Name: Munesh Khanna, 43 Education: CA Last Job: Managing Director, N.M. Rothschild India Last Salary: N.A. Driven By: "Move when you are on top."

Help, Tarun!

Wanted: Gurus In Corporate Advice

Your visiting card says managing director or a similar fancy designation; your annual salary is in eight figures, or at least in the high seven figures; and your name-and, maybe, photograph-has appeared a few times in magazines such as this one. In short, you've been there, done that and arrived in life. Then what? You could, of course, carry on doing the same thing. Or, like many successful professionals, you could say: "I've created wealth for others all my life; it's time to do the same for myself."

Says Munesh Khanna, who quit as Managing Director of N.M. Rothschild India in January this year and joined Enam Financial Consultants as partner and Managing Director: "People are peaking much earlier than before; you'll find several relatively young men and women in leadership positions at many organisations. Some of them don't want to carry on doing the same thing for the rest of their lives." Hence, the desire to turn entrepreneur. Accessing money has also become a lot easier than before. "If you have a great idea, people will put money on you," says Khanna, adding that he moved to Enam with an equity interest as it "offers a wider canvas and provides greater opportunities for creativity and entrepreneurship". He had to take a pay cut, but Khanna doesn't mind. His equity interest will ensure his gains over the long term.

There are many others like Khanna who have parleyed their experience, brand equity and, sometimes, savings into ownership positions at firms they either founded or joined after quitting their regular salaried jobs.

Michael Foley, proprietor of Foley Designs, started his career at Titan as a designer trainee in 2000 and rose to become its Chief Creative Associate within five years; last year, he set up Titan's much-lauded Design Studio. Then, he quit in December to start out on his own because he realised that India Inc is just beginning to recognise the importance of design and the impact it has on consumers. "This is the right time to start," he says. "Clients now approach me to design their products from a more holistic perspective. Their briefs do not pin point any particular aspect and I have a free hand in structuring the entire concept," says Foley, who won BT's Ideator of the Year Award in 2005. Promoting his own venture has involved a lot of financial sacrifice as he had to make major investments in manpower and software and also forego an assured salary. Now, Foley is looking to raise Rs 3 crore through the venture capital route. He expects to break even and rake in profits in another 6-7 months. Foley also plans to open a Concept Design Studio, which will proactively approach clients with design ideas rather than wait for them to come to him. Turning entrepreneur gives him the freedom to experiment with new things, but he still sometimes misses Titan. "There is so much you can learn from a professional organisation that you cannot on your own," he says.

Narayan K. Seshadri, former Managing Director, Consulting, KPMG India, agrees. "Large organisations, with well-greased infrastructures and processes and established brand names definitely make work that much easier." Then why did he leave? There were personal reasons. "I also wanted to capitalise on the opportunity for creating wealth by helping turn around distressed companies; the returns here are much higher," he says. That apart, being independent means getting the freedom to experiment-a big attraction for most successful executives. "The flip side of working for a large company is the procedural straitjacket it puts you in. But here, we set the boundaries and limitations," he says. Seshadri's firm, Halcyon Resources & Management, which he set up in 2004, is currently working on five corporate turnarounds. In particular, he mentions Baroda Raymond Corporation, which he helped turn around in one-and-a-half years. Besides, "I like to help small entrepreneurs," he adds.

Name: Michael Foley, 35 Education: Professional Education Program from NID, Ahmedabad, with specialisation in Industrial Design Last Job: Chief Creative Associate at Titan Last Salary: N.A. Driven by: "Personal excitement in designing."	Name: Narayan Seshadri, 48 Education: CA Last Job: Managing Director, KPMG Consulting Last Salary: Over Rs 1 crore p.a. Driven By: "The huge opportunity and independence to do what I wanted to do."

Sudhindra Hangal, an alumnus of IIT, Delhi and Stanford University, is yet another member of this burgeoning tribe of professionals-turned-entrpreneurs. A software architect (who designs a software package from the ground up and doesn't just write code), he was one among only a dozen such people at Sun Microsystems' India Engineering Center and a respected authority in the geeky fields of Java and j2ee. In September 2005, he decided that he had had enough of working for others. Result: he set up Magic Lamp Software at the incubation centre of the Indian Institute of Management, Bangalore, in association with a colleague from Sun. "Due to lower costs, the financial risks of starting a company here are much lower than in Silicon Valley, which has, until now, been the centre of most it innovations. Services, rather than products, are the focus of most Indian firms. I want to change this by working on cutting edge innovation in the area of software quality," says Hangal, who had to sacrifice the very comfortable salary his position as a senior staff engineer (the highest grade for technical talent at Sun) gave him. "I had gone as far as I could with Sun and wanted to branch out on my own. Magic Lamp is still finding its feet, so neither Sanjeev (Krishnan, co-founder) nor I have a steady salary like we used to. But we've both worked for a while and so, are financially stable," he adds.

