Nokia, India boss can sing any Beatles song
By Vinod  Gupta

We at techgoss have written about how one of the KPMG tech bosses loves Hritik Roshan and Bollywood. Now, read on about another Indian boss.  If you were asked what could be the favorite music and band of Nokia India boss D Shivakumar, chances are you would say Paul Van Dyke or Ministry of Sound. But the guy responsible for the mobile phones business in India for Nokia is an avid Beatles devotee. 

His co-workers have an impression of a no-nonsense boss. “Ask me any lyrics of any of their song from any album and I can sing the whole song,” he says.

A member of the 1982 IIT Madras alumnus, D Shivakumar was appointed as Vice-President and Country General Manager for Customer and Market operations of Nokia India.  He never loses out a chance to visit the Beatles museum in Liverpool. “I will be going to watch the British Open Golf this year and like a pilgrim will pay my homage to the Beatles shrine. I do listen to other artists like Jethro Tull, Pink Floyd, Indian classical music and others, but nobody fascinates me as much as the Beatles.”

Ask him the reason for the same and he says that the most common word in all their songs was ‘you’. It shows the extent to which they wrote and sang for their audience and not write songs to please their own egos. 

Prior to joining Nokia, Shivakumar was the Senior VP and Executive Director on the Philips India board and as Vice President for the Consumer Electronics Division. Prior to Philips, he spent 15 years with Hindustan Lever Limited.