“One of the key goals in organizational development in the last 10-15 years in the business world has been to find a way of creating cultures that are flexible & innovative and where individuals take responsibility for the results. This ensures moving away from bureaucratic silos where the formulaic approaches dominate, resulting into flawless execution. At Luminous, we live this day in and day out,” emphasizes Rajiv Ganju, Sr. Vice President – Manufacturing & Global Supply Chain, Luminous Power Technologies (P) Ltd., during this exclusive interview…
You have close to three decades’ experience in managing supply chain for the electrical & electronics manufacturing industry. How has the transformation been over these years?
Rajiv Ganju
The transformation has been immense and impactful in the sense that earlier customers used to wait for their orders as per the manufacturers’ production timelines. The scenario is completely reverse today where ‘customer is the king’. During the times when MNC culture was not prevalent in India, everything used to get imported. Manufacturing was practically non- existent in India as far as electronics is concerned, we were just into the assembly work. Today the landscape has changed drastically where India holds the position of being the second biggest manufacturer of mobile phones in the world. From being a country with the highest consumption appetite, we are on the path to become a manufacturing superpower for the world. Such has been the scale of remarkable transformation in the supply chain management for electrical & electronics industry over the last three decades. What do you have to say on the prominent role of Industry 5.0 in durables manufacturing and supply chain?
After our common Vision to become Global #3 Economy, modernization of Indian industry has become a necessity. Let’s track the fascinating evolution from Industry 1.0 to 5.0… During earlier days, there never used to be a concept of continuous production in the manufacturing facilities. It laid the groundwork for factories and mass production, shaping modern manufacturing. In the era of Industry 2.0, we tried to streamline the production process. During this time, new technological systems were introduced, most notably superior electrical technology which allowed for even greater production and more sophisticated machines. Industry 3.0 marked the era of technological integration via computers, which introduced automated systems onto the assembly line to perform human tasks. Industry 4.0 was essentially the era of smart machines, storage systems and production facilities that can autonomously exchange information, trigger actions and control each other without human intervention. The most fascinating transformation of all, I would say, is the current one – Industry 5.0, which is still at an infancy, which brings together the combined power of the man and the machine. It essentially aims at moving towards a human-centric, sustainable and resilient approach to industry, focusing on prosperity beyond jobs and sustainable growth trajectory. This new era envisions to create a more inclusive and equitable future for all stakeholders involved in the manufacturing ecosystem. Industry 5.0 has three key pillars: human-centric, resilience and sustainability.
Human-Centric: A human-centric strategy is one that promotes talents, diversity and empowerment. The most important shift this suggests is one from seeing people as means to seeing people as ends, or in other words, a shift in perspective from people serving organizations, to organizations serving people.
Resilient Strategy: A resilient strategy is agile and adaptive with flexible and evolving technologies. After Covid-19, global shortage of supplies, and the war in Ukraine disrupted the global supply chain, there’s only few who would disagree that resilience proved to be the key—today and in the future. While agility and flexibility are already on the corporate agenda, these attributes in themselves do not necessarily lead to success. If we are to realize that resilience truly becomes one of the three pillars of Industry 5.0, it means that strategy’s primary focus will no longer be on growth, profit, and efficiency alone, but on creating organizations that are ‘anti-fragile’, indicating that they are able to anticipate, react and learn timely, systematically from any crisis, thereby ensuring stable and sustainable performance of the organization.
Sustainable Strategy: We see sustainability not just as a corporate practice but as a social necessity, which leads us to actively participate in promoting awareness on various environmental issues. With an organizational structure, it becomes a critical platform to spread messages on the challenges posed by climate change, resource depletion, pollution, and biodiversity loss. Luminous arranges workshops, seminars, and green team activities to make employees and customers aware of sustainable practices. These efforts point to the belief of the company that only a collective approach can bring about a truly sustainable future. A greener tomorrow is envisioned, for which Luminous Power Technologies innovates and leads in the energy sector. Luminous sees a world wherein sustainability is core to every action and makes this possible through collaboration, innovation, and education.
What does it take to optimize the routing and scheduling of deliveries for home electrical products?
Firstly, there is correct demand sensing which is achieved through the implementation of generative AI. We are living in the times of super-fast deliveries happening literally in the knick of the time. This can only be achieved if we have the correct tools in place to sense the right demand and cater to them immediately. Another important concept to focus on is the ‘theory of constraints’. We should deploy automation tools & techniques such as collaborative robotics and robotic process automation to enhance operational efficiency and reduce cost.
What are the best practices you have implemented to streamline operations?
“Culture eats strategy for breakfast” is a famous quote from legendary management consultant and writer Peter Drucker. To be clear, he didn’t mean that strategy was unimportant – rather he implied that a powerful and empowering culture was a definite route to the organizational success.
