Remembering Mr. F. C. Kohli

Mr. Kohli, the ex-Director in Charge of TCS who shaped TCS and navigated it in its formative years and steered it to become a world-class company, is no more. When I heard this news, memories of my time in TCS when he was fully involved in running the company, came to my mind. I consider myself fortunate to have met Mr. F. C. Kohli early in my life. Although I did not have a close association with him, a few interactions that I had with him left indelible impressions on me. Today, I experienced what the phrase "end of an era" means.

When I joined TCS in 1983, as a fresher, little did I imagine that I will have an occasion to meet Mr. Kohli personally and was quite surprised when HR informed me that I was invited for a personal, one on one meeting with him. When we met, he had my personal file in front of him and he had glanced through it before the meeting. He mentioned my IIT background and extended a formal welcome to TCS. Further, he enquired if I had any problems. I had none and said so. He emphasized that if there is an issue that is not getting addressed by lower management, I should not hesitate in approaching him. He wished me good luck and the meeting ended. It was a short meeting but I was overawed by the experience. His gesture of meeting every newcomer to TCS, even a fresher like me, impressed me! In similar meetings, some of my colleagues did mention some problems to him and he asked the HR department to help them and the closure of each such case was tracked by his office. TCS was a small organization of 700 people when I joined it and Mr. Kohli was involved in every major decision. He was fully hands-on with running the company.

In the year 1988, TCS sent me on an assignment to IBM. I was the assistant project manager of the team deployed at IBM. That was the first time IBM tried an Indian supplier and we were conveyed that our performance could create a great client for TCS from whom we could get huge amount of work – something that would need a company by itself to execute. Our team was highly motivated by this and did a fantastic job due to which TCS subsequently got lot of projects from IBM. Six months in this assignment, Mr. Kohli visited IBM, and in his visit reserved some time to meet my team. It was a great event where we met him face to face and talked like close colleagues. He talked about TCS values, open culture and appreciated the good work by our team. One point that I particularly remember is that he told us that one customer asked him to create a separate or secluded area in our office where only the team for that customer would work and no one else would be permitted to enter that area. Mr. Kohli politely told that customer that the thought was against TCS’s open culture and any TCSer was free to go to any part of the office. He was such a champion of open culture and promoted an environment of trust and comradery among TCS employees. Subsequently, TCS did accept such conditions from customers as part of the security considerations and protection of customer’s intellectual property and created Offshore Development Centres dedicated to different customers but the trust in employees has been one of the values of TCS and today also any TCSer can have access to unrestricted areas of any office in the world. That meeting has remained in my memory since then.

Mr. Kohli created an environment in TCS that was intellectually engaging and encouraged people to stay at the leading edge of technologies and methodologies. In the early days, TCS's library was one of the best resources available to us. In the mid-'80s, when networking was new to the world, Mr. Kohli invited a leading expert in that field from US to train us on networking concepts. This was three weeks of intensive training, which gave us great insights in this emerging field at that time and enabled us to undertake new projects in computer networking. Personally, because of this training, I was able to deliver some highly challenging technical projects that involved working with computer networking protocols. For me, this was the vindication of my own belief that Indians are fully capable of working at the leading edge of technologies and the belief turned into an experienced truth! The establishment of R&D organization called TRDDC in Pune was another example of Mr. Kohli's grasp of the importance of computer science fundamentals. He invited professors from IIT Mumbai as consultants to help in TCS projects and research. This blend of focus on academics and practical business execution is something that has helped me throughout my career.

After I left TCS, respect for Mr. Kohli increased as I saw TCS taking greater strides. For many years, I used to send him a greetings card on the occasion of Diwali and each of my letters received a reply from him, thanking me and reciprocating the greetings. And all these letters were personally signed by him. On one occasion, I happened to meet him at a professional event. I approached him, introduced myself and he spoke very nicely to me, enquiring what I was doing and wishing me good luck.

In 2015, I was working with CMC Ltd and CMC merged with TCS which brought me back to TCS. This was a much larger company - more than 100 times bigger than the company that I had left years back. Mr. Kohli had retired but was still connected with TCS. I found that the culture that Mr. Kohli had nurtured, his customer sensitivity, desire to embrace leading-edge technologies, emphasis on innovation and the confidence of being a prime mover in the industry was very much there. It must have been highly satisfying for him to see the growth of TCS and the position it has acquired.   

Mr. Kohli was an inspiring and visionary leader. I could not help but always appreciate his confidence and vision. TCS has been an innovative and disruptive company. It pioneered the IT industry in India which has put India firmly on the path of development, pulling the country out of poverty and wiping out the stigma of an underdeveloped country. TCS has turned out to be a great Indian dream and all the credit for it goes to Mr. Kohli. The wider impact of Mr. Kohli’s work on  India as a nation has not been understood widely and there is a need to do so. Thank you Mr. Kohli for all that you did. You were always very busy and active throughout your life. Now, you may take some rest! Our prayers are with you! May God bless this great soul on his journey after life.