Published on November 21, 2024
Sharing the transformation story of Tata Projects Limited (TPL), Vinayak Pai, the CEO & MD of the company, addressed the participants of Tata Business Excellence Group’s (TBExG’s) Leadership Series EDGE webinar ‘Transforming Self to Transform Organisations’ on November 20, 2024. The webinar drew over 1000 participants from Tata companies around the world.
Encouraging professionals to embrace change that enables organisational transformation and furthers their individual growth, he added, “Trust the people who give you an opportunity for change, they are invested in your growth.”
Till mid-2022, 80 percent of the business of TPL was coming from the public sector, with the contracts from private sector including those from Tata companies. The engineering, procurement and construction company was reporting losses and a transformative change was the need of the hour.
In July 2022, Operation Phoenix was launched with a playbook for change management. Led by Vinayak, the then newly appointed CEO & MD, TPL redirected the three key verticals of enterprise strategy, systems & processes and value optimisation, under which the transformation programme was executed. The changes were visible within months, and by December 2023, Phoenix had risen to deliver a transformative impact at TPL. The company yielded an incremental value of Rs. 200 Cr+, besides registering marked improvement on all business parameters. Reflective of the reversal in fortunes, today ~80 percent of TPL’s business is attributed to the private sector, with the sustainable and technology-led EPC company having executed notable projects like the new parliament building, Mumbai Trans-Harbour link and NOIDA Airport.
Redefining leadership
In the current era of social media and ESG mandates, the attributes of leadership are changing and this necessitates skills to balance the emergent priorities. “Back in the day, we used to hear about people being chosen for leadership roles at the outset; the class toppers were usually the ones who went on to become leaders,” said Vinayak, adding that the dynamics of leadership have now changed. “People in leadership today are different. Many who were in the middle of the class but were active on other extra-curricular fronts are the ones who have gone to become senior leaders in organisations across the world,” said Vinayak, adding that this gives hope to everyone to aspire for leadership and one should be a continuous learner to acquire qualities that are required to succeed at scale.
Different attributes for different stages of career
Sharing his views on individual transformation, Vinayak said that a leader’s career is fundamentally divided into three stages – early career, middle career and leadership. Besides the basics like domain knowledge and hard work, each of the three stages demand distinct attributes that contribute to transformational outcomes and the individual’s growth. In the early career phase, the attributes of passion & curiosity, team work and emotional intelligence are of significance. While passion may be inherent or acquired, the ability to be a team player is very important. “Some individuals are technically capable, but struggle to work in a team. Emotional intelligence helps you to not only adapt to your team members, but also to the external stakeholders like vendors and customers,” said Vinayak, adding that these attributes result in transformational outcomes like speed and quality work, high efficiency/productivity and a sense of accountability. With organisations defining the expectations from an individual, it takes a sense of accountability to deliver on that expectation instead of finding ways to explain why one can’t do what they are expected to do. “When you don’t give excuses but delivery, you start getting more opportunities for growth,” the industry stalwart said.
As one enters the middle-career phase and starts leading others, the key attributes to have are ability to motivate others, delegation and learning agility. Delegation is very important, and many leaders struggle with it. “There are challenges and headwinds, and a leader is one who motivates others to perform through these difficult times. People who go to top management are those who learn this faster than others,” Vinayak revealed. An important attribute to possess at this stage in the career is to have learning agility, as one gets into unfamiliar territory and is required to take an educated decision based on logic and understanding.
“This learning agility drives one’s movement, laterally as well as vertically. We tend to put ourselves in a box, and learning agility helps to come out of the box,” he said, adding that one should trust the people who give them a responsibility and do their best to take it up and deliver on the expectations. The outcome of these attributes is that one is able to influence the behaviour of others and encourage new ways of working. “If you continue to drive new ways of working, you are eventually enabling innovation for better outcomes and improved productivity. While at early career stage, the objective is to do your work well, in middle career the key objective is to enable others to work well,” Vinayak said.
The leadership curve
As an individual progresses in their career, the attributes to have at the leadership level are being inspiring, having courage and a passion for ESG. “As a leader, you can drive innovation on the product side and the business side, but the major impact is on the people side,” said Vinayak, highlighting that the leader should clearly define the vision, mission and values for the organisation, and create an enabling culture. “The mission, vision and values are the guiding light not only for our own people, but also our business partners, board members, investors and other external stakeholders,” said Vinayak, adding that leaders set clear direction for them to seep and become a part of organisation’s DNA, and for people to align with them.
Additionally, courage is extremely important, a critical component of leadership attributes for success. “When you take an easier decision for lack of courage, it shows in the long run. Be it safety, ethics, people and performance, or a business decision around growth, courage is an important attribute across the spectrum,” he said. With ESG becoming a key business imperative, leaders needs to address and effectively balance all the three dimensions. “It is not only a business obligation to deliver on ESG parameters, but we also owe it to the next generation,” he said, adding that in time to come, ESG compliance will be a qualifier for not only people investing in organisations but also for people to work with it.
The right ingredients of the attributes have a multiplier effect and eventually enable an individual’s career growth. This leads to a thought process around individual transformation, which eventually drives organisational transformation.
Phoenix: Transforming TPL
The individual-transformation-for-organisational-transformation journey has yielded rich dividends at TPL. Over 43 sectors were analysed for prioritisation and narrowed to 18 sectors with level-playing field, where TPL can leverage its strength for better financial outcomes. The two-year transformation witnessed analysis of 300+ historic projects, 50+ site interactions and four major sessions covering 200+ key leaders for stakeholder feedback. Over 1000+ employees engaged in transformation initiatives, generating 10,000+ recommendations and 450+ process simplification ideas.
The clearly defined four values – safety integrity first, accountability, collaboration inclusion and value consciousness – are now a part of the performance evaluation system at TPL. “We have set our strategic direction in terms of financial goals, operational excellence, making TPL a great place to work, ESG stewardship and building trust of external stakeholders,” said Vinayak, adding that the EPC major has drawn a yearly roadmap to financial excellence and every employee is aligned with the organisation’s goals.