My journey can be divided into 4 phases of approximately 8 -9 years each:-
The first phase where I was finding my footing; from being a Graduate Engineer Trainee (GET) on the shop-floor of an Automotive giant (Hindustan Motors) of those times (the late 80s) to finally settling into a career in Industrial Sales and Marketing (at Carborundum Universal – a Murugappa Group Company) as a Sales Executive.
The second Phase involved moving up the hierarchical ladder into Managerial grade during which I also added value to my educational qualifications with an MBA. During this phase, I rose up the ranks as Assistant Manager (with ITW Signode – a US-based MNC) through to National Sales Manager (at TI Diamond Chain – a Murugappa Group Company).
By the third Phase of my journey, I had completed 20 years of my career and I wanted to shift lines from Sales to either Exports or Purchase. As an opportunity to move out of India and shift base to the Gulf (Oman Trading Establishment, Muscat, Oman – a family run enterprise run by the rich Sheikhs) came up I grabbed at it as the role was of Supply Chain Management where I was to head a team that would manage imports of cars and feed them to the Sales Team who would then retail it to the end-customer. Ten years in this phase gave me exposure to Imports, Exports and managing OEMs from diverse cultural backgrounds (Korea – Hyundai; Japan – Subaru and Isuzu, USA – Cadillac and Chevrolet, and China – Chery).
Finally, having reached my 50s, I returned back to India and entered the fourth phase of my career in which I moved up into handling and heading the entire business as a Business Head/ CEO (VST Group – a closely held family run business group).
During this long journey of 35 years, I worked in diverse ownership and management Corporates – those that had a long history of industrial investments in India (the Murugappa Group), a US-based MNC (ITW Signode) and finally to family-owned and run organisations (Oman Trading Establishment and VST Group). Owing to these varied exposures I learnt how different owners approached and ran their enterprises in very different ways but the ultimate goal was always the same – profits!
At the various hierarchical levels – from Trainee to Junior Executive to General Manager to CEO – I realized that what was critical for one’s success in Corporate life is “relationships”. To be truly successful, you must have good equations with your peers, subordinates and, most importantly, with your boss/superiors. I have witnessed, and also personally experienced, career opportunities on the one hand coming like waves and carrying me up on the fast track because of my good bonding with the right people at the right time and also on the other hand losing out on growth avenues by bad networking!
35 years is a long journey and in my career, I have made it through 4 cycles of business recession; the Lehman Brothers crash, the Arab Spring, Tsunami, the Demonetisation exercise, the introduction of GST and the 3 phases of COVID! As a CEO, the biggest challenges were to re-orient the business outlook following the introduction of Demonetisation and GST in the Indian economy and the disruption of the businesses because of the impact of COVID on manpower availability and the complete stoppage of business Revenues for 2-3 months at a stretch. However, the silver lining was that these experiences enriched my knowledge and strengthened my ability to “manage” crises and steer the business successfully while navigating through these tough times.
These learnings brought in a lot of practicality and pragmatism to my implementation of Corporate Social Responsibility and Corporate Governance in my roles as a CEO which will hold me in good stead as I start the next phase of my journey as an Independent Director.
Q2. You’ve worked across various industries, cultures, and regions. How has your experience leading cross-cultural teams in diverse environments influenced your leadership style and decision-making approach?
Within India, I have worked in all the 4 geographic regions of the country, having lived in Delhi, Mumbai, Chennai, Coimbatore, Kolkata, Jamshedpur and Bengaluru. My stint in the Gulf gave me exposure to the Middle-East and North African way of doing work, living and cultures besides enabling me to interact with people from Korea, Japan, Europe and China. This also aided my interest in learning new languages and enjoying the food of different parts of the world!
While each country/region and its people exhibit very rich and diverse cultures, there were a few things that were common across the world. These were mainly related to mutual trust, respect for knowledge, need for friendship and bonding, and the feeling of one world, one humankind.
