Karan Garg: Carrying The Business Legacy With NextGen Approach
Karan Garg
Director
Tell us about your educational background and professional experience. What prompted you to pursue a career in the manufacturing industry?
I completed my Bachelor of Technology (Pulp and Paper Engineering) from IIT Roorkee, India and pursued MBA Program from Kellogg School of Management, Evanston, IL, US. From my childhood days, I used to visit our family-owned businesses of metal casting, electrical transformers, and meters manufacturing, and I grew up seeing the business closely. So familiarity with business and challenges came in from a pretty young age. After my experience of working overseas, I recognized great potential of automation, digitization, and echnological advancement in the majority of Indian MSMEs and decided to pursue this profession to run our family business with a professionally managed approach. As a result, my belief in the future growth and breadth of manufacturing motivated me to take on this task.
How would you define Multimelt Steels as an organization? Could you tell us about the unique facets of Multimelt Steels that set it apart from the rest in the market?
Multimelt Steels is a 40-year old, second-generation family-owned company that manufactures specialist alloy steel parts for the mining cement and steel industries. Vedanta Group, NTPC, BHEL, Ministry of Defence, Midhani, and a variety of other export and domestic clients are among our clientele. We
manufacture critical, precision special alloy steel castings, and we are one of the top three manufacturing firms in India in our sector and the only ones in Punjab who produce a wide range of castings.
We ensure 100 percent chemical and fitment guarantee and quality products at affordable prices within the specified time frame. Customer service and transparency have always been the cornerstones of our relationships with our long term clientele. We provide complete end-to-end services, including part design, prototyping, and testing inhouse. One of the key distinguishing features that give us an edge in the market is that we constantly collaborate with clients to identify areas of improvement in the life of our products, which our clients highly appreciate. Even if it means less revenue for us at times, it benefits us in the long run by fostering strong customer relationships.
Being the Director, how do you plan to apply your exceptional understanding of this domain to Multi melt Steels and take it to the next level?
In my last six to seven years of working here, I have identified a few key areas of volume expansion targeting niche products with large steel plants in India and export markets, where we have better margin recovery and scope of volume expansion. Moreover, waste recovery and additional revenue from rooftop solar are being prioritized. Our emphasis on waste recovery has resulted in significant financial and regulatory benefits for us. For instance, sand is a significant by product of casting production, and we are now producing waste sand-based floor tiles, which has helped us gain environmental benefits, generate jobs, and added to our bottom line. We plan to cover 100 percent of our rooftop with solar as well.
Lastly, technological upgradation, since Multi melt Steels is a 40-year-old entity, most of the manufacturing infrastructure has reached its time limit and new
We ensure 100 percent chemical and fitment guarantee and quality products at affordable prices within the specified time frame. Customer service and transparency have always been the cornerstones of our relationships with our long term clientele. We provide complete end-to-end services, including part design, prototyping, and testing inhouse. One of the key distinguishing features that give us an edge in the market is that we constantly collaborate with clients to identify areas of improvement in the life of our products, which our clients highly appreciate. Even if it means less revenue for us at times, it benefits us in the long run by fostering strong customer relationships.
One of the key distinguishing features that give us an edge in the market is that we constantly collaborate with clients to identify areas of improvement in the life of our products, which our clients highly appreciate
Being the Director, how do you plan to apply your exceptional understanding of this domain to Multi melt Steels and take it to the next level?
In my last six to seven years of working here, I have identified a few key areas of volume expansion targeting niche products with large steel plants in India and export markets, where we have better margin recovery and scope of volume expansion. Moreover, waste recovery and additional revenue from rooftop solar are being prioritized. Our emphasis on waste recovery has resulted in significant financial and regulatory benefits for us. For instance, sand is a significant by product of casting production, and we are now producing waste sand-based floor tiles, which has helped us gain environmental benefits, generate jobs, and added to our bottom line. We plan to cover 100 percent of our rooftop with solar as well.
Lastly, technological upgradation, since Multi melt Steels is a 40-year-old entity, most of the manufacturing infrastructure has reached its time limit and new
technology and machinery can help us cut our operating expenses. However, upgrading the entire operation requires a step-by-step process that requires training manpower on new machinery while maintaining present output levels and maintaining capital costs. So that is our five year plan for a thorough technology overhaul and making our operational costs more efficient. We are leveraging IoT devices to generate automated reporting and for preventive maintenance, testing AI for default detection and working on incorporating robots into one of our departments for faster and more precise completion.
Based on your strong professional experience, what advice would you give to the upcoming leaders in the same domain?
Every family owned businessman works tire lessly to survive and prosper. I have a great deal of respect for all first and second-generation business owners because running a firm these days with tight margins, labor activity, market competitiveness, and uncertain demand supply scenarios is quite arduous.More is talked about the conveniences available to business families, but little is said about the challenges they encounter, especially in the current milieu.
My advice to my fellow business people in the community would be to focus on identifying niche high-quality customer and product lines to at least 20-30 percent of your products, achieving 100 percent waste recovery and capturing your solar generation potential, as there is money in any and each waste you generate, and finally focusing on technological modernization of your plants to make them as efficient as possible and ready for the next 40 years.
Karan Garg, Director, Multimelt Steels
Karan is a passionate and competent professional with rich experience in various geographies, cultures, and professional settings. He is a process oriented professional, laying his focus on technological innovation, operational efficiency, expanding business scope, and a data-driven approach to problem solving.
•Favorite Cuisine: Homemade Kadi Chawal,
Tandoori Roti Dal and Vietnamese Banh Xeo.
•Favorite Travel Destination: Barcelona & Bangkok.
•Favourite book: Gita, Unbeatable-
Celebrating life with Cerebral Palsy.
•Hobbies:Playing with my kids, Traveling, Marathon, running, Nonprofit for the disabled, Movies and Concerts.
Based on your strong professional experience, what advice would you give to the upcoming leaders in the same domain?
Every family owned businessman works tire lessly to survive and prosper. I have a great deal of respect for all first and second-generation business owners because running a firm these days with tight margins, labor activity, market competitiveness, and uncertain demand supply scenarios is quite arduous.More is talked about the conveniences available to business families, but little is said about the challenges they encounter, especially in the current milieu.
My advice to my fellow business people in the community would be to focus on identifying niche high-quality customer and product lines to at least 20-30 percent of your products, achieving 100 percent waste recovery and capturing your solar generation potential, as there is money in any and each waste you generate, and finally focusing on technological modernization of your plants to make them as efficient as possible and ready for the next 40 years.
Karan Garg, Director, Multimelt Steels
Karan is a passionate and competent professional with rich experience in various geographies, cultures, and professional settings. He is a process oriented professional, laying his focus on technological innovation, operational efficiency, expanding business scope, and a data-driven approach to problem solving.
•Favorite Cuisine: Homemade Kadi Chawal,
Tandoori Roti Dal and Vietnamese Banh Xeo.
•Favorite Travel Destination: Barcelona & Bangkok.
•Favourite book: Gita, Unbeatable-
Celebrating life with Cerebral Palsy.
•Hobbies:Playing with my kids, Traveling, Marathon, running, Nonprofit for the disabled, Movies and Concerts.