Change is the only constant in life, and no one can vouch for this better than PS Kumar. He is an engineer by education, a salesman by profession, and a transformation coach by vocation. He is the founder of 360° Transformation, a renowned high impact skills development program. Corporate Citizen chats with Kumar about his diverse work experience, the requirements of Indian industry and the need to ignite people to achieve their dreams
I did my bachelors in Mechanical Engineering from Annamalai University, and I followed it up with Masters in Engineering from the same institute. After that, I travelled for work from Vishakhapatnam to Hyderabad to Kolkata. I like to be self-driven like an engine and not a follower like a bogie In my career, I got a lot of technical job offers during this period, from operations to site engineering, but somehow I was always fascinated by the sales profession.
That's very true. I was working at the Vizag steel plant as its engineering contractor’s employee in the post of a site engineer. One day our sales engineer was not in a position to give technical answers during a negotiation. He was my friend too. During a chat, he asked for my help vis-a-vis technical expertise in the negotiation. I went along and spent the better part of the day convincing the client. At the end, he agreed and the order was finally released. The company threw a party to celebrate. At that celebration, all the praises went to the sales engineer. That same night, he had a talk with me. He explained to me that I had an inherent ability to convince people on technical matters, and that I should try my hand at sales. I was an introvert who liked keeping to himself, and I felt the qualities of a sales person were missing in me. He explained to me that technical sales are an entirely different beast and due to my domain knowledge, I would be ideal for it.
I requested my company to move me to sales, but they weren't willing as they wanted only experts in sales. Then I decided to leave the company and move to Hyderabad. I was selected in ABC consultants after a round of interviews.
At that time, they selected me to sell high voltage electrical cables. I had never studied cables before. I wasn’t sure how I would be able to do that. But they put me through training in Kolkata. When I came back, I was rearing to go. Our company got an order from TNEB and it was India’s first order of 110 KV— EVH cables.
The branch manager at that time was trying to groom his own son for a promotion. He was afraid that I may get promoted above him. He therefore tried to isolate me and deny me any opportunities. I was frustrated and joined with their competitor. I learnt lot of marketing aspects in three years. We also got India’s first 132 KV EHV cables order from TNEB. One day, I met a gentleman in a flight, and we started chatting. He was impressed by my knowledge and he offered me a job at Larsen and Toubro. L&T is a large organization. I told him that I did not want to be a small fish in a big pond, but rather a big fish in a small pond, so that I could learn more. He said that L&T was planning to start a new division, and he would like me to join it. All this happened on a Chennai to Delhi flight.
I was convinced. I gave the interview and was selected to market Plastics Machineries - IMMs and high end machines. Just like cables, I knew nothing of plastics. I love to accept challenges. I learnt everything there is to know about the subject. I thrived in L&T for over two decades, starting from a sales executive to a senior deputy general manager. I was amongst the first in that division; we started it and made it grow. I discovered that I am good at value selling. I like to convey the value of the product rather than just match the price. I am a very ethical person, I don't believe in misrepresenting to the customer. I believe in presenting the whole truth to the customer. Being in a sales job, it is very difficult to not embellish facts and yet be successful, but this is something I would never compromise on.
At L&T, our products were far superior than our competitors, but our prices were around 40% costlier than them. I focused on telling the customer the benefits of the products rather than haggling over the price. If our products can deliver 30% efficiency to the customer, I promised 22%, so that when the customer got more than promised, he came out delighted. Initially, the managers from the customer side feared that increased efficiency due to products would make them appear inefficient. But I managed to convince them that it is not me or my product, but they who are responsible for improved productivity. It is this people's touch that endeared us to the employees of the client. Through product superiority and great client servicing, we managed to become the market leader in the segment.
Then I moved to Mumbai, where I was assigned multiple roles during my tenure. I was their zonal manager responsible for South. I handled marketing services and training. Later, I became head of communications and branding in that joint venture company.
