The business world is undergoing a rapid change largely driven by technology. These changes demand a different leadership style. Leaders have to be very agile and adaptive. A leader needs to acknowledge and should be very comfortable with the fact that they don’t have all the answers. This demands that leaders have to build a team having diverse expertise and encourage a system wherein the team and the leader learn from each other.
Palash Nandy , CEO of Numeric believes that the leaders’ job now is to provide a vision of what the organization should do, explain the rationale of the vision, how it is beneficial for all stakeholders and the risks of not focusing on that vision and then communicate, communicate and communicate. Palash encourages a passion for work, openness, transparency, and hunger for learning and drives for growth (personal & professional) within the team.
In an exclusive interview with Business APAC, he elaborates on his journey and experience as a leader. Here are some excerpts.
A Highly Experienced Leader
Please tell us something about your educational and professional background.
I have been to different schools across Bangalore and Allahabad and completed my graduation (B.Sc with Hons in Maths) from Kolkata. After completing my graduation, I joined MDS Switchgear Limited in Kolkata in 1990. I had a good learning curve and this learning experience helped me grow within the company. In November 1996, MDS was acquired by Legrand, which is how the latter came to India. Under the new Legrand management, I worked as an area manager and later worked as a product marketing manager. In 2013, I was offered a chance to work at Legrand’s headquarters in Paris, where I was responsible for strategic planning for the whole group. I worked in Paris for three-and-a-half years and came back to India to take up this role at Numeric, India. I was always interested in building something new, which is why I chose to come back to India and take up this assignment, which I have been working on for the last three-and-a-half years.
Offering Wide and Robust Service and Support System
Enlighten us about Numeric’s offerings.
We have experience of over 34 years in the UPS industry. We at Numeric have envisioned and relentlessly strived to offer reliable power quality solutions to the customers. With solutions from supporting a desktop PC to a large MW range mission-critical power requirement, Numeric is amongst the top 3 UPS companies in India. We have been serving thousands of satisfied customers across various market segments in India. Our customers include leading organizations from various market segments, such as IT, Healthcare, Banking, Education & Research, Telecom, Industries, Government, etc. Our installation base, over the last decade, is more than 1 million active UPS’s across market segments.
With 3 world-class manufacturing units located in Chennai and Sinnar, we are poised to meet the diverse needs of our customers. We provide 24/7 customer support through a wide and robust service and support system, which provides power continuity uptime and productivity of our customer’s businesses. Our network of 255 service centers is the largest service support network in India. More than 900 factory-trained service professionals are stationed in those locations to maintain UPS uptime.
Intend to Grow Faster than the Market Growth
Which are your present and future focus areas for expansion?
Since 2012, Numeric has been a part of the Legrand ground. Numeric today provides complete solutions in UPS across Line Interactive, 1 Phase, 3 Phase and Modular UPS’s. Global expertise and local knowledge make us a truly GLOCAL company. Numeric is already one of the 3 biggest UPS manufacturers in India. Going ahead we intend to grow faster than the market growth in order to consolidate our market share. We intend to do this by continuously bringing to the market state of the art technology and couple that with world-class service through our wide service network.
Numeric’s biggest strength has been its ability to always be at the cutting edge of UPS technology. This ability was further strengthened when Numeric became a part of the Legrand group which gave us access to the global expertise of Legrand combined with our local knowledge of customers and applications. We plan to continue to design new products in this segment and engage with all stakeholders like specifiers, system integrators, installers, distributors, end-users, etc. Our growth is powered by innovation, design, and user-friendliness in our products, which are the very cornerstones of our brand philosophy. We believe in driving growth, gaining customer confidence and market share through these parameters at each step.
A Distinct Leadership Style
As a leader, what are the different approaches you must have than other industry leaders?
Our Industry is driven by 2 major challenges; Service and Customization of products based on application needs, space, efficiency, etc. This means that our approach has to include service as a big differentiator. This is where our massive service infrastructure of 255 service centers and 1200 people make a huge difference. The challenge is to constantly improve our service offer by utilizing technology to improve our processes and therefore the service output. There is a constant need for a distinct leadership style keeping in mind that we are dealing with human interactions which is an asset to the organization. Plus depending upon the scale of operations demand the leadership style should automatically adapt and be able to IGNITE people across many locations. This needs a good mix of human relations coupled with the effective use of technology. To handle the customized demand, our supply chain and manufacturing need to be very flexible and adaptive. This means the need for some very specific skills and performance dashboards.
A Road towards Brighter Future
What are the key milestones that you have set for Numeric over the next 5 years?
Over the next 5 years, we at Numeric aim to be the No.1 player in the Indian UPS Industry. We are already no.1 in Line Interactive and Single Phase Ups for the last 26 years. To maintain the streak, we need to replicate the same for Three Phase and Modular UPS. We also want to maintain our leadership position in service. As a team with high experience in the industry, we want to be the best in class wrt to all the processes—manufacturing, sales, services, R&D etc. We are also planning to complete the digital transformation of the organization across three pillars—customer experience, employee experience, and manufacturing excellence. For the employee, we want to emerge as a preferred employer across industries.
Team with a Good Blend of Experience and Youth
Tell us something about your team.
The team plays an important role in the success of the organization. I believe that I have an interesting team with a good blend of experience and youth. They come from very diverse backgrounds and as a consequence have diverse abilities and strengths. I believe the Human Capital differentiates the new generation organizations. And the Leader alone cannot transform organizations. He/she needs a strong team and I am lucky to have one. I admire people who have a passion for whatever they are doing. Also, openness, transparency, a hunger for learning and growth (personal and professional) are certain qualities that I appreciate in a person. I strongly believe that skills can be taught but that’s not the case with attitude—which you either have or are devoid of it.
Encouraging Team for More Practical Solutions
According to you, what are the strengths of your team and how do you ensure their continuous development?
I always like to challenge my team members to go beyond their self-made boundaries and at the same time inculcate a ‘can do, will do’ attitude. I encourage them not to depend on me but to take independent decisions. I push my team hard to come up with practical solutions. I insist that they spend a large part of their time ‘listening’ to customers/stakeholders (internal and external) since the majority of the ‘good’ solutions come about when we are able to fully understand our customer’s ‘needs’.
I also believe in sharing my knowledge with my team for I believe that this helps me to grow along with them. Finally, I have always strived to provide an open environment wherein my teams are able to debate honestly and come out with the right solutions. I strongly believe that we have to make use of the diverse expertise that lies within any team and that the leader’s job is not to always provide the answer but to create an environment where different team members can put their heads together to come up with the appropriate solutions.
Words of Wisdom:
“I strongly believe that in today’s world the biggest differentiator amongst organizations is HUMAN CAPITAL. And hence it’s our job to nurture, train and give a sense of purpose to people since that is our biggest asset.”
