by
SANTHOSH
PARK SCHOOL OF BUSINESS EXCELLENCE
BIOGRAPHY
RISE AND FALL OF RAMALINGA RAJU
Ramalinga Raju is one of the pioneers of the Information Technology industry in India. He is the founder and Chairman of Satyam Computer Services Ltd. Ramalinga Raju was born on September 16, 1954 in a family of farmers. Ramalinga Raju, married to Nandini, has two sons and a daughter. His sons Teja B. Raju and Rama B. Raju are running Maytas Infrastructure and Maytas Properties.
Raju did his B. Com from Andhra Loyola College at Vijayawada and subsequently did his MBA from Ohio University, USA. Ramalinga Raju had a stint at Harvard too. He attended the Owner / President course at Harvard University.
After returning to India in 1977, Ramalinga Raju moved away from the traditional agriculture business and set up a spinning and weaving mill named Sri Satyam. Thereafter he shifted to the real estate business and started a construction company called Satyam Constructions. In 1987, Ramalinga Raju founded Satyam Computer Services along with one of his brothers-in-law, DVS Raju and with only 20 employees. The company went public in 1992. Satyam later became one of the earliest companies to get a dedicated data link for offshore development. Through his managerial skills and quality leadership, Ramalinga Raju built Satyam into a multinational company and bagged several key contracts, especially from the US. Satyam began trading on New York Stock Exchange in 2001. With each passing year, Satyam strengthened its position and extended its operations to various locations. With the launch of Satyam Info way (Sify) Satyam became one of the first to enter Indian internet service market. Ramalinga Raju’s foray into corporate data and internet services too was path breaking. Satyam Infoway listed it on NASDAQ with great success. The business process outsourcing (BPO) wing of Satyam also made a remarkable beginning.
The company, whose revenues