After a while, L&T decided to sell off that division to Fiat. Fiat is an excellent company, but for some reason, I have always preferred to work with an Indian company rather than a foreign one. I guess I am patriotic (laughs).
"I am a very ethical person, I don’t believe in misrepresenting to the customer. I believe in presenting the whole truth to the customer. Being in a sales job, it is very difficult to not embellish facts and yet be successful, but this is something I would never compromise on"
You could say that. I moved back to Chennai and started working with a kitchen appliances company called Butterfly Appliances. I learnt a lot there. I was in charge of international sourcing, and I traveled to China quite often for work. It was during these travels that I noticed a huge difference between China and India.
China is extremely efficient in operations. The entire world is a market for China. Unfortunately, I feel we are 30 years behind China when it comes to manufacturing efficiency. The infrastructure and government support there is immense. We have a wrong perception that China made goods are inferior. In fact, companies like Apple manufacture in China itself. There, you get what you pay for.
After seeing the disparity between China and India, I began to introspect. I asked myself why our country is not growing. I felt that change has to come from the mind of the people, but the question was how to achieve that. Education was the answer. However, I am from a middle class family and don't have the resources to start a college. So what could I do? The answer stared at me. I could be a trainer. The idea which germinated as a seed slowly took control of my entire thought process until I eventually decided to take the plunge.
That is the story of how I quit my job and started 360° Transformation.
My passion is to transform people. Whatever knowledge we have, we cannot carry it to our deathbed. We must eventually pass it along to future generations. My success is not because of me alone, it is because of my team. I am very good in building teams and getting things done. I ignite people to perform. I don't yell, reprimand or coerce people, I just motivate them. I firmly believe everyone has the capability. You just need to convey the message in a way the person understands. Once the person is motivated, there is no need to monitor him. He will perform. If you force someone to perform like you, their originality is lost and they will never be able to act like someone else. I am very firm and clear. All my engineers have been told that in three years, they should surpass me. Today, several of my engineers are Presidents and VPs of leading companies. I owe everything to my great leaders like M/s KRL Narasimhan, ES Kumar, Vijay Sankar NS Sivaraman, V Ganesh, P Kailas and my team.
I established it in 2016. When I started, I realized I am very good at subjects, but I wasn’t very good at communicating it to youngsters. When I was working at L&T and Butterfly, the youngsters under me were engineers. I could easily communicate in technical terms. I had difficulty conveying my message to the layman. This requires a different skill. I decided to up skill myself. I attended many training programs. Interestingly, I was 50 years old then. I spent approximately Rs.10 lakhs and gave nine months to attend international training programs. There I learnt how to talk to people, how to present myself to people, and how to convey my thoughts and influence other people. When I finally learnt all that, I decided to take the leap and start my training academy.
If someone wants to transform, it can’t be piecemeal. If a person wants to be healthy, they cannot just exercise their biceps. If they do, only the biceps will be strong but the entire body will be weak. This is not growth. Growth needs to be holistic, like a cocoon changing into a butterfly. Transformation must come full circle—360° . This is how I coined the name.
When you transform, a radical change happens. Transformation is not based on past or present. It is only concerned about your future. Transformation is strategy driven and external influences are less. Like mobile phones moved from keypads to touch screens—That was a radical change which transformed the entire telecom industry. For such a transformation to occur, you must change your mindset. Let me give you an example, if you want to quit smoking and your heart is not in it, you won’t be able to quit. But if you have promised your loved one that you will quit smoking, then even if anyone offers you a cigarette, you won’t smoke because you have made a commitment. This change happens internally.
Transformation is a process just like carving out a statue. You need to take a stone and chisel. But if the hammer fears that the rock will feel pain if I chip at it, the beautiful statue will never be created. You have to undergo pain to transform into the best version of yourself.
