9/10/2006

Interview#2 at Blogcamp 2006

I happened to meet the Yahoo Director, Mr George Zacharias,who was with Sunil Gavaskar, as part of the Yahoo Team.I have heard quite a bit about Mr George Zacharias,from my mother who sometime back was working for Sify. Mr George came across to me as an extremely affable and a patient person.I have limited my interviews to last 5-6 minutes,more so a small chit-chat.

George Zacharias had been President and Chief Operating Officer of Sify Limited since March 2000 and had quit Sify 7 months back. He has played a key part in formulating and executing the strategies that turned around the company, and in leading the management team through the Company’s rapid revenue growth (to a US$100 million run rate) over the past five years.He joined Sify from Madura Coats, Bangalore, India where he had worked for 16 years in a variety of sales, marketing and export assignments.

He was the Marketing Director, Coats Tootal Lanka, Colombo prior to becoming, in 1997, President of Madura Garments, the leading garment and retail company in India, then a division of Madura Coats.As President, Madura Garments, he held profit centre responsibility for the then US$23 million business that he grew to US$50 million annual revenues in the next two and a half years. He oversaw the launch of several national brands like Peter England, Byford, San Frisco as well as the launch of new retail formats like Trouser Town and Planet Fashion.George has a degree in Chemical Engineering from Nagpur University, 1980 and an MBA from XLRI, Jamshedpur, 1982. From campus he joined Grindwell Norton and was with them till December 1983, when he joined Madura Coats.

7 comments:

Anonymous said...

Kartik, that was quite a commendable job. It seems some of the questions were spontaneous :)

Also, George was really cool at taking your questions.

Where does he blog btw, no mention of the URL?

Startups.in/India
Nag .B

Kartik Kannan said...

He does blog, but he does not want his blog to be in the public domain,so he blogs under a secret name. Thanks Nag, yes some of the questions were spontaneous..but I felt, I could have been better prepared forthe interview.

Anonymous said...

yes kartik u r right..u seemed bit nervous and really short of preparation ....But by neways u will learn it as these r early days in taking interviews with high-profile professionals.One thing if possible cut short ur "i mean "...Found so many of it in ur interview..especially with george.May be bit tough i know ...But possible..try it.

Madhan

Anonymous said...

yes kartik u r right..u seemed bit nervous and really short of preparation ....But by neways u will learn it as these r early days in taking interviews with high-profile professionals.One thing if possible cut short ur "i mean "...Found so many of it in ur interview..especially with george.May be bit tough i know ...But possible..try it.

Madhan

Anonymous said...

yes kartik u r right..u seemed bit nervous and really short of preparation ....But by neways u will learn it as these r early days in taking interviews with high-profile professionals.One thing if possible cut short ur "i mean "...Found so many of it in ur interview..especially with george.May be bit tough i know ...But possible..try it.

Madhan

Kartik Kannan said...

Yes , Madha, I too felt the same.I felt the Yahoo interview could have been done better.I know I stammered a lot,hope to get beter with time :-)

Thanks for commenting

Anonymous said...

Hey Kartik,

It was nice to view George's interview.He has not been much in the news after joining Yahoo(but for the news on his Rs.4 crore salary)
George is quite an amazing personality and I had interacted with him a couple of times when I used to work ith Sify.
Behind the calm and collected nature of his is an astute and tough task master who was a terror among the top honchos at Sify!
Brilliant Interview...Great Job!

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