Mani Iyer resigned in October after serving as President & CEO of Mahindra in North America since 2009. He joined the company in 1998, serving as head of product development; led different functions including operations and supply chain, after sales service, quality and parts; and then served as vice president of sales before being named president.

Iyer led the company’s trajectory, growing from 236 dealers when he took over as president to 545 dealers today. His goal was to double the sales revenue further for the company and the dealers.

The growth was not without some discontent, expressed by dealers in the Equipment Dealers Assn.’s annual Dealer-Manufacturers Relations survey. One program in particular, the automatic inventory replenishment program, raised some concerns among dealers.

In this exclusive interview with Rural Lifestyle Dealer, Iyer talks freely about the company’s fast growth, what he might have done differently and many other topics.

Here are highlights from the conversation and click on each heading to read expanded comments.

Manufacturers adopting a platform strategy: “Companies should look forward to not just selling equipment, but to make a lifestyle more enjoyable —delivering both exceptional customer experience and delightful dealer experience. So, I suggest manufacturers to shift beyond products and services to experience, creating a platform to give any and all help for someone to enjoy their rural lifestyle.”

Changing demographic in the rural lifestyle market: “While understanding the changing customer needs and preferences, the machine should be a blend between form and function, a combination of technology and simplicity, while still giving the customer a tractor feel, such as the experience of shifting gears, working the PTO, working the hydraulics and so on and so forth.”

Evolving the Mahindra brand: “Our goal was to make the tractor affordable to anyone who wants to use it and make it so the tractor can do more for the customer. What changed as we grew is to offer more creature comfort features along with giving the customer all the tools and attachments and accessories they need to finish the job in less time.”

Seeking dealer input: “Dealers are an integral part of our product development and testing process. We ensured that we consulted with the dealers, asking, ‘What do you think about these products? Do you think it could add value to your business? Do you think it will be a differentiator in the marketplace?’ Then when it comes to the products, ‘What features and at what price points?’ We asked dealers about styling options to see what they would like to be futuristic. We engaged them throughout the product development and testing process.”

Making bold changes: “We are not perfect. We have made a lot of mistakes, but what made this company grow so fast is to understand and make changes, bold changes, with the dealers and make them believe in it.”

Mahindra President and CEO Viren Popli comments on his priorities for his first 90 days:

I arrived in the states on Thanksgiving and have now spent my first days in the office. I am fully focused on Mahindra North America after transitioning from my previous role leading our Swaraj Agriculture Equipment Division. I have a solid feel for the current state of the business from a data standpoint and am in the process of listening to employees and dealers. We have started putting new programs in place and are already seeing positive results.

My top priority is to travel and meet our dealers, employees and customers to hear, first-hand, their point of view about the products and business and take in these suggestions. Using this information, we will put in place any needed infrastructure, systems or processes to make MNA more responsive and supportive and keep this as an important and central part of our DNA.

We will reinforce the business to a retail focus, putting our dealers and customers front and center. We are here to win the hearts and minds of customers, dealers, employees and business partners to take this business to the next level together.

Having the “people” advantage: "You folks are intelligent, experienced and you have done a lot of good work and things in life, but if you want to make a difference, this is the company. If you want to leave a legacy and feel good about what you have done, this is the place — curious, creative and empowered."

Selecting new dealers: “I am not expecting a palatial infrastructure, but, yes, I do expect minimum standards. I used to always say, ‘Even if they have a decent sized area, don't worry. Just check their attitude and resources. Check their plan. What do they want to do in life? Are they willing to invest? If so, let's work with them and mutually grow.’"

Focusing on vision, not dealership size: “I believe that a large heart and being progressive means more than having a large infrastructure and having a ton of money. Those are important for business, no doubt, but a dealer should have a big heart and a vision to invest and grow the business.”

Growing a dealer base quickly: “When I took over as president in 2009, we had 236 dealers, and they were all kinds of dealers, from small to large. During the serious economic downturn and financial crisis in 2008-2009, there were some dealers who were on the verge of giving up; some who needed help to stay afloat; and some who were still committed to grow. Around 60-70 dealers over a period of 3-4 years gave up on their businesses, but we kept recruiting new progressive dealers to keep our growth going. Every year, we netted around 40-50 dealers and, as of Oct 2018, we have 545 dealers.”

Stabilizing the growth: “We had a steady growth over years and one year we grew very fast — from $351 to $500 million in sales. That was a pleasant shock to me. I felt the pressure of the growth as we needed to stabilize and look at the systems, processes and people needed to support the growing business. And that was the focus in the last 18 months.”

