Kids have dreams. Kids of my era generally wanted to become engine drivers or policemen when they grew up. I was one of those normal kids who wanted to be an engine driver. Suddenly one day when I was in eighth grade, a bizarre thought occurred to me. Why not become a writer? I will make the rest of the world read what I write and not the other way round. This was my way of taking revenge on the world. But as it happens in all our lives, there comes a time when you have to bury all your dreams and move on by doing what your cousin’s third son was doing successfully. So needless to say, I became an engineer.
The dreams were long gone and I was generally leading a peaceful life until one day when I was asked to attend a programme called LARAS. A warning to fellow engineers who are still leading peaceful lives - Beware! This is a leadership development programme where managers are coached to become successful leaders.
The facilitator, a highly erudite man, asked us on various occasions during the programme to (1) read books (2) follow your dreams.
The kid in me woke up. ‘It’s time to follow your dreams. How long will you keep reading?’ So I set a goal and announced to everybody that I would start writing. Incidentally, goal setting and sharing are a part of LARAS. We engineers do not take anything lightly. Any goal achievement should be preceded by a PDCA (Plan, Do, Check,Act) cycle. (By now I’m sure you’re aware that as engineers, we do the plan part well and leave the rest to others.)
I took my pad and started writing down my plan. ‘Write down your plans to make it happen.’ I had also set aside two weekends towards realising my dreams.
Suddenly a thought flashed.
“Target Audience”. Before that, what am I going to write? Put pen to paper again.
A book on management for the hardly working engineers
Weekly snapshot. ERP for the not so young and the not so old.
A research paper for HBR on Indian month-end efficiencies.
A look at the list showed that I had gone a little overboard with my manager’s thinking hat. I should do a reality check. Better sense prevailed and I decided to test my writing skills by writing an article for Matrix.
Two weeks passed and I got a feeling that I was missing out on something very important. All I had were copies of two books, one a book on how and where to use punctuations and the other a copy (plain and simple). Common sense prevailed at last and I nailed the missing element – I needed a theme.
Another flash: Why not share the experience of realising my dream with my colleagues? Like the “Making Of” documentaries on successful films!
I got down to work and now you know how this article got written. If it ever goes to print, I will have taken a small step towards realising my dream and I will have achieved a goal I had set for myself.
Who knows? Down the road I might be reminiscing about my first article in an in-house magazine to a reporter while appearing for a book reading session.
I know what’s coming - “Engineers will never change.”
The candles have blown out well before the stamp of these two stalwarts on Chemplast could ever fade away; the roots of a host of things at Chemplast, lead to two names, Marv Larson and S Ramaswamy.Be it the teething troubles of getting a plant on stream or the business battles of falling prices and the pitfalls due to a devalued rupee, these two veterans stood rock solid by Chemplast for more than a decade in its hour of need.
S Ramaswamy
GM, Chemplast
1916–2006
Marvin W Larson
Director,BF Goodrich
1919–2006
S Ramaswamy – A pioneer who set Chemplast a sail
The Chemplast reins in the hands of Ramaswamy to the foray into the land of Rameses, Chemplast’s business canvas is quite panoramic. The story of Chemplast began in the able hands of
S Ramaswamy, one of the founding fathers of Sanmar’s PVC business.
Ramaswamy was wellknown in chemical industry circles; someone who was as comfortable in Mettur as he was in New York, a connoisseur of good music, his taste ranging from classical Indian to light music to Frank Sinatra.
N Sankar and R Kalidas reminisce about ‘Ramo’, as Ramaswamy was affectionately addressed by Marv.
R Kalidas was an intern when he first met Ramaswamy. There was no scope for sitting on the bench. A clear agenda was presented to him and he also had to prepare weekly reports. Ramaswamy was a man of precision.“I learned from him that however high up the ladder one may climb, it is important to keep track of the finer details. I had the good fortune of being groomed by him. He was a demanding boss but a good teacher and a guide. I also learned about work-life balance from him”. Ramaswamy drove the R & D efforts at Chemplast. “What we have today in chloromethanes and PVC were initiated by him. It was his idea to channelise the chlorine from the caustic soda plant away from the environment and into PVC manufacture. In the caustic soda plant, he initiated the change from diaphragm technology to mercury cell technology. Import substitution was also one of his initiatives. His eyes were set on changes, modernisation and innovation for which he believed R & D was very important. He commanded respect and was a man of few words. The words that he penned were in perfect English.”
