Interview Mr. Bazmi Husain, Country Manager, Managing Director, ABB India

Arun: Thank you for your acceptance to talk to us. What, according to you, are key contributory factors in ABB's performance in the current year?

Bazmi: Our strategy is centered on three Ps: People, Processes, and Product. With respect to human capital, we have made significant investments in boosting local as well as recruiting global talent across the organization. After all, it is employees or resources that ultimately determine the success of any organization's strategy.

We also focused significantly on augmenting processes, improving project management, and supply chain efficiencies. Research and Development (R&D) is another area we have accelerated, this is for global as well as India-specific requirements. The program called 'In Country, By Country, and For Country', is focused on indigenization of solutions and we have considered this as a critical component of our India strategy. While indigenizing product, quality is cast in stone as part of the process, and we would not like to compromise on that. By indigenization, we are customizing the functionality, altering supply base, and design criteria where appropriate. We have our R&D center in Bangalore and we have also setup a R&D center closer to our manufacturing centers in Baroda and Nasik, because anything that is developed has to be manufactured, and there should be closed loop between design and manufacturing. All these factors have enabled us to increase our competitiveness and customer reach. Keen ability to understand Indian consumers and capability to indigenize products and solutions are key factors contributing to our performance.

Arun:  What according to you are evolving imperatives that the Indian industrial community has to watch out for?

Bazmi: Based on my interaction with various stakeholders, majority of organizations are looking at long-term opportunities rather than short-term issues. Companies understand that the current market scenario is due to lack of clarity on policy directions. In short term, while there are load factor or plant utilization-related issues, these are not long-term concerns. The market is maturing and what we expect to see is focus on Overall Equipment Effectiveness (OEE). I am sure there will be gradual shift from capacity addition to productivity enhancement and energy efficiency-related investments. Customers are investing in products and solutions that will enable them to increase their overall productivity and efficiency. In last 5 years, amount of electrical energy to be produced for generating one GDP dollar has reduced; while amount of electrical energy consumed to generate one GDP dollar has increased. This particular fact highlights the efficiency that India has achieved in transmission and distribution side, while highlighting the need for increased efficiency on demand side. End users are really concerned about rising cost of energy and the need to ensure that energy efficiency is not just a best practice, but a common practice. The Bureau of Energy Efficiency (BEE)'s Perform Achieve and Trade (PAT) is expected to have far-reaching consequences on energy efficiency-related initiatives.

Arun: What could be the differentiating factors for ABB in addressing the above-mentioned scenario?

Bazmi: Clearly, I would like to see service as a major differentiator for ABB, because at the end of the day, I see service is the glue that binds us with customers in a long-term relationship. Customers across sectors value services and are willing to pay a premium to ensure consistency of operations. There is a fundamental shift from shutdown-based services to actually improving performance of the plant. The need for faster return on investments and efficient assShop Womens Socks - View the Large Range