Symantec’s R&D center in Pune is seeing an orbital shift—from turning technical innovation to customer relevant innovation. John Thompson, Chairman & CEO of Symantec is here with a promise: Shall accelerate this momentum.

“I sleep like a baby. I really don't worry about competition,” exclaims John Thompson, Chairman & CEO of Symantec. “I worry more about our ability to execute. If my team knows to execute precisely and professionally, then competition is less of an issue.”

And Thompson’s engineers know it well. Engineers at Symantec’s Pune center take inspiration from Thompson’s sparkling words. They cannot still stop discussing the details on how their innovations mattered most to their clients. A sense of high intensity for innovation pervades through the entire group. With their big daddy in town, the intensity is all gingered up. And they can't wait to make leeway into the banquet hall where he is reinforcing spirits.

“We want to be a $10 billion company by 2010,” says Thompson looking at his entire league of smart techies. “In order to grow faster we need to tap the best talent around the world; you guys are the center piece of my quest in moving our company’s mission forward.” The good news is, Symantec expects to double its India footprint over the next couple of years.

The Pune center focuses on building solutions to help individuals and enterprises protect their information and infrastructure. With about 1700 engineers, Pune accounts for about 20 percent of Symantec's development staff worldwide. Set up by VERITAS Software in 1992, the center became part of Symantec after the merger of the two companies in July 2005.