“He was extraordinarily good with English and drafted in a very persuasive style,” recalls N Sankar. “I learnt from him that it is not about the writer but the reader and what he makes of it that makes a good draft. In his memory, we have instituted the MMA Sanmar Award for Effective Business Communication. Ramaswamy was the only boss that Sankar ever had. “He was a true professional manager and he inculcated a lot of professional management qualities in me, which stood me in good stead. He was a great leader who delegated a lot but took responsibility. I couldn’t have had a better mentor. Ramaswamy laid the foundation for what the company follows today in terms of people, quality, systems, reputation and ethics.”
Ramaswamy brought in the best of talent and put together a top-notch team for Chemplast. K S Narayanan recalls, “Chemplast ran into a lot of rough weather in the early years. The devaluation of the rupee and fall in prices for products sent us into a tailspin. Ramaswamy kept things going during tough times, motivating and keeping the morale up and holding fort. He was an extremely honest person and a true professional. During the acquisition of Mettur Chemicals and the joint
Tamil Nadu Safety Award for Chemplast 1973
Standing (L to R): R Kalidas, K N Vasanth and P R Mahalingam. Sitting: S Ramaswamy, General Manager (Chemplast)
venture with BF Goodrich, he managed as a true professional leader, steering clear of management politics. He was only interested in the interest of the company.”Sanmar bows down to this great architect of Chemplast, to his leadership and technological acumen, and to a great professional who was way ahead of his times.
A Marvel of a Man - Marv Larson
The Larson Desk Diary arrived at the Sanmar headquarters as it did every year. But this year, the sender delegated the task and slipped away, ever so quietly. In his passing away, Marv stirred up a wave of memories amongst the people at Sanmar he had been closely associated with.
To K S Narayanan, Chairman Emeritus, Marv was a very close friend. “The friendship was instantaneous, from the moment we met. He was one of the pillars that helped to put Chemplast on its feet. He stood by me during all those years of difficulties I faced in getting Chemplast on stream. I cannot forget the time when there was a breakdown at Mettur. It was well after midnight and he was there with me at the plant helping to get things fixed. I also remember my numerous visits to Cleveland when he and Anne Marie Larson extended their hospitality to me. Marv was the local guardian when my boys went for higher studies in the US. We’ve had some very good moments together and I am very saddened that I’ve lost such a great friend.”
A young Kalidas met Larson on the day of his interview way back in the late sixties. Marv called him the Jerry Colona of Mettur, referring to the jazz trombonist and comedian of the 1940s. From Japan to India to Iran to Venezuela, every plant set up by B F Goodrich had the Marv Larson stamp on it. Reminiscing on Marv, Kalidas said, “He was a committed PVC man and was instrumental in showing to the world the versatility of PVC compounds. Between the 1970s and 80s Goodrich generated and pushed in the market an unimaginable array of compounds and Marv had a key role to play in this. A man with excellent knowledge of the chemical engineering industry, vinyls particularly, given to a good sense of balance and a man of fine tastes—that was Marv.”
Larson was in charge of the Goodrich plants in the US, Norway, Mexico, Venezuela and the Middle East. He was like a one-man-army coordinating the entire gamut of operations, from marketing, sales, finance and technical in the Indian venture. He was versatile. Sankar, Chairman of The Sanmar Group, very young at that time, remembers him as someone who was very supportive of Goodrich’s JV with Chemplast. “He would be totally involved, be there at the plant with us and ‘feel’ with us. His major strength was that he got into details and would follow up to ensure completion. Unlike most Americans of his time, he was open and comfortable with different cultures.” N Sankar recalled Marv’s flashes of humour. A multi-lingual person, he treated Sankar and his wife Chandra to a Japanese song, ‘Moon over ruined castle’.
