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The Story of Youngest CEO in the World

___________________________________________________

S. Deenadayalan,CEO & Architect-Organizational Capability,Centre for Excellence in Organization Pvt.Ltd,#14/2, Basement,Rajesh Chambers,Brunton Road, Bangalore-560025.Mobile:09900564127deen@exploreceo.com

D.AvinandanBusiness AnalystCEO & Architect-Organizational Capability,

Centre for Excellence in Organization Pvt.Ltd,#14/2, Basement,Rajesh Chambers,Brunton Road, Bangalore-560025.avin@exploreceo.com

Dr.K.Prabhakar,Professor,School of Management,SRM University,SRM Nagar, Kattankulathur

profkprabhakar@gmail.com _____________________________________________________________________

Abstract

Suhas Gopinath conceived his enterprise at the age of thirteen years and the youngest entrepreneur in the world. He started a software company Globalsregistered in California’s Silicon Valley and at present spread over eleven countries.

His entrepreneurial journey began in his early teens when he was fascinated withthe internet. His initial dilemma was becoming a veterinarian due to love of his dogor to plunge into the world of software. His father could not afford him a computer inthe year 2000 while Suhas loved the internet. He noticed that the owner of the cybercafé had to shut his shop during the afternoon time from 1 pm to 4 pm, he volunteeredto the owner that he would open the shop during this time and thus use internet freeof cost and the owner agreed to it; it was the trigger for entrepreneurial spirit.Suhas comes from a non business family and academic excellence was family

priority. Due to his passion he failed in ninth standard. He took a temporary breakand he passed his 10 th standard examinations. And despite being a busy traveler andattending conferences in top companies in Europe and delivering lectures in Ivy

League universities like Harvard, he kept his love towards programming alive. He

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never uses job specifications or job evaluation nor marketing; most of hisorganizational practices are counter intuitive. However, all his employees are totallyengaged. He considers himself as a social entrepreneur. Apart from being the world’s

youngest entrepreneur there are attributes that distinguish him and his philosophy

from other CEOs or organizations. His love towards animals and the value of Ahimsa, ethics instilled by parents, passion towards less privileged and having noaccess towards education, promoting dignity and modesty as a value beingconsidered by the organization, are some of the most important dimensions that arestudied in the present case study. It may be concluded that the future businessorganizations to be sustainable, have lessons to learn from Suhas Gopinath.

Introduction

"The past is a thief, if we allow it, it will steal our future and the present".

“I don’t think that I am mature enough to advise others, but if you have it inyou, go for it. One should also make time to enjoy other things in life. With work,you get too busy to even repent”.“Be adventurous in life and be willing to take risks. Take every opportunity tomeet new people, operate in new circumstances and get out of your comfort zone.Though I have made many sacrifices to reach this point, the joy of providingemployment to hundreds of talented youth has made it a worthwhile journey forme so far.”

Favorite Quotations of Suhas Gopinath.One of the researchers with his colleague met Suhas Gopinath. His narration

of life experiences is examined with the actual personal practices, organizational

values and discernment is achieved to have better insights.

At the age of twenty four now, Suhas Gopinath, hailing from middle class family in

Banglore, is recognized as the youngest CEO in the world as he started his enterprise

at the age of fourteen and conceived his idea at the age of thirteen. His father is a

defense scientist. He wanted to be his own boss. His personal philosophy is “if your

work is beneficial to the organization you work for, and then why not do it for your

own organization?” He wanted to create a social enterprise that is profitable and gives

back to society. His objective is to create a platform to the young dropouts and

unemployed youth to develop their talents by performing-innovate-discover

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paradigm, and provide them opportunities in the technology sector. Successful

education is considered as the only and most important passport to prosperity and

entrepreneurial spirit is not encouraged by his parents at early stages fearing that it is

likely to get him diverted from education. However, they were great supporters of his

dreams and he considers support of parents is a necessary factor for success of young

entrepreneurs. He considered that ethics instilled by his parents in early childhood

helped him personally and for the success of his organization. In one of the interviews

he operationalized his upbringing and its impact on himself and the organization as;

1. Frugal living and distaste towards extravagant lifestyle : Despite of all the

success and the media attention, there has not been any significant change in his

lifestyle. He learned to live frugally. In fact, when, his company had US$5, 00,000

revenue, he was still taking pocket money from my father and living with it. He said

“Success can go to your head — hence it’s important to stay humble and grounded.”

