Srirangarajan Santhanam: A Pioneer Of Groundbreaking Manufacturing Technologies In India
Srirangarajan Santhanam
Managing Director
Tell us about your IIM Bangalore experience and the influence that it had on you.Also, after 32years of professional experience, what drives you today?
The one year I spent there was worth its weight in gold. It opened up my mind on how to take business decisions and how important is finance for a manager with non financial background, as well as the importance of innovation and teamwork. Case studies based pedagogy was a crucial learning experience that addressed a holistic approach towards a problem, while continuous evaluationbased on assignments, projects, and/or tests kept me always on my toes. I believe that work is worship. I am a workaholic, and passion towards work drives me.
You represent global leadership in the segment. How would you define ystral India as an organization? How does it keep the reputation intact?
Ystral gmbh is a 60+ year old company credited with introducing revolutionary products that changed the way customers would process their products by saving energy, space, manpower and raw materials. ystral India was incorporated in 2013 with myself as the sole employee. Looking at the low cost talent available and the acceptance level of our products not only in India but around Asia, the company accepted the idea to make India as a support base for customers in the AP region.
Our customers in the region not only
benefit from quick response time but also from saving costs as it is cheaper to engage services of Indian engineers for the same services compared to a European engineer. Today we have a reputation as not only a highquality equipment supplier, but also a reliable solution provider. It was a challenge to introduce a new concept in the market which is very price sensitive but we did it successfully with the concept of onsite trials using rental systems to prove our technology's suitability for customer applications.
How do you plan to apply your vast experience in the Engineering & Mechanical industry to take the company ahead of competition?
Offering a standardized package for specific applications saves a lot of our time and costs and we are working on the same for different applications. We are working on offering a higher level of component localization and the next step will be 'Make in India' to make sure that
our products are more competitively priced. It may be easier to copy our machines, but it is not that easy to clone our highly skilled manpower, this is the reason we lay a lot of emphasis on continuous skill upgradation of the team, and spend a lot of time on knowledge transfer. We need to have a wide portfolio of products and services to reach more customers. We are working together with other reputed equipment suppliers with complementing technologies who are industry leaders in their segment to expand our portfolio of offerings and put our resources to best use. This helps in not only cost optimization, but also provides us an edge over competition, as we can offer a complete solution with a single point of contact, which makes it convenient for the customer. In other words, making ystral the most preferred supplier is on top of our agenda.
In your professional journey so far, which are the milestones that bestowed you with utmost satisfaction both as an individual and a MD?
Customers appreciating our technology and being proud to be associated with us gives us unparalleled satisfaction. Word of mouth is the best way to acquire customers in a very short period of time in a price competitive market like India and ystral has been fortunate to put this strategy to effective use. To build a knowledgeable team and employees gaining recognition to be treated on par with the best talent in the industry gives immense satisfaction as a leader as the employees feel that they are an integral part of the
Our customers in the region not only benefit from quick response time, but also from saving costs as it is cheaper to engage services of Indian engineers
How do you plan to apply your vast experience in the Engineering & Mechanical industry to take the company ahead of competition?
Offering a standardized package for specific applications saves a lot of our time and costs and we are working on the same for different applications. We are working on offering a higher level of component localization and the next step will be 'Make in India' to make sure that
our products are more competitively priced. It may be easier to copy our machines, but it is not that easy to clone our highly skilled manpower, this is the reason we lay a lot of emphasis on continuous skill upgradation of the team, and spend a lot of time on knowledge transfer. We need to have a wide portfolio of products and services to reach more customers. We are working together with other reputed equipment suppliers with complementing technologies who are industry leaders in their segment to expand our portfolio of offerings and put our resources to best use. This helps in not only cost optimization, but also provides us an edge over competition, as we can offer a complete solution with a single point of contact, which makes it convenient for the customer. In other words, making ystral the most preferred supplier is on top of our agenda.In your professional journey so far, which are the milestones that bestowed you with utmost satisfaction both as an individual and a MD?
