He has been surrounded by educators all his life; his grandfather, father and most of his uncles were teachers by profession. That could have intimidated Tapash Sengupta and influenced his choice of career. But no. Even though Sengupta is not a teacher, he considers his profession just as noble and challenging.

Sengupta is into recruiting and management consultancy. He started a firm called Consindia HR Services, which later became CHR Global (HR Services). His firm has made a difference to millions of people and their families, he says. In the past two-and-a-half decades, CHR Global has placed close to 2,50,000 people. And he wouldn’t want to trade his job for anything else.

Sengupta obtained a postgraduate diploma in mathematical economics from Jadavpur University, securing second rank in the university. He repeated the feat by coming second in the management course from Indian Institute of Science, Bangalore. A bright student all through, he always believed in living up to the highest expectations.

A small incident in his childhood taught him a lesson that has served him well all his life. “Many years ago, my physics teacher was waiting at a tram stop with three-four large books. He was unable to manage them. So I offered to carry some of the books. He refused. When I insisted and offered to help again, he told me: ‘Always remember that in a mother’s lap, a child does not have any weight’.”

Sengupta has treated his own business like that — with a lot of care and commitment. He has made sacrifices galore to take his company to its present position.

Before setting up shop with CHR Global in 1996, Sengupta spent 15 years working in management consulting and recruitment companies.

Initially, it was with a management consulting firm and subsequently, a recruitment firm. This gave him much-needed exposure to the business he planned to start.

An interesting thing about his company is the name. He’s probably the only one to openly acknowledge that he was inspired by another company and borrowed the name. “I took the name from an existing company — Consindia — which was started by eminent professionals of those days.” His website proclaims: “Consindia HR Services was founded in 1980 by a team of senior professionals.” Among them were Ranjan Banerjee and Vasant Rajadhyaksha of Hindustan Lever and Union industry secretary Mantosh Sondhi.

According to Sengupta, he wanted to signal that his company too had the same high ethical standards. “I wanted to continue the good work,” he says.

The borrowed plumage must have helped. But there were other issues. Funds were a major problem. Says Sengupta: “I had to mortgage my small flat in Andheri with the bank.”

However, all the hard work seems to have paid off. CHR Global now boasts of clients like the Aditya Birla Group, Blue Star, Ballarpur, Citi Financial, Bharti, BPL Telecom, Convergys, GE, ICICI, Globsyn Technologies, Raymond, Wipro, the Tata group, Ranbaxy, Timex, Pillsbury, Maruti Suzuki, Eicher, Yamaha, HCL, Motorola and HDFC.

The success that this company has achieved is commendable and can be attributed to the sound business policies followed by Sengupta. Says he: “We do not poach people from our clients. Also, we don’t tom-tom ourselves, but believe in the infinite potential of every human being. I know that it is easier to achieve results by adopting shortcuts through what is called ‘managing the environment’. We resisted that.” It probably took a longer time to reach the top. But it has been worth it. Sengupta and his firm have discovered many gems of the corporate world.

So what does Sengupta do when not managing people? “I am a Hindustani classical singer and have performed in India, the US and Europe. This is the only activity I indulge in, not after work but before work. So my day begins quite early at 4.30 am,” he says.

Give him his due. Sengupta makes music as beautifully as he discovers the music in others.

Based on a conversation with Shibani Chattopadhyay in Calcutta