This visionary set to turn the BPC around

HE IS a visionary acknowledged for his prowess in long-range planning of the companies and setting them on a firm path of corporate excellence with his take on the mission driven management mantra.

Meet Abhay Kumar Jain, a mechanical engineer and management expert, who after a successful stint of 31 years with the PSU giant Bharat Heavy Electricals Limited (BHEL), has now taken over as the new managing director of Bharat Pumps and Compressors Ltd (BPC), Naini with a clear cut mission: Turn around the company and usher it into the golden world of profits.

"As soon as I joined, I initiated a SWOT analysis to come to terms with our Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities and Threats.

Armed with the findings, I shared its details with everyone in the company and chalked out a time-table for each and every employee of the company clearly spelling out our short-term and long-term plans and their role in it," says Jain, an alumnus of the Jabalpur Engineering College who after completing his engineering degree in 1973 went on do an MBA from Bhopal University.

Jain believes that a company's staff is its strength and that by sharing information about the present situation and the set targets with them, a company can get great results.

"Today each and every employee of the company knows that the turnover of the company in the current fiscal is expected to be Rs 100 crore which is the highest turnover ever in the history of BPC.

They also know that we are now striving to book orders to the tune of Rs 155 crore in the next financial year and plan to take this figure to Rs 250 crore in the next five years. The long term target: Rs 1000 crore business by 2015," he said.

The BPC's new MD firmly believes that for an employee to function at his best, he needs to have a good work environment. "The staff canteen was in shambles and the company campus too was in a state of neglect.

I decided to first sell the scrap and use that money to give a facelift to the BPC campus and premises.

So, 18-truck loads of scrap paper was sold for Rs 3 lakh and the scrap iron lying buried here and there got us another Rs 15 lakh.

This money was used for employees' benefit and as a result the staff canteen can today cater to the needs of 250 employees at a time.

Similarly, work has begun on improving the premises and in two years we will transform the campus into a garden," said the man who also holds a Law degree, is a qualified lead assessor of CII-Exim Excellence Award and on whom now rests the hopes and dreams of BPC's 1235 workers.

Jain said that as per the new vision document prepared under him, BPC will strive to have a foreign base by 2008 and become a Mini-Ratna by 2009.