What were the opportunities you saw for yourself and the company when you decided to
take on the role?
When I did my MBA in 2004, there was an opportunity for exploring how Walchandnagar
could fulfill its potential as a company and expand more into the strategic sectors of India.
We were already doing works for the IFRO, RDO, the ministry of defense, and the nuclear
power cooperation and wanted to see how we could enhance that relationship and really
take the company to the next level. So that was the inspiration behind a family member
getting actively involved in the business again which we had not done for a while and as it
played out over the last 14 years, there have been enough ups and downs but a lot of
positives have come out of it and I think last year just before the pandemic on the 1st of
April, our MD and CEO Mr. Pillai was retiring and he had served a good 8-10 years in the
organization. The feeling was that instead of getting another external professional at a
time when the company was going through a bit of a difficult period, I had to take over the
day to day operations of the business and let the family sort of drive the business from the
top for a few years till we return to the glory days if you want to call it. I expect that in the
next 12-18 months when the turnaround is complete, ultimately we will look at bringing in
professional management in the future. So that was really the inspiration that there was a
huge opportunity and it was important for the family to put their face forward and be in
charge for the moment if we may say so.
What are the plans for the company’s growth in the medium to long term, say 3 to 5 years'
time?
Some of the very strategic decisions were taken by the organization maybe five years ago
when we started implementing our turnaround and we were going to look at our USP
businesses where we have a huge competitive advantage and a relationship which is
really to focus on our manufacturing business, fabrication, design, and engineering
businesses and focus on customers where we have built a relationship over the last 40
years that is in India's space program, India’s defense program, India’s nuclear power
program, and India’s missile program, To a certain extent, we are very good at product
businesses which is our industrial and marine gearbox business, our process equipment
especially those for crushing and grinding solutions, cement plants, and power plants
which is really the focus of the business. We had a railways division and an ETC division
in the past and we’ve decided to sort of close those and only focus on heavy fabrication,
heavy manufacturing, and intricate design. We expect that all these sectors that we are in
are poised for. If you take programs like Atmanirbhar Bharat, Make in India, Design in
India, and this whole India-centric movement that we have been seeing, of course, our
company has been doing this for the last 50 years but even if what we see now, the vision
of our honorable prime minister and his team. For the next 5-10 years it's going to be a
golden period for the kind of work that we do, so I think we’re going to narrow our focus
down to certain industries, aerospace, defense, nuclear power, transmission for
gearboxes, large crushing and grinding equipment and solutions. I expect that it will take
care of most of our growth for the next 5-10 years.
Are there any key areas that you would like to focus on in the coming 1 to 1 and a half
years?
Yes, over the next 18 months, the number one challenge that we face as an organization
is to manage our debt in our company, so we definitely want to explore the reduction of
debt. We are already in the process of doing that and we’ll continue to do that. Cash flow
management and the importance of generating cash from our balance sheet are going to
be a very big focus for us. I think at the factory level, there are many areas of operational
efficiency that we can focus on. I think that the last 1, 1 and a half years of covid as taught
us how easy it is for us to use automation and digitization at a plant level to really ramp up
our execution capabilities so while we’ve done commendable work in the last 18 months, I
think there’s a lot of work that’s left to be done and that it’s going to be a big trust area for
us to really use technology and IT to show that even heavy engineering and heavy
manufacturing companies like ours can benefit from this migration to further automation.
It's a big area for us. So these are the two areas that we focus on in a big way. I think
we’re blessed to have a very strong order book already with the company and so while the
team is out there continuously marketing and focusing on generating business, efficient
execution and cash flow management are the two things that this company will be
focusing on in the next 18 months.