An interview with Anil Chouhan

Anil Chouhan is a practicing professional with over 16 years of experience in Marketing, IT, and Design. Over the years he has built and managed many groups of IT, consulting and design professionals in US as well as India. He has worked and consulted with many global companies.

He is a Director of Onio Design and was previously Managing Director of Synygy, Inc. and VP of International Sales.  Anil moved back to India in 2004 to help Synygy set up its India center which he grew to over 200 people.

He has BE – Production degree from Pune University, a MMS – Marketing degree from S. P. Jain Institute of Management and Research (SPJIMR), and MS in Information Technology from Texas A&M University, USA.

ITVidya: Anil, Congrats on your new venture CatterFly. What inspired you to start Catterfly ?  

Anil: I have worked both in India and in US.  Here I hired over 200 people in a year and one of the key thing I noticed is that many of them were operating in the new world with old paradigms of how to be successful.  I saw that these individuals were very talented and had the hunger to succeed.  All that was needed was some guidance and coaching to steer them in the right direction and then would just soar! That is where my inspiration for starting Catterfly came.                                                                                 

ITVidya: We understand you were the MD of the India Operations of Synygy, USA. How is the transition from being MD of a large company to running your startup Catterfly ?  

Anil: I have had my share of successes and the associated rewards so now I was looking for something that would be exciting.  I call Catterfly “passion work” so it does not feel like work and its rewards are different than the financial rewards of earnings dollars. 

ITVidya: Can you share us your vision for Catterfly ?

Anil: Today just like people go to colleges to become engineers, in the near future they would learn principles of personal excellence and success through organizations like Catterfly. I want Catterfly to be a liberating force that helps people achieve and be their best.  I want the programs of Catterfly to have the credibility that a high end engineering degree would have because I believe that “Attitude and mind set” of a person is more important in the persons happiness and success than just scientific knowledge. 

ITVidya: What are the key challenges currently being faced by the new generation IT Professionals ?

 Anil: The biggest challenge for a new generation IT professional is how to create their own unique niche.  Everyone has pressure to follow the standard path and pursue the MNC brand name or the title or the money.  The challenge for them would be go beyond that and continuously learn and grow.  The challenge would be to re-invent oneself may be every couple of years.  Unless they do that, they will run against the glass ceiling and there would dis-enhancement very soon.

Also another key challenge for IT professionals would be move beyond tools and technologies into software product innovation and into areas of creating new products and not just delivery lower end services.

ITVidya: We understand that you are doing a seminar for new entrants in IT industry on Personal Success.  What is the intended outcome for the participants who join the Personal Success Seminar ?   

Anil: The key outcome of the seminar is to provide clarity to the participants on how they can be successful and do it without compromising on their satisfaction and personal life.  Illustrating that everyone can be successful and it does not have to be so hard. The idea is for them to have the tools so that they can proactively manage their personal growth and achieve the results they want and deserve.

ITVidya: How is your training different from scores of others in the training industry ?

Anil: The programs we have created are based on global experience but designed for Indian Scenario.  We as Indians have very specific “mental blocks” and “limiting paradigms” and the programs are designed to address those. 

These programs are based on “practitioners experience” and not just behavioral theories.

ITVidya:  What are your future plans for Catterfly ? 

Anil: I want Catterfly to be a movement – a movement which encourages people to seek support to be their best – to constantly learn and grow.  In terms of specific business goals – I would like Catterfly to be present across India doing Personal Success programs within 3 years.  On a more personal note I would have liked for Catterfly to have coached more than 1 Lakh people in 3 years.