LOOKING BACK DOWN MEMORY LANE VOL 3 - ITPL SAGA

The year was 1996. I had just joined Tata Honeywell leaving Blue Star Delhi as Manager-Projects for Building Automation (BAS) Projects. 

That was the time coinciding with the beginning of the Information Technology (IT)phenomenal growth in India. The focus then was in Hi Tech Smart multi storied construction boom. The multinational firms were setting up IT development centers and parks all over India and Bangalore was their first choice. The MNCs wanted the same standard like in USA integrating HVAC, Fire, Security (Access and CCTV monitoring) in High raise buildings. Till that time each service was separately offered by companies specialized in that field. The new technology Integrated Building Automation system was offered only by few vendors and the leaders were Johnson Controls and Honeywell.

 I had just then worked as Manager Projects in Blue Star Delhi who had tie up with Johnson Controls for managing countrywide Building Automation Projects. Building Automation was offered as a turnkey package along with Air-conditioning (HVAC) by leaders like Blue Star, Voltas, Carrier etc.

 I joined Tata Honeywell (THL)at Pune first for managing countrywide BAS projects of value greater than one crore. Just then THL bagged their biggest project ever at Bangalore for ITPL a joint venture of Singapore consortium with TATAs. The BAS package itself was around 10 crores. I was asked to take over as Regional Project Manager at Bangalore to manage ITPL and other ongoing regional projects.

 The very thought of coming back to south from Delhi was exciting, but I never realized the challenges and problems I am going to face in the next few years. The projects I was managing execution besides ITPL (located in Whitefield) was for MICO Bosch for their new office complex at Adugodi , Texas Instruments for their new complex, HP new office all in Bangalore . Besides Bangalore we had projects in Chennai too (Lucas TVS for their Engine Plant and SHAR Sriharikota). 

I used to travel almost 200KM everyday shuttling between one site and another, meeting the customers in weekly status reviews and our Engineers to monitor the progress. The period between 1996 to 1998 at Honeywell Bangalore had been the crazy but eventful years of my life! Moving from L&T Medical Manufacturing and R&D from L&T to this Execution of Turnkey BAS projects life is upside down in working environment!

Let me focus on ITPL saga for now. I had to be every day at Whitefield site meeting the ITPL project team the Singapore consortium the Designers where L&T ECC was the turnkey contractor and Voltas for Air-conditioning our customers. Every day work has to be planned with our subcontractors and engineering coordinating with all the activities. It was challenging to be a part of the big team which is building a world class infrastructure in the IT Park Whitefield project. L&T used the new modular construction approach for this project! Initially I was promised full support by the THL HQ at Pune who knew how important this landmark project for the company. 

The project was coming up well in the first year when Engineering was completed, and construction had started in full phase the next year. The resources I had at Bangalore in terms of project engineers were inadequate considering the volume of work and commitments to the customer. I had to ask HQ Pune for Engineering and for expediting Purchase Orders to the subcontractors for installation of sensor, BAS equipment cabling, laying conduits and Commissioning. ITPL project required miles and miles of conduits cables and sensors in thousands buried inside the construction. If we do not lay the conduits and cables in time and put all the sensors and and if the construction is done already, then it will be catastrophe as THL will be responsible for any rework later. 

Travelling every day from the THL office at Indiranagar to Whitefield and other ongoing sites which are at other end of Bangalore was nerve wrecking experience. We had to ensure that all the customers are satisfied. The Project Manager was responsible for timely completion and also meeting monthly revenue projection. 40% of BAS Division revenue came from Bangalore office. My boss in Pune a Sindhi will come to office by noon start playing computer games to stimulate himself and will be hyperactive in the evening. Here I am coming back tired at night back home and he will call late evening without any consideration of family time. Although I was promised full support he will be interested mainly in revenue for that month. 

The bureaucracy at Pune was such that they never understood the reality in the field and my seniors followed their usual procedures which delayed getting Purchase orders released on time. Our turnkey contractors L&T and Voltas had full corporate support. Also, I did not have the authority to take purchasing decision which had impact on customer satisfaction 

I was managing somehow all the customers to the best of my ability especially ITPL for almost 2 years during this construction phase. The challenges I was facing was in multiple fronts being to manage big projects at the same time , lack of engineering resources at the regional level and being new to the company culture and meeting the expectations of the customers . There were engineers idle in not so busy Eastern India offices who could have been utilized better in the booming south. The Integrated BMS technology (IBMS) being new in the country had its own technical issues which required Honeywell support. In addition to this I had to cover other projects around Chennai. 

I used to brainstorm with my friend an IIMB Professor about these challenges. As I was used to writing blogs before as a hobby, he suggested these challenges would be good case study material for publishing. As coauthors we wrote a generic case study of a Project Manager life in a new growing area highlighting the challenges and what could be the best solution. Everything was fictitious in that article and no resemblance to any company.

 The article was sent to Business Today India’s #1 Business magazine. After a week I was surprised to receive a check for Rs Ten thousand (Rs10000) from the editor of Business Today saying that the case study is being featured as cover story in their forthcoming issue. 

What Business Today did was to take this Case Study to leading CEOs of companies and what is the solution to these problems and each CEO had given their perspective of what the Project manager should do to delight the customer. 

I had been writing in Sulekha for years on various topics just for creative satisfaction and never received any reward other than developing virtual friends. I was feeling on top of the world being featured in a leading Business journal first time. It was the best moment in my life, and this required celebration. However, my happiness was short lived and what happened next was totally unexpected. 

(To be Concluded)

*The photos are not mine and taken from google