Customers appreciating our technology and being proud to be associated with us gives us unparalleled satisfaction. Word of mouth is the best way to acquire customers in a very short period of time in a price competitive market like India and ystral has been fortunate to put this strategy to effective use. To build a knowledgeable team and employees gaining recognition to be treated on par with the best talent in the industry gives immense satisfaction as a leader as the employees feel that they are an integral part of the
organization. They work with commitment and take owner ship, which bring the best out of an individual.
What were the challenges that were posted by the pandemic? What was your role in tackling those challenges?
Keeping the team engaged when the lockdown continued for many weeks was the biggest challenge. We had taken on board a few new employees keeping our long term goals in mind. We could neither send them to Germany for training nor provide on-job-training as the customer visits were not possible. So we took the online route to provide training on our equipment and applications. To keep it interesting, we decided to prepare case studies based on their past experience. This kept the employees not only busy, but soon they also realized that it was the best way to share knowledge. We involved application experts from Europe and Asia to make the exercise more interesting and productive. Our initiative was well appreciated by our HQ as we could utilize the time very effectively. The biggest challenge, how ever, was to support our customers while traveling was not possible. We quickly adapted to the situation, and used video calls to guide customers not only in India, but across the AP region in terms of troubleshooting and providing technical support. The customers were very appreciative of our efforts as it helped them save costly downtime. Another issue was compensation and hence we introduced a new compensation package to retain talent in the long term.
What technological changes can be implemented in the business sector? What are your future plans for ystral?
Innovation is the key to success and ystral strongly believes in the same. We recently launched a new concept in process technology for making Li-ion battery slurry which is a potential game changer in the rapidly growing EV market. Making our products more affordable and expanding our reach are challenging tasks. 'Make in India' could be the next step to achieve our company's long term objective. We are also constantly looking at new application areas so that we can use our available resources effectively to acquire new customers and further grow our business
Having spent so many years in this industry, what advice would you give to the budding leaders?
Love your job, take care of your customers and they will take care of you. Customers' testimony is the best tool to convince your boss during your appraisal. Knowledge is power and Information is key and one should grab every opportunity to acquire it.
Srirangarajan Santhanam, Managing Director, ystral India
An industry veteran with more than three decades of experience, Srirangarajan has pioneered several ground breaking Manufacturing Technologies in India.
What were the challenges that were posted by the pandemic? What was your role in tackling those challenges?
Keeping the team engaged when the lockdown continued for many weeks was the biggest challenge. We had taken on board a few new employees keeping our long term goals in mind. We could neither send them to Germany for training nor provide on-job-training as the customer visits were not possible. So we took the online route to provide training on our equipment and applications. To keep it interesting, we decided to prepare case studies based on their past experience. This kept the employees not only busy, but soon they also realized that it was the best way to share knowledge. We involved application experts from Europe and Asia to make the exercise more interesting and productive. Our initiative was well appreciated by our HQ as we could utilize the time very effectively. The biggest challenge, how ever, was to support our customers while traveling was not possible. We quickly adapted to the situation, and used video calls to guide customers not only in India, but across the AP region in terms of troubleshooting and providing technical support. The customers were very appreciative of our efforts as it helped them save costly downtime. Another issue was compensation and hence we introduced a new compensation package to retain talent in the long term.
What technological changes can be implemented in the business sector? What are your future plans for ystral?
Innovation is the key to success and ystral strongly believes in the same. We recently launched a new concept in process technology for making Li-ion battery slurry which is a potential game changer in the rapidly growing EV market. Making our products more affordable and expanding our reach are challenging tasks. 'Make in India' could be the next step to achieve our company's long term objective. We are also constantly looking at new application areas so that we can use our available resources effectively to acquire new customers and further grow our business
Having spent so many years in this industry, what advice would you give to the budding leaders?
Love your job, take care of your customers and they will take care of you. Customers' testimony is the best tool to convince your boss during your appraisal. Knowledge is power and Information is key and one should grab every opportunity to acquire it.
Srirangarajan Santhanam, Managing Director, ystral India
An industry veteran with more than three decades of experience, Srirangarajan has pioneered several ground breaking Manufacturing Technologies in India.