FORGOTTEN NEWSMAKERS! Father Of BPO Industry Raman Roy Hired '100 People A Day'

Raman Roy finds it hard to recall the last time he was not recognised in public. As recently as last week, when he was at a yoga centre in Coimbatore, a young couple walked up to him to say they had worked with him at Spectramind. 바카라�They have children now and it was nice to hear I had a small part to play in their lives,바카라� says the 61-year-old, known as the 바카라�father of the BPO industry바카라� in India.

Roy still lives a frenetic existence with the day starting at 7 am sharp, never to end before midnight. The man runs his own company, Quatrro, based in Gurgaon. He is a part of the Indian Angel Network in addition to having invested his wealth in over 50 companies. 바카라�It바카라�s immensely satisfying when you sit back and think about having created 35,000 jobs,바카라� he says.

It was three decades ago when his then emp­loyer, AmEx, decided that India would do its back office accounting operations. Roy, a chartered acc­ountant in his early thirties, was enjoying a career in finance when his boss, Anuroop 바카라�Tony바카라� Singh said that he was the chosen one and gave him a day to mull over it. Roy said yes and that started the journey into an unknown terrain.

To Roy, it is still a little overwhelming. Quatrro is the fourth company Roy has set up. After AmEx, he set up a captive call centre for General Electric before turning entrepreneur with Spectramind, which was acquired by Wipro in 2002 for Rs 407 crore. 바카라�After Quatrro, I sat down with a few friends to look at what we could now do. We decided on looking at high-end work where clients would not pay us by the hour but only on outcome,바카라� he says. Though there is a joy about the present, he finds it hard to forget the time gone by, especially what he calls that big moment, when Spectramind was hiring 100 people a day. 바카라�This was right in front of my eyes and that feeling was indescribable.바카라�

For many years, Roy was the face of the BPO industry with his picture regularly splashed across the media. 바카라�I was known to make controversial statements and that earned me a reputation,바카라� he says. On a serious note, it also meant that he had to take responsibility for the safety of the women working in his office graveyard shift. 바카라�The industry has also had its share of criticism, which has not been easy. Being in the media also meant I had to be well dressed!바카라�

Roy is pleased India is leveraging its domain skills and knowledge. 바카라�The conversation today is about AI and big data. That바카라�s a more fun for sure,바카라� he thinks. For all the ups and downs that he has been through, Roy is clear he will not trade it for anything in the world. 바카라�I have been incredibly fortunate to go through it. I had a blast doing what I did,바카라� he signs off with his trademark guffaw.

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