After building Microsoft India to a near billion-dollar enterprise, Mr Ravi Venkatesan, Chairman and Corporate Vice-President, Microsoft India, feels it's time to search for the ?next big thing.?

?My journey for the last seven years with Microsoft India has been interesting and has seen a complete transformation of the company with employee strength and revenues growing five times. When I joined Microsoft India, I had certain objectives for the business and they have been achieved. The organisation is now well managed, with the Hyderabad centre driving product innovation. I have been part of two billion-dollar stories ? Cummins and Microsoft. It's my desire now to find the next big thing,? Mr Venkatesan told Business Line .

While the easiest thing to do now would be to jump at another CEO role, Mr Venkatesan does not want to rush into anything, as he takes time off to travel and finish his book Winning in India . The book would focus on why only a few global firms have succeeded in building big businesses in India and what other firms can learn from them.

?India is at an extraordinarily interesting tipping point ? will it become an oligarchy, a banana republic or a super power? I am now in an exploratory mode and looking at the best way to do something impactful for India,? says this 48-year-old.

Prior to joining Microsoft, Mr Venkatesan worked for over 17 years with Cummins, a US-based manufacturer of engines and related technologies. Mr Venkatesan has a BS in Mechanical Engineering from the Indian Institute of Technology, Mumbai, an MS in Industrial Engineering from Purdue University and an MBA from Harvard University.

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