Cultural Transformations

Chapter 15NV “Tiger” TyagarajanPresident and CEO, Genpact

The best predictor of your future is not past performance; it is the combination of your past, your willingness to accept your gifts and deficiencies, your willingness to commit to a plan in which you leverage your gifts and address your deficiencies, your willingness to execute your plan, your willingness to be vigilant to the results you achieve, and most importantly your willingness to course correct continuously.

—John Mattone

NV “TIGER” TYAGARAJAN GREW UP in the culturally diverse city of Bombay, India, where more citizens were from “somewhere else” than in any other Indian city. From his early days in school to his college life, this would become important as it informed his life in a profound way. A small family of five, the Tyagarajans were close knit and committed to education.

Luckily, a good education was attainable at only one dollar a month. And not only was Bombay full with people of all nationalities, but it was rich with various religions as well, a true metropolitan city. In classes of up to 60 students in the local Catholic school, sometimes 10 languages were spoken. There were Catholic students, Muslim students, Hindu students, and Jewish students, all speaking English. Tiger didn't know it at the time, but it was a tiny microcosm of his future life in New York City.

After these formative educational years, Tiger did his undergraduate studies at the Indian Institute of Technology in Bombay, studying ...