Risk Taking Is A Habit

The first thing that catches your eye when you walk into Rawlin Pinto's
cabin is a picture of two men trying to control a lurching ship in the face of a
raging sea. This picture relates very much to Rawlin, who likes to take risks
and turn them around to success stories.

A science graduate, Rawlin began his career as a medical representative for
Glaxo in 1980, before becoming a salesperson in Missionary Manufacturing
Corporation. His first brush with the IT came when he joined Minicomp Computers
in 1992. A couple of years later, he gathered a group of like-minded colleagues
and decided to start a venture on his own.

Reminisces Rawlin, "Since my past job roles centered around sales, I had
no idea about software. But my team had the conviction that we could make it on
our own and we put everything to start Lauren."

Initially, the company bought assembled computers and sold them. Slowly, it
drifted towards networking and signed up with Banyan as its network integrator
in the western region. Lauren soon bagged lucrative projects from clients like
Siemens and JP Morgan. Later, it joined up with IBM as its premier partner as
well as Microsoft and Oracle.

Lauren posted revenues of Rs 35 crore in 2003-04 and aims to achieve Rs 60
crore this fiscal. A 200-people strong team, it has three offices with one more
in the pipeline. It is reopening its office in Toronto and has international
partnerships in New Zealand, Switzerland and the UK.

GETTING INTO SOFTWARE

Once the company was well-entrenched in the networking space, Rawlin took
another chance and decided to start a software division. The first software
product, a financial package, got only one deployment order from Deustche Bank,
while the other did not see daylight.

Rawlin sums up the reason behind its failure as inadequate planning, "We
expected the Net to become the prima facie medium of communication between
vendors, their partners and customers. This did not happen as companies did not
have their infrastructure ready." Also, the products were Domino-based and
could not work with heterogenous environments.

Undaunted by this failure, Lauren continued to concentrate on software
applications and it developed Networth, a portfolio management software. It will
also roll out a CRM software application in September, 2004. In fact, this
software will come with the international and national versions, as Rawlin
believes that Indian needs vary greatly from those of the other countries.

LEADING THE PDA PACK

Rawlin is taking yet another chance and is now steering the company to come up
with PDA-based applications. Rawlin has learnt from his past software
experiences and is ensuring that the applications that are being created are not
restricted merely to a PDA interface, but can be used on a desktop, laptop and
even a mobile phone, in some instances. And all the applications are compatible
on multiple environments as well.

Rawlin is well aware that he is taking a great risk in launching his
home-grown products, but he is confident that this gambit will succeed. The
company has invested heavily in the development of the product, paying attention
to it compatibility with other products and ease-of-use.

EYE-CATCHING ACTION

Continued with software division, despite failure of first two products Developed boxed software products for portfolio management and CRM Opened offices in Toronto with alliances in New Zealand, Switzerland and the UK

Lauren currently has three business divisions which act as separate entities,
with their own heads. Rajnikant Rao is in charge of the software development,
while Sushant Panda heads the infrastructure division, which deals in facilities
management services, thin clients, storage and eneterprise solutions. Ratnakar
Kanchan looks after the personal product group. Of these, the infrastructure
group contributes the maximum to the topline of the company, while software
contributes 20% to its overall revenues.

LET INTEGRITY BE THY NAME

Rawlin has consciously targeted only corporates as his clientele. This is
because he believes that for a company to be truly successful, it should have
integrity. And, therefore, he would rather not focus on the government, defence
and public sector banks, where there is always a chance of bribes being taken or
given.

Lauren often had to face several problems, because of its moral stands. There
have been instances when Lauren has terminated its contract with governmental
organizations to giving drafts.

In fact, this very integrity has also helped Lauren win loyal clients like
Pfizer, Great Eastern Shipping and Colgate, who have been with the company for
ages. And, surprisingly, several ex-Lauren employees who work as IT managers
with other corporate houses recommend Lauren to their management, solely on the
basis of its uprightness.

Rawlin often draws a lot of envy from his peers, as he is one of the few to
make it home by 6 pm daily to spend time with his wife and four kids. A man who
likes to chart his own destiny, it comes as no surprise that Rawlin is an avid
bridge player. He believes that do a thing only when you are convinced about it
and then give it your everything. That is the only way to succeed.

VINITA BHATIA