Mr. Vivek Vikram Singh, MD and Group CEO, Sona Comstar, joined the Sona Group in April, 2015 in the Group’s steering systems company, Sona Koyo Steering Systems. The very next year he moved to Sona BLW, while it was a single product company at that time, however it owned the precision forming technology which held immense growth potential.
Under his leadership, Sona BLW has come a long way to having declared its IPO recently. He went on to become the Managing Director and Group CEO on February 14, 2019 after the transaction with Blackstone and the formation of Sona Comstar.
Reminiscing about his early days at Sona Koyo, Sona BLW and the latest, Sona Comstar, he mentioned that Sona BLW had come a long way from a top line figure of Rs. 350 crores in 2016 to Rs. 1,568 crores in 2021.
His unending efforts in getting the Sona Group to where it is today was further recognized when the then 39-yr old Singh got featured in the prestigious Economic Times 40 under 40 list in the year 2018.
Sharing his eventful journey with Sona Comstar, Mr. Singh went on to say that it has indeed been a great journey to have turned the tides for the company despite a global pandemic and one of largest auto industry shutdown in the last decade. Vouching for the product quality standards of his company, he proudly mentioned that it is one of the fastest growing ones in terms of global expansion in the current times.
While it is quite a feat to achieve for a young leader to make his company grow multifolds by almost four and a half times in a matter of merely four and a half years, he strongly believes the credit belongs entirely to his team and its many contributions to the company over the years.
Having already acquired as much as 8.7% in the global Battery Electric Vehicle (BEV) market in the differential assembly segment, Vivek envisions Sona Comstar to become the most respected and most valuable auto technology company in India. He takes pride in his mission to see an Indian company like Sona Comstar leading the global Electrical Vehicle (EV) market in the near future and that continues to be both an inspiration and the destination for his team.
Leading the people and culture towards growth
Speaking about the people and the existing company culture at Sona Comstar, Vivek firmly believes that people are the most important asset for any manufacturing organization and that culture is what drives growth. He further added that it is the people who build a great culture, which in turn helps in the leadership strategies and policies to be followed and implemented across the organization.
Taking note of the company's efforts in dealing with the ongoing Covid 19 pandemic, he touched upon the fact that the company has been taking care of its employees in all possible ways, including distribution of immunity kits, stringent hygiene guidelines and every possible medical and financial support to the employees affected by the pandemic. He added that about 95-96 percent of the workforce is already vaccinated against the deadly virus and the company has not only borne all vaccination costs for employees, but also conducted free vaccination drives for the families of the employees.
On the economic aspect of the pandemic, Mr. Singh stressed upon the fact that it is morally and ethically questionable to deduct remunerations for the lower management employees in these times. Keeping that in mind, only the senior management had borne a pay cut for a short duration, only to be fully reversed in a matter of 3-4 months. He accredited the same to the company's great performance even during these tough economic times and that the company always puts the wellbeing of its employees as a top priority.
The future of mobility
On being asked about the opportunities for Sona Comstar and the auto component industry, Mr. Singh refers to multiple popular researches and reports to underline the fact that Electrice Vehicles, manufactured and run on energy from clean sources can lead to nearly 80 percent less emissions, compared to ICE powered transportation modes. In fact, transportation is only 30 percent of the entire global carbon dioxide emissions, and a lot more needs to be done for net zero emissions.
Expressing his concerns on the current environmental urgency goes on to say that if the world doesn't hit Net Zero emissions by 2050, the future of the planet could be in jeopardy. "You don't want to create a planet that your own children can't live on, because then, there's no future", Vivek added.
On the industry front, Vivek firmly believes that the period between 2015 to 2035 is the age of electrification. Thereafter, the years 2025- 2045 will be the age of autonomous vehicles, and there will be no human drivers due to total electrification, and complete automation of the automotive sector, he added.
As a significant player in the auto industry, Vivek and his team believe in futuristic goal setting which involves foresight of the next 20 years of the mobility sector and the devices that are expected to stay on for the long haul. This alone drives the innovation, inspiration and most importantly, futuristic plans for the Sona Comstar team, led by the promising leadership of Mr. Vivek Vikram Singh.
NEWSLETTER
TRENDING ON PRO MFG
MORE FROM THE SECTION