In India, specifically, knowing the languages (I can speak Bengali, Hindi, Tamil and Kannada besides my mother tongue, Malayalam) helped me break the ice with many of my colleagues, peers, customers, clients, vendors and suppliers making it that much easier and delightful for me to carry out my job. This was particularly true as I rose up the ranks to become General Manager and then CEO where understanding the nuances of inter-personal issues and relationships was very important.
Personally experiencing these diverse cultures and environments helped me broaden my perspective of understanding human behavior and needs, which in turn came handy at the different points of interaction – whether it was negotiations on pricing discussion on performance appraisal or brainstorming on business growth – with the people. An important learning for me was that each individual was unique and treating people with respect and courtesy is a universal relationship sweetener, irrespective of the region, culture or social norm that that individual belongs to.
Q3. As an author of the book “Runs in the Family; Management Lessons from Home,” could you elaborate on some key lessons from your personal life that have significantly impacted your professional career and leadership philosophy?
As I had detailed in my book, the way my family members reacted or responded to specific issues or events in their lives, as observed by me, became my guiding principles not only in personal but also in my professional life.
Simple things like being a “good listener” to “being always prepared” to being a “multi-tasker”, have been lessons that have got so ingrained into my psyche that they have become a part of my persona.
One of the biggest learnings that completely changed my outlook towards my work, especially as a leader of men, was what I learnt from my daughter, which is to “just chill” and not get worked up or stressed out when deadlines are not met or targets not achieved. This pragmatic approach to one’s work is the new-generation’s lingo for what we old-timers know as practicing a “detached attachment” to the material things in life! After years of living a stressful life as a result of the harsh Corporate expectations, when I started putting this learning into my daily chores it brought a great sense of relief and a lifting of a huge burden from my shoulders. I fully advocate that everybody should follow this to lead a happier life – professional and personal!
I have also learnt a lot from my pet puppy! The free and open emotions that she displays when she is happy or sad is a lesson that one should not hide one’s feelings. It helps build transparency and trust in relationships. Moreover, she also taught me that being patient has its rewards. Whenever it is time to feed her, she patiently waits and watches any one of us preparing her food and does not bark or growl demanding immediate attention. A very good lesson that is also put differently in our scriptures about doing your work and the fruits of our labour will be rewarded at the right time!
Q4. Throughout your career, you’ve demonstrated a remarkable ability to turn around businesses and drive profits. Could you share a specific example of a challenging situation you faced and the strategies you implemented to successfully transform a loss-making business into a profitable one?
One of the earliest challenging situations that I had faced was during the time when I had just taken over as the Regional Head with one of the organisations that I had worked for. Thanks to the inept handling of the regional business by my predecessor, I inherited a team that was disorganized, a network of channel partners who were defaulting on payments, a sales performance that was consistently dropping year-on-year and a financial situation that was in a bad shape because of poor accounting practices.
After spending the initial days looking up all the past performance data I planned a one-on-one meeting up with each and every team member and then made an extensive visit plan to interact with all our channel partners and understand the issues they are facing and why they were not paying-up on time. As expected it turned out that the reason was lack of follow-up and no regular visits by the Sales Officer concerned. The partners were, therefore, not getting proper supplies of the products and had lost confidence in our brand and company.
Everything finally boiled down to discipline or the lack of it down the entire hierarchy of the organization structure. As the new Head of the Region, I therefore set about laying down a process of daily monitoring and a weekly reviewing of the visits and tour itineraries of the sales team. At the same time, I opened and maintained a direct communication gateway with the channel partners and slowly rebuilt their confidence in our team, product and organization by ensuring prompt resolution of their issues, consistent supplies of our products and deeper interaction with our sales team to enhance market presence and market share.
With discipline getting effectively implemented, and a visible “ownership” display by me, first my team and then my retail partners began trusting me. This trust gradually converted into business growth and finally brought in the much needed stability to our relationship and overall business.