The wailing tenor made interesting listening, especially at a pre-wedding party. While getting a quotation for distillation columns from John Hoover of L & T, Marv remarked, “ John would quote a number and if I didn’t blink he would say ‘each’!” An ardent American football fan, he found English cricket a bit too stiff for his taste.Marv recounted his experience at Lord’s in England during the British Geon days; in the Long Room at Lords he spent an hour or two alongside the black-suited, cigar sporting ‘propah’ English. “I watched the game for a while and then said, ‘How do you tell them apart without numbers on their backs’?” He never got invited to Lord’s again! “He was open, friendly, lively, warm and permissible; the solidarity he expressed in the Goodrich-Chemplast partnership is something he will always be remembered by,” recalls Sankar.
The choice of a language for his epitaph is the most difficult for he was at home with so many languages—Japanese, Spanish, Latin and more. Marv Larson was undoubtedly, a marvel of a man. Chemplast salutes this versatile veteran.
From left to right (First row): T S Narayanaswami, H B Warner, Mrs Warner, M W Larson, Mrs Larson, Mrs T S Narayanaswami and Mrs K S Narayanan.
(Second row): N Sankar, K S Narayanan, S Ramaswamy, Mrs Campbell, and Dan C Campbell, Project Manager, Chemplast.
Sanmar players in Indian team
Dinesh Kartik, who joined Sanmar at the start of the current season, was selected to tour the West Indies and South Africa with the Indian team. He made an impressive contribution to India’s victory in the inaugural Twenty 20 match against South Africa. Dinesh Mongia toured South Africa with the Indian ODI squad. He made useful contributions, making use of his limited opportunities.
Badrinath and Vijay shine for Tamil Nadu
S Badrinath, the Sanmar captain, has been knocking ever so loudly at the doors of Test selection, with his splendid showing in domestic cricket. Besides being Tamil Nadu’s captain and its most consistent batsman, he also performed very well for India ‘A’ in international cricket. His role in the recent Challenger Trophy was also signifi cant. He has been distinctly unlucky not to be selected for India so far. M Vijay, our opening batsman, has made a brilliant debut in Ranji Trophy cricket, scoring a half century on his fi rst appearance and 179 in his second match.
Dinesh Kartik’s feat
India wicket keeper batsman Dinesh Kartik performed an unusual feat when he cracked an unbeaten 403 in Jolly Rovers’s 600 for 1 declared, the highest score in the league, against Alwarpet CC in a fi rst division league match.The Sanmar cricket teams and their talented bunch of cricketers continued to do well this season, continuing from where they left off last season.
Moin-ud-Dowla Gold Cup
Chemplast, last year’s winner of the Moin- u d-Dowla Gold Cup hosted by the Hyderabad cricket A ssociation, was well on course to a repeat performance, when rain forced the abandonment of the fi nal. Chemplast had to be content with sharing the trophy with Hyderabad. R Sathish (178 runs) and R Ramkumar (148) were the outstanding batsmen and Sathish claimed 18 wickets.
KSCA all India invitation tournament
C hemplast won the championship by a big margin when it beat IOC XI by nine wickets in the fi nal. Medium pacers Huzefa Patel (14 wickets), Tinu Yohannan (12), and J P Yadav (10) and batsmen Vasanth Saravanan (418 runs), Dinesh Mongia (181) and Sujith Somasunder (149) were the outstanding performers for Chemplast in the tournament. The scores: IOC 302 in 86 overs and 155 for 6 in 40 overs (C Pujara 64) lost to Chemplast 425 for 7 in 90 overs and 35 for 1 in 4.3 overs.
IOB-YSCA trophy
Chemplast Sanmar ‘B’, led by Syed Mohamed, won the 37th all India IOB- YSCA cricket trophy by swamping Kochi Refineries in the fi nal. Sanmar players won all the major prizes: M Vijay (best batsman), R Ramkumar (best all rounder), R Sathish (player of the tournament and player of the final).