From Mannarakoil To CEO Of Global Scholar: Kal Raman’s Journey (Part 1)

Sramana: In 1996 when you finally left Walmart, the Internet was starting to emerge.

Kal Raman: Absolutely. I had a great mentor at Walmart, Mr. Doyle Graham, who is no more. He was like a father figure to me. He was the CIO of the international [division]; unfortunately, he passed when we was the same age as my father. I lost some enthusiasm when that happened. The CEO of Walmart Stores, Bill Field, left Walmart because he could not get the top job.

He went and joined Blockbuster. When he left, he recruited me indirectly and asked me to run international solutions for Blockbuster. I was there from 1996 to 1998. Everything that I have learned regarding ‘what to do’ I learned while I was at Walmart. At Blockbuster I learned everything regarding ‘what not to do.’ I was recruited to Amazon.com in 1998 which was in Seattle, but I decided that was not the place I wanted to live. I was living in Dallas, which had a large Indian community and hot weather. It was fantastic there and I did not want to leave.

Jeff Bezos and John Doerr were very persistent in recruiting me and were investing in a lot of different Internet companies. They used to call me every month. They had invested in Drugstore.com and had recruited Peter Neupert, who had been the vice president in charge of MSN at the time, to come and be the CEO of Drugstore.com. I agreed to do an interview with Peter because I had huge respect for the talent that Microsoft hired. My one-hour interview lasted for four hours. I received an offer the same day and decided to accept it so I became the CIO and COO of Drugstore.com, and the second year I was the CEO. During that time I took the company public and grew the company from zero to $250 million in two years. I became the CEO in April 2001, and then September 11th happened and the stock became a penny stock.

Sramana: What did you do with that?

Kal Raman: I always had a different perspective. In 1989 when I graduated I did not have money. My perspective was very different. I had an air conditioned house, a car, and a great family. My focus was to just build value for the long term by focusing on the customer experience. I wanted to have a good selection in stock and deliver it when we promised we would. Customers will trust you and come back if you do that. I focused on taking care of the fundamentals and I kept telling my team that if we did that then the stock price would take care of itself. By the time, I left the stock had returned to $9 from its low point of 45 cents.

This segment is part 1 in the series : From Mannarakoil To CEO Of Global Scholar: Kal Raman's Journey
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