The three pillars of Technopark

Arjun Raghunath
The New Indian Express

Two decades after the idea was conceived, there are three keywords behind the smooth and steady growth of the country’s first IT Park: MV, KCC and KR. Right from initial paper works to the development of the park to the present status, no development would have taken place in Technopark without these three abbreviations.
Technopark’s Senior Business Development Manager M Vasudevan, Chief Finance Officer K C Chandrasekharan Nair and Deputy General Manager K Ramachandran, who are known in the Technopark campus as MV, KCC and KR respectively, have been playing a key role in the development of the Technopark right from its conception in July, 1990. The three were part of a team handpicked by Technopark’s founder chairman K P P Nambiar from Keltron. ‘‘It’s not just an anniversary of an organisation, for us it feels like the birthday of our child,’’ say the three.
‘‘In the initial days, all those who were associated with the project had performed multi-tasks. It was just like building our home, each one performing all duties,’’ recalls Vasudevan, as his colleagues KCC and KR nod, during a brief chat with Expresso on the 20th anniversary of Technopark’s conceptualisation in July, 1990.
‘‘We had adopted the format of the Centre for Development of Telematics for developing Technopark. Now the Technopark development model is being adopted for the development of other IT parks,’’ they add. The three officials have been playing the role of a single-window counter at the Technopark. Vasudevan is entrusted with the task of marketing the facilities at the Technopark, inviting new firms and providing necessary assistance to the prospective investors to set up their units.
‘‘Started with around five companies offering around 500 jobs, Technopark now houses about 185 companies that provide 28,000 jobs. This is indeed the result of our team work,’’ says Vasudevan.
KCC, who handles the finance and Incubation Centre, is also quite contented that out of the 45 companies incubated by the Centre, 39 have scripted success - a near-90 percent success rate. ‘‘Initially, we had to run from pillar to post to get government assistance for setting up the Technopark,’’ says Chandrasekharan.
Being the one in charge of HR, Ramachandran has been playing a key role in providing necessary manpower to the Technopark companies, besides other facilities in the campus. ‘‘Parking of vehicles is one of the biggest challenges before us these days. We hope to sort it out with the installation of a multi-level parking system. A prototype of a three-level fully-automated parking facility that could accommodate up to 27 vehicles would be introduced soon. The system, incidentally, was developed by a Technopark-incubated firm,’’ says KR.
The three are grateful to the facilitating role played by the government. ‘‘Here, at Technopark, we enjoy a free hand in management. We have also knocked down hierarchies in this office,’’ they say.

arjun_raghunath@expressbuzz.com