Ajay Harinath Singh Greatest Brand Leader 2018-2019

Sanjay Shah
Making His Own Way to
Sky-high Success
Great leaders ‘take the road less travelled’ and carve out their own unique path to success by employing
novel concepts and innovative strategies. One such leader is Sanjay Shah, who is not only an accomplished
businessman but is also a licensed private pilot who has given wings to the dreams of many students by
donating $5Million to his alma mater, Lehigh University
The Founder, CEO and Chief Architect
of enterprise software company
Vistex, Sanjay Shah is a global
businessman who has bootstrapped the
company from its conception to its current
role as a vital partner to worldwide
titans like Apple, Walmart, 3M, Turner,
Dell and Bayer. Under his leadership,
Vistex provides software and services to
help businesses take their products and
services to the marketplace with state-ofthe-art,
go-to-market programs and helps
firms increase revenue and reduce costs
with their business partners by managing
trade, channel and vendor programs,
pricing, performance incentives and rights
and royalties.
The Saga of Success
An Indian immigrant, Shah left Mumbai,
India, to attend Lehigh University’s business
school, earning his MBA at the young age
of 21. As he puts it, “My story began in
Mumbai. I lived in a close-knit community
with my immediate and extended family,
all living within a one-mile radius. I left
Mumbai because I was searching for more.
I wanted to go to a business school, and
the U.S. was the logical choice.”
Earlier in his career, he held
positions at high-profile companies like
PricewaterhouseCoopers and General
Motors before moving to Germany to work
for software giant SAP. He elaborates,
“After attending Lehigh University’s
business school and earning my MBA in
finance in 1989 at the age of 21, I took an
accounting job at PricewaterhouseCoopers
as an auditor. I was there for 6 months
before deciding that it wasn’t the right
path for me.” Sharing his experiences at
General Motors, he says, “I wanted to get
some operational experience in supply
chain; however, my background and degree
in finance weren’t quite the areas potential
employers had in mind. I eventually found
my way to General Motors and moved to
Canada for that role. During my 2.5 years
there, I learned how things were built
on the shop floor, how products are put
together, and the logistics and distribution
networks of large companies.”
The turning point in his career was his
association with SAP, which eventually
played a significant role in shaping his
career as an entrepreneur. He delineates,
“I first came to SAP as they were
expanding into North America because
I was initially intrigued by their software
work. I was with SAP for 6 years and called
myself a company loyalist. Since I was so
passionate about SAP, I presented a few
ideas to the development management
team as a way to enhance the functionality
“Our year-after-year revenue growth
can be attributed to the fact that we
deliver value to customers. We have
been successful in forging into new
industries, upselling our current clients
and expanding our customer footprint”
of their products. Although SAP liked the
ideas, they said I had to develop them in
Germany with their R&D team, and since
I wanted to move my family back to the
U.S., I decided to develop this product on
my own. SAP agreed to support me by
bringing it to market. I would like to say I
became an ‘entrepreneur by accident,’ as
it was never my intention to leave SAP.”
Driven by the spirit of innovation,
Shah left SAP to develop an entirely new
category of software, known as Go-to-
Market programs. He says, “My day job
became developing this software while
also consulting on behalf of SAP. I had
become a marketable resource to SAP by
initiating and spearheading a program to
support troubled customers.” Thus, the
seeds of Vistex were sown in the year
1999. As he himself puts it, “My first year
was 1999 and I was focused on writing
software that met the needs of business
functions not adequately addressed in
ERP systems. I made my first hires in 2000
to help me engineer the software, and
I’m proud to still have those employees
working at Vistex. In 2001, we landed our
first customer and also began expanding.”
Talking about his journey as an
entrepreneur, Shah asserts, “Since our
early days, we have continued to grow
and create a business model monetized by
licensing, software, annual maintenance
and providing professional services to
implement software. We now work with
the biggest names in the business, such
as Apple, Walmart, 3M, Turner, Dell and
Bayer. We are a worldwide operation
with 21 offices, 1,600+ employees and
nearly $250 million in revenue in 2018, all
without external funding.”
He declares with pride, “Our year-afteryear
revenue growth can be attributed to
the fact that we deliver value to customers.
We have been successful in forging into
new industries, upselling our current
clients and expanding our customer
footprint.” He further elaborates, “Earlier
this year, Vistex achieved a new growth
milestone – the first equity capital
raise in our company’s history. This
set a new precedent for an enterprise
software company to grow to a size and
scale like Vistex without any external
capital, and was an accomplishment I’m
quite proud of. This capital investment
supports a variety of company priorities
and aggressive growth plans, including
talent acquisition in sales, marketing and
software engineering roles, and will help
us grow globally.”
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