http://www.forbes.com/global/2010/0913/best-under-billion-10-micro-technologies-inventively-pleasant.html?boxes=Homepagelighttop Best Under a Billion Inventively PleasantAnuradha Raghunathan<http://search.forbes.com/search/colArchiveSearch?author=anuradha+and+raghunathan&aname=Anuradha+Raghunathan>, 09.03.10, 11:20 AM EDT Forbes Asia Magazine dated September 13, 2010 Sekhar Padmanabhan's Micro Technologies helps you keep watch over things with your phone. And tracks your phone if you lose that. <http://ads.forbes.com/RealMedia/ads/click_lx.ads/forbes.com/specialslot/asia-under-billion-10/forbes.com/technology/story/id1364890090/1626415866/x92/OasDefault_v5/default/empty.gif/65714f527845794966424141426f2f75><http://ads.forbes.com/RealMedia/ads/click_lx.ads/forbes.com/specialslot/asia-under-billion-10/forbes.com/technology/story/id1364890090/693880740/x91/OasDefault_v5/default/empty.gif/65714f527845794966424141426f2f75> [image: image] Eternally vigilant: ''I have fire in the belly for technology and for developing something new,'' says Micro's founder, Sekhar Padmanabhan.
Rajiv Sharaf was casting around for a solution to a nagging problem--electrical transformer management in far-flung metro Mumbai. As a senior executive at the $3.3 billion (revenues) Reliance Infrastructure, he provides it support to the company's Mumbai electricity distribution business. It spans 6,000 substations spread across 240 miles. Sharaf's company wanted a monitoring system that would alert managers about the network--be it low transformer oil levels in a distant suburb, sabotage of equipment or a faulty switch gear. There was no ready-made solution in the market. Enter Micro Technologies, based in Navi Mumbai, India--a nearby software company that specializes in security and monitoring products. It customized a solution for Reliance in 2008. At 25 distribution stations across the grid Micro installed "black boxes" and sensors on the transformers. Soon managers got alerts every time the oil level was low or the transformer temperature was high, which are some of the reasons Mumbai, like much of India, suffers nagging outages and brownouts. "We avoided major breakdowns, and we didn't have any downtime except the regular plant shutdowns," says Sharaf. "Micro Technologies has a good group of techies. They continuously cooperated with us on what we wanted." After the successful pilot Reliance will be floating a tender for a full-fledged implementation, and Micro will be applying for the work. It's this kind of customer satisfaction that has built up Micro Technologies. Its 250 products cover everything from vehicle fleet monitoring to home security to a system for tracking lost cellphones. - <http://www.forbes.com/global/2010/0913/best-under-billion-10-micro-technologies-inventively-pleasant.html#glanceTab> "Whatever form of security you need, you get it at your place and the way you want it," explains Sekhar Padmanabhan, the 57-year-old founder and chairman. "If someone tampers with your computer, the system will tell you via SMS or a voice call. We make your asset answerable to you." Sekhar, who along with his family owns 32% of the company, is now intent on expanding globally. In the last year Micro has signed personal security deals with companies in Tanzania, Belgium, Mongolia, Japan, Israel and Kuwait. It also sells to governments. Revenues have better than doubled in two years to $102 million for the year ended March 2010. Net profits rose from $14 million to $20 million in the same span. And exports--which account for more than a third of revenues--expanded to $36 million from $10 million. "They have a well-diversified portfolio; a [well-]reputed clientele and excellent growth potential," says Jomon Joseph, head of research at Sykes & Ray equities, a Mumbai financial services firm. Sekhar has long dreamed of bringing Indian technology to a global market. The youngest of five children of an accounts officer in the defense ministry who moved about India, he pursued physics and solid-state electronics studies all the way to a Ph.D. at the University of Mumbai. But his early career was spent in a Maharashtra State job where he went on to become the director of India's first software technology park. Sekhar navigated India's bureaucratic world with a no-nonsense approach, becoming a kind of electronics messiah. "I wanted electronics to go into every [government] department," he says. He loathed the perpetual paper pushing. "When you get into paperwork you make everyone's life frustrating-- I always like to get to the bottom of things," he