You may easily spot a winner. But what's tough to find is a creator of a winning team, which weaves success with threads of hard work and strategy. This is what a leader speaks-"I believe in creating winning teams. One has to break away from established norms and gear up to challenge mediocrity. A leader should be a never-ending source of energy." Here's Alan Sedghi, President & CEO, SAP India. And he has traveled a long way from the days he earned his masters in Science and Electrical Engineering from the University of Kansas.

He has with him more than 20 years of utilities industry and information technology experience. He has held various senior management positions where he was responsible for developing new business in Asia Pacific. He was the CIO of a large utility company, prior to joining Andersen Consulting in 1993. At Andersen Consulting, he was responsible for building the utilities industry consulting practice within the ASEAN region. He was also the project leader in several major business integration programmes of which most included the implementation of SAP's integrated intra and inter-enterprise business solutions.

Sedghi joined SAP Asia in 1998 as Director for the services industries business unit where he built and grew the business and helped to secure deals with leading organizations such as Provincial Electricity Authority Thailand. He was also instrumental in initiating the deal with Tenaga Nasional Berhad, Malaysia. Climbing the ladder of success in great strides, he became MD in 2002 and was appointed President and CEO of SAP India and SAP Thailand in 2002. Under his keen leadership, both India and Thailand tripled their software license revenue and became key contributors to revenue growth in Asia Pacific. He is also responsible for all operational matters of SAP in India as well as Thailand.

While announcing his appointment as head of SAP's south Asian operations, Hans-Pieter Klaey, President and CEO of SAP, Apac, said, "Over the last six years, Alan has been instrumental in driving growth and development in India, one of our key growth countries in the region. With his understanding of the regional and local business environment, deep sector knowledge and customer focus, I am confident that Alan will continue to deliver great value to our customer and partner base across South Asia, as well as strengthen SAP's leadership position in the software industry."

Sedghi believes in leading by example and SAP has a great worker in him. Nobody can fail in life if he or she lives by Sedghi's motto in life: "The leader has to set the tone to ensure excellence, promote independent thinking in his people, encourage new ideas, show willingness to take calculated risks and entice loyalty among his subordinates. We are what we repeatedly do, unimpeded focus on customers and excellence in execution. This then becomes not an act, but a habit."