Indians can build the next WhatsApp, says business head Neeraj Arora

Indians have it in their DNA to build the next WhatsApp for the world, a top company official said here Tuesday. “While Indians, thanks to their propensity for hard work and great ideas, have this DNA in them naturally, what is missing is the ecosystem to leverage it,” said Neeraj Arora, vice president for business development at WhatsApp, the world’s most successful mobile messenger service. Arora, an alumnus of the Indian School of Business (ISB), was interacting with his juniors and peers at the ISB campus here Tuesday. Recounting his experience at ISB as a student of the class of 2006, he said ISB was a great place to experience the ecosystem at home. The biggest thing for him was the world class faculty at ISB and the diverse quality of the class — both provided him a global perspective with a mix of emerging markets approach. Talking about his M&A negotiation experience at Google and at WhatsApp, Arora said he could implement what he had picked up at ISB. “At Google, I was able to use what I learnt in the Negotiation Analysis course at ISB”, he added. Arora played a key role in closing the $19 billion acquisition of WhatsApp by Facebook earlier this year. After finishing the Postgraduate Programme in Management (PGP) at the ISB, he worked at IndiaTimes and Google before joining WhatsApp in 2011. IANS