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Krishna Kumar Agrawal: Honesty and trust the unbending foundations of success
(Poonam Sagar)Business executive Krishna Kumar Agrawal attributes his achievements to adhering to his principles and ethical standards
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(Poonam Sagar) (Poonam Sagar)
(Poonam Sagar)
Business executive Krishna Kumar Agrawal attributes his achievements to adhering to his principles and ethical standards.
Honesty is the bedrock for success, declares Krishna Kumar Agrawal, president director of PT Bitratex Industries, manufacturer of quality spun yarns.
The 73-year-old naturalized Indonesian emphasizes the importance of honesty in all his dealings, and how this works to foster loyalty.
'We deal with customers, some of whom are more than 10,000 km away and yet keep coming back to us,' said Agrawal
'If we make a mistake we accept and make amends. This develops customer confidence and establishes reliability.'
Recently, Bitratex Industries received the Primaniyarta Export Award 2013 from the government for constant and ongoing quality consciousness of successful Indonesian exporters who, in turn, serve as role models for other exporters.
Bitratex , among the shortlisted companies every year since the award began in 1992, won the award for the eighth time this year.
'We are in the top three compared to similar companies in Indonesia,' he said.
Agrawal practices 'participative management by consensus', where every team member participates and commits to the plan of action. In this system, as opposed to decisions being made by one person, they are based on consensus emerging from group discussions. This to him is the key driver of progress and economic health of the company.
The company has grown fourfold under Agrawal's leadership, which began in 1997. It is now one of Indonesia's leading quality yarn manufacturers and exports 70 percent of its products to 40 countries globally and sells 30 percent to the domestic market.
His professional journey began after joining Aditya Birla Group in Kolkata as a fresh graduate from leading Banaras Hindu University.
'Aditya Birla had just returned from his studies in the US and had a dream of expanding overseas. He chose me to explore the possibility of setting up the first overseas plant in Thailand in 1968,' he recollects of the late industrialist.
'I was still very young at that time and it was a wonderful learning experience. Indo-Thai Synthetics was established in Bangkok and Indonesia was one of their markets. Subsequently, Aditya Birla Group decided to expand in Indonesia owing to its large population and growth potential ' the economic factors that hold true to date.'
Indonesian enterprise
At age 31, he relocated to Indonesia in 1973 to establish a company from scratch.
'It was a total mind set change to move from the protected domestic market in India to an international market with global competition and a long-term vision.'
The focus was first and foremost on quality of human resources, raw materials and machinery.
This learning and focus made their enterprise successful whereas some other Indian companies failed in their making overseas forays .
Two years later, he launched the first Indian joint venture in Indonesia despite many challenges and, as he says, a very different Indonesia. The plant was located in Jatiluhur, Purwakarta, West Java, due to the ready availability of power from the hydroelectric power plant in the area, among the first such plants set up in this region ('It took us four hours to get there from Jakarta,' he reminisces).
He was with Aditya Birla Group for 34 years, before make the decision to join Biratex. He names his decision to relocate outside of India and succeeding amid the various challenges as the first major changes leading to his success.
'The second was when we started to export and compete to meet the high quality standards of developed markets,' he says.
'The third was to not only maintain quality but also to keep increasing the benchmarks and strive to be the best in the world.'
For sustained growth, he adds, investment, people and technology are required.
'Japanese customers are our barometer as they have very high quality standards,' he says with a twinkle in his eye.
'If we can export to them, then we are meeting our quality standards. We compare ourselves to the best globally and that is how we improve quality year by year.'
He names as his role model Birla, whose admirable business acumen made him the force behind the success of his group of companies. The internal control systems that he learned at Aditya Birla Group have been emulated in his current company.
All aspects of production up to profit and loss can be monitored in real time in a structured manner. 'Our goal is to maintain the company's growth and remain at the highest quality levels,' he emphasizes.
Despite being a septuagenarian, he remains very active. He starts his day at 4:30 a.m. with yoga, followed by a walk and family time over morning tea.
With his work in Jakarta and Central Java, his travel plans include overseas and domestic trips almost every month.
Harmony and balance in his relationships, be it with family or colleagues, is very evident. Some of his colleagues have been with him for more than three to four decades. 'Personally, I would like to continue working as long as I can,' he says.
He does not let anything divert him from his goals. 'Keep calm and move on,' he says is his motto. (Poonam Sagar)
Krishna Kumar Agrawal
Place/ Date of Birth : Varanasi, India/1940
Experience
President director of PT Bitratex Industries and PT Primayudha Mandirijaya from 1997 to present. Previously, president director of PT Elegant Textile Industries, PT Sunrise Bumi Textiles and PT Indo Liberty Textiles (1973 ' 1997) and senior executive of Indothai Synthetics Co.,Ltd, Bangkok, Thailand (1968 ' 1972) and Hindusthan Gas & Industries., Ltd, Kolkata, India (1968 ' 1973).
Education
Bachelor of Commerce and Bachelor of Law, Banaras Hindu University, Varanasi, India (1962).