Name: Sudhindra Hangal, 35 Education: BE, IIT Delhi; MS, Stanford University Last Job: Senior Staff Engineer, Sun Microsystems Last Salary: N.A. Driven by: "The urge to strike out on my own and work independently."

What happens if the venture doesn't work out? Says Foley: "One can always go back to the corporate world; there are jobs aplenty." Girish Rangan, former Managing Director of transaction management firm, Venture Infotek-Global, who started his own management consultancy practice two years ago, did just that. Three weeks ago, he wound up his private enterprise and went back to a salaried job. He is currently Country Manager for India, Universitas 21 Global, an online university based in Singapore which specialises in providing executive management cour ses for corporate executives. Says Rangan: "The corporate environment is characterised by buzz, deadlines and reviews. This is often missing in independent businesses; the space between personal life and work also gets blurred." Seshadri agrees with this assessment. "When I started out on my own, my main objective was to spend more time at home. However, exactly the opposite has occurred," he laughs. One reason for that is that newly established private ventures need lots of luck and perseverance to succeed. And proving the adage that luck always seems to favour the person who perseveres the most, Seshadri adds: "With effort there are always returns." True. But the best part of the deal is that if the expected returns don't materialise, one can always shrug off the experience as a bad day in office and get right back into the corporate rat race. But in a sign that this trend of self-employed wealth creators is here to stay, even fresh B-school grads are turning down lucrative job offers to start out on their own. And they don't even have the cushion of large savings and years of experience. Entrepreneurship as a career option has arrived at last in the country.

COUNSELLING
Help, Tarun!

I am a 30-year-old High Court lawyer, specialising in accounts and taxation cases. I also have an M.Com degree and done a basic accounting course in computers. Our financial position is precarious. Please advise which area should I focus on to become financially secure.

I don't know what kind of cases you are getting, so I can't advise you on specifics. However, if you want to remain independent, you could concentrate on sales tax or excise cases. If financial security is your most pressing need, you could take up a job with an accounting firm specialising in taxes or a company in its accounting/tax department.

I am a 25-year-old banker with an MBA (Marketing). I've been carrying out experiments in the bio-diesel field for the last few years. I have also gone to three-four research organisations. Do I have a future if I decide to devote myself full time to producing an alternative fuel?

You can continue experimenting on the side, if you don't want to risk your financial security. If you make a breakthrough, you can always get funding at that point. However, if you want to do this full time, following are your options. If the experiments look promising, get venture capital, or join a company engaged in the same field.

Answers to your career concerns are contributed by Tarun Sheth (Senior Consultant) and Shilpa Sheth (Managing Partner, US practice) of HR firm, Shilputsi Consultants. Write to Help,Tarun! c/o Business Today, Videocon Tower, Fifth Floor, E-1, Jhandewalan Extn., New Delhi-110055..

Wanted: Gurus In Corporate Advice
Large and small consultancy firms are hiring CAs and MBAs by the thousands

The booming economy is throwing up job opportunities for consultants. Says Sumeet Mathur, Director, Human Resource, KPMG: "We plan to recruit about 5,000 people by 2010." A majority of them will be CAS and MBAs in the 24-35 age group. The story is much the same at other consultancy majors. "I'll recruit 100 people right away if I get the right people," adds Rahul Roy, Executive Director, Ernst & Young. "There's huge demand for both top end 'brain surgery' work as well as grunt work," informs Mohit Mohan, VP of executive search firm Gilbert Tweed Associates. PWC and McKinsey & Company declined to reveal their numbers, but market sources say they, too, are hiring big. Smaller and niche consulting firms are adding to their headcount as well. Adds Arun Mahapatra, Managing Partner, Heidrick & Struggles: "This trend will continue for at least another 2-3 years."

-Manu Kaushik and Kapil Bajaj