Addressing ratings in the Equipment Dealers Assn.’s Dealer-Manufacturer Relations Survey: “Our product, sales and marketing programs always ranked high in satisfaction. We are very creative on our programs, advertisements and are quite liberal in giving dealers co-op advertising money. They also like the availability of tractors because we have 5 distribution centers and could deliver tractors very quickly. This delighted both our dealers and customers. The areas that we needed to focus on included not having enough people when the growth happened and not having systems and processes upgraded to be responsive.”

Making needed changes: “I realized the need for restructuring, putting more people in the right places with needed strategic and tactical leadership, but could have been more thoughtful on the selection.”

What other changes needed to happen: “Clearly, the areas of operations, supply chain and logistics needed more leadership and resources. A few areas were prioritized for growth and transformation. Supply chain transformation was the need, with improving working capital and inventory management across 6 plants, real time visibility of data and efficiency of stock and productivity. This was critical to meet our growth aspirations particularly with higher horsepower product launches. Other areas of investments were IT and digital transformation, a move from back-end support to driving business in the front end including launch of Salesforce.com and digitization of products and services.”

The decision to resign: “I have had a super run on brand, business and organization with Mahindra, taking it from unknown to known, a global player among the top 3 in North America in 0-100 PTO horsepower category; 10 times revenue growth including commencement of captive Mahindra Finance USA which is profitable and has a portfolio of over $1 billion portfolio, both contributing to Mahindra group at large; 5 times product portfolio growth including the launch of the utility vehicle business; and helping the Mahindra North America to become the pride of the Mahindra Auto and Farm Sector, achieving its first-ever recognition as 2017 Hall of Fame Recipient for Sustained Outstanding Performance.

“It was time for me to hand over the baton and move on. Particularly, when you have 15-20 more years of service, you look at life differently. So, going forward, my focus is on growing another business exponentially, no doubt about it. And, I believe that anything I touch I would like to turn it to gold. Number two is to plan my personal investments and financial growth plans and the third being some work-life balance.”

Message for new leadership: “Failure is an option, fear is not. Let them fail; it's okay. Only then can you get new ideas, the new creativity so that you can differentiate yourself against the top 2 players, instead of just following them.”

Message to dealers: “I know it is an emotional departure as I have a very passionate, compassionate and trusted partnership with my dealer partners. I want them to be patient and continue the passion to advise the company of what needs to be done to take it to the next level continuing the power of 3 performance — brand, partnership and employees.”

What does the future hold: “I have several options, either to be in the same industry and grow another company big or go to a related equipment industry or do something very different altogether. I have two or three options in hand that are very interesting. I leave behind a proud legacy and delivered big across my career.

At the end of the day, I have great friends, passionate followers, am blessed to be here, blessed to have an ever-loving family, and blessed to be associated with partners, suppliers and employees. I cannot ask for anything more and my sincerest thanks to all who have stood by me in great and challenging times.”

Manufacturers Adopting a Platform Strategy

When I came to the U.S. from India, I saw that it was a very different market from how tractors are used in India. It is truly a lifestyle. Most only use a tractor for 50-100 hours a year. They might as well rent it, but they want to use the tractor, sometimes for therapy and relaxation. It is just the fact of owning the land, working on the land and looking at what you have done to the land.

I felt strongly then, and I continue to feel very strongly that the American Dream solidly stands on owning a land and having the tools to work the land. There is no doubt. I don't think it's going to ever die with upcoming generations but will just grow more and more. As people have more stress at their jobs, they want to go to the rural areas, own land and a home, get away from the busy life and spend time with their families.

“Companies should look to not just selling equipment, but to make that lifestyle more enjoyable. So, I would shift, beyond products to services and create an experience platform to give any and all help so that customers can enjoy their lifestyle. That might be help with buying land, building a fence or building an energy-free home. Anything that a rural lifestyler would like to do should be facilitated by a company through a platform strategy.

For instance, companies could establish a network like Angie's List or TripAdvisor. It could be brand agnostic. You are still able to sell equipment, but beyond that you must have experts to help the lifestyler enjoy and build their life.

Changing Demographic in the Rural Lifestyle Market

The younger generation is now entering the market and they're far more digital than previous generations. They want it fast, they want it easy, and they don't want to learn too much. They think everything should start and stop with the press of a button. They want the machines to automatically tell them what to do without them having to read and learn. So, the products and services have become very automated, but that, unfortunately, causes a shift in the human-to-human touch.

