The Unique Pair @ VRL

Ramesh Kumar from Greater Noida

Five feet, six inches tall. Or short? Thin, reed-like. White hair, almost. Few strands of black hair spottable on his bushy mustache. Checked, half-sleeve shirt tucked inside muddy color pair of pants. Radiant and smiling face. Twinkling eyes. Seated behind the large 8x3 feet glass-topped table, Ramananda Bhatt appears like a pygmy in the spacious – 20 x 10 feet? – Chief Technology Officer’s (CTO) den.

CTO in a transport company sounds bizarre. He must be an important functionary in Chairman Vijay Sankeswar’s scheme of things. Otherwise, why should he keep reminding me that my visit to the Varur complex would be incomplete until I interact with Bhatt? The Varur complex, situated on the National Highway 4 linking Bangaluru with Mumbai, houses a massive administrative block, an equally huge workshop for trucks and luxury buses, a transshipment yard of several thousand sq. ft, a driver training institute, a brand new printing press for printing dailies, a record room on the top floor,  a large tire storage yard, a washing bay for luxury bus linen, a fumigation center to kill bugs embedded in luxury bus seats, multi-tiered driver restrooms, canteen for the workforce, etc, constructed several years ago. It’s the nerve center of the mammoth Rs.1,500 crore VRL Logistics empire. 

Again, Sankeswar reminds General Manager Panchaxarayya Gangayya Kallimath – my designated escort on my maiden visit to Hubli in August 2014 – to fix an appointment with Bhatt and ensure that it happens. On day one, we bumped into each other, but no conversations except a mutual ‘hello’. The same night, I was queried about the Bhatt rendezvous. My ‘negative’ response did not go down well with VRL Chief. “What’s so great about him? Why this insistence?”, I wonder. Nevertheless, I did not have to wait too long to find an answer to that intriguing question as we docked inside his cabin the next morning sharp 9.30 a.m.  His disarming smile and warmth are contagious. Kalmatti, am sure, was relieved that he could sleep well that night!

Over several cups of hot kapi, the Chennai-educated, banker’s son with a Diploma in Mechanical Engineering and ex-Leyland hotshot, unveils clues as to why his boss rates him so high. Then it dawns that he is the only CXO rank honcho operating from this huge complex while there are half a dozen Vice President rank officials straddle the same edifice. A very high ranking and the most valued and trusted lieutenant of Vijay Sankeswar, certainly. 

The so-called Vijay Sankeswar-Ramanand Bhatt alliance came into existence on 11 March 1995 with the former entrusting the responsibility of handling all technical and driver, mechanic affairs of VRL Logistics. If it was hardly 15 vehicles when Bhatt was first exposed to Vijay Anand Roadlines way back in 1986 in his capacity as a service engineer, he noticed that the vehicle population had grown multifold – close to 400. His two conditions for joining VRL did pose no challenge to Sankeswar senior: primarily, he would report to none other than the Chairman and his son, Anand Sankeswar only; secondly, he needed to be trusted wholeheartedly. 

One of the major challenges he had to face was the long line of a queue  - 100 out of 400 - at the pitstop waiting for repair and made roadworthy. It does not need any Harvard Business School education to realize that commercial vehicles had to be on the road running all the time and not idling for want of load or mechanical challenge. 

The smart, intelligent and alert Chief Technology Officer noticed that the critical issue was spare parts management. Procurement of genuine and original parts was expensive and it was bleeding. In the absence of a well laid out plan, workshop hands were resorting to ‘cannibalization’ – removing working parts from vehicles waiting for other repairs, and fixing them into other vehicles needing those parts. It was no way to fix problems, strongly felt the 195 9 born service-focused Mangalorean.

His strategy to set right the challenge was basic and simple. First, no cannibalization. Get the part and fix it. Stop the practice of forcing the company to ‘scrap’ the reparable vehicle, taking advantage of the fact that the chairman has no technical know-how to understand the severity of the pitstop halt of the vehicle under the scanner. 

The big step was to go for preventive maintenance.  In double-quick time, the stranded vehicles were put back on the road by the 25-strong technical and non-technical workforce. Of course, there were some murmurs within criticizing the Bhatt route of preventive maintenance, but Sankeswar senior refused to intervene declaring that he would abide by CTO’s judgment. 

CTO’s daily expense budget was Rs.20,000 while the workforce got payment directly from Chairman’s office. One day, Bhatt approached him with a request to buy a sophisticated welding machine costing Rs.85,000 against the current one being used costing Rs.7,000. He was asked to get a quote and finalize it. A concerned Bhatt told him that he could postpone the purchase if company finances were not in shape. Sankeswar nodded his head. 

“How long, will it take for the company’s financial conditions to improve?” asked Bhatt with genuine concern written on his face.

“100 years!” pat came the reply.

Without batting an eyelid, Bhatt went ahead and bought his welding machine. Money was not a consideration at all provided such spends would enhance productivity and efficiency and help improve the top and bottom lines. “You never get into my shoes and I will never get into your shoes. Demand what you want boldly. Your job is to raise the technical excellence of VRL continuously. My job is to raise money. Pistons are meant to move up and down. Cranks are expected to rotate. If they interchange their responsibility, it will be a disaster,” Sankeswar told him subsequently. Bhatt seldom forgot that initial management lesson.

A year before Bhatt joined VRL, Sankeswar discussed his plans to computerize operations and told him that he was unsure when that rollout would transpire. When pressed for an explanation, Bhatt was told that he (Sankeswar) was not sure whether the person he wants to lead the computerization drive at VRL would join or not. Soon after Bhatt came into the VRL fold, one day Sankeswar walked into his office and told him that he was ready for computerization because he had that person already in his company – pointing to Bhatt himself. 

Quickly Rs.7 lakhs was sanctioned to proceed with the project. All under the supervision of CTO, who incidentally is an automotive genius, but passionate about computers. After a short arrangement with a professional coding team to execute VRL’s computerization drive, he found the company was not getting what it wanted. So, Bhatt learned to code, and 20 years down the line he is keeping abreast of the latest in information technology. There is total freedom to experiment, so long there is no misuse. That’s the reigning philosophy under the Bhatt regime at VRL.

Today, VRL fabricates it requirement inhouse. Chassis are bought, but bodies are built at home. It works out much cheaper because the actual cost incurred is towards the cost of acquiring materials for building bodies. There is no labor cost since the well-trained workshop handles all that more efficiently with tight delivery deadlines. 

When VRL Logistics entered the luxury passenger bus segment in 1996. Once again, Bhatt and the team tried their hands in fabricating passenger buses. This maiden experiment failed miserably. However, a few tinkering later they regained their confidence, and subsequently, more than 100 buses were body-built houses garnering all-around applause. 

Experimentation is part of Bhatt’s DNA. Nothing ventured, nothing gained. Of late, they have abandoned building passenger bus bodies since the cost difference between inhouse and outsiders was marginal due to stiff competition. Still, Bhatt and the company give the design specifications and want fabrications to execute their plans. His team assists fabrications to get what they want. 

All computerized operations across VRL spectrum are the handiwork of Bhatt and his team. Because he believes computerization eliminates human error and brings in greater transparency. ... And his boss Vijay Sankeswar subscribes to that theory wholeheartedly. Can anybody dispute that statement or sentiment? Nope.  Why? Because the boss is always right!