Bullish About Work

A successful, high- voltage businessman, Rajiv Ratan, co-founder, president and CFO, Indiabulls is a reticent and modest man who believes in letting his work do the talking, says Neeti Chopra.

In an era where many finance company CFOs have seemingly inherited the attitude of rock stars, Rajiv Ratan is a bit of an anomaly - a humble, modest businessman (albeit one with a brain the size of a planet), who doesn't disparage his competitors, even after repeated prodding from conflict-seeking journalists. Mostly, Ratan allows his company's performance to do the talking - and so far, Indiabulls has been a mighty powerful message.

With no previous experience in securities training, Ratan is one of the three young IITians who has made it big in a business traditionally dominated by Mumbai-based brokerage houses. Sameer Ghelaut and Saurabh Mittal, the other two promoters of Indiabulls, are engineers like Ratan from IIT Delhi. In just five years, the trio have created one of India's top five brokerage firms - Indiabulls, with a market capital of Rs. 2,000 crore.

Born and brought up in Delhi, Ratan is one of those entrepreneurs who has worn many faces and his vision is to position Indiabulls as a world-class non- banking financial services company. "As a child, I always had an ambition to excel in everything I undertook. I always stood first in class and succeeded where others had failed. I gained respect, recognition and admiration of all," states this electrical engineer. What he likes about himself is the ability to handle pressure and stay cool at the same time. And this trait has helped him a great deal in his meteoric rise in the corporate world. At 32 years of age Ratan is looking after operations for more than one lakh clients, finances, bank relationships and mostly all non-sales activities of Indiabulls.

Ratan believed wholeheartedly in the adage, "all work and no play makes Jack a dull boy" excelling in sports along with academics in his school and college days. He was part of the school and college soccer team and his performance at the college level attracted the attention of national selectors. “College was a whirl of activities, full of energy and fun,” he admits. Ratan easily ‘dribbled' through the IIT entrance exam and in his second year he got selected as part of a two-member team to represent IIT Delhi at University of Massachusetts at Amherst, USA where he completed one semester.

"It was a good exposure for me as I got an opportunity to travel a lot, especially in Massachusetts, Boston and New York. It was more or less like a holiday. Travelling and living abroad allowed me to meet many different people. At that time, New York was not as safe as it is today. But I liked the no-nonsense approach of the city," says Ratan. With a background of IIT, where the curriculum is always tough, he found the semester very facile in US. He topped in the Mathematics course, which he was doing with the final year students of that university.

Unlike other IITians, he decided to come back to India and pursue his studies. After completing the four-year course, Rajiv was unable to decide what to choose - he never wanted to settle in the US and also did not want to enroll for an MBA. The standard choices left for him were, either to opt for civil services or apply for any other job. At that time the craze to enter the multinational company, Schlumberger, was very strong, as it was the most highly paid job an IIT graduate could bag. "Schlumberger is the leading oil field services provider, trusted to deliver superior results and improved E&P performance for oil and gas companies around the world. In those days there were only five IIT institutes in India. The company was looking for about four to five candidates from all IITs put together. I set my sights on Schulmberger and started preparing for it aggressively and my efforts paid off as I was the only one from my batch who got selected," reveals Ratan.

The job at Schlumberger gave him an opportunity to travel to many places. Initially, he was sent for a five month training stint in Egypt. Later he was posted in Mumbai, Tripura, Arunachal, Krishna Godavari Basin and Assam. Subsequently he was also sent for a one-year stint in Yemen. While his graph was on an ascent Ratan met both Ghelaut and Mittal at Schlumberger, a meeting which subsequently would mark his entry into the world of finance. After working with the mining division of Halliburton in USA, Ghelaut came down to India to start an earth moving and mining business called Mackena Minerals. But his true calling lay elsewhere. He acquired a Delhi-based stock broking company, Inorbit Securities with the money he had saved from the Halliburton job and the mining business and started Indiabulls in 2000. Ghelaut roped in Ratan and Mittal, who today own 18 per cent, worth Rs. 400 crore in Indiabulls.

"In 1999, the Internet revolution continued to reshape how the world does business. It opened up a whole new realm of potential business opportunities in a variety of fields and industries. And businesses had started selling off at astronomical rates. Indiaworld got sold to Satyam Infoway and this event heralded the official arrival of the dot com bubble into the country. At this time we had started thinking of starting something where Internet could be used as a medium for mass servicing. Financial services as a market was growing. So we zeroed on to this segment. All three of us had international exposure and therefore, combined our skills together," elucidates Ratan. Not only did Ratan's responsibilities within the company rise like an arrow, but his personal life also witnessed a change in 2000. It was a combination of joy and sadness for Ratan. On one hand his father was diagnosed with cancer and on the other he met his soul mate, Anjali, also an electrical engineer and got married to her the same year Indiabulls started operations. While Ratan has traveled quite extensively in India and abroad on work he admits he has not been able to steal time off for leisure travel. "Apart from short trips to Goa and Shimla I have not been anywhere for a holiday. I am really looking forward to a long holiday in the near future to explore the Mediterranean region," discloses Ratan. Among hotels his choice for a stay is either Taj or the Oberoi. But for Ratan, home is the best place and he says he spends as much time as he can with his family (which includes two young children), a wholesome pursuit that leaves no time for a flashy lifestyle.