So when the 27-year-old director built a new office for his family companies -- Rathi Transpower and Polybond India, which make rubber components and water-pump parts -- executives got a meal allowance instead of a waitered room.

CNN: Recasting the Mind

The other amazing thing about this verdant and unique patch of India, rich in pepper, natural rubber, coconut, tea, coffee, cashews, and spices, is its bucolic backwater network of lagoons and canals.

FORBES: KERALA: Cruising The Waterways of India's Malabar Coast

So he made a dramatic career switch, breaking free of Microsoft's golden handcuffs in 2003 and three years later starting a company called Fair Trade Sports, which makes balls for soccer, basketball, football and rugby using rubber cultivated in pesticide-free plantations in India and Sri Lanka.

FORBES: Companies, People, Ideas