Yes, some harsh decisions had to be taken against errant team members who refused to toe the line or empathise with the need to change but these actions resulted in a new and fully enthused and charged-up team – both in sales and accounts – getting set-up which brought in fresh and progressive thinking.
Thus the strategies to lead from the front, take ownership, re-build relationships and finally create trust and dependability helped me overcome the earlier challenges and within a year’s time, my Region became the No.1 Region in the company and, more importantly, maintained that position for the next 3 successive years till I was rewarded for this turnaround and moved on to a new assignment as National Sales Head.
Q5. Corporate governance and risk management are crucial aspects of business leadership. How have you navigated uncertain times, like the COVID-19 pandemic, while safeguarding the interests of stakeholders and maintaining business continuity?
Corporate Governance stands on the four basic principles of accountability, transparency, fairness and responsibility. Risk Management, by definition, is the process of identifying, assessing and controlling financial, legal, strategic and security risks to an Organisation’s capital and earnings.
COVID-19 and its impact on our businesses resulted in our having to unlearn and reinvent ourselves. The 2-3 months of forced closure of our facilities resulted in zero revenues during this period while still having to incur the fixed costs of rentals and salaries. Obviously, we could not sustain this and had to take drastic steps to control costs and expenditure while ensuring that we keep the morale of the employees high. This was easier said than done as the highest cost element in our business is that of Manpower!
I formed a think tank headed by me with my CFO and Head-HR and after deep discussions finalized on a strategy to address the above issue. Our first step was to rationalize the manpower for which we drew up a list of customer-facing staff and analysed their performance in the last 6 months. All staff who had performed below the acceptable productivity norms and all those who joined us less than 3 months back were removed from the rolls with immediate effect. The next list was made of those who were average performers and we informed them that they were being “benched” i.e. would not be paid salaries but their employment would be kept on hold till the business revives post-COVID. A written assurance was given that once business picks up we would be taking them back on our rolls with full salary. The rest of the employees in the list were informed about salary cuts for the next 6 months ranging from the highest percentage cut on the topmost employee in the hierarchy. I volunteered to start with myself and run it down to the lowest levels of employees at the least minimal cut. A promise was given that at the end of the Financial year, the quantum of salary cuts would be fully re-imbursed, if the business results were good.
Meanwhile, we sought out and got reductions or temporary waiver on rentals from the landlords of all properties that we had taken on rent and price cuts from our vendors of stationery, housekeeping materials and workshop consumables, with the assurance that we would return to the original agreed rates as soon as business volumes are back to the pre-COVID levels.
Finally, after 6 months since COVID-related closure of business and having taken all the above steps, at the end of the year, we had achieved our aim of controlling costs, sustaining operational efficiencies and most importantly, keeping up the morale of the employees. Thus a strategic mix of managing Risk (company image, employee morale, business volumes) through effective Corporate Governance (forming a task force, roping in and getting buy-in of all stakeholders from employees and vendors to rented property owners, assuring and ensuring reinstatement and repayment of all deductions) paid good dividends and we finally not only sustained our business but also maintained our company image as employee-friendly and one that honors its promises.
Q6. From your extensive experience in global business development, what strategies have you found most effective when entering new markets, especially across SAARC, MENA, and other international regions?
Different regions in the geographic zones mentioned have very unique dynamics when it comes to doing business, though the ultimate goal of every enterprise across the globe is the same, which is – profits!
Therefore, the entry strategies into these varied markets are invariably different as they have to consider not only the usual factors such as competition, market size, economy etc. but also the region-specific characteristics of demography, social structure, local governmental laws, rules and regulations, language, political scenario and cultural beliefs.
Though I was representing my Organisation while interacting with the representatives of these diverse regions of the world, it was my individual persona and the way I interact with them that was key to building a lasting business relationship.
Before initiating transactions, I would study and understand everything about the culture, customs and inter-personal behaviors of the people of that country and region. Though in business, the universal language of English was accepted and used widely, I would make it a point to learn at least a few words of the local language, particularly related to greetings such as Good Morning, Hello, How are you, Thank You, Sorry, Please and so on.
