A True Leader – Ahead of His Times
After a few years in manufacturing, I wanted to move to a more corporate environment. I was lucky to get a break in electronics, the in-thing at that time, and I was fascinated by the world of computers and technology. I was able to find a position at one of the premier south Indian groups, with interests in chemicals, engineering and electronics, and moved to electronics from chemicals. Initially, I was with one of the group’s joint ventures with a Norwegian firm. It took me a little while to adjust from a manufacturing background to the new world of technology. I was acclimating to the new culture of open offices and easy access to my bosses. Nerdy engineers with casual dress codes and late evening working were an accepted norm. The company was diverse and included medical electronics, office automation (including PCs all the way up to minicomputers), electronics and in-motion industrial weighing systems, as well as communications, including digital exchanges and satellite communication. In short, everything you can think of was under one roof. We had a common manufacturing facility for all these product lines. The business units were responsible for sales, customer support, R&D, HR and finance functions. Interestingly, we had joint ventures and technology tie ups with leading electronics manufacturers across the globe. Medical electronics was the flagship division, one of the first to sell all-electronic equipment across hospitals in India. All this was possible because one man thought this was the sunrise industry – N Kumar, affectionately called NK by all and the chairman and managing director of the group.
Not only did he carefully nurture the business, but also his team, which he had carefully picked for the various divisions. Each one was a stellar leader and contributed to the rapid growth of the business across various verticals. The culture was informal and positive, with everyone on first name terms and approachable, which fostered a learning atmosphere: in short, a very passionate team. I would attribute this culture to NK himself, as he would walk into your office, sit on your work desk and have a quick chat about what was going on. My first meeting with him was about market data regarding a compensation recommendation for the group. He was extremely quick with the numbers and questioned the approach and data. I started to sweat and thought I was lucky, as the meeting ended quickly, and was thankful that I had personally spent time in preparing the data. I have since attended several business review meetings, and NK was always very focused on results and ended meetings with clear objectives. Our annual budget exercise always translated to actionable goals and was cascaded down.
As part of the IT expansion, we ventured into software development. We were probably one of the first to set up a development center in a special economic zone with tax breaks. The state-of-the-art facility was outside city limits and had limited access. The engineers were given transport every day and additionally had a ping pong table to break the monotony at work – all this in the late 1980s, when this type of a work culture was unheard of in India. In the early 2000s, this facility became a seven-thousand-seater offshore development center after being acquired by a US based company. Looking back, I am impressed by the vision that NK had in identifying potential markets at a very early stage. It continues to amaze me, as the various electronics divisions were first of their kind and are now widely used in various industrial applications. He was also the first to start an alumni meet and invites everyone for an evening get together regularly. Again, some of the early learnings of being associated with an outstanding leader like NK were the following:
- Vision
- Clear purpose
- Actionable objectives
- People orientation
- Futuristic workspace
- Learning culture
I recall what one of my colleagues said about NK – he was “a visionary with a heart of gold.” A true statement that continues even today. See you soon with another update.