Powering up for the global market

Abstract

Established in 1956, Bharat Heavy Electricals Limited (BHEL), a Public Sector Undertaking, is today the largest engineering and manufacturing enterprise in India in the energy-related/infrastructure sector, manufacturing over 180 products under 30 major product groups and catering to core sectors of the Indian economy, including power generation and transmission, industry, transportation and renewable energy. It won the FICCI Award for Environmental Conservation and Pollution Control, 2005, and the Indian Nuclear Society’s Industrial Excellence Award for 2004-05 in recognition of its role in the development and manufacture of nuclear equipment for power plants and research centres. Recently it has also bagged Business Standard’s Star Company, Public Sector Award. The company has been earning profits continuously since 1971-72 and paying dividends since 1976-77. In order to understand better the reasons for BHEL’s impressive track record and its continuing journey towards global competitiveness, Prof Rishikesha T Krishnan spoke to its Chairman and Managing Director, Mr Ashok K Puri. Unlike the rest of the Indian market, which started opening up only in 1991, the power sector was opened up as early as the late 1970s. Forced to compete even in the home market with international giants, BHEL was one of the few companies, and even fewer PSUs, which were prepared to face the challenges of liberalisation. Helped by its decision to diversify from the power sector into the industrial sector, and to improve productivity, the company continued to grow in the face of stiff competition to reach a position where the challenge is no longer survival, but how to ramp up quickly in order to exploit the opportunities being offered by the Indian economy. Ashok K Puri describes its strategies with regard to innovation and R&D; its policies regarding technology; its HR policies and the culture that keeps its employee turnover one of the lowest in the country; and its plans for going global.