One of the key goals in organizational development for the last 10-15 years has been to find a way of creating cultures that are flexible & innovative and where individuals take responsibility for the results. This ensures moving away from bureaucratic silos where the formulaic approaches dominate resulting into flawless execution. At Luminous, we live this day in and day out. For instance, we decided to have the total greenfield solar plant ready and running in 9 months and despite hurdles, we did it!
‘Humans can err, machines make marginally fewer errors.’ This observation anchored the conversation around the importance of investing in tech solutions for logistic excellence. AI supports organizational decision-making and increases operational efficiency based on effective data insights. Artificial Intelligence (AI) technology has two forms – Traditional AI and Generative AI. While traditional AI leveraged historical Data and Algorithms to derive output; Generative AI relies on data-driven learning and probabilistic modeling to generate content, make decisions, and problem-solve. Unlike Traditional AI, Generative AI does not rely on explicit rules but rather learns patterns and structures from the vast amounts of data fed into the system. One of the most significant advancements in Generative AI is the use of neural networks, specifically deep learning models.
The bottom line for implementing any tech tool should be purely functional and not at all for rhetorical purposes. The objective of automation should also be complementing the workforce and not the other way round. Train the people to work around and work with such advanced tools and most importantly, the impact of these should be measurable. Supply chain is an insightful science. It will evolve with the fast-paced induction of technology and the enhanced capabilities, potential of the new-age supply chain professionals.
What are the guiding principles that you would like to share with young supply chain professionals to climb the success ladder?
The world is becoming SMART and so are workplaces. This is the time to unlearn conventional wisdom and apply SMART tools. This is beautifully explained in the book “Break All the Rules” by Marcus Buckingham and Curt Coffman. The book reveals what great managers do differently from ordinary managers to coax world class performance out of their workers. Great managers routinely break all the rules. They take the conventional wisdom about human nature and managing people and turn it upside down.
There are four keys for unlocking the potential of each and every one of your employees:
The first key is to select employees based on talent rather than experience or intelligence. This will help you learn what talent is and why you can’t create it from scratch.
The second key is to evaluate performance based on desired outcomes rather than direct control over the way a worker performs his/ her job.
The third key to great management is to reject the conventional wisdom that people can be fixed. Focus on their strength, not on weakness.
The fourth and final key is to find the right fit for your employees’ talents. Again, you will learn to avoid the conventional wisdom that promotion is the only just reward for high performance - mindset that creates an organization where everyone is ultimately promoted to their level of incompetence.
In short, always remember that dreams are for real. To accomplish great things, we must not only act, but also dream; not only plan, but also believe. Hold fast to dreams, for if dreams die, life is a broken-winged bird that cannot fly.
Being supply chain professionals, we believe in enhancing the efficiency and the gross margins of the product. This should be the ultimate mantra of every supply chain professional. They must have the passion for supply chain and as they say, ‘Always stay hungry & curious’. I don’t shy away from stating that shamelessly emulate an already successful idea if it’s working well and is delivering what the customers want.
What are the traits that make up for a great CSCO?
These days all of us as leaders want our teams to outperform. Many studies help us to achieve this goal. One of the tools I use and found very successful is Pygmalion Effect. The original study was conducted by social psychologists Robert Rosenthal and Lenore Jacobsen in a Californian School in 1968. The findings from the study have proven that the expectation of a leader has a direct impact on the performance of the person they are leading. Or as Rosenthal describes it, “What one person expects of another can come to serve as a self-fulfilling prophecy.”
Rosenthal shared four key factors that help explain how the Pygmalion Effect works:
Climate – Warm and friendly behavior
Input – The tendency for managers to devote energy to their valued employees
Output – The way managers call on those employees more often for answers
Feedback – Giving more helpful responses to employees who are considered ‘valued’.
Some managers always treat their subordinates in a way that leads to superior performance. But most managers unintentionally treat their subordinates in a way that leads to lower performance than they are capable of achieving. What managers expect of subordinates and the way they treat them largely determine their performance and career progress. A unique characteristic of superior managers is the ability to create high-performance expectations that subordinates fulfill. Less effective managers fail to develop similar expectations, and as a consequence, the productivity of their subordinates suffers.
IMPACT ON PRODUCTIVITY
One of the most comprehensive illustrations of the effect of managerial expectations on productivity is recorded in studies of the organizational experiment undertaken in 1961 by Alfred Oberlander, manager of the Rockaway district office of the Metropolitan Life Insurance Company. He decided to form a group of superior agents in one unit to stimulate their performance and to provide a challenging environment in which to introduce new salespeople.
Accordingly, Oberlander assigned his six best agents to work with his best assistant manager, an equal number of average producers to work with an average assistant manager, and the remaining low producers to work with the least able manager. He then asked the superior group to produce two-thirds of the premium volume achieved by the entire agency during the previous year. He describes the results as follows:
“Shortly after this selection had been made, the people in the agency began referring to this select group as a ‘super-staff’ because of their high esprit de corps in operating so well as a unit. Their production efforts over the first 12 weeks far surpassed the target and performance improved by 40%.”