I want the machine to be a blend between being very automated, very digitized, while still giving the customer a tractor feel, such as the experience of shifting gears working the PTO, working the hydraulics and so on and so forth. There are young people who are looking for what their fathers and forefathers owned, and they still have that nostalgic feel of running a product of that kind.

Evolving the Mahindra Brand

Mahindra is a strong brand with a history and connection to International Harvester. The B275 model is still in production in India and built by Mahindra. We wanted to maintain the tradition of giving more value for the money. That might be larger tires or adding a loader and backhoe, giving the tractor a sturdy, durable feel with a very simple price point.

That was our value proposition when we came into the U.S. market and we continue with that approach. We wanted to offer an affordable product at a competitive price to the dealer, so there is a business proposition to him. When we first came into the market, we were 20% cheaper than major brands. Over a period of time, of course, the market truly became global and competing manufacturers started working with other countries to manufacture and export tractors.

Our earlier plan was to reverse engineering the Indian product to suit the American needs then our competitors started doing the same thing. We took a step up to offer more comfort and features, while still offering a good price to the market.

Then, major manufacturers began seeking out exclusive dealerships. We knew we would have to fight for the share of mind and wallet and started partnering with dealers. They are Mahindra’s brand ambassadors to the customers, so we want them to be happy with the brand.

So, over the last 8-10 years, we kept everything that Mahindra is known for, but added upgrades. And, we kept carrying out the philosophy of partnering with dealers and suppliers to make everyone part of the Mahindra movement, rather than creating a monument and forgetting it tomorrow.

Seeking Dealer Input

One thing we did to partner with our dealers was to take them to India and show them what Mahindra is all about. They could see the quality of the equipment, the people and the manufacturing processes and feel good about India and the culture and become more connected to the brand beyond the business.

We ensured that we consulted with the dealers, asking, “What do you think about these products? Do you think it could add value to your business? Do you think it will be a differentiator in the marketplace?" Then when it comes to the products, “What features and at what price points?” We asked dealers about styling options to see what they would like to be futuristic. We engaged them throughout the product development and testing process.”

We wanted to make dealers feel part of the business, not just in product development, but in any and all decisions we take. Therefore, our Dealer Advisory Council was always talking to dealers about programs and our automatic replenishment program was blessed by the Dealer Advisory Council. In fact, they asked me, "Mani, why are you not making it mandatory?" I told them that, "I don't want to make it mandatory because I don't like to push anything to the dealer. I want them to believe in it." They said, "Not everyone will believe in it. You must put your foot down and say this is it. ARP is the way to go.” I said, “I will wait for 3 months. I bet I'll get over 95% participation. Some of them will be unhappy with this, but let's sink the change in slowly." We did have 95% participation in 3 months.

So, for anything and everything, I put myself in the dealer’s shoes, thought from their standpoint and wanted to win them over instead of forcing anything on to the dealers.

Making Bold Changes

Our Dealer Advisory Council (DAC) is very strong, well diversified both by geography, business and brands they represent. We give DAC a status report every month to make sure we’re addressing issues and any recommended changes. Our dealers always felt that this company is listening. This company is not just engaging and partnering but listening and confirming with us when they make a change.

We instituted a process of continuous engagement and it went beyond the dealer advisory council, we also picked up clusters of dealers who were good on certain aspects of the business, such as marketing, digitization, consumer research, aftersales service, quality and parts or selling a certain type of product. We worked with these subsets of 5 dealers or more to help us better understand what the dealer needed.

We are not perfect. We have made a lot of mistakes, but what made this company grow so fast is to understand and make changes, bold changes, with the dealers and make them believe in it. We didn’t want them to fear change or fear failure. If we made a mistake, we always said that we'll change it fast and correct it.

Having the “People” Advantage

When I employ people, regardless of the position, I always just tell them, "You are intelligent and experienced, and you have done a lot of good things in life, but if you want to make a difference, this is the company. If you want to leave a legacy and feel good about what you have done, this is the place."

I always tried to make them feel like this is their own company, that it’s a dream job. Likewise, I do the same with the dealer. I gave them the tools to be successful as well as the philosophy of what Mahindra stands for, so they could feel good about partnering with this brand. It is not a matter of selling equipment, but more of, "What does Mahindra stand for? Who is Mahindra? What kind of people do they have? How do I emulate some of those values into my dealership to Rise for good?"

