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Indian is world's best product developer
By siliconindia staff writer
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Friday, 05 March 2004, 20:30 IST
Here's another Indian who has made it to the top. Mayank Sharma, a product developer with Grasim Industries Limited, has bagged the Stevie - the American International Business Award - for the best product developer in 2004.
The American Business Awards or the Stevie as it is known, in the same American tradition of the Oscars, the Emmys and the Clio are even designed by the same company, R S Owens.
Sharma was nominated by Grasim for the best developer category for developing a new generation of poly aluminium chlorides (liquid) PAC.
Sharma's triumph is even more appreciated because he had managed to indigenously develop a product the technology for which was a closely-guarded secret with only a few companies in the world and cost the company a bomb to buy in the market. On the other hand, Sharma's product helped Grasim to turn from a tech buyer, to a total solution provider for water treatment needs of customers internationally.
A chemical engineer belonging to the 1995 batch from Harcourt Butler Technological Institute, Kanpur, Sharma had joined Indo Gulf Corp (fertiliser division) in June 1995.
In June 1999 he was selected for general management training programme of the Aditya Birla Group.
The Internatiuonal Stevies are given in these categories: company, Office & product categories, organisation categories, team categories, individual categories, advertising categories, corporate literature & investor relations categories, corporate Website categories, interactive multimedia categories, corporate film or video categories, business or industrial theatre production categories.
Sharma is the only Indian to have won a Stevie this year. The Best Multinational Company awards went to Monsanto and PACCAR, both of the USA.
Factiva, Hitachi andd Rockwell shared the Most Innovative Vategory award.
The Best New Product category award was shared by FedEx International Online Shipping Solutions, Lands' End Custom Dress Shirts, Research In Motion's BlackBerry 7230 and Stellent Site Studio.
The Best Overall Company Award was again shared by Canada-based Alcan and element 5 of Germany.
The Stevie award is approximately 16 inches tall, and is hand-cast and finished in 24-karat gold.
The crystal pyramid held aloft by Stevie represents the hierarchy of human needs, a system often represented as a pyramid that was developed in the 1960s by psychologist Abraham Maslow, who observed that after their basic needs are met, human beings seek the esteem of their peers.