Economic downturn notwithstanding, The Sanmar Group took time off to felicitate, reward and recognise its top performing employees and those who have had a long stint with the Group.
Following the awards programme, the fun sessions began. This year it was a ‘return to innocence’ theme, with game stalls in ‘Youngistan’.
Two mega projects that kept the Group in sway were the project funding for TCI Sanmar, Egypt and the challenges in commissioning the Greenfield PVC project and coal-based power plant. This year apart from the individual recognitions, the entire teams involved in the two projects were commended.
Vijay Sankar – as the leader of Two Separate Teams – has achieved a resounding victory during the last year when the Sanmar Group was confronted with three major challenges.
“Prof Warren Bennis at the University of Southern California says that in a crisis a good leader displays six exemplary qualities – ‘the 6 Ps’ as he calls them. These are clarity of Purpose, Perseverance, Patience, Prudence, Pragmatism and Passion. During the last 18 months, Vijay has demonstrated that he has the 6 P qualities to lead a team in a crisis. He has indeed matured as a business leader.
“The late Peter Drucker, the management guru, has said in one of his articles that business leaders have to be both ‘effective’ and ‘efficient’. Dave Ulrich a Strategy Professor at the Michigan Business School has said that a leader in today’s world can’t be only a visionary. He should also have the ability to implement his vision. In dealing with the Cuddalore and Coal Projects, Vijay has proved that he is both a visionary and a doer. He has also shown that he can combine efficiency with effectiveness in all that he does.
“Vijay, we offer you our congratulations and thank you for your outstanding contribution. These emphatic victories will soon transform The Sanmar Group into one of the fastest growing Corporates – in India – both in sales and profitability. It will also make Chemplast a significant player in the global PVC market.
“By these victories Vijay has demonstrated that he is a leader in his own right and a worthy successor to Sanmar.” V Narayanan, Director, The Sanmar Group Corporate Board.
V Narayanan, Director, The Sanmar Group, presents the award to Vijay Sankar.
P S Jayaraman as Chairman, TCI Sanmar and Chemplast Sanmar was in the thick of things, leading the teams across two continents, simultaneously handling critical situations in Egypt and India and guiding the teams.
“Every team no matter how talented needs leadership to take the critical decision calls. It is without doubt the leadership that bears the brunt of the tensions and frustration, since the buck comes to rest with it. Extraordinary leadership was provided to both the teams by P S Jayaraman and Vijay. To handle such complex situations on two continents at the same time speaks volumes for their leadership abilities.”
– N Sankar.
N Sankar presents the award to P S Jayaraman.
L to R: M Raman and T Ravichandran.
L to R: V Ramesh and S B Prabhakar Rao
L to R: N Sivakumar and M N Ravikumar
L to R: K Rajendran, S Chellappa, and Jacob Leander.
Two teams that brought about miraculous results were the teams involved in getting the clearances for the Cuddalore PVC and Coal-based power projects. Their Herculean efforts were critical to the growth prospects of Chemplast Sanmar.
The team involved in tackling the issues relating to the Cuddalore and Coal power projects consisted of V Ramesh, S B Prabhakar Rao, M Raman, T Ravichandran, N Sivakumar, M N Ravikumar, K Rajendran, S Chellappa, and Jacob Leander, with backing from the fi nance team of R Rangarajan, P U Aravind and N Muralidharan.
L to R: R Rangarajan - Treasury, P U Aravind - Legal and N Muralidharan - Corporate Finance
R Rangarajan - Treasury, P U Aravind - Legal and N Muralidharan - Corporate Finance were the crème of the team that successfully completed the funding for the projects in Port Said, Egypt. The Group commenced the expansion plans with a bridge loan from ICICI Bank, substituted by funding from the international bond markets. When the first tremor of the crash was felt, Sanmar looked towards international banks. However, the sub-prime crisis brought the collapse of the international banking system. Sanmar was left with the choice of abandoning the projects on the back of huge financial losses or look towards alternate means to arrange the funding.
