Scaling up for Global Excellence - 2

Contd. from previous post:

Rajiv Bajaj, MD, Bajaj Auto, was the curiousity factor in the group as he usually does not attend such sessions. He turned-up at 8AM much before everyone else. He was wearing his factory uniform (at the Taj Palace Hotel!). When someone asked, he said, "I don't have a suit!".

When his turn came to present, he said, "'I shall not give any business projections or discuss management principles. I will talk about how we transformed our company by strengthening the firm from inside".

His presentation was titled "Inside Out" and he started with the quote:

Those who look OUTSIDE dream,
Those who look INSIDE awaken.
~Carl Jung

He went on to share how Professor S Yamaguchi guided him and his firm in the early 1990s. An interesting quote from the professor was:

Business starts when the customer say NO!

Professor S Yamaguchi is a TPM (Total Productive Maintenance) expert.

To deal with Bajaj Auto's "problems" at that point of time, they simply followed Yamaguchi's advice of "Do! Do! Do!" and from 1990-1995 they "Did what was Doable".

From 1995 onwards they did "What was UNEXPECTED" and unleashed the "Pulsar" by the turn of the century!

To those who are new to TPM, it has some similarities with Total Quality Management (TQM) and both share tools like empowerment, benchmarking and documentation.

TPM programs are aimed at maximizing production effectiveness by engaging people at all organizational levels and functions and simultaneously increasing employee morale and job satisfaction.

Equipment effectiveness is maximized by minimising unplanned stoppages. Maintenance is carried out to a pre-planned schedule, rather than waiting for the equipment to break down.

It targets zero downtime of machinery/equipment, zero defects and zero accidents by the pro-active identification of potential problems.

Scaling up for Global Excellence - 1

Theme: Scaling up for Global Excellence

Location: September 8, 2006,Taj Palace Hotel, Sardar Patel Marg, New Delhi

Presentations: By Sunil Bharti Mittal (Group MD, Bharti Enterprises), Rajiv Bajaj (MD, Bajaj Auto) and Anant Talaulicar (MD, Tata Cummins and CMD, Cummins India Ltd.).

Event: 46th Annual Session of the ACMA (Automotive Component Manufacturers Association of India)

Kick-Off: A K Taneja, President, ACMA kicked-off (there was no football, however) the proceedings with some "India Shining" statistics (like 8% growth, demographic profile of 50%+ below 25 years of age, 300,000+ engineers being churned out, etc) and saw huge potential for growth in the Automotive industry - we have only about 7 passenger vehicles per THOUSAND persons, one of the LOWEST in the world, even lower than Thailand and Pakistan.

Due to severe cost pressure, the global OEMs and large tier 1 players in USA, Europe, etc are increasingly looking at emerging economies such as Brazil, East Europe, ASEAN, China and India for sourcing of cost competitive components. India is one of the most attractive destinations and the industry is looking at a growth rate of 20-30% per year.

So, to reach about USD 40-50 billion by 2015, Automotive Component Manufacturers in India face the challenges of scaling up. What are some of the challenges?

1. The challenge of attracting and retaining talent. Skilled manpower is the OXYGEN of this industry and Talent Transformation is the goal!

2. The challenge of managing Partnerships and Alliances. Collaboration! Collaboration! Collaboration!

3. The challenge of Implementation. Relentless flawless execution! Systems, Procedures, and Internal Processes!

4. The challenge of Free Trade Agreements. Trade/Compete with China!

So, what "mantras" did señors Sunil Bharti Mittal , Rajiv Bajaj and Anant Talaulicar throw back at the Automotive Component Manufacturers? Watch the space.