Using these words interspersed with the regular business English, helped me break the ice. The next step, after that was I would make it a point to join them or, if they are visiting me in India or in the Gulf, invite them for business lunch. If they were visiting me, I would treat them to an Indian lunch or if I was visiting their country I would make it a point to have the local cuisine. These two steps were enough to build a reasonably good rapport for a first-time interaction.
Thereafter, I would spend as much time as I could first-hand visit the market along with this personnel and get a live understanding of the requirements and the way they do business there in that country. Once all the above was done, then it was business, as usual, involving transactions of Quotations, Purchase Orders, Import regulations, Shipping requirements, Payments and finally receipt and inwarding of consignments.
From the learnings following my interactions with people from different cultural, ethnic and socio-political backgrounds, I can say that one of the most important aspects of international business is understanding and respecting the local etiquettes and norms, as these are invariably very different from us Indians. Not all countries are democratic in their socio-economic outlook, not all societies are broad-minded or modern in their thinking and not all cultures are receptive to external influences or understanding of the working styles that we Indians (in India or abroad) are used to.
To be successful in entering markets outside India (even in the neighboring SAARC countries) we need to be more open and flexible in the way we talk and interact with the people there and not expect them to only follow our way of doing things.
Q7. As a certified independent director and a member of various professional associations, how do you approach corporate governance to ensure transparency, accountability, and the protection of stakeholders’ interests in the companies you work with?
Of the 7 pillars of Corporate Governance, I believe the most important element is transparency, which requires me to lead, by example. Hence, in all my transactions, interactions and exchanges with the concerned members of various organisations and bodies, I ensure that there is complete clarity and no ambiguousness.
This approach helps in laying a strong foundation of trust which is a very vital element of Stakeholder management. Once trust is built, it needs to be reinforced through actions, especially in terms of crisis or uncertainties that businesses go through. This I would do by having a direct, face-to-face or a one-on-one dialogue with the concerned members and not necessarily through e-mail or any other digital means. By doing so I ensure a personal touch, which in turn, again enhances the confidence that the other person has in me in resolving issues.
Resolution of issues begins first with understanding them and understanding problems requires patience and an often forgotten trait of being a “good listener”. I ensure I listen to the grievances, if any, of the stakeholder concerned and during the above-mentioned one-on-one interactions I offer solutions that are mostly win-win. Accountability requires ownership of the issue, which I demonstrate by placing myself as a single-point of contact rather than passing the buck to my peers or subordinates.
Q8. In your role as the CEO of VST Group, you successfully turned around the Mahindra franchise, achieving consistent profits. Could you delve into the specific initiatives and leadership strategies you employed to achieve this impressive turnaround?
When I took charge of the Mahindra franchise in my group, as CEO, this business vertical had been making losses for the last 5 years! I inherited a business which had stocks that were unsold for more than 2 years, Workshops that customers were not willing to get their cars into and a team that had no motivation to change their approach.
The first thing I did was allow myself one month to study every aspect of the business – from stocks to processes to manpower strength and discipline. I travelled extensively to cover all the 11 workshops and 9 Showrooms across Karnataka, met and interacted with each and every employee from the security guard to the Branch Managers to understand their issues and challenges.
Once the above was done, I got down to analyzing my findings and observations and listed down my inferences. What I had realized was that there were too many people in the system and most of them were not the right people either. Asset utilization was very low and operating costs were very high, not to mention that revenues were low too.
Doing a Pareto Analysis, I arrived at the root causes which, in descending order of impact, were excess manpower, top-heavy organization structure, lack of accountability and poor connection with customers.
Having done the research, analysis and tracking down the root causes it was now time to implement actions for cleaning up the business. The first thing I did was to rework the Organisation structure, making it lean and mean by eliminating many of the under-performers and negative elements. This was followed by quick recruitments and on-boarding of dependable people from outside the organization to infuse fresh blood and thoughts in running the operations. I used to meet and interact with the new recruits (across levels and departments) on a daily basis and hand-hold and reassure them that I was backing them on all the tough calls and decisions that they would be taking in what I called “Operation Clean-up”, as they kept encountering stiff resistance for any change, by the old-timers in the system.
