Santhanakrishnan Raman?s name is a mouthful, and he wants you to address him by his second name. Fair enough. The Trichy born, Chennai educated Raman comes across as soft-spoken and takes time to warm up to the interaction. ?Earlier, I used to keep to myself. It?s only after I became a manager that I began to realise the importance of communicating to all. I have to thank an old East European colleague of mine for the change in attitude.?
Raman spent 11 years from 1993 to 2004 at LSI Milpitas, California and then moved to LSI India in Bangalore. ?My exposure in the US was tremendous. I grew up watching the best in the business. But when the time was ripe to move to India, I did so. Today, India is clearly the place to be,? says the IIT-Kanpur/IIM-Bangalore alumnus.
A co-inventor of six US patents, Raman is one of the true blue innovators in the VLSI space. Very large scale integration (VLSI) is the process of creating integrated circuits by combining thousands of transistors into a single chip.
At LSI, Raman worked on the development of multiple generations of design tools and methodologies in the custom solutions division at LSI. ?This is a great place for innovation,? says Raman, now relaxed and leaning back. LSI Corporation is a world leading provider of innovative silicon, systems and software technologies and creates integrated circuits (ICs), adapters and software, offering solutions for storage and networking markets.
?During my days at IIT-Kanpur, I had always dreamed about joining a workplace that would be conducive towards research and innovation. LSI offers you that platform. Here it?s all about team work.?
?You can probably say that I have achieved my childhood dreams. Everyone dreams of being a managing director and I am glad I achieved it,? he says modestly. He has been with LSI for 17 years now.
In his new role, Raman is responsible for driving business growth, and taking the company?s R&D strategy forward. His brief also includes expanding LSI?s operations in India. The company currently employs over 1,000 people in its Bangalore and Pune facilities.
While announcing Raman?s appointment as managing diretcor, Abhi Talwalkar, president and chief executive officer, LSI, had this to say: ?Raman has played a key role over the past several years helping to build our capabilities in India, and his proven leadership and deep technical skills make him an ideal leader to steer LSI India forward.? Raman?s technical skills set him apart, and every team wants to have a piece of him. He?s also known to build good teams around him.
?The teams we?ve built at LSI India make significant contributions to the company?s success,? says Raman. As far as building teams is concerned, he is cognisant of the fact that not all team members will be equally brilliant. ?It?s how one combines as a team that matters, and I am helping the teams here continue to grow their capabilities.?
Raman succeeds Pravin Desale, who has been appointed vice-president of IC development for the Storage Components Division and will be based at the company?s US headquarters. During Desale?s tenure at LSI India, the company quadrupled its investments in India and increased headcount fourfold.
So he?s heading into some high expectations. ?We have grown tremendously over the past 6 years and have built a strong foundation. I would say the challenge is to make the right priority call for more development as we move forward. Teams in LSI India are already contributing significantly to LSI?s success. While sustaining this momentum, there are numerous opportunities to increase our impact. And, we are picking top 2 to 3 areas to focus on immediately.?
In 2011, the is looking to to increase its diversity and depth of product ownership. ?Next year, important milestones would include accomplishing our goals in people development and increased customer connect,? says Raman.
He?s very conscious of the kind of culture that he is creating at the firm. ?LSI has a strong legacy of innovation and that?s at the core of what we are striving for. Our portfolio includes certain key inventions and that continues to inspire us towards a culture of learning and innovation,? he says.
During his free time, he catches up on movies. ?I am a big movie buff. Hence I love non-stop, long-haul flights during which I manage to watch 3-4 movies. I also love to edit videos. I have a collection of videos, whose editing I have done myself.?