We empowered our employees to listen to dealers. If a dealer wants a change, but they don’t think a change is possible, they could just ignore the dealer or say "I'm sorry, I can't do that.” That attitude doesn’t work at Mahindra. You must take responsibility of anything and everything because at the end of the day, it's our dealer calling this company. It doesn't matter whether he's calling the service department, parts department, or accounting. Listen to what they have to say and if it doesn’t apply to your department, then walk across to the right department and serve our customer. I am very passionate about that.

And, I was approachable personally for anything and everything. Dealers told me, "Mani, you are just a different CEO. We've worked with so many companies, with so many CEOs, but you have always been available for us. You always listen to us, you make changes, and you also were inspiration and for us to think about life differently than just running a business."

Selecting New Dealers

A potential dealer’s financial qualifications became more important toward the last 3-4 years when our portfolio of products and services were complete because it was important for them to stock tractors, UTV and all attachments and accessories. Having said that, I don't want dealers to have to invest millions of dollars when they join Mahindra.

It was a simple calculation of the market size by horsepower category, what market share we have in the state, and, therefore, what share we expect the dealer to achieve so they can become prosperous. I wanted them to have a decent workplace, resources and good people to start doing business with Mahindra. One of dealers, Richard Johnson, started his dealership in a trailer home and carried a few competition tractors along with Mahindra tractors. That’s how he started and now he’s become one of our top leaders, selling more than 1,000 tractors. His entire family is in the business and he’s created a lot of employment in the community.

I am not expecting a palatial infrastructure, but yes I do expect minimum standards. I used to always say, “Even if they have a decent sized area, don't worry. Just check their attitude and resources. Check their plan. What do they want to do in life? Are they willing to invest? If so, let's work with them and mutually grow."

Over time, some of our dealers have grown, while others have remained the same size and it’s all fine. I believe more in passion, attitude for the job, for the business they're running. And, I told my employees that if a dealer doesn’t like us, listen to them, understand what they don’t like, don't drop them or don't be stubborn about what you think is right. Find a midway point to agree to disagree on certain things but find a way to move forward and make him believe in our brand. The dealer has options and we must make sure that they select Mahindra.

And, we strategically positioned our 5 distribution centers to get closer to dealers and to customers — and we have partnered with dealers and suppliers in establishing these centers. In the centers, we also created service and sales training schools.

Focusing on Vision, Not Dealership Size

I believe that a large heart and being progressive means more than having a large infrastructure and having a ton of money. Those are important for business, no doubt, but a dealer should have a big heart and a vision to invest and grow the business. So therefore. I was not oversold on having mega dealerships.

I would rather start with a medium-sized dealership and add locations, making them successful and feel that Mahindra has made a difference in their life. That belief is far worthier than having big buildings.

And, regarding exclusivity, certainly we wanted our dealers to focus on our range of tractors and be as exclusive to Mahindra as possible. We had more than 60 models from 20-130 horsepower and attachments and accessories. We were just not forcing them to be exclusive or drop a competition line. It was more of how I win them over to be more Mahindra than other brand.

Growing a Dealer Base Quickly

When I took over as president in 2009, we had 236 dealers, and they were all kinds of dealers, from small to big. During the serious economic downturn and financial crisis in 2008-2009, there were some dealers who were on the verge of giving up; some who needed help to stay afloat; and some who were still committed to grow. Around 60-70 dealers over a period of 3-4 years gave up on their businesses, but we kept recruiting new progressive dealers to keep our growth going. Every year, we netted around 40-50 dealers and, as of October 2018, we had 545 dealers.”

You have to be very competitive and push for any and all kinds of market share to compete against major brands. Many of our dealers have opened new locations, but I strongly believe two or three locations is good enough. Anything beyond three is a stretch. Your numbers get stretched and you really don't get the best value for the investment.

We don't draw a line for boundaries between dealers, but we nominate counties to each dealer and make sure that they have two or three counties and there is a distance of 50 miles between dealers.

There are always hiccups when you grow so quickly. So, our plan was, how do we get every dealer to retail a minimum of 30 tractors a year — at least 2-3 tractors a month. If a dealer sells below 30, then it's not viable in terms of selling tractors, even though they may have many other things going on at the dealership. So, our plan was to set a minimum 30 and then raise the bar to 50 and more. Of course, there are many dealers who were at 100-200+units per year at single or multiple locations.

