Sujata Agrawal

Jayant Pendharkar, TCS's vice president for global marketing, is as passionate about sport as he is about work

Work and sports are two of the main preoccupations in the life of Jayant Pendharkar. At 60, the vice president of Global Marketing, Tata Consultancy Services (TCS) is in top form.

Back in the 1970s, he used to walk into office on crutches because of injuries from particularly vigorous rugby matches. But rest and relaxation were far from his mind. There was never any question of taking it easy. All he knew was that after having played with all his strength, he should work with equal zeal.

That is the kind of person Pendharkar is. Having always taken care to make time for his two favourite activities, he still retains a youthful zest and spirit. "I feel like a 30-year-old. You have to be flexible and nimble to do a variety of different things," he says.

Pendharkar is always geared for the unexpected. "Most of my day is unpredictable," he says. "That is what happens when your markets, customers and business are global. On several mornings, I walk into the office as usual. Then there is a development and I have to pack up and leave".

In his first stint with TCS, he was quite accustomed to going to Delhi at short notice. "I would suddenly get a call from the Department of Electronics and would have to leave that very evening. My wife would stand outside the house with my clothes on the way to the airport," he recalls. Numerous such instances instilled a sense of preparedness in Pendharkar and helped him in many ways.

Pendharkar started his career as a programmer in TCS in 1971. "Writing software was very exacting at the time. We wrote on coding sheets and every line had to be numbered. This helped us in maturing from programmers to system analysts to business analysts and finally to consultants," he says.

Desirous of doing something different, Pendharkar left TCS in 1979 to join some friends from the Indian Institute of Technology who were planning to set up a business in Mumbai. In the 1980s, it started exporting software, first to the Middle East and then to the US. Pendharkar moved to the US in 1988.

Meanwhile, the country he left behind had moved on. In 1995, when Pendharkar came to India from the US, he was stunned by the advancements that a determined people had wrought. "I went to my hometown Karad and was stunned by the development. The baniya store was selling Gillette blades. We used to beg our friends abroad to get these blades for us. There were also washing machines and even some personal computers on sale. I felt that things were happening in India and decided to come back. I also read an article in a magazine about TCS and realised what a big company it had become," Pendharkar says.

Impressed and anxious to be part of the spirit of change that was enveloping the nation, Pendharkar returned to India in 1996. Once again, he joined TCS and assumed the functions of marketing and sales. Currently involved with building the TCS brand, he is aware of the responsibility of every employee to project a good image for the brand since unlike in the manufacturing industry, every person in TCS constantly comes in contact with the customer. "Every TCS person should know what the brand stands for and how to project it," he says.

His other effort is to make TCS a fun place to work in. As part of this initiative, he has appointed a sports officer. "We need to give our employees, who work so hard, a chance to play as well. We should not just create facilities for this but also organise activities," says this keen sportsperson, who has played tennis, rugby, soccer, basketball, golf and athletics.

Pendharkar is so particular about indulging in some form of physical activity or the other that if the rain deprives him of the chance to play tennis, he plays badminton instead. "If nothing else, then I walk up the staircase," he says, expressing his determination to get his regular dose of adrenaline.

"I have been inclined to sports since childhood," he recalls. "I used to tag along and watch my mother play badminton. My father too was a good sportsperson. My uncles were athletes."

Tennis has always been one of Pendharkar’s favourite games, ever since his late teens when he represented IIT, Bombay. While studying at the Indian Institute of Management, Ahmedabad, young Pendharkar was instrumental in starting the tennis club as well as putting together a basketball team.

Despite his busy schedules, Pendharkar finds time to wield his tennis racquet at least twice or thrice every week. Even if he is travelling, he prefers the nuisance of carting his kit all the way, in the hope of having access to a tennis court, rather than not playing at all. Apart from playing a vigorous round of tennis, he also enjoys watching the game on television.

His favourite tennis players are "Ramnathan Krishnan who was at one time ranked fourth in the world and reached the semi finals of Wimbledon thrice." Among the younger crop today, he roots for Sania Mirza. Internationally he ranks Pete Sampras as the best. But, he adds, "Today at that level there are at least 50 guys who on their best day can beat the Number One on his average day. The standard is really high."

He feels that tennis has changed tremendously over the years. "You don't have that serve and volley tradition now. The racquets are becoming stronger, the surface is improving, so a guy with good stamina and strong legs can keep pounding the ball from one end to the other. Players with a delicate touch get swept away in today’s power tennis," he says.

Pendharkar is also very wistful about rugby, which he had to give up because of repeated injuries. Speaking in favour of the game, he says, "There is a social side to rugby. The game may get over but often the fun and frolic begins after that. The fights continue in the changing room. There is beer-drinking, eating, singing, followed by some more drunken brawls."

He recalls that rugby started as a corporate sport in India. At that time, most of the players were expatriates. "We tried to initiate the game as students at IIT." It was a difficult task. Pendharkar soon learnt that "if a sport is not recognised by the University Grants Commission, you can't get the funds for it."

When it comes to rugby, Pendharkar has not taken very well to the role of a spectator. "I can't bear to watch others play, while I watch at the sidelines," he says.

He is, however, not always averse to armchair sports. In the age before cable television, he remembers hankering after world events, especially Grand Slams. He recalls waiting all night to catch certain interesting games. "Then we would have detailed discussions the next morning. We were like kids in a candy shop," he recalls. Pendharkar has also had the satisfaction of watching events such as the US Open and the last cricket World Cup Final in South Africa personally. His dream is to watch the Olympics live.

"Sport is an integral part of my life. I have made many friends because of it," he says. In fact, Pendharkar often uses the subject of sports as an icebreaker, particularly when dealing with customers.

"When our people play with customers, the company feels that apart from good programmers they are normal human beings as well. Golf can help a lot in networking with the right people too," he points out. It is for this reason that he especially recommends sports to everyone at TCS.

Whether the task at hand involves a game on a sports field or an assignment in the office, Pendharkar brings to it his unwillingness to give up things halfway through. The fact that he brings the same commitment to both work and sports ensures that for him, the two pursuits of his life are not entirely different ballgames.

Uploaded on February 18, 2004