‘Indian firms will have to be quality conscious to operate globally’

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: With companies operating in a challenging environment, every management knows they need to elevate performance to boost sales, profit margins and market share. These are survival tools in today’s businesses and Lean Sigma technique is enabling companies to achieve their goals. An industry veteran, Anand Sharma has been leading lean transformation management for the last two decades through TBM Consulting Group which he founded. With more than 150 consultants operating in five continents, the company headquartered in Durham, US, helps discrete and process manufacturers and service companies create a competitive advantage to generate significant growth. Armed with an engineering degree from Roorkee University and a Masters degree from Boston University, Sharma has been credited with turning around hundreds of companies worldwide in the manufacturing and service sectors. In an interview to Fe’s Saikat Neogi, he explains the principles of transformational management and how Indian companies can benefit from it. Excerpts:

How do you see the relevance of Lean Management in today’s context?

I think Lean is the replacement to 21st century management system. I believe in transformational management, which has certain key ingredients. The first factor is quick response time, which would bring down the time for the customer. The criteria for transformational management is that your reliability has to be very high, that means you make the product exactly what you said it would be and true to the specifications and at the same time delivery should be reliable. The next two are focused on companies: rhythm that means you have to synchronies exactly with what the customer demands. The next is responsibility that is being given to the corporation and it the responsibility of the company to use minimum number of people, space, inventories and machinery and by doing that you are leveraging corporate assets. The other part is responsibility of natural resources because we are in a limited natural resource environment.

Where is the relevance of a customer?

It is the duty of the company to be relevant to the customer’s changing needs. You have to learn to capture the voice of customers in a way that they are not able to describe to you. And by being close to the customer, walking into their shoes and by capturing those unarticulated needs, you will be able to develop product and services that will always delight the customers.

How is Lean different from Transformational Management?

It is all about people and the idea is to do more with them. In most companies around the world, people are not used to the maximum potential and we unleash that by working across cross functional teams and letting people think out of the box. Our objective in transformational management is to grow faster and leverage the benefits of human resources in innovation and grow them faster.

How adaptable are Indian companies to follow transformational management?

Indian companies where the management really wants to expand globally are keen to implement the process. But many firms are not thinking big to operate on a global scale. Tatas are an exception and they are operating on a larger scale in the global market and with that a lot of other people have woken up. In India, we have the best of the human resource, we have the brands but we waste them in mindless political and intellectual jargons. Indian firms will have to be quality conscious to operate globally.

How have the Indian companies grown to whom you have consulted?

In India we are working with dozen firms as it’s been only 4-5 years that we started here and if I have to give a turnaround example in India, it would be Semco Electric in Poona. Four years ago it had around $30 million turnover, all targeted for the US. We worked with the management team and implemented transformational management in every aspect right from selling, to managing the value chain, to building design. Today, their turnover is close to $150 million and the company’s value has gone from $20 million to $220 million. The company was recently sold to a private equity firm and four years before the owners were willing to sell it only for $20 million. That’s the power of transformational management.

Which are the other Indian companies where you are consulting?

We are working with Gokul Das Exports, a garment manufacturer in Bangalore and we have been able to increase their output to the maximum. In fact, earlier the company has been building four new plants every year. Now, they have stopped building new plants and are working with their existing plants. Constructing a new plant costs more money than maintaining an existing plant.

What are the core sectors where you work?

We don’t define industry verticals as much because we have worked with a lot of industry. We work for discreet manufacturing, which includes making cars, washing machines, airplanes where you put discreet things together and make the product. The second major focus is process manufacturing, which would be food and beverage, pharmaceuticals, and third focus for us is the service industry where we are focusing in banking, insurance, retail and healthcare.

You are now focusing on Lean Energy Process. How are companies receiving it?

One of the ways to get people exited is energy as prices are going high. By using the Kaizen process we can help companies save energy and help in the green movement. This practice has taken off very well because in this case you are not affecting the people and those who are cautious of environment really get excited. Cooperation is much faster and several industries have shown interest and by plugging all those noise and steam that erupt from the shopfloor, we can cut down on energy and reduce costs.

How do you think energy Kaizen will be the next big transformational step?

The energy Kaizen that we are doing is a small drop in the bucket. Ultimately, the government policy and everything has to change and the focus has to be on renewable energy. Brazil is an excellent example of renewable energy as the country produces 47% of its energy needs from biofuels and renewables. Rest of the world is doing less than 15%. What we are doing is small, but we are raising the consciousness. That’s more important.

What are the other practices that you offer?