When you have a tall plan of pushing dealers to perform and be successful in their businesses, you hit roadblocks. I would say we hit three or four blocks. For instance, when we started selling in the U.S., we had the value proposition of a good tractor coming out of India — and then major brands followed the same strategy. They did everything what we did at the same price point or lower price points, so the price war was tough to fight.

So, we needed to differentiate ourselves as a brand. We needed our systems to be easy and not create hard and fast rules. We needed to engage with our dealers and work with every situation. There might be a dealer who is stressed with money at some point of time or stressed about aged inventory or competition. We needed to work through any and all kinds of problems and not give up the dealer. If it reaches a point where they are financially unstable, we need to work to see who might be able to purchase the dealership. We always had the good of the dealer in mind.

Stabilizing the Growth

In 2009, our most difficult year, we were bold to start our own captive finance company, which helped us differentiate from shortline manufacturers. I felt very strongly about starting our own retail/wholesale finance company.

We had a steady growth over years and one year we grew very fast — from $351 to $500 million in sales. That was a pleasant shock to me. I felt the pressure of the growth as we needed to stabilize and look at the systems, processes and people needed to support the growing business. And that was the focus in the last 18 months.

We added people on the executive team, worked on supply chain transformation, shared data for visibility between the dealer and Mahindra, sales systems and processes, digitization and more. We are on the way to get to the next level and there is no doubt Mahindra will continue to take the brand to the next level.

Today, Mahindra Finance USA does $1 billion plus in retail and wholesale finance business and Mahindra North America is on a path to $1 billion. Both companies are profitable and contribute to Mahindra group at large.

Addressing Ratings in the Equipment Dealers Assn.’s Dealer-Manufacturer Relations Survey

Our product, sales and marketing programs always ranked high in satisfaction. We are very creative on our programs, advertisements and are quite liberal in giving dealers co-op advertising money. Cleo Franklin (former vice president of marketing and strategic planning) and his team were very responsive and significantly enhanced Mahindra brand awareness, familiarity and brand value. The dealers always liked the boldness of the marketing messages from Mahindra.

They also like the availability of tractors because we have 5 distribution centers and could deliver tractors in no time. They could quickly stock tractors and get the configurations they needed. We were easy to work with regarding any changes. This delighted both our dealers and customers.

The areas where we were stressed included not having enough people when the growth happened and not having systems and processes upgraded to be responsive. Dealers felt that we were not responding fast enough and that our communication got delayed. So, they felt the pace, the growth was too fast, and they could not get the support they needed, and that's what my focus was in the last 18 months.

My opinion was clear, "We have to get new and additional people in some areas and new systems and processes and customize the systems to what we need. I didn’t want to use a cookie cutter solution, just applying some IT to the system, but to create a system which is easy to use, responsive and interactive for continuous improvements.

I think we did very well on after sales support, though the scores were marginally improving. I personally felt we had a good team, good leadership and good warranty (though dealers always feel we don't pay enough). We were always responsible to correct any quality issues. We made major investments in parts. We outsourced our parts distribution system and expanded a building by 100,000 square feet and invested $1.5 million in an automatic retrieval system. 40,000 parts were kept in that carousel. I think we had a 97% fill rate, which was marvelous. Hats off to Gene Medeiros (senior manager for parts operations) and his passionate team.

Making Needed Changes

There is always a catch to how much you can reinvest to grow the business and we had to invest as we grew. There are always constraints and I was working within those constraints to hire as many people as possible.

I also felt that we needed a strategic team to think about growing beyond where we were — at $600+ million in revenues. For instance, we needed a strategic team to develop a business plan for utility vehicles, to build a facility from the ground up in Houston or wherever we would like to put a facility. So, there were things of that nature.

Then the systems and processes needed to be put in place, whether it was the SalesForce.com implementation for the sales team or SAP supply chain transformation implementation for operations and the supply chain.

I realized the need for restructuring, putting more people in the right places with needed strategic and tactical leadership, but could have been more thoughtful on the selection and there is always a learning curve against time to deliver in fast paced organization like Mahindra.

I made mistakes as many do and I did learn couple of lessons that won’t be repeated. For instance, don’t stretch performance beyond one’s capacity, but rather make timely changes to avoid stagnation. I tried for a mixed profile and experienced staff to build curiosity and creativity, but some blends of experience and personality didn’t work and I should have been more careful to begin with. As aggressive and as determined I am, I was just pushing it to make it work and would have made some changes if I continued.

