Sànnu. Ibaulachi. Bawo. Hello, Africa

Whatever the language, it’s the connection that matters. Meet Ramesh Awtaney, the man connecting Africa to the world. His story, from dealmaker to entrepreneur, is a lesson in old-fashioned networking.

- Ashish Gupta

HOW MANY PEOPLE REMEMBER THAT 1980s classic, The Gods Must Be Crazy? The story of Xi, a Kalahari bush tribesman, and his journey with an empty Coca-Cola bottle across the continent in search of the edge of the world turned out to be a comedy classic from South Africa. While the movie was pretty much a gag a minute, it was also a story of connectivity, in many ways. And that’s exactly the story Ramesh Awtaney is living out today.

Founder and chairman of one of Africa’s largest information technology and IT enabled services companies (IT and ITeS), the ISON Group, 50-year-old Awtaney is one of the more flamboyant entrepreneurs I’ve met. Dressed in a black T-shirt and grey trousers, Awtaney is well-built, with a mop of jet-black hair, and a moustache to match. In the looks department, though, he jokes, he doesn’t live up to his hometown Jodhpur’s standards, which boasts some of India’s most handsome men. But he says he makes up for it with some other attributes: “I have been a daredevil and hugely confident. I am my own hero ... I have always believed that the buck stops with me.”

Over coffee at his house in New Delhi’s Vasant Kunj, Awtaney constantly talks of A4. And no, he’s not talking of the standard paper size. In his slow, deliberate style, he explains that A4 represents the tenets of his life: audacity, agility, and the ability to deal with ambiguity. Why does ability, the cornerstone of most success stories, come last? “You can delegate implementation and execution to someone with abilities, but you cannot teach people to be audacious and agile; it has to be in the blood,” he explains. “Even if they have the abilities but aren’t audacious and agile, they may let great opportunities pass.”