'We plan to focus on R&D' – Shantanu, LNJ Bhilwara Group

07 Feb '12

12 min read

Shantanu is currently designated as the Executive Director at BMD Pvt Ltd. He is of the opinion that in technical textiles, the functional aspect is as important as the aesthetic aspect, since a lot of thinking goes in to manufacturing, these products.

Shantanu is mainly involved in business development at BMD. He says, “The opportunities in the technical textiles space are endless, so we are looking at a five-year time frame, with focus on new product development. We want to be competent and improve capabilities enough to meet competition head on as a lot of global companies are planning to set up shop in India”.

He considers the BMD business to be more service driven than product driven, so he spends more time meeting their Indian customers, among whom are the who's who of the global automobile industry like, Suzuki, General Motors, Toyota, Tata Motors, Ford, Honda, Nissan, Volkswagen and M&M.

He travels to Japan and Germany frequently to meet senior officials in the head offices of car manufacturers who have a final say in product purchase, since the product development of a new car is normally done in the head office and begins at least three years before the car is launched in India.

However, he feels that it would be a long time before any company is able to scale up to the production levels attained by BMD, since they have the first-mover advantage. Secondly, according to him, the business situation is unique in India, so the relations built up by BMD with their partners in the automobile industry in the past few years, would act as an unfavourable barrier for new entrants.

BMD has begun exporting automobile fabrics, although in small quantities and also plans to expand, particularly in nonwovens, with applications in medical textiles. After joining BMD last year, Shantanu started an initiative to improve the product development process called 'Project Agrasar'. The project aims to build internal capabilities and cut down lead times in order to meet future competition head-on and service the customer in a better manner.

He explains, “Expectations of buyers with regards to product quality or just-in-time concept are increasing with each passing day and keeping pace with those expectations keeps us on our toes. This project will help our technical team build new capabilities. We started off at a scale of 6 and within a few months, I feel we have touched 7, with a target to touch 9 by the end of 2012, with the optimum being 10”.

Research and development (R&D) is one more area which the group is keenly looking at. They plan to hire a R&D expert with a focus on development of futuristic textile products.

When asked, as to how he preferred to join the family managed textile business rather than start a new initiative since he is so highly educated, he smiles and replies, “Textiles may not be a glamorous business, but it is a lot more complex than it comes across initially. After getting involved at BMD, I began to appreciate the vagaries, particularly those associated with technical textiles, for which you need a good amount of business skills”.

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