Smash the mould

ICE PEOPLE/NAVYUG MOHNOT

Think different, be different. But not just for standing out in a crowd, but for the sheer challenge of doing what no one else has dared to. That's Navyug Mohnot, 43, CEO of QAI India, a software process improvement firm.

A BTech from IIT Delhi who believes in doing it his own way, he quit his PhD programme at University of Rochester to return to India in 1988 when others were moving the other way. He sold his Apple laser printer for Rs 98,700 to raise the initial capital to set up his dream project.

This was 1994, and he was ready to address the software industry just as the boom began. "It's always more fun to do things differently," says Mohnot, who now heads a 110-strong QAI team spread across Delhi, Mumbai, Kolkata and Bangalore in India, with regional bases in Singapore, China, Malaysia and West Asia.

"We set up a base in China four years ago, when no one was even looking at China. Today all Indian companies are heading for China," says the first Certified Quality Analyst from India. He claims to have signed his 100th contract in China last month.

Aimed at helping software companies sharpen their edge, QAI offers services like consulting, process and operational assessments, benchmarking, certification, resource provisioning and e-learning. Growing at 30 per cent annually, the company boasts of an impressive client list that includes the Deloitte, Sapient, Accenture, Fidelity and IBM.

A man given to trusting his instincts, Mohnot pays serious attention to art. This explains his fancy for vacationing at St Petersburg which has over 200 palaces and museums. Meanwhile, breaking the mould once again, he plans to go back to school after two years for a course in design at an American university.