The internal team at Sanmar responded magnificently to this challenge to close on funding about Rs 3600 crores (USD 715 M) from 11 Indian banks and 1 Egyptian Bank. The funding was completed just in the nick of time to meet the two-year repayment of the bridge loan from ICICI in March this year. The team went through four distinct phases in the funding process - first the bridge loan arrangements, then the bond placements (through Bear Stearns), then the project finance arrangements with BNP, and fi nally closing the loan on the BNP drafted documentation with Indian banks. Congratulations to the team.
Executive Vice President – Marketing, Flowserve Sanmar
Ravinder Bhat, has had a long stint at Sanmar in various capacities with various product lines. Ravinder has lead the marketing team at Flowserve, steering them to two consecutive years of performance. Even in adverse market conditions, Ravinder ensured growth in OEM bookings of 48% and increase in MRO order bookings of 17 % over the previous year. Flowserve is the only business in SEC that exceeded targets in the last year.
Joint Manager – Site Services, SESL, Jamnagar
Gopal Rawoor was moved from Tyco Sanmar to Sanmar Engineering Services (SESL), Jamnagar in July 2008. Gopal played a key role in ensuring compliance with statutory and safety requirements of Reliance Industries (RIL), critical customer of SEC. SESL is one of the nominees for Best Safety Performance Award for contractors of Reliance. He resolved several issues pending with RIL and brought about a growth of 46.7 % in spares, obtained JERP II AMC order for Seals & Safety products, paved the way for AMC for control valves and also ensured a zero attrition rate at Jamnagar in the year 2008-09.
Senior General Manager – Marketing, Tyco Sanmar
Deepesh ensured growth in MRO segment by 30% & Project order bookings (excluding Reliance bookings) by 38% over the previous year. He improved domestic sales at Tyco Sanmar through outstanding discount management, price management, specifically in large value project orders that brought about improvements in contribution margin of 1200 basis points. Deepesh is a visible role model for his enthusiasm and passion for business and results.
Senior General Manager – Operations, Xomox Sanmar
Ramesh has done an outstanding job in leading the Pacific Valves project implementation, ensuring that the details are taken care of to establish a world-class facility.
Thanks to his leadership the project is being delivered ahead of schedule and below budget.
At the Xomox valves division, he has set-up a benchmark planning process and motivates his team to adhere to it.
Manager – Stores & Materials, Fisher Sanmar
R Sridhar has brought in a total transformation in stores. Sridhar brought improvements in the casting yard and in organising store items. He was responsible for store items being identified by bar code which will be integrated in SAP. Inventory accuracy was another area of improvement he brought about and is reaching close to 100%. His improvements in packing methods brought about cost savings. His efforts have helped in identifying and eliminating error and also recovery of Rs 40 lakhs in past transactions.
Executive Vice President – Operations, Sanmar
Ferrotech
Radha has contributed very significantly to making SFTL what it is today - a Foundry noticed and respected by the external business community for the high standards of excellence in project execution evidenced by its world class infrastructure and supported with a good team, openly appreciated by the Indian Institute of Foundry men in India.
His passion and commitment are obvious and worth emulating, so are his obsession with Kaizen and right first time concepts. His deep understanding of Foundry processes are of great relevance and significance for SFTL in our formative years.
Senior Engineer – Technical Services, Chemplast
Sanmar, Mettur
V Ramesh was involved in the implementation of the 30 TPA Polysilicon project. His notable contribution to the successful completion of the project include vendor co-ordination, equipment inspection, conducting trials on various equipment, erection and commissioning and subsequent trouble -shooting during initial stages of the operation of the new plant.
Ramesh was instrumental in designing and fabricating a new cyclone separator, which enabled the plant to increase the production of Trisil from 1.7 tonnes to 3.0 tonnes a day. He did some careful planning to roll out a cyclone separator of a new design which facilitated the plant to realise the incremental production of Trisil, a raw material.
Executive Manager – Projects, Chemplast Sanmar,
Cuddalore
Arivudai Nambi was assigned execution of three important projects, viz: VCM pipe line, seawater intake and diffuser & fire fighting system.
Nambi carried out the assignment by overcoming lot of challenges. Inspite of heavy rains, floods and rough seas, Nambi could complete the seawater project within the scheduled duration. Some highlights of the achievement are:
The Long Service Awards is a recognition programme practised at Sanmar to recognise employees’ tenure of 10, 20, 30, 35 and 40 years of association with the organisation.