Frugal living is one of the most important trait of Indian way of life.

2. He believes that his parents have instilled a good set of values. The values and

ethics are responsible for his personal success and organization. The set of values

created for his organization reflect his commitment.

Following is the set of values of global:

“We encourage our people to be entrepreneurial and we are committed to provide

them a platform to perform, innovate and discover. Our people have gone the extra

mile to take up every challenge and risk. At Globals, we strongly believe in team

work and thus we understand No one is as smart as all of us!”

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Commitment

We believe in commitment as doing whatever it takes to deliver our promise to every

stake holder of Globals. Our people are responsible, punctual and accountable making

us a result oriented organization.

Integrity

Global is committed to conduct its business in ethical and legal principles. We have

always encouraged honest and open debate at every step of our business.

Swiftness

At Globals, for us swiftness and speed means to be responsive to every customer with

a sense of importance. We have always respected time and hence, our minds are set to

work in a wavelength to deliver results to our customers within the prescribed time

boundary.

Modesty

We at Globals understand we have miles to go before even looking back.

Hence we do not rest on our prior laurels. Laurels come and go, progress is the only

thing on our minds, and will be the same for the time to come. For us modesty means

discretion, impulsiveness and frankness in relations. We can discern the impact of

parents on the values of commitment, integrity and modesty instilled on the psyche of

Suhas. The value of swiftness is from his role model Bill Gates who strongly believed

the business aphorism of speed of thought. Modesty is not a common value of the

organizations which is unique to global. The dictionary definition of modesty is

the quality of being modest; freedom from vanity, boastfulness;

regard for decency of behaviour, speech, dress, etc.; Simplicity or moderation. The

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organization added three more dimensions discretion, impulsiveness or working on

intuition and frankness in relations with all stakeholders.

3. Treating employees as family members are one of the most important values of the

organization. The organization has flexible working conditions to promote a healthy

balance between work and personal life is one of the key outcomes of this orientation.

His role Model

Bill Gates was one of his inspirations in setting up Globals Inc. He said in an

interview “I met Bill Gates when he visited Bangalore “I need to be afraid of you as

you have aspirations to be like me.” “I was amazed to find Gates to be humble,

modest and very approachable as a person. I always look up to him as a role model

and how he has made Microsoft an unforgettable success story.”

His Social Awareness, Responsibility and Value of non violence

When he was in 10th standard and just creating his organization, he and his

friends did community work .Many a times he helped the community to clean the

garbage to bring about awareness in the neighborhood about hygiene. He wanted to

become a veterinary doctor as he loved his pet dog. However, after starting of his

business he dropped that career option. However, to continue his love of animals he

joined People for Ethical Treatment of Animals (PETA).

Future Personal Plans

He indicates that as a young CEO he would not like to be a roadblock to other

youngsters working in the organization. He plans to take a holiday in the future and

come back as chairman of Globals Inc, in the process creating opportunities for others

to hold the CEO position. This trait of being detached at the same time being attached

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is one of the traits that are likely to help organizations grow due to the influx of new

ideas and leadership.

The beginning

Suhas Gopinath was born on November 4, 1986. Suhas explained that his

entrepreneurial urge started in his early teens when he was fascinated with the

internet.

Net Enthusiast

Being a naturally inquisitive personality, he dabbled with various websites,

email internet applications. His other passion was animals, largely inspired by the pet

dog at home and he was initially torn between becoming a veterinarian or to plunge

into the mysterious world of software. Eventually he decided upon the latter. All these

dilemmas below the age of thirteen – and parents come from the air force background.

His father could not afford him a computer in the year 2000 while Suhas was net

addict. The paltry pocket money of rupees fifteen a day in the beginning of this

century could not give him net access for more than ten minutes. Suhas had to endure

plenty of challenges while moving on this path.

Obstacles are Opportunities – Learn and Earn

However as Shakespeare says “sweet are the uses of adversity”, Suhas

capitalized on the very obstacle to convert it into an asset. He noticed that the owner

of the cyber café had to shut his shop during the afternoon time from 1 pm to 4 pm, he

volunteered to the owner that he would open the shop during this time and thus use

internet free of cost.

