N Sankar
He was a tower of strength willing to put his best foot forward. Everywhere he went, he built up teams and built a sense of commitment in them. He believed in learning one new thing each day to advance his knowledge.
Sesh was a living, breathing testimonial to continuous learning. He helped build Sanmar Engineering and the S R Seshadri Institute for Training set up within the premises is the most fitting tribute to his passion for people and learning.
William V Adams
Flowserve Corporation, USA
Sesh was like a brother to me, a part of my family. He was a role model and someone I related very well with. I am very saddened to hear of his passing. There are 100’s of Durametallic and Flowserve people he has touched in his love, understanding and wisdom during his travels and visits.
A R Huse & T D Kenneally,
BS&B Safety Systems, USA
We were shocked and saddened to learn of Sesh’s death. Sesh was a good long-time friend, and one of the influential people involved in the successful launch of our joint venture. The whole world will miss this guy — he was a smart individual — the kind of person society needs. I am glad that he was a part of our business life and will keep his memory fresh and near to our hearts.
Each one has a special relationship or equation with another that is unique and often unfathomable to others! That is how it was with me and Sesh. Sesh my Guru He took me under his w ing when I joined Durametallic. Around the year 1976, I worked w ith him closely in the establishment of Durametallic. I was with him every day converting the Letter of Intent to RM license to get the fi rst phase of the manufacturing program approved.
At the same time we were also meeting customers. This called for extensive travelling together and these times were quite an experience. This experience went on for two years as we built the factory. We went to places like Belgaum, Bangalore, Pune, Chinchwad, Kirloskarwadi, Rishra, Baroda and others meeting customers like Mahindra, the BDK Group, Best & Crompton, KSB Pumps, Mather & Platt, ICI, IPCL, etc.
He was extremely frugal in his spending during these travels. We stayed in very ordinary rooms or company guest houses and in Bombay we shacked up in a room attached to the Chemplast offi ce! We did our song and dance fl itting from one company to another in buses and trains! At Baroda, after a meeting at IPCL, we had time to kill before we caught a train back in the night.
He didn’t want to check into a hotel so he dragged me to watch the movie ‘Sholay’. This was the premier month and my wife had plans of seeing the movie with me. Imagine my plight when I told her I had seen it!
A ‘true’ engineer
Durametallic being the fi rst joint venture, technology transfer happened through hand written notes that Sesh wrote himself. During his visit to Kalamazoo for technology transfer he used to send me letters every day detailing the process for manufacturing seals.
This diary of letters became a process manual for our manufacturing and even in subsequent technology transfers this became a way of success for Sanmar! It was amazing to see the extent of infl uence he had on people, especially technology guys. Saha in KSB, Mahindra Khimji in AKAY, the entire IEL Gomia team and many others had genuine admiration for him.
It is believed that God makes at least seven people of the same kind but in the case of Sesh he took an exception. Sesh was the only one of his kind, a head full of nuts, bolts, processes, engineering designs, valves, seals and more. Suaveness, chivalry and protocol were frivolities his racing mind had no time for. Shorn of niceties, he spoke his mind in the most colourful language; even a short meeting with him was like a splash of cold water on the face on a sultry day–lively, energizing and interesting. To him, everyone was a human being first, anything else later.Hierarchy, status and other such barriers didn’t hold water in the face of strong humane bonds – this was his ethos and this was the reason for his success as a professional, as a CEO, as a young engineer, as a coworker and as a human being. He was a technological nut who never bolted in the face of challenges.
Seshadri came out of nowhere to join Mettur Chemicals in 1966 as a chemical engineer with a background in instrumentation engineering. He was part of a team of young engineers with fire under their belly. In Sesh’s words, “The Mettur plant was the most modern plant with the most primitive people.” They had to deal with a tough American who had no clue of the Indian psyche. Sesh, in his inimitable way, played his part at this juncture brilliantly. Perhaps the skills he acquired here came in handy when he went prospecting for JVs with N Sankar. Sesh had developed products with his bare hands and had been the chief engineer in several process factories. He knew exactly what it was that would cut ice with chief Seshadriengineers to sell a product in the market. It was essentially this ingenuity that impressed JV partners like Durametallic and BS&B during the prospecting stage.
A twist of fate changed the course of Sesh’s life at Mettur. In 1972, he lost his wife in a tragic accident. Suddenly, the speed racer appeared to have lost ground on the journey of life. He decided to quit Mettur Chemicals and move to Madras with his children. K S Narayanan, Chairman Emeritus posed a question to him at that time - “Do you want to be a big fish in a small pond or a small fish in a big pond?” Sesh chose the former and went on to help make the pond large enough to accommodate two big fish.
Sesh and Sankar teamed up do something but neither knew what. The duo made a complete odd-couple. Sesh, a technological guy feeling like a fish out of water in a sales office, away from the shop floor he loved so much and Sankar, who had just returned after his higher education in the US. Sankar was a perfectionist and had innate financial acumen. Sesh found it difficult to go beyond PBT! Remarking on Sankar’s fetish for language perfection, he said, “I don’t care how English is written and he expected me to be Shakespeare!” Sesh’s experience focused on mechanical seals, a ‘nuisance product’ that caused a shut down on several occasions at the chemical plant.
They approached Durametallic for a joint venture to manufacture Durametallic seals in India and the rest is history. Durametallic was established and Sesh began his learning all over again, transforming himself into a mechanical engineer. In his words, “The most enjoyable time in a company is when it is at a learning stage when everyone is on a learning curve. There is no hierarchy, no titles and no barriers.”
That’s the way he liked things to be and that’s the way it was with the string of joint ventures that led to the establishment of Sanmar Engineering.
A religious man, he asked for very little out of life. He was happy solving problems and facing challenges. When Durametallic was established, he asked for a gift, a typewriter to manage the office better! Loyal and committed to the core, he built teams of people wherever he went. “I was a general backed by a very good army,” he said.
He believed that with trust and faith in people and by sharing knowledge, anybody could be trained to do any job. This is the talk he always walked, creating committed teams, driving quality, precision and most of all, honesty.
Now that he has done his time in this world, he has perhaps embarked on yet another quest for knowledge in another world, for, he was a continuous learner. With his technological ingenuity, it is most likely that he would be showing a trick or two even at the pearly gates. That is S R Seshadri, yet another charismatic idol enshrined in the Sanmar precincts.
Sanmar dedicated a training institute, the S R Seshadri Institute of Training at Karapakkam to S R Seshadri. The institute was inaugurated on the 24 September 07 during the memorial service held in his honour.
The S R Seshadri Training Institute is a state-of-the-art training facility that brings under one umbrella structured and intense training of freshers recruited from colleges and technical institutes. The institute will serve as a preparatory institute to bootstrap freshers with specific and soft skills training to take on positions in the various companies and divisions of The Sanmar Group. Such a focused approach will help in creating and nurturing pools of trained manpower relevant to the various industries within the Group and provide them with a continuous stream of skilled manpower without any time lag.
L to R: M N Radhakrishnan, Shri K S Narayanan and N Sankar.
The institute will address the gap in the theoretical knowledge and industry specific requirements and prepare the trainees to take on responsibilities aligned to organisational objectives.
The training institute will also help nurture pools of trained manpower and ensure steady replenishment of trained people for the various companies and divisions. A full time director is already on board. The faculty will comprise internal and external specialists in their respective fields.
R to L: Shri K S Narayanan, N Sankar, The Sanmar Group, R Venkataramani, Sanmar Engineering Corporation and Sarada Jagan, HR, Corporate Division, The Sanmar Group.