According to KissFlow Inc CEO Suresh Sambandam, the five employees have been with him since the company was founded and have stayed with him throughout its journey.

Loyalty is always rewarded. Sometimes it even brings a high-end BMW automobile. This is what five workers of a city-based software corporation discovered after assisting their CEO in ‘digging gold’ and surviving the covid-19 storm that threatened the firm’s very survival.

Kissflow Inc, a global software-as-a-service firm, presented five BMW vehicles, each worth Rs one crore, to its top management executives on Friday to honour their devotion and commitment to the company.

The ceremony was kept under wraps since three of the five beneficiaries of the automobiles were only notified hours before the event that they would be the happy owners of a costly luxury brand.

According to Kissflow Inc CEO Suresh Sambandam, the five have been with him from the company’s beginning and have been with him throughout the journey.

Sambandam stated that several of the recipients of the automobiles were from low-income families and had overcome numerous obstacles before joining his firm. The firm too faced many hurdles on its journey and during the Covid-19 pandemic, some of the investors even raised doubts if the company would run successfully.

“There were difficult times. Even during the pandemic, the investors were not sure whether this company will sustain and build a future. Today we are very happy that we have paid back the investors and now it has become a fully owned privately held company,” he said.

“The cars are for these five who were with me when I dug 100 feet for gold (setting up Kissflow while others left the organization midway),” Sambandam said.

To a query on what the other employees would receive, Sambandam, owner of a BMW 6 Series vehicle said, “this is an inspiration to them. We want to motivate them (to perform much better). We take care of our employees much better”.

“For example, there is no sick leave or casual leave here unlike other companies. It is just one left for them. If they do not want to come and work, they can work from home. There is no attendance system like biometric system and all…we know our employees”, he said.

Echoing similar views, Vivek Madurai, one of the beneficiaries of Sambandam’s largesse, said, “We take care of our team members. They are motivated to perform much better in whatever way they prefer”.

Because Friday afternoon was the last working day of the week, few people were aware of the occasion, and various doubts arose in the minds of those present at the ceremony, including concerning the prospective infusion of finances or any purchase.

To the excitement of the assembled personnel, the five BMW 530d automobiles rolled in one by one and were lined up parallelly together with the individual families of the five members.

The Navy Blue 5 Series vehicles, each worth Rs 1 crore, were presented to the recipients on Friday at an event commemorating the company’s tenth anniversary.

Some of the beneficiaries were only notified about the riches that awaited them in the afternoon, and they referred to it as a ‘nice surprise,’ since some assumed it was merely an outing with the bosses. Chief product officer Dinesh Varadharajan, director (product management) Kausikram Krishnasayee, director Vivek Madurai, director Adhi Ramanathan, and vice-president Prasanna Rajendran were the receivers of the automobiles.