You can never do anything in this world without courage. For it's the greatest quality of the mind. And to know what courage means in real life, meet Arun Jain, who founded a software company with mere Rs.10,000 in 1993. Today, he has cash reserves of over $20 million with 5,220 professionals working under him. He is now, a leading provider of comprehensive products and solution to numerous banking and financial institutions. Arun Jain, Chairman and CEO of Polaris Software Lab not only laid the foundation of a $180-million company, but also made it among top 10 global companies in the IT industry.

Holding a degree in electrical engineering from the Delhi College of Engineering, Jain is known to his friends and colleagues as a quick-witted, resourceful and diligent person. Arun's one of the greatest natural gifts is his ability to manage people and to take the best out of them. This is probably because he was brought up in a joint family. "I love having people around me. I grew up in a large family and that taught me how to work with people, get the best out of them.

It keeps me charged and running," Jain once said, who was the ninth of 10 children, in a middle class Delhi family. For a man who hadn't set foot outside of Delhi in the first 16 years of his life, coming to head a company with offices in 16 countries across the world has been a long and learning journey. Few know that when Jain is not country hopping, he's often immersed in anthropology books, delving into what makes people tick.

"People all over the world are the same. We say we live in an IT world, in an era of modern technology, but things have not changed. Fundamentally, people are not IT people or manufacturing people. People are people," he says. So, what is the vision he has for Polaris? "Polaris is a customer centric organisation and aspires to be a leading one-stop solutions provider in the BFSI (banking, financial services and insurance) supermarket," he says. And when Jain says this, he really means it, largely because he has proved what it takes to be a leader and a man of vision.

This year, Polaris is poised to cross Rs. 1000 crores in annual revenues and this is a significant milestone in the growth journey of the company. Looking back on the last 16 quarters, the merger with OrbiTech in 2002, setting up Optimus, the BPO subsidiary, launching Intellect Product Platforms, embarking on a new hybrid model of Consulting, Products and Outsourcing and expanding their global strategic account landscape to over 60 leading banks and financial institutions meant several exciting as well as anxious moments. But with Jain at the helm, they had nothing to worry about. For smooth success of any company, it is very important that the employees have full faith on their leader, which is exactly what the winning in team at Polaris had. For the second consecutive year, Polaris has also been rated Leader in the category of "Specialty Application Development" among the 2007 Global Services 100, recognized by Global Services magazine, a product of CMP-Cybermedia LLC. By the way, are you still surprised why India is a leader in software?