Manav Gaur: The Element of Change Date:   Tuesday , June 10, 2014 It is rightly said, \"Leaders are not born but made\". This story will definitely be awe inspiring for individuals who are afraid of taking risk in achieving their goal. Manav Gaur, Founder & CEO of Monocept, Hyderabad based IT firm, started his journey as a developer and today has established himself as a leader by taking risk at every moment of his life which has enforced many employees at Monocept to follow his footsteps. From his childhood he has always been studious and focused in his career. He worked as a developer in various MNCs including his dream company Microsoft. During his journey in the US, he observed that the companies in the US are unable to find the right development partners in India or unable to succeed in their engagement. This gave birth to the idea of starting a company. There came a turning moment after he returned from the US. He worked at Microsoft on large scale complex products that gave him the confidence. His deep understanding of cross cultural exposure, business strategies, work ethics, American way of doing business and ability to face the challenges has directed him towards his dream goal of starting the firm which can be the right partner for many businesses in the US. The Source of Inspiration As it is believed that behind every successful man there is a woman, and here it was Meenu Gaur, Manav\'s beloved wife who couldn\'t see Manav\'s internal tussle for six months of starting a firm or leading a secured life at Microsoft. There came a moment when Meenu said, \"Go resign your job or don\'t come home\". She always believed in Manav\'s capabilities. Meenu significantly contributed in boasting his confidence to start up his own firm and in making him the element of Change - \"THE ENTREPRENEUR\". Manav is an avid believer in Gita\'s sloka \"Ma Karma Phala Hetur Bhurmatey Sangostva Akarmani- Do not let the fruit be the purpose of your actions, and therefore you won\'t be attached to not doing your duty\". He deem \'never be afraid of the unknown, always embrace it\'. Abiding with these beliefs, he started his journey. He rented a place in a small building in Hyderabad and setup the functional office himself. The biggest challenge he faced was getting the right talent and building the organization that is capable of delivering results. With his experiences and understanding of the business strategies, he succeeded in getting the first project, and with sheer dedication he delivered the project on time. Apparently his fear of security started vanishing. Having tasted early success, Manav convinced his former colleagues Gangadhar Heralgi and Ravi Chitturi to leave Microsoft and join Monocept. The trio focused on building the talent by hiring several ex-MS engineers to form the core senior leadership team. They started building rest of the organization by focusing not only on the technical capabilities but also on communication skills, passion, potential, ownership, out of the box thinking and problem solving abilities. \"This has done wonders for us as we know that if a person has good potential and is passionate about doing his job, then he can fulfill his technical gap. Thus we started building the right technical competency which helped us build the right team,\" says Manav Gaur, Founder & CEO, Monocept. A team with strong competencies continues to build at Monocept who provide cutting edge services to the clients. Today, the company builds solid Enterprise and Mobile software applications with total devotion to engineering excellence. Monocept works with some of the companies in diverse verticals such as Finance, Banking, e-Commerce, Retail IT, Education and Health Care. The company also started developing its own Mobile Apps such as Voting Line, Lost My Wallet, IRCTC SMS Booking, and Bill Payer among others which have got high rankings in the app store, received the media attention and has increased the magnitude of the peak. Employees at Monocept believe in Manav for his contribution in developing the work culture, inculcating the same know-how in the employees and his non aggressive attitude towards the employees. \"Manav has always been supportive and has been friendly with all the employees. He does not behave like a CEO. He interacts like any other colleague of same level which helps us share our concerns,\" shares one of the employees. The working environment and the privileges such as semiannual vacations, team outings, snacks, salary structure at par with MNCs helps employees boost their self esteem. The employees are at comfort with the extended support from senior employees, work-life balance, enhanced scope for improving their learning curve. Manav and his team work much like a law firm - offering personalized services to clients. Their deep product development expertise, relentless pursuit towards engineering excellence, attention to details, high focused and having high touch points with his customers helps Monocept build a long term relationship with them. With the sheer struggle and faith in himself, Manav has come a long way and has broken the myth of comfort. He and Monocept have been growing higher over the years and wish to see more emerging entrepreneurs. Manav finds this era of India\'s startup ecosystem to be the lever of change that can influence prospective entrepreneurs to become real innovators of amend. \"It is time for people like us to unlock the golden handcuffs and be the element of change. But what is most required is believing in oneself and never give up attitude.\" Manav concludes.