Just about a few months into his first job he was told by his manager he was not fit to be in the IT industry. 11 years later he became one of the youngest managing directors at German multinational SAP Labs India.
That, in a nutshell, is the story of 37-year-old V R Ferose who has been at the helm of SAP Labs India since April 2010.
Interestingly, when his manager at Ramco Systems, which he joined after being selected in a campus interview, rebuked Ferose he was not heartbroken. "I think in many ways that was a positive dissatisfaction," he remembers.
"I didn't want to prove him (my manager) wrong but I wanted to prove to myself that I was not so bad in what I was doing," he quickly adds.
This episode, in a way, reflects the value system that Ferose learnt from his parents -- his father was a low-ranking railway employee when he joined the Indian Railways but rose through the ranks because of his hard work, honesty and commitment, and his mother taught him the importance of networking with people -- that has helped him scale challenges that came along the way.
Apart from these, Ferose also cherishes the values he imbibed by virtue of having spent his formative years in Kerala and West Bengal.
"Whether it is literature, theatre, sports, debating and soccer I have had a passion for these things because of my growing up in Bengal and my roots in Kerala," says Ferose who was born in Kerala and brought up in West Bengal.
Apart from being two of India's states where communism played a significant role in shaping the social, political and cultural life of society, Kerala and West Bengal are also famous for their soccer clubs.
Soccer mania grew on Ferose and by 1986 he was sure he wanted to become Deigo Maradona in his own league. While he couldn't emulate the Argentine superhero who helped his country reach the finals and win of the 1986 FIFA World Cup, Ferose's skills in toying with the soccer ball has helped him play for SAP Labs India as a forward and also learn valuable corporate lessons.
"Even the soccer field has lot of insights to offer to a corporate leader," says Ferose who emulates strategies employed as a forward on the field in fulfilling his role as the managing director of SAP Labs India.
Prasanna D Zore spoke with Ferose to learn more about the lessons he learnt in his life, his success mantras and his journey from being a developer in SAP Labs India to becoming its managing director.
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