Newsmaker: Arvind Rao
|
'Weaknesses in processes' oust
risk-taker from own company
|
Bibhu Ranjan Mishra / Jul 13, 2012,
00:56 IST
|
During the heyday of mobile value-added-service (VAS) provider
OnMobile, CEO and Managing Director Arvind Rao was known as a man with a Midas
touch. on Thursday, he is no longer at the helm of the company, having resigned
in ignominy under allegations of financial malfeasance within the firm which
he, as CEO, has shouldered responsibility for. The company officially chose to
describe the discovery as ‘weaknesses in processes’ — a declaration that came
after a special review was completed by the company’s legal advisors, Amarchand
Mangaldas and Suresh A Shroff, assisted by accounting firm KPMG.
Allowing Rao to
leave was perhaps the best option available, since letting him continue would
have raised further suspicion among shareholders at a time when share prices
had already taken a beating.
People
who know him closely say Rao was ambitious from the first day. During his days
at Indian Institute of Technology-Mumbai, he came in contact with Nandan
Nilekani, co-founder of Infosys, his batchmate. It was Nilekani and Phaneesh
Murthy (then the head of global sales at Infosys) who were instrumental in
attracting his attention to a product that a team at Infosys, headed by Mouli
Raman (one of the founders of OnMobile, now designated interim CEO) was
pursuing at the time.
Then, Rao went to
the United States to study
Masters in Business Administration in Finance from Wharton
School , University
of Pennsylvania , and subsequently a
Master of Science from the University
of Wisconsin
To what extent he
is involved in breaching the corporate governance standards and processes at
OnMobile is yet to be ascertained. But Rao’s role in grooming an idea into a
product and making OnMobile one of the largest VAS players globally is not a
question. It was his risk-taking appetite that prompted a motley collection of
engineers at Infosys, part of the internet product group, to spin off into a
separate entity, on Thursday known as OnMobile. His long association with
technology companies in the US
“There was no
need to sort of go out and take a big risk with your life and your career,”
said Rao in an earlier interview. “But something just bit me where I wanted to
work for myself,” he adds. Finding the first customer for the product was a
challenge. In 2002, Rao and co-founder Mouli Raman were seriously thinking of
shutting after failing to detect much scope for growth.
“We never plan
for revenues, we plan for products and we plan for product enhancements,” he
says. “We believe that if you do that well, the revenues will happen,” he was
quoted saying.
Now, however,
OnMobile will need to plan on moving on without Rao, while dispelling any doubt
about its corporate governance procedures, while he will focus on clearing his
name.
http://www.businessstandard.com/india/news/newsmaker-arvind-rao/480299/
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| MCA will look into allegations against OnMobile, says Moily |
| Yesterday, OnMobile's Managing Director and CEO Arvind Rao resigned from the post amid allegations of financial irregularity |
| Press Trust of India / New Delhi Jul 10, 2012, 17:26 IST http://www.businessstandard.com/india/news/mca-will-look-into-allegations-against-onmobile-says-moily/178091/on |
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