Abi Manoharan’s India comeback

Dani Wawryk
July 29, 2021

Abi Manohaan swore he’d buy a ticket home to India if he ever lost his job at the Saskatoon Star Phoenix. He missed his family, his hometown, and walks along Chennai's famed Marina Beach, a sprawling, sandy coast dotted with food stalls and shops.

Abi was the studious son of a quality controller and accountant, an only child nestled between two doting parents. In a way, he honored his mom's propensity for numbers and dad’s precision when he started studying engineering. He scored a spot as a trainee at an information technology firm after earning his degree, but something didn’t sit right. So Abi began considering different careers. Then, the 2008 recession forced his hand. The job he was training for at the firm never materialized, and he started working at a call center.

“A combination of things were happening that changed my path,” Abi said. “I was talking to people in North America a lot, and my cousin had recently moved to Toronto. I was frustrated with where I was and where I was in my life. Being an only child has its benefits and disadvantages. I knew back then I needed a break.”

A new path

So, in the depths of the worldwide recession and the coldest days of the Canadian winter, Abi picked up his life and moved to his cousin’s home in Toronto.

“That was the only place that my parents would be comfortable letting me go,” Abi said with a grin. “I'm pretty sure every Indian will say when they move abroad they go where their family settled because it's easier for them and less expensive.” 

He finished a post-graduate program in Toronto then headed west. Saskatchewan offered the fastest road to permanent residency at the time. So, while most of his classmates flocked to Regina, he veered north.

“If you’re fishing, you want to fish in a quieter spot. Me and a few friends were the only ones in our entire group of 70 or 80 people from Centennial College who went to Saskatoon,” he said. 

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“I decided to take the road less traveled.”

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He’d spend his first few years in Saskatoon in high gear. At one point, he worked three jobs. However, his work ethic and academic record eventually got him a foot in the door at Saskatoon’s daily newspaper.

“I moved to the StarPhoenix and got my permanent residency shortly after,” he said. “That was the turning point in my life. It was a professional setup, and I really felt they would take me to the next level.”

A career in digital marketing

Abi’s boss promoted him from digital coordinator to marketing strategist. Not one to lean back, he started his Masters in Business Administration at the University of Saskatchewan and continued to fill his evenings and weekends with work. 

“I had three jobs again: one full-time job, two part-time jobs, and an MBA class I was doing in half the program time,” he recalls.

Though he still daydreamed about moving home, circumstances had changed: He was married and wanted his wife to experience the things he had the chance to enjoy in his seasons as a Canadian resident.

That’s when he received a call from People Operations at Vendasta on reference from former StarPhoenix colleagues.

“She said, ‘Would you be interested in coming for an interview?’” he recalled. “She emailed me Wednesday evening, I came in for an interview Thursday morning, and I had an offer by Thursday afternoon. I gave my notice at the StarPhoenix Friday morning.”

Abi had finally found a job that matched his ambitions, and he grew quickly.

“I was getting called into [executive] meetings to talk about products I didn’t know or understand at that point and time, honestly, but it was lovely. I think that’s what pushed me to learn more. I was learning so much on the job and working long days because there was a lot of training needed for my team. I was promoted to team lead and then moved into a manager role. I grew and learned along with them in a sense. Things started to fall into place, and around that time, my son was born.”

A new chapter in India

It was at this point Abi reconsidered a return to Chennai once again. His mind was made up, and he started to plan.

“I planted a seed with my GM. We were doing outsourcing with some small teams, and some of it was frustrating for people. I pitched that I could do it from India,” he said. “It just blew up and became much bigger. I set up a meeting with [CEO Brendan King], and then [CFO Richard Cheung] came on board right away, and we set up an India team as a pilot.”

Abi started a new business entity to run the Indian arm of Vendasta, called A1 Marketing. The team had a dual purpose: To better serve partners in the eastern hemisphere and find qualified applicants for difficult-to-fill positions.

His choice to come to Canada was on the tail of a global recession, and his choice to leave came at the brink of a worldwide pandemic. He was working on setting up the business entity, creating processes and training, and renting office spaces—a lease they would soon be forced to abandon.

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“India went into a full lockdown. On my last day at the office before going home in March 2020, we had four employees. We expect to have 76 when all open positions are filled.”

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Growing fast

The India team expanded more than six-fold through the pandemic. It started with marketing services, like advertising, websites, and content. Then Abi began to reach out to Vendasta managers struggling to fill specialized positions. 

For every job Abi and his team were posting, they received 200 to 300 applicants eager to work.

“A big part of my role is to help impart the Vendasta culture. It’s different here. Junior employees will work until they finish a project without any questions, and I don’t want them to stay until 10 p.m. I’d make them stop,” he said. “When I reach out to them on their 30-, 60-, 90-day review, or talk to them and ask if there’s anything I can do to help, they wonder why I’m talking to them and wonder if they’d made a mistake because a superior is calling.”

As the Indian contingent learns from Vendasta’s Canadian tech culture roots, the Canadian team learns more about them. Some question the reason for outsourcing. Abi says it’s simple.

“What we are looking at is finding resources that we can not find in Canada,” he said. “We’re trying to hire data analysts and developers, and we pay a competitive wage.”

Abi continued to hire remote employees during a crushing wave of COVID-19 that brought India’s healthcare system to its knees.

“There were a lot of companies that were struggling because of COVID, so there were a lot of people available,” Abi said. “We could hire much faster. So, in that regard, I think it helped us to build a stronger team because of timing.”

Lessons on the way

Abi says he’s stronger because of the risks he took. He anticipates his teams will be back in an office in early 2022. Until then, he and wife Aarthi work side-by-side from their home in Chennai. She’s joined Vendasta, too, as an Overseas Fulfillment Manager.

The road less traveled—dotted with challenges, detours, and difficult decisions—finally led Abi home. 

“I had to punch above my weight. So that would be my advice for people: Punch above your weight,” he reflected. “I did things I wasn’t knowledgeable about, but I asked to learn and followed through.

“That, and stay calm.”