Other Changes that Needed to Happen

Clearly, the areas of operations, supply chain and logistics needed more leadership and resources. A few areas were prioritized for growth and transformation. Supply chain transformation was the need, with improving working capital and inventory management across 6 plants, real time visibility of data and efficiency of stock and productivity. This was critical to meet our growth aspirations particularly with higher horsepower product launches. Other areas of investments were IT and digital transformation, a move from back-end support to driving business in the front end including launch of Salesforce.com and digitization of products and services. Sales and marketing leadership and their connection to dealers are vital for continued growth and success.

While the blend of expected creativity and experience was clear, we could have improved on the alignment and deliveries as it needed continued nurturing. The people alignment and cross functional team engagement was the need of the hour on HR and could be improved significantly.

The Decision to Resign

The time had come, and it was a mutual decision for three reasons. One is that I wanted to move on and have success doing something similar for another company. Number two, I want someone else to have the opportunity to grow the business rather than me growing it, doing the same thing to grow the company to a billion or 2 billion over15 years of time. Sometimes you feel that people would come up with new ideas, new creativity and do something new and exciting for the organization.

Third is my life was Mahindra and I wanted to dedicate more time to my family. I lived my life for the brand and the business and I kept my business before my family and didn't have any work-life balance.

I have had a super run on brand, business and organization with Mahindra, taking it from unknown to known, a global player among the top 3 in North America in 0-100 PTO horsepower category; 10 times revenue growth including commencement of captive Mahindra Finance USA which is profitable and has a portfolio of over $1 billion portfolio, both contributing to Mahindra group at large; 5 times product portfolio growth including the launch of the utility vehicle business; and helping the Mahindra North America to become the pride of the Mahindra Auto and Farm Sector, achieving its first-ever recognition as 2017 Hall of Fame Recipient for Sustained Outstanding Performance.

It was time for me to hand over the baton and move on. Particularly, when you have 15-20 more years of service, you look at life differently. So, going forward, my focus is on growing another business exponentially, no doubt about it. And, I believe that anything I touch I would like to turn it to gold. Number two is to plan my personal investments and financial growth plans and the third being some work-life balance.”

Message for New Leadership

The biggest advice would be to listen to dealers. You have to be a part of the game plan. You must make them believe in you as a leader to begin with, and then believe in the company plans which will make them grow, which will make you grow. Don't look at your growth in isolation to the dealer growth. So, those are two big lessons. Number three is to submerge into the culture. Understand Americans and the culture. Understand the people who work for you. Failure is an option, fear is not. Let them fail; it's okay. Only then can you get new ideas, the new creativity so that you can differentiate yourself against major brands, instead of just following them.

You must stand different and you can only stand different when you give the empowerment and that platform to learn and fail and deliver and continue the passion. People work for money, I understand, but they must work for the company. So, I always say, "It should be like ‘Thank God it's Monday,’ rather than ‘Thank God it’s Friday.’”

Message for Dealers

To the dealers, I would say that change happens. Don't get too emotional with the leader. I am requesting them to support our new leader, and the employees to support the new leader. Mahindra is a good company. They've always worked with the dealers and the principle remains that Mahindra anywhere in the world works with the dealers.

I know it is an emotional departure as I have a very passionate, compassionate and trusted partnership with my dealer partners. I want them to be patient and continue the passion to advise the company of what needs to be done to take it to the next level continuing the power of 3 performance — brand, partnership and employees.

What Does the Future Hold?

I have several options, either to be in the same industry and grow another company big or go to a related equipment industry or do something very different altogether. I have four or five options in hand that are very interesting and more to follow.

I leave behind a proud legacy and delivered big across my career. At the end of the day, I have great friends, passionate followers, am blessed to be here, blessed to have an ever-loving family, and blessed to be associated with partners, suppliers and employees. I cannot ask for anything more and my sincerest thanks to all who have stood by me in great and challenging times.

There are three things I personally plan to do as next steps. One is, of course, maintaining my health. So, running every day regardless of where I am in the country or what day it is. Second is, I'm starting to learn meditation. I want to keep my mind calm. So, I think that will be good for me. The third is, I've promised my wife I'll take more responsibility to take care of her. I will give her more time than what I did in the past and promised her that I'll take some time off over the next 2 months as I've taken zero days since January. I'm going to take two months off and go out, relax, have fun, spend some time with our families and take care of our parents who are in India. So, all those things are important, and I think, the sheer necessity of family will help me achieve the long sought after work-life balance.

For now, I am looking forward to relaxing over holidays with friends and families while I line up my next career move starting early 2019. Stand by and watch.