The new team in place, now duly empowered and with my backing got about working on the manpower and enhancing their productivity through training, counselling and incentivizing. After observing and tracking for 3 months, we removed all the non-performers and, in parallel, recruited fresh talent ensuring an overall increase in the productivity as well as in creating a positive and vibrant environment and culture of “perform or perish”, with performance getting handsomely rewarded.
The next step was closing down unviable and uneconomical showrooms, resulting in savings of high rentals that were being paid, not to mention the operational costs of utilities, staff, support staff etc. Finally, we ran a “sale” campaign offering attractive freebies and discounts on the old and aging stocks, with additional incentives to the sales team for liquidating these within a 3-6 month time frame.
On the after-sales side, I initiated a similar exercise of performance-linked incentives and with a carrot-and-stick approach pulled up the entire Workshop teams to become performance driven and, more importantly, customer-oriented. I revamped the telecalling set-up and on a low-cost marketing drive through Digital media contacted all our lost customers and got them back to visiting our Service stations through a combo of incentives, discounts and personal commitments (personal mails from my desk to them assuring of change in management etc.) on quality deliverables.
Finally, at the end of 6 months, we had a new highly charged and performing team in place, all our old slow-moving stocks were sold out, overheads and operating costs had come down drastically and we had broken even! From the next year onwards we started making profits!
Q9. Your career spans roles in marketing, sales, and leadership. Could you share an experience where you had to pivot your approach to align with rapidly changing market dynamics, and what lessons did you learn from that experience?
During the last decade, the Government has implemented a lot of changes to its Governance policies and practices. Actions like Demonetisation and the introduction of GST have been initiatives that radically changed the market and the way industries and businesses function.
Since our business – which is the Automotive Retail and After-sales Service one – on the one hand, involved a lot of cash transactions by the customers and on the other, was very price sensitive as the pricing structure included various statutory taxes like Octroi, Excise Duty, Local Sales and Central Sales Tax, these new laws by the Government turned the operations of our business completely on its head.
Overnight, we had to inform customers that we could not take in or accept payments in cash beyond Rs 1,99,000/- (considering the cap was Rs 2 lacs)! Moreover, the entire pricing structure had now become very simplified with a single and uniform tax structure that would be charged and for which a purchase by a business entity (provided it was registered with GST) could also claim and avail input credit for the same. This brought in a whole new approach from our corporate customers in terms of purchase of a car in their entity’s name.
Along with this, the related business of Used Cars – which was always largely an unorganized sector and involved a lot of cash transactions and dubious interactions by individuals who wanted to own and use cars for their nefarious activities – also had a lot of streamlining.
As Head of the Automotive business, these changes called for me to first align my own team to understand, appreciate and implement them quickly and by way of a smooth transition. Next it was necessary to take every existing customer into confidence and get their buy-in to honor the new governmental policies by explaining the benefits of these new rules. Finally, as Dealers, we had to get the OEMs to empathise with us considering the huge stocks and bookings that we had accumulated following the until then prevalent business practices. This required several appeals and petitions to be submitted to the OEMs before they finally relented and came out with a compensation package to cover the difference in taxes from the previous VAT regime to the new GST regime.
The whole experience was overwhelming but the transition from one style of working that was cumbersome in its intricate tax structures to an entirely newer, more open, relatively simpler and transparent one was well worth it. In addition, the need to avoid handling huge amounts of cash by the front-line executives was a big relief as it brought in greater accountability and traceability of the money transactions.
The bottom-line, in terms of lessons learnt, were that “Change is the only permanent” and that one must embrace newer initiatives if we are to stay abreast with the changing order of things and the sooner we adopt and adapt to these changes, the better for us individually and for the Organisations that we head.