special toilets for them too.
We have also built houses for them near the office so that they can avoid long travelling hours.
He looked at handicapped people as his responsibility. This country has spent money to educate
me and he felt it is his duty to do something for the less privileged. Seeing them work, get
married, settle in life and have children is a wonderful experience. The biggest challenge for the
physically handicapped is the attitude of their parents. He, at LaserSoft, hires them even if they
are not engineers. Other than the physically challenged, they have people suffering from cerebral
palsy too working for us. They find them good in graphics. Many of their employees are deaf
and dumb.

Ambition

His ambition is to create 10,000 jobs, and I want to reserve 40 per cent of that for the disabled.
They also have a light top model as far as salaries are concerned. They don't give huge salaries
to those who occupy the top positions but distribute the money to all the employees.

Reservation row

Reservation based on caste is going to divide us further. Reservation should be based on

economic criteria alone. We should learn to forget our past and start looking at the future. What
have today's children got to do with what some people did in the past?

What difference does it make if you are a brahmin or a non-brahmin when you are poor? How
many IITs and IIMs do we have? How many good medical colleges and engineering colleges do
we have? We have such a vast population but not enough resources. Instead of starting more
colleges, and there should be special colleges for the disabled, the government is talking about
more and more reservation.

Success of lasersoft
Laser Soft first automated the outpatient department at the Apollo Hospitals, followed by the
other wings. "The whole project earned us Rs2 lakh in phases," he recalls. The SBI assignment
was more challenging. The extension counter had a staff of just four, but received hundreds of
cheques. Consequently, entries were not posted for several months.

This success brought Laser Soft another assignment — automating SBI's Chennai overseas
branch. One of the largest in the country, it dealt with piles of exporters' bills and had to turn
away customers. The branch had a turnover of Rs500 crore, but its profit was just Rs5 crore.
Again, Kamath and his team spent the days learning and the nights working, and the results
started showing for SBI. Workloads eased, and the branch profits zoomed to Rs35 crore as it
took in more customers.

. Kamath's quotes were always the lowest and we were happy with the results."

More SBI orders came Kamath's way. By this time, Laser Soft had developed 52 banking
software products, giving Kamath the confidence to focus solely on the banking domain. Laser
Soft first implemented its core banking solution, Laser Panacea, at Corporation Bank. Earlier, it
had developed a cash management system, ProFunds, for the bank.

Next came the order from Andhra Bank. The company also bagged orders from two regional
rural banks, and is currently executing a project in Andhra Pradesh. Products like ProFunds and
e Circular have got a good response from private and PSU banks.

But Laser Soft's growth started to stagnate. Last fiscal, the company barely managed to break
even, with a turnover of Rs.15 crore. Kamath says some nationalised banks have started placing
unreasonable restrictive tender conditions of requiring a huge turnover to qualify.

"Even big IT companies will not qualify if their product revenues alone are taken into account.
Given our low pricing, it is even more difficult to meet turnover norms," he complains. Not to
be cowed down, he has charted a growth path for the company that includes selling the
intellectual property rights for some of his products.
Challenges & Kamath’s answer to them…

• The attitude of the parents of physically handicapped.

• Hiring them even if they are not engineers.
• Other than the physically challenged, have people suffering from cerebral palsy too
working for us.
– We find them good in graphics.

B. Suresh Kamath Known for…

• Social entrepreneur driven by the emotional desire to help physically challenged people.
• Creator and initiator
• Leader problem solver and motivator.
• Confident
• Total commitment and determination in the work even after facing hardships at the start.
• Perseverance
• Self-Confidence
• Self-less
Bibliography:

• CONNECT THE DOTS - Rashmi Bansal

• http://www.rediff.com/money/2007/may/10bspec.htm
• http://www.rediff.com/money/2001/dec/19kamath.htm
• http://www.domainb.com/people/profiles/20051208_humane.html
• http://gsbkonkani.blogspot.com/2006/01/b-suresh-kamath-humane-ceo.html
• http://www.ncpedp.org/employ/aw-hk2005.htm