Entrepreneurship The Quest Principles principlesThen cQuESTi l

Ajit Prabhu, CEO and chairman of the engineering company QuEST, outlines the ten principles that enabled it to grow from an unfunded startup to a $300m+ company

jit Prabhu arrived in America with The firm offers end-to-end product just $60 in his pocket. Like many development and engineering solutions to A other young Indians, he came to major global corporations. It was started with the US to advance his education. funds from the founders’ credit cards in 1997, To pay his way through a Masters but has grown into a $300m+ business. and then a PhD in engineering, he worked as From a humble one-room operation a contract engineer at General Electric (GE). with two engineers it now employs 7,000 It was a formative experience. people globally, with development centres on When he secured a job at GE’s R&D centre three continents and offices in six countries. in New York, he discovered a desk that had Prabhu believes the company’s success is once belonged to Tomas Edison. But it wasn’t built on ten principles. Edison’s engineering genius that struck a chord with Prabhu. Inquisitiveness: pursue “When I sat at that desk, my question was knowledge – value will follow. not about Edison the inventor, it was more: 1 “Some of the companies we work how did this company which started with the with have been there for hundreds of years,” electric light bulb go on to build engines and he says. “Take Bosch as an example, or GE. medical parts?” Tese great companies have stood the test of His observations at GE inspired him to build time. Many of these companies would have his own company, QuEST Global Solutions. started small, in a garage, and I’m fascinated

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Prabhu with students from his alma mater, the Government

REPRO OP Junior Technical School in Hubli, India, which QuEST supports with scholarships

by what leads a company SUBS to go on to build what they have become. “That sense of inquisitiveness is tremendously important in my mind, and I’ve inculcated it within our leadership team. Of course, as we grow, there are so many questions we have that we don’t have answers ART to, and that leads to an open and transparent culture. It leads people to humility because we don’t know all the answers, so we’ve got to fgure it out.”

Aspirations: stay hungry. “Every six months we get together as PRODUCTION 2 a management team of about 125 people. And we focus the attention of the management team on important issues,” says Prabhu. “For example, we have scaled to 7,000 people based on just fve client accounts. But they can become successful” says Prabhu. will see things diferently. So managers won’t we have another 35 accounts in the business, “So I don’t look for heroes or superstars. always make the same choices. If you give one CLIENT that have the same potential but which we I think if an organisation is to be successful, it manager $1m, they might decide to go out and haven’t managed to scale yet. That leads can’t be done with just one person, it has hire ten guys, and put them in ten places. But people to look at why we have failed so far with to be done with lots of people – so you have to another manager might experiment by the others and to look at what we did with the have the right structure in place, you have to investing $100,000 and keeping the other frst fve to understand how we might replicate have the right systems in place, the right values.” $900,000 in a bank.” that success. Either approach can work, of course, but “So I think we look at failure as an opportunity Think big, act small: start small Prabhu favours the latter. “I don’t like to see to learn. We like our people to take risks, and and keep adding. us spread too thin,” he says. “Stay focused, and then the failures are equally respected because 5 “Our business grows one engineer at keep adding one thing at a time. Growth for we’re saying that we’re learning – we’re trying a time,” says Prabhu. “When you read the the sake of growth is not a good thing, so we to become better.” economic reports, they talk about trillions of have to grow in a proper fashion. I think it’s dollars of opportunity all over the world, and good to be small, but it’s better to be proftable. Purpose: create jobs to build so there’s always a tendency for people to say: “Making choices has been the hardest part a society. I want to go for world domination. I want to for me in the business. I see people with the 3 “I think the creation of jobs is probably go here, I want this, I want that investment, same set of information make very diferent the most important thing anybody can do for infrastructure. Sometimes our guys want choices. What I’ve encouraged is tolerance; society, because corporations are what create everything. So I have to bring them back and it’s not necessary to get too excited, and not the jobs and pay the taxes,” explains Prabhu. say, why don’t we take a look at this one consistently act on the long-term basis. “I think job creation leads to people paying customer, one service, or one region? “For us it’s not necessary that we have to go their taxes, the taxes go to the government, “Te world is not going to change overnight. after winning more accounts – that’s not and the government builds better lives for I think one has to start small and keep adding.” required. It’s just a question of whatever we many people – you build a society. did, how can we implement it? “Successful corporates have a big Choice: do simple things well “And sometimes people don’t get it – they responsibility for the people. And the more again and again. want to go after lots of new things at the same jobs they create the more secondary jobs are 6 “In any organisation, diferent people time, so you’ve got to keep them contained created as a result.” with that core belief.”

