An Appetite for Change
Swapping one role for another has been Ganesan’s hallmark since the very beginning. On completion of twelfth standard in early 1980s he joined an arts college in Erode to do his Bachelors in Commerce only to switch colleges within months to join the BE course in Coimbatore Institute of Technology; even here he joined the chemical engineering branch only to switch to Electronics later.

This attribute continued even after Ganesan was done with his studies and got into job in fact jobs in different organizations – and shaped his life and career. His career is punctuated by spells of running his own startups that he invariably closed down and often returned to the company that he left. There is an element of surprise in this as the companies readily admitted him back in their fold and entrusted him with a higher responsibility.

Even his seemingly unpredictable moves never led his friends to abandon him in favor of a less adventurous and hence safe job elsewhere. This speaks loudly about his reliability and leadership qualities.
Lessons Learnt Early
An aspiring Ganesan started a company in Chennai to manufacture fax and modem cards for the PC industry in the latter part of the ‘80s. But while he was making these gadgets, other countries went way ahead by integrating the functions as a small part in the chip and mass-producing them. The whirl of fast technological development soon made his design obsolete. The company was closed and Ganesan never again ventured into manufacturing.

Ganesan developed a penchant for consultancy services and founded his own consultancy companies more than once, only to wind up them subsequently to get into jobs. He did well in the IP product design area and soon found this to be his mainstay.