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Chillibreeze Interview with Krishna Gopal
1. You have a wide spectrum of experience - 28 years across diverse industries. Tell us more about your experience. I started out with Godrej & Boyce as a Management Trainee in 1983. Godrej themselves have such a wide range of industries under one group- Home Appliances, Office Equipment, Industrial Storage systems, Fork Lift Trucks, Machine Tools, Process Industry Equipment, Computer Workstations, Dot Matrix printers, Manual and Electronic Typewriters and CAD/CAM Software. Truly an enormous range that prepared me to be flexible across industries. Later, I did stints with a retail company, a paint company, an Internet service provider and a software services company.
I have largely worked to bring IT projects in the telecom domain in the Middle East and Africa region. MEA is a unique region with about 75 countries and extremely complex to navigate. Young professionals wishing to make a career in IT especially in the MEA region should ensure that they have a great tenacity and an ability to stay on the course despite odds. They must build the ability to work with an extremely diverse range of cultures. 3. You must have faced many challenges in the course of your work while stationed in various countries. Is there anything that stands out in your memory and do you have a single rule which has always helped over these challenges? Barring one year during 1993-94 when I was in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia I have not been stationed for a length of time in any one country. Managing a 75 country region involves a lot of travel – 15-20 days a month and that can be punishing on the body. When you travel at such a pace in coach class, it’s important to have access to lounges in most airports which make waiting bearable. Cards such as Priority Pass, Mastercard Platinum etc. that provide lounge access have been a boon to me. Memories of visits to a national park right in the middle of a city in Nairobi stand out in my memory. The eerie shot of a giraffe in the “wild” walking across the dirt track with a skyscraper in the distant background is something that I still look at with wonder.
4. During your extensive travels, you must have met people from many different cultures. Anything that we should learn from other cultures? Arabs, African people, Europeans, Americans, Pakistanis, Filipinos, Chinese...you name them and I have interacted with them. The idea is to be aware of how Indians are perceived and try and avoid the pitfalls. For example, Indians are perceived to talk far too fast or nod in an ambivalent manner or have poor dress sense etc. In many meetings I have strived to ensure that the communication by my team members is moderated and understood by the customers/partners who may be from different countries. Around the issue on dress, the people in MEA region could be quite brand conscious and you need to be aware when you buy dresses, mobile phones, shoes, pens etc. 5. A lot of people who travel extensively on work tend to neglect their physical health. How do you prevent this? I must admit that I have not done much in a disciplined manner in this area. I do carry my running shoes when travelling abroad and do 30 minutes on the treadmill at the hotel gym but this is not very regular. I am vegetarian and don’t smoke. I may have an occasional beer but Middle East is not a very alcohol serving region and I don’t even get that occasion. I try Rujuta Divekar’s suggestion of eating something every two hours and overall God has been kind I must say.
I have so far generally written around the various anecdotes in my life. My allergies, my snoring, my connection with Bollywood, my fear of dogs, my food habits, the Tambram way of living in Mumbai and Chembur in particular and so on. These articles seemed to have piqued the interest of many of my readers on the Tech Mahindra blog sites. A temptation is to compile them into some sort of a book but I have still to get around to that. What draws me to writing is the chance to create vivid images based on my experiences and bring a smile or perhaps even a laugh to people’s faces. 7. You also appreciate music and dance. Any specific favourite forms? Dance ...well I watch. Music – I do sing Bollywood numbers of my time...Rafi, Kishore etc. We have a karaoke system at home and singing some of these numbers is a huge stress reliever. My son has a stage singer’s calibre and is wonderful company along with my wife who also sings well. Sonu Nigam is a favourite amongst the current singers in Bollywood. Check the results of the writing contest for the First Quarter, 2012 Related links: Top Ten Skills Required to be in the Global Workforce
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Krishna Gopal has been a corporate executive for over 28 years. He recently left the employment of Tech Mahindra after working with them for over 12 years. He is a sales/marketing person – specifically a Middle East and Africa specialist.
