A pragmatic dreamer

KR Naik, Chairman & Managing Director, D-Link India, tells Sudipta Dev that he has always tried to achieve what is ‘possible’, and this has been the reason behind his meteoric success

"I am not an expert in everything, so I see what is the best in people and try to learn from them, irrespective of their education and level"

It is the earthy practicality of the man that sets him apart, and is probably his success formula as well. KR Naik, chairman & managing director, D-Link India and winner of the ‘International Networking Man of the Year award’, is inherently proud of his humble roots, which have given him the winning perspective in life. He has taken the networking solutions company to the no. 2 position in the country. Ask the man, and he says unassumingly, “I never thought I would come this far. I am not an expert in everything, so I see what is the best in people and try to learn from them, irrespective of their education and level.”

Conceding that he had never foreseen his meteoric rise, he recollects that the first time he had come to Mumbai from his hometown Karwar in Karnataka, he was overawed by the sheer size of everything in the big city. “But people have helped me a lot, probably because of my character and way of working,” he says, revealing yet another of his practical gems—“you should think what is fit today and possible, then always try to achieve it. One should have calculations for everything in life. It should be practical.” With a first class engineering diploma, he was appointed as assembler in the Computer Assembly shop of IBM (India). Studying part-time he did a post-graduate engineering degree from Jhunjhunwala College in Mumbai and a diploma in business management from the Jamnalal Bajaj Institute of Management.

During the nine years he was with IBM, Naik was promoted several times and achieved the position of senior technical associate engineer in product design and development. One of the top eight people in the company at that time in India, he says that it was his years at IBM which moulded him as a professional. “When you join a job, it is the principles of the company which you naturally adopt. At IBM people were given a lot of exposure to help them come up in life. There was a lot of emphasis on learning. The organisation was aware that people will not leave easily, so they encouraged learning which naturally helps the company.” This attitude, says Naik, has stayed with him and he always encourages the D-Link staff members to pursue any subject of their interest. Delegation of authority, he adds, is yet another necessary factor he has learnt at IBM, and has adopted it as a company policy. As an employer he feels the best way to make people perform is to show them a clear career path. D-Link has incidentally witnessed very little attrition through the years.

When IBM stopped its operations in India in 1979, Naik started a computer parts manufacturing company called Motco (Modern Components and Tooling Company). Following the PC boom, Naik set up Virtual Computers, a computer electronics company. Later, he took up the distributorship of Taiwan based networking product manufacturing company, D-Link Corporation. Aware of the future potential of networking, Naik wanted to enter into a partnership with them. They asked him to start a company called Smart Link and promised to invest if the results satisfied them. Naik set up a factory in Goa. The Taiwanese agreed to make 51% investment and the name of the company was changed from Smart Link to D-Link. Today the Taiwanese counterpart holds 34% stake, after the company went public in April 2000. With the year 2001 registering Rs 240 crore turnover, Naik aims for Rs 1000 crore in the next five years.

The company, which initially started off as just a manufacturing unit now focuses on multi-disciplines; including marketing, research and development. D-Link has more than 200 products and a nationwide network of 300 dealers and 3,000 resellers. It has also broadbased its activities with the Digital Home Concept. For its Voice over the Internet (VoIP) endeavour, D-Link has tied up with Clarent Corporation, the world’s best provider of carrier grade, phone-to-phone Internet protocol telephony solutions.

The R&D and software development centres are located in Goa, Navi Mumbai and Bangalore, engaged in the design and development of products for the Indian as well as international markets. “This is our vision. We want to be a company known for developing products,” says Naik, adding that he wants to develop products according to Indian needs and become self sufficient despite being a multinational corporation. “But then,” says the man with a smile, “my vision has always changed with the times, tomorrow it might be something else.”