“Achievement and success grow out of the seeds of action”

-by Ramani .VB  & NCM

(Financial Controller, Al-Mulla Int’l Financing & Investment Company)

When the father is a professional banker and the mother is a teacher, it is not surprising to see that the has become a finance professional who could also teach and guide others about the way to achieve success.  When you meet Mr.Sathyamurthy, valuable tips to others as to how to succeed in career kept on flowing !!

The right attitude to adopt towards one’s work is not ‘I have to do’, but ‘ I want to do’, says Mr.Sathyamurthy.    This ‘Love your work’ mantra-of-success was taught to him long ago by an elder, who possibly echoed the following lines from the poet Khalil Gibran :
And what is it to work with love?
It is to weave the cloth with threads drawn from your heart,  even as if your beloved were to wear that cloth.
It is to build a house with affection,  even as if your beloved were to dwell in that house.
It is to sow seeds with tenderness and reap the harvest with joy,  even as if your beloved were to eat the fruit.
It is to charge all things you fashion with a breath of your own spirit.

“Once your work attitude is set correctly, you will find  your job an easy and enjoyable one and will be able to come up with fantastic results that may surpass even your own wildest expectations !!! “, asserts Mr. Sathyamurthy

Mr. Sathyamurthy’s father Mr. Ramanujam  was a manager in Lakshmi Vilas Bank and his mother was a teacher in Panchayat Union Schools in Velore (Salem) and Red Hills, Chennai.  Sathyamurthy studied in the legendary Hindu Higher Secondary School in Chennai and completed B.Com from D G Vaishnav College, Chennai. 

Despite the pressures of the CA articleship training period wherein, whole of one’s time gets spent in carrying out audits of clients, Sam, as he is fondly known in his official and friend circles, completed his CA exams in 1987 in a single attempt and within his articleship period.   “Normally people take upto two months leave from the training to prepare for the exams and still do not complete the exams in single attempt” says Sam.  As he was not granted any leave for preparation, his seniors in the office advised him not to take the exam without preparation.

However, Sam says “I thought about it.  I had already paid the fees. I was well aware that I was more likely to fail than clear.  I thought I will never get a golden opportunity like that one, where I could face a professional exam without the pressure of passing.  There was the additional bonus that if I did make the attempt there was that remotest chance that I will pass, which won’t exist if I didn’t make that attempt.  So I went ahead and wrote the exam and cleared the exams in my first attempt itself against all odds”.   This experience of Sam proves that if one really makes that effort and does not worry about the results, success may just be waiting to greet.

He pointed out that like any other task, learning too required well planned efforts and a strong interest to master the subject.  “Read the subject matter in the same way you would read a story book or a newspaper article.  There you do not make an effort to remember but still retain a lot of what you read.  Reason is your interest.  If you read any subject with the same interest, understanding and grasping the concepts will be very easy”, advises Sathyamurthy.  This is an advice borne out of personal experience as the above habit, combined with his remarkable memory power, indeed enabled Sam  to expand his knowledge over a number of fields of interest.

Sam started his career in 1988 in Delhi with VLS Finance Company as Finance Manager.  He was the first employee of the company and was involved in its growth from the roots.

In 1993, he migrated to Bangkok to join the well established Kesar Impex  and got a good grounding in all aspects of business management  including  Finance and  Marketing.  He also experienced the excellent and productive work culture where everyone, irrespective of their designation or role, were working as equals and the entire organization functioned as a family.  

“I learnt humility and humbleness from the owners.  Despite their social status and immense wealth, they did not consider any job as petty while pressing themselves into some jobs that were handled only by the laborers.  I learnt the true meaning for the phrase ‘work is worship’ when I worked for Kesar Impex”  says Sam.

Sam is totally convinced about the above HR philosophy that he always been a simple person,  treating all as equals and carrying all his co-workers together while discharging his duties and guiding and mentoring his team.

After spending 1 ½ years in Hongkong,  Sam returned back to Delhi to work for his previous employer.  Later on he moved over to their Chennai office.  He then got involved in the ‘Tamil.Com’ venture that aimed to bring a large number of Tamils around the world into a single network.  While he gained valuable administrative experience, the venture ran into rough weather due to the dotcom burst in the United States which affected the fund raising plans of the venture.  Failure of that venture gave him the vital knowledge on business management and the risks involved.

 “To err is human; But to learn from the error is divine”, he quips.  This principle is applied by him to all employees at his work place.  Whenever a staff commits an error, Sam places key importance, not on penalizing the staff, but in ensuring that they have learnt from their mistakes.   He always tries to identify the root cause of the problem to fix it permanently.

Sam joined Dove finance as GM and then later in 2002 shifted to Muscat joining National Finance Co SAOG (www.natfinco.com) as its Financial Controller.  He was part of the senior management team that turned around the receivables portfolio of the Company dominated by non-performing assets.  He is a strong believer in focusing more on efforts than on results.  “Bring quality, high standards and an organized approach to the task at hand; excellent results will follow automatically”, says Sam.

The Al-Mulla Group in Kuwait is one of the largest privately owned business houses in the Gulf region.  The conglomerate with more than 15000 employees was looking for a financial controller for its Financing operations and Sam got selected for the post, based on his long experience in the financing business.   Sam joined the Al Mulla group in 2007 and feels very happy in being able to meet the expectations of his much more experienced seniors with his analytical inputs and contribution to business policy formulation.

“Achievement and success grow out of the seeds of action.  If you want to be successful in life, there is no point in waiting for the ‘ideal’ or ‘auspicious’ time or the ‘right’ opportunity.  Any time is good time to get into the fray with sincere efforts, as each effort will take you nearer to your goal”, expounds Sam.

Sam is married to Aruna, who was working for Indian Airlines as a ground staff till 2003 and resigned so that she could take care of the children.  This happy couple have three sons – Niranjan, Anand Surya and Akshay;   Sam is proud of his wife’s support to his career achievements.  He proudly says that his wife keeps guiding him in controlling the emotions while dealing in stress situations.  The couple look-forward to devote more of their time, money and efforts for social service in the future.    Sam says “being contended is the most important criteria for contributing to the society.  I am still in the process of reaching the contended mindset and I am working hard for that”.

Reading, listening to music and writing are his past time.  He has a blog at www.sathyamurthy.com and says he likes to write humor and satire. If he takes up his writing seriously, especially about the way to succeed in life, it would certainly prove to be helpful and valuable to many young people stepping into their career.   Sam can count that as one of his social service actions !!!!

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