Admitting that India was witnessing mild erosion in its political environment and even cultural values, a question that one needs to ask is "How can we be the best human beings?" noted Inder Jasinghani, CMD, Polycab Wires Pvt Ltd, stressing that it was time that the corporate sector strived to show its human face. Jasinghani was delivering the keynote address on the inaugural day of the two-day COSMA Convention 2013 held in Mumbai on October 18-19, 2013. The convention, marking the completion of 25 years of COSMA (Control Panel & Switchgear Manufacturers' Association), deliberated on the theme "Navigating for Sustainable Growth…Journey to World Class."
The Polycab top official emphasized that the next three years would be very crucial for India and these would shape its ability to exploit the tremendous potential that lay in store over the next 15 years. "Our focus should be on team building and knowledge sharing." India's agenda should be to create a solid human capital base, he said. Areas like infrastructure, telecom and power would drive economic growth and several businesses could capitalize on the opportunity for products and services, Jasinghani felt.
Incidentally, Jaisinghani's company Polycab that started off as a trading unit four decades ago is now a Rs.4,500-crore company. Over the next three years, it is slated to grow to a Rs.10,000-crore firm, another Polycab official said at the sidelines of the convention. The company also has concrete plans to consolidate its 14 manufacturing facilities into four world-class ones, with a view to bringing in tremendous technical and commercial efficiency, the official explained.
Clearly acknowledging that India would be the centre of global attention, Ralmondo Salandra who heads ABB's India business for low-voltage products reiterated that ABB was committed to the Indian market and would push its level of local investment. Even as India could serve as a manufacturing base for the global markets, the Indian market was very important by itself. In fact, customization of ABB's global product portfolio to suit Indian conditions was very much a priority, Salandra said.
Also dwelling on the subject of human capital, Pradip Shroff, a motivator for CEOs and corporate heads, said, "Companies should be fair to employees. There is no room for slave-master relationship in today's world." He elaborated on his six-point agenda for corporate growth that included customer focus, pace of execution, innovation and investment, care for community, among others. Shroff brought out a very interesting aspect with his remark, "Don't work just for your customer but also your customer's customers!"
In an earlier interaction with Electrical Monitor, Soeb Fatehi, President, COSMA shared his top priorities for the organization, especially with membership increasing rapidly over the recent years. "For an organization in its 25th year, our focus will have to be on sustainability for COSMA, by presupposing sustainability for its constituent member businesses. To accomplish this, we are increasing our effort in the areas of education and knowledge sharing," summarized Fatehi.
