By Gurmukh Singh
TORONTO: Pradeep Sood, whose family originally comes from Kapurthala, is one of the few Indo-Canadians who bid goodbye to big fat corporate jobs to became successful businessmen.
He was a senior executive with a multinational in Toronto in 2001 when one fine morning he quit to start his own businesses.
“It was the best decision of my life,’’ says Sood who came to Canada in 1990 via East Africa after packing years of corporate experience.
“After finishing my CA, I was working with JK Synthetics in Delhi when they sent me to Kenya in 1981 as they were restructuring their operations in East Africa. I spent almost 10 years in Kenya and Tanzania before moving to Canada primarily for a good education for my twin sons Abhimanyu and Abhishek,’’ he says.
But luckily for him, his company from East Africa also had operations in North America. “I worked with them at their Pittsburgh facility. When within months they purchased a company in Toronto, I moved back to Toronto,’’ says Sood.
A driven man, he rose on the corporate ladder in Canada till the business bug bit him.
“I wish I had become a businessman much earlier in my life,’’ he says.
As a new businessman, Sood cashed in on India’s growing prowess in the IT sector by starting the transcription company XactScribe Inc.
“Outsourcing of medical transcriptions to India brought a lot of value to doctors in Canada in terms of time and cost savings by taking advantage of time difference between North America and India. The doctors would have their reports before them in the morning as they came to clinics. The work (done in India) was cost-effective for them,’‘ he says.
In 2005, he started another outsourcing venture called Outsource Process Inc, with the focus on business processes.
“Our team would audit a company and identify opportunities that could be managed more efficiently offshore – mostly labour-intensive work. This not only brought efficiency in our client’s business but also allowed them to focus on their core competencies,’‘ says Sood.
Sood also added a consultancy firm – Starling Corporation that supports small businesses in research, development and finance – to his growing business group.
His latest acquisition is a Heinz’s plant in Ontario which he and three other partners bought from the American food processing giant in 2014. “It is a 2.2 million square feet facility. We have raised its processing capacity from 80 million pounds of tomatoes to 300 million pounds.”
As his businesses thrived, Sood was roped in to serve as president of the Indo-Canada Chamber of Commerce (ICCC) from 2003 to 2005.
In fact, he went on to become the first Canadian to serve on business chambers and boards at city, provincial and federal levels.
“In 2009, I was elected chairman of the Ontario Chamber of Commerce and served till 2011. I also have the good fortune to sit on the boards of the Toronto Board of Trade, and the Canadian Chamber of Commerce,’’ says Pradeep Sood who has also made a name by organizing fund-raisers for hospitals and charitable causes.
“Not-for-profit work is part of my DNA. I believe in giving back to the community,’’ says the Indo-Canadian businessman who has organized golf tournaments to raise funds for the Royal Ontario Museum, the Textiles Museum of Canada, the Bridgepoint Health Foundation and Markham Stouffville Hospital.
Not surprisingly, he has been honoured with the Bob Marley Humanitarian Award and the Queen Elizabeth Diamond Jubilee Medal for community services.
What is the secret of his success?
“Hard work and focus. Building strong win-win relationships. Willingness to take risks,’’ he says.
Pradeep Sood says he has always lived by what his dad once told him, “If you kill your time, you kill your future.’’
READ NEXT: Bob Dhillon: The Sikh who became real estate mogul
