Polaris Software Lab, a leading financial technology product development company, has quietly gone in for a major rejig at the top ahead of its yet-to-be formalised new three-year strategy initiative. The new road map is called Polaris 4.0 plan. It is set to commence in 2012.
Arun Jain, Chairman and Managing Director, indicated that the company would define and concretise the Polaris 4.0 plan within the next four months. In a conversation with this correspondent, Mr. Jain said the top-level re-jig was done to prepare the organisation for a new growth phase.
As a result, three top line managers within the company have been moved up and assigned corporate functions to bring about greater understanding and efficiency. Simultaneously, three outsiders have been inducted into top slots. Pranav Pasricha, formerly Executive General Manager (strategy, technology and operations) of QBE Australia, among the top 20 global insurance firms, has joined the company as its Global Head (Insurance).
Rajesh Saxena, former CEO of American Express Banking Corp (Amex) in Delhi, will now be the Global Head (Strategy) at Polaris.
Wayne L. Fialo has become the new Head of Global Accounts. Prior to joining Polaris, Mr. Wayne Fialo was with IBM.
The three who have been moved up in the organisation are: S. R. Ramaswami, Rama Sivaraman and Kedarnath Udiyavar. Mr. Ramaswami has now become the new Group Chief Financial Officer. Following her significant contribution in leading the quality function, Ms. Rama Sivaraman has been assigned the role of Global Head (Performance Excellence). Kedarnath Udiyavar, who has been with the company for around a quarter of a century now, will be the new Global Head of Banking Practices.
The Polaris 3.0 plan, covering the period 2009-11, saw the company adopting “go market strategy”. This had resulted in the company focussing on growing the Intellect suit of products, increasing the size of the deals and expanding work with select clients. “Polaris 3.0 plan has helped us to become a half-a-billion dollar company,” Mr. Jain said. “Our next milestone is to reach the billion dollar mark,” he added. While Polaris 1.0 plan took the company to the Rs.100-crore mark, the 2.0 plan, covering an eight-year period between 2000 and 2008, focussed on making the company a sustainable organisation, Mr. Jain said. Mr. Jain underscored the need for a product company to be a global company. “Our vision is to use it (global company tag) to expand the footprint,” he added. With the cost of delivery for local banking products companies in the U.S. becoming high, Indian firms were advantageously positioned in the global market, he said.
