C S K Siddharth, son of C S K Kashyap of Sanmar Shipping became the International Craft Champion 2007 at the grand finale of the International Art Competition held in Mumbai by Pidilite. Siddharth made a model of a future car for the zonal competition. At the gala finals for the theme, ‘A Changing Village in India’, he modelled a village replete with a hydro-power plant, a man made lake and a waste utilisation bio-gas plant making the village self sufficient. This was an on-the-spot competition with participation from 10,000 schools and 20 lakh students globally.
C S K Siddharth, son of C S K Kashyap receiving the prize.
If you are the youngest CEO in the country, all of 17 years of age what would you do? Well, go to
school, submit projects, cram for exams, manage client relations and operational issues for his own firm, manage employees twice his age, dream up new products and services, play an occasional game of cricket...
Ashwin, is a student of Sri Sankara Vidhyashramam, Tiruvanmiyur, Chennai and the young CEO of a search engine optimisation firm, Organic Apex.
From the time he wakes up at 5.00 am and hangs up his boots for the day at 11.00 pm, it is a
chain of activities where he alternatively lives his double role. A typical day in his life unfolds like this –
5:00 - 6:00 am - Attending to queries from Australasian and far east partners.
6:00 - 7:00 am - Covering a bit of school work
7:00 - 8:00 am - Getting ready for school
8:00 am - 4:00 pm - In school
4:00 - 4:30 pm - Freshen up after school
4:30 - 5:30 pm - In the office attending day-to-day planning
5:30 - 8:00 pm - Covering school work/ tuitions
8:00 - 9:00 pm - Dinner and a short break
9:00 - 11:00+ - Official working time. (Depends on the work load)
As all young teens of the tech era, Ashwin was into the gaming arena on the internet when he came up with the idea of a gaming portal. With some trials and errors he struck upon the search engine optimisation model and internet marketing and branding. So, when it is not school, friends and studies, it is eyeballs, clicks, PPC and all the other wonders of marketing in the new media. Before you could say, ho hum, one more whiz kid of the internet era, he is already on to bigger things like interactive education, developing social media applications, etc. – essentially ensuring that his customers spread across the US, UK, Germany,
Belgium, Greece and Romania get optimum eyeballs and click-throughs, branding and positioning them in the seamless online community. He employs 10 people in Chennai and has marketing consultants spread across 20 countries. What is his management style? He doesn’t play the little big boss in the office but is more the approachable kid in the office. His model, he says, is five years ahead of time in India and his solutions revolve around creativity. So he ensures open communication, gives his employees first hand information, let them see things for themselves and understand the target market. At school, his CEO hat is no big deal as he seldom talks about it. His winning formula is skill, luck and patience, in that order.
Sri Sankara Vidyashramam Matriculation Higher Secondary School’s Interact Club (Chennai) won the Best Interact Award for the year 2006-07. The award was presented on 6 November 2007 by the Rotary Club of Madras Dist. 3230. The Club’s major projects like ‘Annadhanam’, ‘Paropakaram’, blood donation camps, etc., have benefited society.