As a boy, one summer, Gopichand Katragadda learnt to make soap from his English teacher, and sold them to his friends. The act of making and selling soaps made him believe that what he created had value. Since then, the new chief technology officer of Tata Sons has proved his worth several times over - he has more than 30 publications and five patents to his credit and is a consultant, professor and author. But, as he confesses, he is still the boy who looks for constant validation. No surprises then, his appointment as CTO of Tata Sons must have come to him as a big confirmation of his eminence in the technology world. This is the first time that the salt-to- automobile conglomerate has created the post of a group chief technology officer. As the head of the group's technology, Katragadda will be responsible for all its business at the group level and share his expertise in managing R&D operations. He would also act as an evangelist for innovation acro...