Beliefs: ordinary people can do Teaming: hire people smarter extraordinary things. “Te creation of jobs is than you. 4 “I don’t consider myself to be 7 “In our business we have to build anything but ordinary. People have aspirations the most important thing trust with our customers, and building trust is and if they’re given the right opportunities anybody can do for society” a time-consuming process,” explains Prabhu.

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BLACK YELLOW MAGENTA CYAN Entrepreneurship The Quest Principles

SucceSSful traitS of entrepreneurS from ajit prabhu

Do not fear failure. It is OK to 1 fail but it is not OK not to try.

Learn to stay alive. You have to 2 be proftable. Standing on your own two feet is the number one job in business. The future belongs to those who know how to take care of their present.

Surround yourself with people 3 who are smarter than you and build a complementary team. Find people who are inquisitive and are driven to do better things for According to Prabhu, it themselves and those around them. makes sense to surround yourself with people who Be ready to have no work-life are smarter than you 4 balance. Accept it. It is not an eight-hour job. If you want to accomplish something meaningful “So you’ve got to build a relationship. Building Conservatism: a hut on the in life and make a difference to a relationship is not about having a nice dinner ground is better than a palace many, including your own families, and a nice conversation, it is about creating 9 in the air. sacrifces have to be made. value for each other. We bring senior people The final principles are conservatism and from within the customer firm into our change. There is an interesting tension Be humble. You will not have business, and pair them with somebody who between them, Prabhu acknowledges. The 5 the answers to all the problems has QuEST knowledge. Tey work together to future, he says, belongs to those who take care all of the time. You must have the bridge the gap between the two sides. And of their present. So how do you reconcile ability to tap into the brainpower that’s why we say diamonds are needed to cut those two things? of your team. a diamond. Tose kinds of relationships can’t “There is a synergy between them,” he be established overnight. explains. “Let’s say we win an account and as Learn to shrink time – all the “At QuEST, we have 1,300 US citizens, 450 soon as we win the account we tell two leaders, 6 time. Time is the most important British, 300 people in Spain, 100 in Italy, and one from operations and one from sales, your commodity. You cannot save it for now we are looking at acquiring a company mission is to earn enough proft so that you’re the future. Don’t get paralysed by in Germany. I believe in hiring locals because on your own. And we give them a lot of freedom perpetual planning and looking for you can do business only if you know the to make choices – just make sure that they all the facts. Apply your collective local culture.” stand on your own feet frst. I think conservatism judgment and make a call. is exactly that – to conserve the business.” Focus: strategic few versus Believe in yourself and your goal. tactical many. Change: those who can adapt 7 Get away from people with dark 8 “Focus is the bedrock for any and change, thrive. clouds over their heads – in business company’s success,” he says. “It’s the ability to 10 “Every business has to manage the and in life. control your own mind, the organisation’s present and the future at the same time,” mind, and the team’s mind and to channel all concludes Prabhu. “And it is by far the most Have a purpose larger than just that creative energy, to make sure that the difcult thing, because managing the present 8 making proft and never stop initiative becomes successful. itself takes a lot of efort and energy. But that asking questions. Asking questions “If you start too many initiatives that energy alone won’t make you succeed in the long is a powerful way to achieve gets dissipated very quickly. You have to term. You have to be able to change as well: greatness in life. constrain that by saying, out of the ten there is a healthy tension between the present initiatives we’re going to just do three. And and the change. Getty ImaGes sometimes people are disappointed because “Businesses need to reinvent themselves on their initiatives didn’t get funding, even though a continual basis, and change doesn’t mean Des Dearlove ([email protected]) they were a great plan, but I think those changing everything at once – it is a change is co-founder of the Thinkers50

PHOTOgraPH PHOTOgraPH choices actually lead you to success.” with small experimentation.”

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