“The value of a failed entrepreneur is seldom realised by others. Having travelled through the road unsuccessfully provides one with a premium certificate to be an advisor!” One does not often hear about an entrepreneur talking about his own failures. Binod Singh, founder and chairman of Cross Identity, a leader in Identity and Access Management (IAM) is not your archetypal entrepreneur. Unlike those who have a bright idea during college days and build up a start-up which subsequently becomes a unicorn, Binod Singh had to face a lot of challenges before he built a world-class company. Cross Identity has been in existence for over 2 decades and provides complex IAM implementation covering multiple technology platforms. It was not a one-way street to success for Binod Singh. Before he became an entrepreneur, Singh took up multiple jobs and, early in his career, faced many challenges. The jobs spanned across companies in consulting, hardware, systems and software. Having completed his master’s in Industrial Management from IIT Kharagpur in 1978, Singh started at Tata Steel where he topped the graduate test, which all trainees had to then undertake. However, he was appalled by the sea of humanity which waded in and out of the Jamshedpur factory, when the siren blared, when the shift was over and a new one began. Singh did not relish the thought of becoming a cog amongst the 50,000-strong crowd. Consciously or unconsciously, Singh felt he had to do something innovative. His first real job was with Forbes Forbes and Campbell as a consultant in the eastern part of India. His job entailed studying various businesses including power plants, manufacturing units, etc. Even then Singh tried to add value to the reports which he submitted, something which formed the bedrock of his jobs in later years. He reported directly to the regional manager. Computers had not yet made their public appearance in India. However, institutions like the Tata Institute of Fundamental Research had developed the TIFR automatic calculator, and the Indian Statistical Institute (ISI) had installed computers for complex computations. In fact, ISI is credited with developing a computer as early as 1953-54. Despite these advancements, the general public remained largely unaware of computers. DCM and HCL emerged as pioneers in this field, initially focusing on hardware and later expanding into software. HCL actively sought Singh to join their team. “I refused three times,” Singh recalls, “and when they still persisted, I asked them when they would stop. They said, ‘Not until you join us!’” At that time, HCL had a small team, and Shiv Nadar personally conducted monthly reviews. Singh acknowledges: “I learned a lot from Nadar.” He joined as the regional manager for East India and, on Nadar’s instruction, relocated to Bangalore (as it was then known) with the specific task of building HCL’s corporate image in the southern region. “Nadar had some good plans,” Singh reflects, “and I played the role of an executor.” Personal computers had just come to India; it was a volume game and Singh played a good role in growing the volume of PCs. During his tenure at Wipro, from 1986-90, Singh was entrusted with the task of marketing PCs. Singh built up channel partners across India to drive sales. It was also the first time that PCs were sold through channel partners in India. Singh was regarded as the originator of channel partners for PCs in India. Just as the seeds of liberalisation were being sown in the country, Singh made the decision to join an MNC. With a proven track record in building channel partnerships, Singh ventured into Unisys in Europe. He embarked on extensive travels across Eastern and Western Europe as well as Africa to establish distributors and forge joint ventures for large computers in Geneva. During this time, India had yet to gain recognition for its software prowess and was not prominent on the global IT stage. The acknowledgment of India’s software capabilities came later, during the Y2K period.
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Singh: undeterred by setbacks: Photo: Sanjay Borade