As leaders, we have to set up high expectations, provide the right climate, provide right and timely feedback to our performers and expect super results. Ultimately, you must be a great team player and a good motivator.
How can companies tackle disruptions through continuous innovation?
We are living in an era of disruption. One of the most innovative ways is ‘Orbit Shifting Approach’. Orbit Shifting innovation happens by devising innovative strategies that are not based on precedent or projections tied to past performance. The world of innovation is full of stories about how a leader got to an out-of-the-box idea that created a transformative impact.
Nearly all of these stories are really about incidental and accidental innovation. The core question is: How do we make orbit-shifting innovation happen by design?
The reality for most organizations is that layers and layers of gravity can make it very difficult to come up with an out-of-the-box idea. The organizational gravity box, the industry gravity box, the country gravity box, and the cultural gravity box. The deeper you go, the more invisible the box becomes. Most orbit-shifting innovations did not start with an out-of-the-box idea, but with an out-of-the-box challenge, an orbit-shifting challenge.
Redefine Goal Setting: To trigger orbit-shifting innovation by design, organizations need to start by going beyond performance goals. They need to redefine goal setting into a twin-track exercise: orbit-maintaining and orbit-shifting goals. A powerful principle is: for every three orbit-maintaining (performance) goals, a leader needs to take on at least one orbit-shifting challenge.
Triggering the Orbit-shifting Challenge: Most traditional goal-setting exercises get rooted in the reference points of the current orbit. Last year’s achievements and industry projections become the first reference point for next year’s goals. Orbit-shifters, unlike followers, don’t take reference from the last year and create stretch goals. They trigger orbit-shifting challenges.
Making an Exception the New Reference Point: Some followers look at the average and create stretch goals, while others benchmark with the industry best practices and create catch-up goals. Orbit-shifters search for the exception, across industries and domains, and make exceptions the reference point for an orbit-shifting challenge.
As a CEO, think about this: Traditional industry professionals focus on the average; they treat exceptional events/occurrences as abnormalities to be ignored. For orbit-shifters, what is an exception today could be the norm tomorrow. Current times enable us to act like an orbit-shifter, looking for the absolute exceptions in our industry.
With the Central Government laying immense thrust on building a component manufacturing ecosystem, how do you see the supply chain playing a catalytic role?
The Electronics Manufacturing Services (EMS) industry is rapidly advancing, and prominent global leaders and domestic companies see India as an emerging manufacturing and operations hub. A strong component manufacturing foundation is necessary for a sustainable ESDM environment. This segment requires very high operating efficiency to stay profitable. Moreover, the availability of components and an effective supply chain are essential for EMS companies to grow. India, with its strong demographics and skilled employees, has the potential to be one of the leading exporters of electronics in the world. The government is highly focused on reaching the US $300 billion electronics production target by 2026.
India has clearly drafted its ambition to achieve US$120 billion worth of exports by 2026. While China and Vietnam excel in electronics exports, with China exceeding 1 trillion dollars and Vietnam surpassing $100 billion, India lags behind with exports totaling only $20 billion, representing a mere 0.4% of the Global Electronics and Electrical Market. High import tariffs and dependency on imported critical components hinder India’s competitiveness. Protectionist policies may not effectively address this issue.
Enhancing Domestic Value Addition: India aims to position itself as a global hub for electronics manufacturing through policies like NPE 2019. Achieving this goal requires enhancing domestic value addition, promoting exports, and creating an enabling environment.
India needs to incentivize investment further, improve infrastructure, and create favorable policies in exiting schemes like SEZ, EHTP, EOU, MOOWR, FTZW.
What are the steps in which electronics supply chain can be revolutionized?
The world is becoming SMART & so are our customers. In this era, it is pertinent for all of us to develop products that excite customers and make organizations world class. In this direction how relevant is The KANO Model (pronounced “Kah-no”). The Kano model is useful in gaining a thorough understanding of customers’ needs. You can translate and transform the resulting verbatims using the voice of the customer table that, subsequently, becomes an excellent input as to what’s in a quality function deployment (QFD) House of Quality.
The Kano model addresses the three types of requirements:
Satisfying basic needs: Allows a company to get into the market.
Satisfying performance needs: Allows a company to remain in the market.
Satisfying excitement needs: Allows a company to excel, to be world class.
Kano says that a product or service is about much more than just functionality. It is also about customers’ emotions. For example, all customers who buy our new solar product range will expect the rooftop modules to generate and store electricity, but most of them will be delighted to have a completely app-based platform – ConnectX. ConnectX offers a comprehensive solution for energy management, combining real-time data visualization, historical analysis, insights, and customer support. It aims to establish a new benchmark for user-friendly and feature-rich energy management tools. The users will benefit from access to real-time data and insights, informing them about power generation, energy usage patterns, as well as performance and health of the inverter through notifications and update.
While we focus Make in India, let us excite our customers through developing exciting products in India!
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