says. His seven years in government not only taught him the value of patience and persistence, but it also earned him the goodwill of government officials in high places. "He's a very pleasant person, and he's highly committed to moral values," says Vittal Nagarajan, ex-chairman of the commission responsible for liberalizing the telecom sector in India. Vittal is now on Micro Technologies' board of advisors. The advisors, who range from bureaucrats to scientists, act as a sounding board for Sekhar's ideas and projects. After leaving his official job Sekhar started Micro Technologies in his 500- square-foot home office in 1992, with $2,600 as seed capital. With his wife as a partner--Jayanthi Sekhar has a master's in business economics--he began executing computerization for government departments. In 1998 he rolled out an e-governance product. This could detect delays in processing and provide information on everything from unproductive clerks to pending files. But the turning point came in 2001 when he turned to software-based security. In three years Micro Technologies released its blockbuster Micro Vehicle Black Box--which still pulls in more than a third of the company's revenues, albeit with newer versions and expansions. Micro VBB's sensors can detect intrusions and send the vehicle owner a text message on his phone. If a car theft is in progress the owner can immobilize the vehicle with a message and track its whereabouts via GPS (a service others offer globally as well). Since VBB Sekhar has extended the black box concept to a multitude of products--a home alarm system that sends out a text message when there's a forced entry, software that detects Wi-Fi intrusions and a Lost Notebook Tracking System that sends alerts when your computer is stolen. The company says that with customized configurations there's no problem with false alarms. Micro's mobile tracking system embeds software in a cellphone for $2 a year. If the phone is stolen and someone tries to replace the SIM card the owner will get a text message on a registered add-on phone--maybe that of a spouse or a friend. For an additional cost of $2 per annum, the owner can also remotely delete personal data on the stolen phone within a few seconds from the add-on. Along with the growing international business, there's plenty of potential left in India, where the overall electronics security market is projected to grow from $256 million in 2007 to nearly $1 billion in 2012. Sekhar has written a book on India's security requirements, and the national id effort being headed by Infosys alum Nandan Nilekani has reached out to Micro. But India is a crowded market--domestic rivals include Zicom, as well as unincorporated providers, while giant multinational *Siemens*<http://finapps.forbes.com/finapps/jsp/finance/compinfo/CIAtAGlance.jsp?tkr=SI>( SI<http://finapps.forbes.com/finapps/jsp/finance/compinfo/CIAtAGlance.jsp?tkr=SI>- news <http://search.forbes.com/search/CompanyNewsSearch?ticker=SI>- people <http://people.forbes.com/search?ticker=SI>) holds its own. Sekhar isn't fazed. "The market will be big even if a hundred big companies come," he says. "And we'll still have the business in each new country." He is banking on Micro's research and development, on which it spent nearly $12 million in the last year. The best such investment is probably the inventive Sekhar himself. His latest offering: a product called Micro Jai Kisan. It's aimed at farmers in India. Typically farmers who own large tracts of land have to travel dozens of miles just to turn water pumps on or off. Jai Kisan will help them to remotely manage the pumps through a simple call. Next in the cards? Micro e-health, a tool for managing health records electronically. For all his ties to the business, Sekhar sees himself as a reluctant businessman. "I am not the conventional entrepreneur," he says. "You must have fire in the belly to make money. I don't want to be a billionaire. I have fire in the belly for technology and for developing some-thing new." But shareholders needn't be too worried. He leaves the job of making money to a core executive team of 14 headed by his ceo and chief financial officer. And Sekhar's older son, Aditya, 23, with an M.B.A. in international business, has recently joined the company -- -- Deepak Aggarwal -- You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups ""GLOBAL SPECULATORS"" group. To post to this group, send email to [email protected]. To unsubscribe from this group, send email to [email protected]. 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