He requested the cyber café owner that he would run the store in the lunch

hour in exchange for being able to use the internet. The owner readily agreed to this

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win-win proposition and therein begins a phenomenal success story. Suhas studied in

a military school which operated on shift system and the luxury of the noon helped his

cause. This learning earner acquired enough pocket money to procure his first

personal computer.

Cyber Child

Surprisingly Suhas comes from a totally non business family and his father

was in the Air force. Naturally academic excellence was family priority. Like most

parents and teachers he was also the victim of academic censure and his failure in

mathematics in the 9th standard compounded it. Parents wanted him to do engineering

and an MBA so that he can settle in a good job. Disturbed by his performance in

examinations, his mother made him promise on her head ( a typical Hindu practice of

taking oaths) that he will pass his examination, despite himself telling her that his role

model Bill Gates have not completed his education. His mother’s reply was his

horoscope is different from that of Suhas. His passion had to take a temporary break

for a month from Globals and he passed out with first class in his 10 th standard

examinations. He never believed in academic excellence would automatically lead to

success in life. It is passion towards what you make a person is his strong belief do.

Initial Stages

At the shop he was building websites. He used open source technology as

proprietary technology is not affordable to him. Building websites became his

passion. He registered himself as a website builder. The first website build by him

was for free of cost and the organization is from New York. His first income was $

100 when he was thirteen years for building a website for the first time. However,

money did not excite him. It was a passion for technology that propelled him to work.

He builds his own portal and called it Coolhindustan.com. It was built to showcase his

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skills. US-based Network solutions Inc certified him as one the world’s youngest web

page developers impressed with his skills. It was focused on non resident Indians.

However, it was hacked and by Pakistan hackers and renamed as Coolpakistan.com.

He never had any ill feeling towards anyone about it. After establishing his

organization, he opened a branch in Pakistan; Indian government objected to it;

however, he convinced them that his organization is based in the United States of

America. This value of “forgiving” people and doing well to everyone irrespective of

nationality is one of the most important traits of Suhas.

Rejecting a job offer and preferred to be a job creator

When he was 14, Network Solutions offered me a part-time job in the US and

they said they would sponsor his education in the US. He rejected the offer because

that was the time I had read a story about Bill Gates and how he started Microsoft. His

counter offer to Network Solutions was a request to Outsource Website Building work

for him. He preferred to be his own boss and providing employment to a large number

of youngsters made him more fulfilled than mere job in US. He thought it was more

fun to own an organization. Many US companies are apprehensive due to his age and

they used to connect his ability with his age and academic qualifications. That

triggered him to start a company to signal to the world that age and academic

qualifications are immaterial. He spends his 9 th standard summer vacation in the cyber

café and started Globals Inc. He wanted the name Global or Global Solutions but both

were not available, so he named it as Globals. He registered my company in the US as

in India, as he will not be able to start a company unless a person attains age of

eighteen. It took fifteen minutes for him to start his organization in the US. He

became CEO of the company and his friend an American who was a university

student, became a board member. . From that day, he started dreaming of making his

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company as big as Microsoft. Until he was 17, he didn't tell his parents about his

company. He kept it as secret because he thought they would object to it. They only

knew that he was a freelancer.

Europe- Path that is least travelled

He saw that there is a great business opportunities in Europe as a majority of

the Indian IT companies were working for American companies. He contacted a

Spanish company; it rejected his offer saying Indians do not know Spanish. He did

not accept rejection. He hired five student interns from some Spanish universities andtold them they would be paid based on their successful sales. They were the people

who met the companies and obtained projects. He decided to have an office in Spain.

The same model is replicated in Italy with the help of Italian students. Based on press

publicity, a B-school in Germany invited him to talk to its students on

entrepreneurship. He was seventeen and he completed his 12th standard and had

joined Engineering in Bangalore. When he was 18, he set up an office -- the European

HQ in Bonn. Then, he moved to Switzerland and Vienna. Operations from a small

Internet cafe became a multinational company with significant operations in Europe,

Middle East, the US, Canada, the UK, Australia, etc. At the age of eighteen he

registered his company in India besides the internet café where he started his

operations.

