Rahul Kejriwal, Vice President (Marketing), Remsons Industries

How would you describe Remsons in a competitive scenario?
Remsons is not alien to demand swings within the auto and auto ancillary sectors. Price pressures have increased with more competition among the OEMs. We have managed quite well in this scenario. We have taken various steps like upgradation of plant and machinery, processes and benchmarked best manufacturing practices. Competitiveness cannot only be restricted to price or quality. I often tell my employees that although products can be copied, it is very difficult for competitors to duplicate an aligned, high performance team. Talent that works well together is the ultimate competitive advantage. Companies that prosper and grow are those that listen to, engage and guide their employees.

What are the challenges ahead?
We have to act fast if we wish to remain competitive. We have to think quickly in anticipating, spotting and setting trends. The key to success is no longer the asset or size of our company, but rather its ability and determination to make speedy and necessary changes well before the rest. We made some strategic investments for new technologies at a time when there was no demand for the same. It was based on the belief that the trend was changing and we would be able to achieve, with the backing of our team, the product capability to stay ahead of the times. Today almost two years down the line, we are very near to the start of realising our goal.

What product technologies will you be bringing into the market?
Remsons has been the pioneers for control cables in India, right from friction free cables to die-cast ends on cables. We pioneered cable operated gearshifters here about five yeas ago before other Indian companies started to accept the technology. We always stayed ahead of competition when it came to new developments and technology. But to implement all projects at the same time is a task that has left us gasping for breath. It would still be a year before the projects are launched. We had to make capital investment for push pull machinery with no immediate returns. In the short term, executing our ambitious growth plans will come at a price without any immediate offsetting benefits. Without counteracting improvements in our existing business, this would drag down our economic profit temporarily as we encourage ideas that do not have instant payback. But we do understand that a lot of the future growth of the company depends on what we do today. We believe training, developing and retaining good talent will enable us to build a strong high performance team. Today I have been able to organise a younger team of energetic professionals who are guided by the seniors. They are able to handle a lot more projects with responsibility and dwell under challenging situations. Everybody has a fire in them. My role is to ignite that and show them the bigger picture.

What kind of opportunities do you see ahead?
There are opportunities not only in our current product portfolio but also to diversify into new technology products. We are looking at strategic relationships with companies in America and Europe for new technology in existing and diverse products, which would be standard requirement on new platforms of foreign cars made in India. We would then take this for horizontal deployment across new platforms for the Indian companies as well. We are very excited about the future.