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ISSN 2206-9429
Anurang Jain, MD of Endurance Technologies, reveals his
vision for the future and what it means to be a good leader

WE’RE ABOUT
value
NOT
selling,
product selling.
Seven generations of Birlas have helped transform
India’s industrial sector. Now, 26-year-old Vedant
Birla is making his mark as Chairman and Managing
Director of Birla Precision Technologies.
WORDS HOLLY JOHNSON • IMAGES BIRLA PRECISION TECHNOLOGIES

W
ith deep roots in the industrial and social
history of India, the Birla family started
building its empire more than 150 years ago.
Since then, seven generations of Birlas have
helped the Group maintain its heritage and
transform multiple industries in line with its
mission to ‘move ahead, stay ahead’. Today, the conglomerate stands tall
with a turnover of INR30 billion, nine listed entities and a portfolio
covering 20 industries such as automotive, engineering, manufacturing,
education and IT.
The Group’s flagship company, Birla Precision Technologies
(BPT) was established in 1986 as Birla Kennametal, a joint venture
between the Group and Kennametal Inc (USA). The large-scale
engineering enterprise has four plants across India and is a primary
vendor of Kennametal throughout the US, Germany and Asia–Pacific.
The company manufactures steel pipes, machine and cutting tools,
iron castings, tool holders, multipurpose engines, valves and precision
components of the highest quality. BPT leverages these core
competencies in machining and forward integration, catering
to global giants such as Cummins, Honeywell and
HUSCO International, while exporting to other
major customers in the US, Europe and China.
At the helm of this ship is Chairman and
Managing Director Vedant Birla, son of business
tycoon Yash Birla. In 2013 – at just 22 years old –
Vedant made a humble debut in his father’s group
with the launch of Open Minds, a primary school
in Hyderabad under the Birla Edutech banner.
Prior to this, he gained experience in public relations,
property development and investment broking before
sitting down with his father to discuss his role in the
family empire’s future.
“Although I’m not an engineer, I’ve always
been interested in the automotive and engineering
sectors. The same goes for my father, grandfather
and great-grandfather: we all came from a finance
background but ended up leaning towards an
engineering-dominated business – perhaps due

28 | theceomagazine.com
 Interview | INSPIRE

+ Renowned supplier of high speed steels

to a Global market.
+ A provider of solutions to continually evolving
demand from the cutting tool industry world-wide.

HEYE Special Steel Co Limited is a joint venture with Advanced Technology & Materials Co Limited (AT&M)
who are leaders in the field of China’s new, evolving materials. Our main shareholders are AT&M, Sumitomo
Corporation and CISRI ( China Iron & Steel Research Institute ). We are specialised in the production of, mainly,
high speed steel in several grades and secondarily in alloy tool steel and heat resistant steels. Our installed
capacity for these are, respectively, 40,000 tpa and 10,000 tpa.
The Steels produced at HEYE cover about one thousand sizes of rounds, squares and rectangular sections
- Forged bar, Rolled bar, cold drawn bar, peeled bar, centreless ground bar, cold rolled and hot rolled sheet
& strip etc. Our products are widely sold within China and also exported to USA, Europe, Asian countries
(Malaysia, Indonesia, S Korea, India and Japan )
HEYE entered the Indian market during 2007-2008 and our business here has been gradually growing .
We are privileged to be in “partnership for progress” with Birla Precision Technologies Limited since 2008. to the high potential and long-term strength of
This relationship is characterised by mutual understanding and harmony. Heye’s products have proven to be the sector, particularly in India,” explains Vedant.
cost effective and excellent in performance and lead time needed for production and delivery is short. “The way I manage BPT is derived from my family
values. I was taught to treat the business as if you market. Although this is a good change, it means
are its custodian, and treat every shareholder as if that many of the components we make now will be rendered
they owned the business. The aim is to build a robust, obsolete once electric engines come into the picture. We can’t
Full page advert longstanding company that will exist even after you’re foresee whether it will take five, 10 or even 20 years for the entire
not there to run it.” market to make that transition. This creates a lot of uncertainty for
Heye Special Steel (FAIF)
Vedant says BPT’s strong and us around which direction we
extensive history has been should be taking the company and
crucial to its continued success “BUILD A ROBUST, where we should be investing
in both domestic and
international markets. “We
LONGSTANDING our money and resources.”
In preparing for the change,
started manufacturing out of COMPANY THAT WILL Vedant has refocused his team
India in 1934. Since then, we to look at what other car
have developed a strong supply EXIST EVEN AFTER components – besides the engine
chain and gained experience in
how the market has changed –
YOU’RE NOT THERE – BPT has the capacity to build.
“We are diversifying our offering
constantly working on our TO RUN IT.” in the automotive segment
products to factor in those by venturing into hydraulic
changes,” he says. “We’re about components and supplying to the
value selling, not product selling. Any customers that defence sector. We are made up of five divisions, with four factories
require high technology and innovation come to us and 11 branch offices across India, but my focus for the next year
because we have the capacity to customise products will be on growing our strongest division, which is tooling. Our
and solutions according to their requirements.” brand is best known for our drilling solutions, and we made the
Like its industry peers, BPT is bracing for the decision to invest in our quality and consistency. We expanded
impact of electric vehicles. “There is a strong push our capacity in tooling by 15–20 per cent, which will be fully
towards electric vehicles in the Indian automotive operational by the end of this month,” he explains.
“Over the next three years, we are also planning to make
significant investments in our auto components division.
“HeYe Special Steel Co. Ltd. is privileged to be in ‘partnership for
progress’ with Birla Precision Technologies Limited since 2008. This The automotive boom in India has already caused a strong
relationship, characterised by understanding and harmony, always demand for parts, so we are working hard to get ahead of
contributes to mutual development.” – LI Xiaolei, Asian Sales Manager,
Contact Mr Louie. HeYe Special Steel Co. Ltd. this and expand our capacity.”
Email address: lxl@hss-cn.com
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