Member of board of the World Bank

He joined engineering and when he was in his 5th semester, the World Bank

invited him to attend their board meeting and he is the only Indian in the board. The

objective was to explore how ICT can improve the quality of education in the

emerging economies, by bringing in accountability and transparency in their financial

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deeds. Robert B. Zoellick, the president of the World Bank, decided that they could

not have only Americans on the board and needed people from across the world. As

they were focusing on education, they wanted young minds to add value to the work.

He preferred a young mind from an emerging country and that was how he got the

invitation in 2005. The other members are from Fortune 500 companies and this make

Suhas to rejoice the experience of being an Indian and called for the august body.

His approach towards recruitment and promotion is counter intuitive. He never

looks at marks or abilities. He focuses on passion. It is performance-innovation-

discover paradigm that works in his organization. HR Managers – who are victims of

typical frames that are not tuned to people orientation has a few lessons to learn. He

did not look at Job Evaluation and Job specifications. His experiences shaped his

firm’s HR policies and many a gray hair sitting on their past wisdom will disregard

this approach as immaturity. Suhas does not look into the age or qualifications of a

potential employee and merely their passion and talent to value add to the dreams of

his company. His youngest employee at present is twelve years old. However, he is

not offered a permanent posting as the legal requirements does not allow for such an

experiment. The employee studies and works as hobby. Suhas believes that HR has a

vital role to play in breaking down hierarchic structures in an organization which is

the hindrance to growth. He visualizes India to be a superpower in the next 20 years

and feels that youth are the key to achieving this dream if they become more proactive

and are encouraged by the society. He learnt HR policies at the age of 15 and he

wants to keep an open and a family like culture in his company where employees take

ownership of the company and work. In spite of being an Information Technology

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company the organization has very low attrition rate. In order to encourage his people

to freely express his ideas and opinions freely, he has started a blog in his

organization where employees interact openly. Suhas believes that his company owes

all his success to his employees and in all anniversary celebrations he invites his past

employees. When he finds any of his team members faltering on a software solution,

he sits with them and emphasizes on following the right logic and steps. It is not IT

instinct alone – it is love towards humanity, animals and nature that make what Suhas

Gopinath is today.

Marketing is unwise investment

Suhas believes that he likes to keep stretched goals and expects his employees

as well to work in the same way .He gets very impatient on completing tasks in very

less time and complete assignments with customers on time. He does not believe in

investing money on marketing. Every satisfied customer is his Ambassador. One

unsatisfied customer will wean away 100 existing customers. Hence his aggressive

focus is internal and external customer satisfaction than marketing. He therefore gets

very impatient if employees falter on time lines and time management. Modest Suhas

says he can’t advice others but still he thinks that organizations should not follow a

bureaucratic approach. He feels boss should be available just like a family member to

his team members independent of hierarchy. He is available even in his personal time

at his house without appointments. He thinks that employees should be encouraged to

have the entrepreneur spirit so that they are concerned about the organization’s

success and work aggressively towards rather than being only bothered about their

salaries. One of the most important aspect of Suhas is to be meshed with Global

Dignity.

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“Global Dignity is to implement the universal right of every human being to

lead a dignified life”. We all have the ability to increase the dignity of others and thus

we increase our own dignity. Global Dignity is an autonomous non-profit, non-critical

and non-partisan project. We wish to be inspiration-based; commending and

encouraging best practice and dignity centred leadership rather than criticizing

shortcomings. Thus Globals are a partner for Global Dignity project and is supporting

its initiatives in Asia. Being a partner of Global Dignity extraordinary importance of

social sensitivity is felt by the researchers in the organization. Every human being is

treated with total respect irrespective of their social standing.

India a super power

His dream of India as superpower goes beyond the vistas of IT. Youth initiative and

youth power will change the face of India and appeals to the youths to participate in

elections. Complaining is easy but desiring a constructive change and working

towards making it a reality is the need of the hour. Voting and political participation is

must and compulsory for the growth country is his conviction.

His Vision for Globals Inc

Globals currently offers cost effective world class quality solutions in web, software,

mobile and multimedia and will soon graduate to a product oriented organization. He

has already launched an innovative product called educationERP.net which helps in

streamlining the processes at schools like maintaining student’s records and also

ensuring that schools do not miss their business perspective. Starting with Suhas plans

to launch a huge gamut of IT based products and looking at the exponential growth of

the organizations i.e. Spreading in 11 countries in 11years and serving more than 200

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clients in only 9 years, it is expected that in a few years we would know Globals as

one of the leading providers of product based IT services.