"Expand your horizon. When I was in school, my competition was someone in my city or at the most my state. Today, your competition might be someone sitting in Shanghai, Madrid, Tokyo or New York. Compare yourself with global standards, not with your friends"
Youngsters today are primarily concerned with making quick money. The rule of any transformation is—no pain, no gain. If you are not going to suffer at an earlier stage, you will suffer much more at a later stage. It’s better to suffer in the beginning and have a fruitful life later. I think no one in India is using the methodology we are using. We take interested people and work with them. 85% of people who became successful in life achieved it not just because of their education. It is a mix of education and personal factors. Take Dhirubhai Ambani for example. He had no experience about petrochemicals. He was passionate about coming up in life and he learnt about the subject. I made interested people identify their area of improvement. Others call it area of weakness, I don’t. We work on the area of improvement and make people perform. If someone is not good in finance, we educate them on the financial parameters we negotiate in contracts. Similarly, to those who aren’t good at technical aspects, we explain those aspects in detail. Some people are good at knowledge but not at people relations. We train them on that topic. Receptionists may sound pleasant on the first few calls of the day, but as the day drags on, they sound tired and irritated. But if they make politeness a habit, it won’t seem as such a task to them. I transform people to make them appealing to their customers. We aren’t profit-oriented, we are customer-focused—the profit automatically follows. I teach three main qualities—Personal qualities, smart working, and personal skills. Many times people believe that qualities and skills can’t be learnt. The good news is that it is in fact something people can master with practice. The key is to know how to do it. In one year, a person can transform into an excellent performer of his domain.
I believe so. Today, the biggest problem facing youngsters is employability. Most youngsters in India are unemployable. This is because students' exposure is very limited. The educational system in India, compared to China, Germany and the US, is much less industry oriented. There is real time change in syllabus to incorporate needs of different industries. Unfortunately in India the syllabus is very static. For example, the Internet of things (IoT) is everywhere. Students should have in-depth knowledge about things like artificial intelligence, big data and machine learning. When you start working, you should know about robotics and industry 4.0. But unless you equip students at the classroom level, it’s very difficult for them to pick up these things later on.
The problem is not the number of colleges; it is the quality of education. People go to colleges to learn and find employment, but if people coming out of these colleges are unemployable, who will enroll there? The focus is on rote learning and not on understanding where it should be. Students should be encouraged to learn and not forced to memories. Colleges usually call guest lectures in the final year, just a month or two before graduation. How will students implement advice from these experts if they are at the end of their course? Guest lecturers should be invited in the induction phase so that young minds have the opportunity to act on the advice of domain leaders.
I absolutely believe in separating work life and personal life. I never carried my work home. In India we don't have proper time management. I believe in delegating work and giving people, especially youngsters, the autonomy to carry out the work without asking me for inputs all the time. This allows the young people to gain more confidence about themselves and I too can spend more time with my family. One should never neglect their family life for work, whichever stage of their career they may be at.
I keep on learning new things. I meditate a lot. Lately, I am practicing Silambam, which is a Tamil martial art. At the age of 52, I am now learning to fight (laughs). I go for classes at 5 am every day. I practice for an hour.
Relaxation for me is learning something new rather than wasting time of Facebook and WhatsApp. Social media is addictive but it is not relaxing. On the contrary, it is stressful.
I believe my motto is to be customer focused. I believe in being truthful and never cheating anyone.
I would advise youngsters to identify their areas of improvement and transform themselves. Determine at a young age what you want to do with your life and diligently work towards it. Do not give into prejudices of other people. If someone tells you aren't good at something, don't let them bring you down. Improve on that point till you master it. For those students wanting to get into management, I would say that management should be studied as a science and applied as an art.
One final thing I would like to tell them is to expand their horizon. When I was in school, my competition was someone in my city or at the most my state. Today the world is globalized. Your competition might be someone sitting in Shanghai, Madrid, Tokyo or New York. Compare yourself with global standards, not with your friends.
By Neeraj Varty
