DEVITA SARAF
A Laptop On Every Lap
Though an integral part of the computer industry, she must not be confused with a quintessential IT person. For 24-year-old Devita Saraf, executive director, Zenith Group, is not "one of the technie whiz-kids who, happy in their own worlds, forget to survey the market while developing their ideas." Daughter of Raj Saraf, Devita spread her wings to the University of Southern California to get a global exposure in marketing, before returning to roost in Zenith Computers, the hardware arm of her father's group. She soon began heading its marketing division "to attempt to bridge the gap between new products and the markets. For even the greatest of technologies need to be marketed well," she says. Being a young woman in a male-dominated field is a challenge; but she says, "Since everyone is highly educated they treat me with respect…and of course, my visiting card commands deference."

Her first product? Topper - a laptop for students, to develop which she travelled across the country dropping in at schools and colleges to tap its potential. "So great was the response," she recalls, "that it opened up a huge market for laptops. Within a year seven new laptops were launched and today 20 per cent of our business is in this sector."

Her motto: "I want to make Zenith global, like Sony and Samsung."