Accolades for the young CEO

Suhas at the age of 16 was recognized as the world’s youngest entrepreneur by

CNBC and e-business, Canada. In 17, he was recognized as the World’s Youngest

CEO by leading media across the globe including the BBC, Washington Times, and

The Age etc including the Limca Book of Records. He is a resource person for

Entrepreneurship at IIM Ahmedabad, and Advisory Board Member at IIT Bombay

Entrepreneurship Cell and in 2005 he became the youngest recipient of the Prestigious

Rajyotsava Award conferred by him on State Government of Karnataka. Along with

his professional Activities, he has also volunteered as the Brand Ambassador for Indo

Pak Leadership Program organized by School of Leadership, Pakistan. He is also thekey Ambassador for the 12th World Business Dialogue, Germany. On December 2,

2007 the European Parliament and International Association for Human Values

conferred “Young Achiever Award” to Suhas at the EU Parliament in Brussels and he

was also invited to address the European Parliament and other Business dignitaries

assembled at the EU Parliament. Suhas was also announced as one of the young

global leaders for 2008-09 by the prestigious World Economic Forum, Davos and he

became the youngest member ever in the World Economic Forum history.

Conclusion

As it may be observed, Suhas Gopinath has neither the DNA of Business

family nor the MBA to start an entrepreneurship venture. He had a strong belief in

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himself and in his thought processes to challenge the traditional belief system. He

relied on the values of Ahimsa or nonviolence; forgiving persons who have destroyed

his first dream project and helped them to start a branch in the same country; frugal

living with no change in lifestyle even after achieving greatest success in the world;

employing counter intuitive and nontraditional methods of recruitment and integrating

organizational values to that of Indian values. He ensured that there are least rates of

attrition by integrating work life balance as a core value of the organization at the

same time radically focused on the customer needs with time deadlines and need

fulfillment. The social sensitivity has not made the organization unprofitable as many

may perceive. In fact, social sensitivity and youth activism contributed to the wellness

of the organization to be successful and sustainable. Every organization is perceived

to be a long shadow of the entrepreneur. However, Suhas Gopinath does not want his

limitations to be limitations of the organization. He wants others to take care of the

organization and work in different capacities after some time. All these dimensions

are qualities of not just one person but wellness dimensions of a future organization

created by a person who has broken the barrier of age for success and fulfillment.

Teaching Notes

This case study is to bring about the central issue of “Entrepreneurship of an

Youngest Person”. However, as the case unfolds, everyone can discern it is just not

entrepreneurship, but find different dimensions that make an organization to succeed

in future. Values of environmental friendliness, dignity, paradigm of performance-

innovation-discovery. Integrity, frugal living and modesty instilled by parents being

percolated to organize. The organization sustained and continuing to grow by

innovation. The following questions to the students in the classroom will help.

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1. Suhas Gopinath has considered Bill Gates as his role model. However, the Bill

Gates methodology of creating organization is totally on a different premise

compared to that of Suhas Gopinath. Bill Gates realized the power of giving

only after making money. However, Suhas Gopinath started with that. How do

you compare both the models?

2. Having a business background will be helpful or a hindrance to innovation?

3. Global MBA is found to be irrelevant for starting enterprises. Do you agree?

4. If you are the Human resource manager in Globals how do you find passion of

a person in technology? Is it possible to develop a tool box to find passion?

5. Suhas Gopinath is in the business of ICT. However, if he has selected other

sector such as Real Estate, will he be successful? Or will be he was a

successful entrepreneur if the business environment is filled with corruption?

6. Do you agree with the statement that Marketing is waste of resources? If yes

how and if no how?

7. Is it possible to integrate work life balance for employees and meet the entire

requirement of clients and at the same time being cost effective?

8. How do you think Suhas Gopinath will continue his personal successtrajectory?

9. If you were to be Suhas what will be your plans for the organization?

10. Do you think Indian values of truth, non-violence, dignity of labor, modesty,

frugality are valid? If so find similar examples and discuss in the class.

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11. Do you think detached attachment work in business organizations? If so how?