Asia PR News

MINNEAPOLIS, April 26 /PRNewswire-AsiaNet/ –

Raghu Sharma, founder of Multi-Tech Systems died April 17th after a long
illness at his home in St. Paul, Minnesota. He was 69.

A native of New Delhi, India, Sharma came to the Twin Cities on a
University of Minnesota scholarship and stayed to build a successful high tech
company.

His story is a classic immigrant success story. The son of a government
worker, Sharma received a bachelors degree in physics from Delhi University
in 1957. He then earned a second bachelors degree and a masters degree in
electrical engineering from the prestigious India Institute of Science in
Bangalore. While working as a Senior Science Fellow at the National Physical
Laboratory on microwave technology, he decided to seek a PhD and, although
accepted by both Harvard and MIT, he chose to attend the University of
Minnesota. In 1963 he came to Minneapolis with the dream of building his own
company.

Sharma completed his course work in 1969. A year earlier, the Supreme
Court had made a landmark decision allowing non AT&T equipment to be used on
telephone lines. Although Sharma knew almost nothing about modems, he knew
about circuitry and he knew a market opportunity when he saw one. In 1970, he
took $300 from his savings account, bought some sophisticated amplifier chips
and headed for the University laboratory where he fashioned the mold for an
acoustic coupler that would be the forerunner of Multi Tech’s industry leading
modem line. While other couplers were being manufactured at the time, few
could isolate computer signals from background noise as well as Sharma’s.

In 1971, housed in a basement of Snyder’s drug store in Minneapolis,
Sharma sold his first acoustic coupler and Multi-Tech Systems was launched.
He began designing and manufacturing modems despite the fact that he had
little firsthand knowledge of them. By 1978, sales reached over a million
dollars.

Sharma, a fiscal conservative, never took advantage of small business
administration loans nor minority loan programs and took great care to protect
his company from bureaucracy. He believed one of the keys to keeping
debt down and earnings up without public cash was to keep costs down and that
started with product design. He did much of the design work himself and
minimized the number of components that went into a product without
sacrificing performance. He also subcontracted product assembly out to fellow
immigrants, further keeping costs down and helping many workers establish
their own businesses.

Sharma believed that good business comes from rewarding his employees.
Profit sharing and year-end bonuses typically account for 30% of pretax
profits. "Its good business and its only fair that others are treated well.
From what I have seen, companies that treat their employees shabbily don’t
last very long," said Sharma. There are also once a month parties when the
company sends out for pizza, Chinese food or deli sandwiches and invites its
243 employees and their families. The practice started in the late 1970s when
Sharma organized a party every time the company set a monthly sales record.
Soon the records were commonplace but the parties continued. As Sharma said:
"It promotes good will."

Sharma also employed workers from Rise Inc., a not-for-profit agency that
seeks training and employment opportunities for mentally and physically
handicapped individuals. Sharma gave a simple reason for hiring them, "Rise
asked for help so we helped them, they do an excellent job." Rise employees
and their families are included in the monthly parties and the annual bonus
pool.

Multi-Tech Systems is the winner of the 1992 Governors International Trade
Award and INC. magazine’s 2002 Most Innovative Company Award, and holds 57
patents and numerous awards for excellence in the field of communication and
technology.

Sharma is survived by Patricia, his wife of 26 years, his 4 children,
Janel, Adrienne, Matthew, Jennifer and 2 grandchildren.

In lieu of flowers, the family requests donations be made to the Raghu
Sharma Scholarship Fund, a national Award competition to celebrate the
brilliance of young minds. Checks to the Fund can be sent to: The Raghu
Sharma Scholarship Fund, 855 Village Center Drive, Box #384, North Oaks, MN
55127, USA.

SOURCE Multi-Tech Systems

CONTACT: Carol Montour of Multi-Tech Systems, Inc.,
+1-763-785-3500,
cmontour@multitech.com

Web site: http://www.multitech.com