Advocate of Unity

CEO Sandeep Kalra aims to turn Persistent Systems into a $2-billion IT services firm in the next four years by bringing people together

- Binu Paul

WHEN SANDEEP KALRA was elevated as CEO and Executive Director of Persistent Systems in October 2020, he knew that he was taking command of the IT services firm at a pivotal time. The challenge before him was to harness the momentum built by the Founder, Anand Deshpande, a renowned tech leader, while also reigniting growth at the firm. Kalra had joined Persistent in May 2019 as President of the technology services unit from HARMAN International, a Samsung company.

To his credit, Kalra took on the challenge with gusto—breathing new life into the three-decade-old company and propelling it to new heights. And he says his management mantra, of bringing people together and inspiring them to rally around a common goal, has helped him deliver the required results.

For instance, one of the key goals he had set (in Q3FY22) was to get to $1 billion in annual revenues in six to eight quarters. And, the company is now well positioned to reach that mark in the March quarter of FY23, in just five quarters. “Unless there is a common goal, we aren’t going to reach anywhere. Even as we redefined strategies and introduced various new initiatives, we also brought people together and asked ourselves, ‘How can we come together and deliver something that we can all be proud of? That’s where we put a rallying cry, reaching a $1-billion (revenue) mark,” says Kalra, the winner in the IT & ITeS category of the BT-PwC India’s Best CEOs ranking this year.