Interview Questions

Full Interview with Neeraj R. S. Kanwar

Neeraj R. S. Kanwar:

At one time, Apollo, as an IT organization, was scattered over different locations with numerous departments, each of which was an island of excellence.

Each office owned disparate software packages and every plant was an isolated system.

Today, Apollo has over 140 offices across the country. These include sales, commercial and technical services departments. We own four plants and source from three others. A 9,000-strong community works for us besides a network of 4,000 exclusive dealers and 2,000 others who stock our tires, making ours the largest network in India.

In the process of getting here, we realized that we needed our key decision-makers, across all our offices, to collaborate more. And if we were to become a 360-degree organization, it was important to implement a software package across Apollo. At that time we looked around the market for someone who could fulfill this function and SAP came the closest to it. We also formalized on IBM as our implementation partner of choice.

Within a record seven months, Apollo had mySAP.com up and running.

 

Neeraj R. S. Kanwar:

It was possible because we constituted a core team of 18-20 senior people, who were taken off their assignments and put on this project. I remember having an argument with the SAP head for Asia Pacific over whether a seven-month timeframe was realistic. He said we'd gone crazy.

It became a challenge and in the end we came out on top. But during the implementation, I remember SAP telling  us that they would launch one module after the other, only after the seventh month. We, on the other hand, needed that system as of yesterday and couldn't wait for a year. I wanted every module up and live in seven months. I wanted to make up for the years we had lost. In a competitive era we couldn't afford to be laggards. Our effort paid off and on the first day of the eighth month, we were live with four modules-without any major failures. SAP's APAC head called back to show his appreciation. Today, the entire company runs on MySAP.com.

 

Neeraj R. S. Kanwar:

Not really! The approach we took and the people chosen to work under the leadership of the IT head found the project astonishingly exciting. During the journey, they got a sense of how the implementation would help take the company to an entirely new horizon. It was something they had been struggling to achieve and the project was seen as major push in that direction.

Neeraj R. S. Kanwar:

We were late, but better late than never. Within the tire industry here, we were the second to run on a certified ERP, the first being Goodyear. It was a big move and now we can boast of it as a hard decision and an achievement. Its success is based on our foresight and the IT team's collaboration.

Neeraj R. S. Kanwar:

The first, most tangible, requirement from the system was to generate MIS reports. Second, to capture data on a real-time basis. This information would greatly aid the decision making process for marketing, technical support and sales. Last, we wanted to bring transparency across the company.

MySAP.com serves only as a takeoff platform on our journey to use IT to drive business. With unconnected, obsolete data flowing in from 140 offices and 4,000 dealers, we were getting a skewed picture. This prevented us from performing many critical functions we do today, like demand forecasting and advance planning. From there, we moved into business intelligence. It has not only enabled us, as users, to take better decisions but has also helped customers and dealers outside Apollo, to stay in sync with us .

 

Neeraj R. S. Kanwar:

I advocated a couple of basic fundamentals. One, that the project and the methodology should be extremely transparent. I wanted an open-ended approach, which would allow various departments to communicate their problems to the head of IT. We asked them to bring up workflow issues and possible solutions. I put my weight behind the project by instructing the function chiefs, who report to me, to support the head of IT. We also constituted a core steering committee of five, who met every fortnight to review the project.

Neeraj R. S. Kanwar:

What MySAP.com allowed us to do primarily is to get data right-on. I was then able to take that information to my stores, into our supply chain and production planning. It helped me forecast seasonal trends, like the April-June and November-December farm seasons. MySAP.com allows us to tell what's gone into the market and, more  importantly, what else needs to be introduced.

Armed with this knowledge, we have been able to enhance the way we track products.

As a result, we know when and where to stock products in order to achieve the shortest delivery time. To shorten that cycle further, we've also started bar-coding our products.

Additionally, we put up a dealer portal to give exclusive Apollo dealers the option of linking up with our systems and locating information instantaneously. Although we only have 250 dealers on the platform right now, I soon hope to see many more utilizing this tool. We realize that truck tire dealers might be hesitant to increase their use of computers and we are addressing this. More dealers will figure that the portal offers them the ability to place orders, create invoices, manage stock and do whole bunch of other functions. The portal also acts as marketing tool and that helps us reach the market faster.

 

Neeraj R. S. Kanwar:

The site services more than just our dealers. We are talking of alignment with our OEM (Original Equipment Manufacturer) partners.

 

Already, we are seeing orders coming in from M&M, Tata and Maruti on a weekly basis. Apollo is now on the shop floors of its partners. We know what their assembly lines require. Instead of constructing warehouses at random, we're trying to have them near these factories to further reduce delivery time. But it is IT that is aligning my production line with theirs.

 

Neeraj R. S. Kanwar:

Even today, there's plenty of room to improve the performance of our SCM (supply chain management). We have already graduated to the next level. Take for example our Advance Planning and Optimization (APO) tool, which does both demand and production planning. Before adopting it, we could forecast about 20-30 percent of what was being sold. You can imagine the amount of hidden costs that remained hidden. If I am not planning right, I won't be able to purchase right. And given that the price of my raw material is 65 percent of my product's cost, wrong purchases cause cash flow to go haywire. With APO we can now forecast 75 percent, which is incredible and the IT team needs a pat on their back. SCM now helps me sell the right product, at the right time, to the right person. There's no dearth of suppliers and getting to know you customer is crucial.

The supply chain has also helped us improve after-sales service. We've put some of Apollo's suppliers on the SCM and we're trying to expand that number. Today, we buy 60 percent of our raw material from the domestic market and have the rest imported. Our international sellers are not yet talking to my systems, but the momentum among the domestic players is picking up. Getting them all will add value. If I am going to make the best use of this system, I have to populate the information highway across the company.

We are here today but we've still got a long way to go. I would like SCM to give me the ability to track every single product, whether it's in a warehouse, in production or in transition.

 

Neeraj R. S. Kanwar:

By giving them access real time information. On the field, obsolete information is a huge handicap. I personally wanted to equip them with a Palm or a Blackberry, but my CIO suggested that the transfer of data could also be done via SMS. Apollo has almost 500 people in the field, all of whom once carried heaps of files just to check the status of various dealers, distributors and customers. Today, they have access to that information over their phones. Normally they make requests over SMS straight to SAP.

Neeraj R. S. Kanwar:

We make 250 different types of tires today. As we reach the status of an FMCG, IT will continue to help us keep track of every product, its demand forecast and production cycle.

The way the automobile sector is growing, we will need IT to map our production and ensure we don't lose new or present customers. My aspiration is for IT to provide a transparent and back-to-back access to my dealers who, in turn, interface with customers. I'd like this to happen as soon as possible.

 

Neeraj R. S. Kanwar:

I want IT to enable me to talk to my machines on the shop floor. Right now it's only my customers and sales-force who are talking to me. The shop floor is an area where I see a lot of hidden costs. I need to know which machine is not giving me optimum results because that's a cost to me. That's where IT is working on now.

Neeraj R. S. Kanwar:

We see IT as more than just a support function. IT is totally in line with the company's vision and is also part of the core team. Our CIO is very much a part of our journey to success. Full credit for moving away from the problems of decentralized architecture to centralized information architecture goes to the IT team. Last year we set out on a journey we call 'Passion in Motion'. It has three pillars: People, technology and quality and is driven by our CIO. Tomorrow, if I envision going global, I trust IT and my CIO to give me a leg-up.