Que: Please tell me your story? Or How did you get your start?
Ans: When I was 29 years old, I was given an opportunity to lead an IT Organization, OMEDSoft, with the offices in Singapore, India and Philippines. We served mostly for Manufacturing customers in the region. While we were doing consulting services, we also developed Quality Management System for some of our customers. When we worked with our manufacturing customers, I found there were lot of manual and paper based systems in the shopfloor. We partnered with leading Manufacturing Execution System (MES) to help manufacturers in APAC Region. However, unfortunately, it was very difficult to sell those applications as manufacturers found it to very expensive and not affordable. So, I decided to restructure the company as Cantier in 2011 to develop our own Cantier MES (Manufacturing Execution System). Now, the product is matured as Cantier MES 4.0 with Exectution, Intelligence and IIoT Capabilities as a SMART Factory Solution. I am proud to say that we are now working with Global Customers and we help them in their Industry 4.0 Transformation.
Que: How do you diversify your organization’s offerings to appeal to the target audience?
Ans: As I mentioned that Cantier started as pure-play MES product company by decade ago which has gone through several iterations and new modules & features over a period. Cantier MES product is easily configurable for the Discrete and Process Manufacturing Industry. Cantier wants to go beyond MES product company and have vast experience in Manufacturing Industry solution implementation which is already diversified into the following realted offerings like Industry 4.0 Transformation Consultancy Services, Technology agnostics IIoT solution design and implementation, Mixed Reality (AR/VR) solution services, ERP/PLM/SCM/EAM Integration services, and RPA – Robotic Process Automation Solution provider.
Que: Brief us about your company’s future perspectives.
Ans: Cantier continues to add Industry 4.0 / SMART Manufacturing Capabilities into our Product Suite. Although our MES 4.0 is being deployed in Cloud environment, we will be soon launching SaaS Solution for MSME Manufactures as well. We will be expanding our presence in North America, Europe and South Africa Markets.
Que: What would you say has been your greatest accomplishment?
Ans:
- Obviously, my biggest achievement is Building the Company Cantier and its global branding.
- In a shorter span of time, we enhanced from a Basic MES Software to a SMART Manufacturing Suite as MES 4.0.
- Recently, we have implemented our Industry 4.0 MES Solution in one of the Global Semiconductor and Electronic Manufacturing Sites in 4 months period. Based on what I know in the industry, this kind of huge projects normally takes at least a year.
Que: Being a CEO in this environment is very challenging and all consuming—are you prepared for the challenge? (How would you Control the Situation)
Ans: As basic thump rule in our company that Cantier always wants to be the Discovery Model type in management of business model innovation which is a startup mindset and ready to face and attack any type of Challenges. This culture helps to be more agile, nimble, and open-minded. We would like to stay in the current trend and need of the industry. For example, MES’s core offering in the industry is Shop Floor Execution but we took steps ahead and offering as MES 4.0 with Supply Chain, Execution, IIoT and Intelligence Capabilities as SMART Manufacturing is the current trend and top most concern in the Manufacturing Industry.
Que: What is your “Secret Sauce?” i.e. what are the 3-5 Leadership Principles that you have discovered and executed that have contributed to your success?
Ans:
- Customer-Centric and Customer First
- Build Solution for Customer Needs instead of Build the Product to Sell to Customer
- Co-Petition Ecosystem Model
- Agile and Nimble with Customer and Employee
- How to help the Customer, Employee, and Society at all times.
Que: What are your biggest failures professionally? What have you learned from them, and what would you do differently?
Ans: We focused more on Organic growth with less Investment/Risk type and not utilize the Venture Capital investment offers in the past. Otherwise, we could have been a Global company a long time ago. Now, we realized that mistake and will not do that mistake in the future. Since we are growing very fast and need those investors to help grow faster, there is a huge opportunity available in the market.
Que: What does success look like for you?
Ans: We are very positive about market outlook; Industry 4.0 Transformation brings immense opportunity to everyone and Cantier team is ready to take those challenges and Transform the Manufacturing Industry Customers with our Product and Solutions.
Que: What are some of the new ideas you would implement in this position?
Ans: The current Covid-19 crisis has reminded the manufacturing world of anything, it is that Industry 4.0 transformation is not an option for very much longer. Many of the Manufacturing Industry Verticals are lagging behind with other Industry peers. This is mainly a complex environment, heavy investment, migration compatible related challenges, and Technology resource not familiar with Manufacturing domain knowledge. With Cantier MES 4.0 and our strong Manufacturing Domain Knowledge along with Technology Expertise, Cantier team is able to give the right solution at affordable cost and our customers get ROI in a few months. We will repeat on a bigger scale of our success stories of existing customers.
With IIoT Technologies, we can communicate with machines real-time and provide insights to the decision makers. Overall Factory efficiencies can be monitored real-time and make immediate actions since the system alerts, as the event happens. When needed, machine to machine communication and control is also established. With AI/Machine Learning, we can predict and act proactively. Examples: Predictive Maintenance, Predictive Quality, Predictive Machine Downtime, etc. With the volume of data collected from Equipment, tools through IIoT, technologies, AI/Machine Learning uses their Models to predict event and alert the users.
Que: What do others say about your leadership style? Give us some examples of your leadership skills.
Ans:
- People-centric style
- Bring Value and Outcome to customers
- Be a Transformation Catalyst for People and Business
Que: What is your “vision” in life, e.g. what drives you for a Successful Journey?
Ans: Develop Platforms, as simple as possible, that enhance Human life and Wellbeing. With this vision, I get lot of support from people to deliver successful results.
Que: What is one characteristic that you believe every leader should possess?
Ans: Listen first and use data-driven decisions along with humanity baseline.
Que: What’s the best advice you’ve recently received?
Ans: I recently watached a video from Sadhguru on Leadership, I would like to share the link here:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fzmiwbHbAcQ
“Whatever kind of business you are into, ultimately there is only one business, that is human wellbeing” – Sadhguru
Que: What question do you think we need to be asking that we haven’t asked already?
Ans: We are facing now a huge threat, Covid-19 Pandamic. Lot of companies are struggling or some of them are even bankrupt. How do you to stay in the Business?
This the time companies should automate their business with remote work and monitoring capabilities. Examples. IIoT, RPA, AI/Machine Learning and others. Please refer to my answer No. 9.