A matter of luck and worth

Anita Manwani, VP, India Operations & GM, Global Sourcing, Agilent Technologies

Right opportunities come at the right time only to a fortunate few. Anita Manwani however tells Punita Jasrotia that sheer luck is not enough, one has to prove oneself at every stage

A BSc in Chemistry, Masters in History, and a career in IT—Anita Manwani’s qualifications are pointer enough to her diversified interests. A university topper at the time of doing her Masters, Manwani’s parents wanted her to opt for the public services, but the lady had other plans. Wanting to create a niche for herself in a different field, she opted for a career which was not only different from her educational background, but challenging too.

It was at the time of doing her PhD on Indo-American relations from the University of Cincinnati, US, that Manwani decided to enter the field of information technology. Her knowledge of computers was limited to COBOL, but she was ready to experiment and learn. Her first job was as a programmer. The assignment gave her the opportunity to work on relational databases and detecting bugs in it. “I believe at that time it was more of a passion. It was also of course a matter of survival, as I had made a conscious decision to be in this field. And having done that the only thing to do was to succeed,” she says.

After two years Manwani joined NASA’s Ames Research Centre. “At that time, I had a choice between NASA and Sun Microsystems. However, coming from a government background, the obvious choice became NASA.” Starting as a programmer, Manwani was soon leading the development of distributed computing systems for their Numerical Aerod-ynamic Simulation Programme. “The project was massive and at times it was difficult to understand the magnanimity of the operations. But, things worked out as I tried to get more involved in the work,” she adds.

Two years later Manwani got an opportunity to work with HP, which was at that time introducing its Unix-based systems. She confessed that it was the work culture of HP (which was during those days known as one of the best employers) and their educational programmes that lured her to join the company. She considers her years at HP the most interesting experience in her career life, as the company gave her many opportunities to not only explore her technical capabilities, but also develop her business acumen. “I have never regretted leaving NASA,” she says.

Manwani had a very successful stint in the company as she led many of HP’s software technology initiatives in distributed computing, high availability systems for telecommunications and also spearheaded the 64-bit operating systems/server business.

In the early nineties she was sent to close down the software operations of HP India. How-ever, within two months Manwani went back to the US with a whole new business plan about the kind of opportunities which India had to offer. And once she received a go ahead, she successfully led the growth of HP India’s software operations in Bangalore from a mere 12-person operation to a setup with over a hundred people. This has helped in paving the way for HP’s major investments in the recent years. Manwani did not limit herself to only R&D. Possessing a business degree she was equally involved in the business operations.

She asked for a change of assignment after getting married and having a child. HP at that time was embarking on a relationship with Intel in next generation computing. Manwani was put in charge of the APAC and European region and had a team of 700 people. “It was a critical assignment, as one day’s loss could amount to $22.5 million,” she points out.

After some time Manwani was given a totally different assignment which she feels has helped her grow as a person. “Since I had already done my stint in the computing business, they wanted me to shift to a totally different sector—to head the ‘test and measurement unit’. Initially I was taken aback, but then its similarity with software business made things easy.” However, six months after the takeover of HP, the non-computer related business became a different entity called Agilent Techno-logies. “This was quite a difficult period, as I suddenly found myself totally at a loss. Here I was in a new business barely six months old with hardly any contacts,” says she.

But this time her experience in India was totally different. “India had changed a lot in the past 10 years. Earlier I had to convince people that India was an HP facility like anywhere else in the world. However this time, with India already in the international scene, the need was to explore different opportunities and make a mark. I spent a lot of time meeting with different people, including prospective competitors, understanding how the market is, and what should be the strategy,” she says. Today she is successfully developing and managing new business strategies for the Indian region at Agilent Technologies. “The purpose is to build a strategy for increasing Agilent’s presence in India and the formation of a new entity that will provide IT enabled services to Agilent entities worldwide,” she adds. In the future, the company plans to focus on backend operations, software research, and development operations.

Recently she has also taken the new role of general manager, global sourcing. Her new responsibilities include managing multibillion dollar spendings across Agilent entities worldwide. Her focus will be on delivering net savings to the company in indirect materials procurement and through back office centres in India.

Manwani was recently awarded the ‘Technology all stars’ award for her outstanding career achievement in the field of information technology. She acknowledges that many people consider her lucky for her outstanding career advancements. “Luck is not everything. I had to prove myself at every stage. It helped however that I was at the right place at the right time,” she says.