INDIA’S MOST TRUSTED CEO’S 2018: Naushad Akhter Ansari, CEO, Jindal Steel & Power
Every individual has great potential to contribute to organizational goal. The need of hour is to seek and extract the best out of any individual. To my mind transformational leader inspire workers for their personal best to achieve loftier goal. CEO works with team to identify areas that are in need of change and then create a vision to guide workers to seek the innovation and advancement – all with the purpose of making the organizational vision a reality.
Today change management vis a vis the changing external business environment is key for survival and sustainability of any organization. An agile corporate with great flexibility will be the ultimate winner. Aligning every individual to address changing externality is major challenge. As a leader some time we have to behave like pacesetter. Some time we have to set exceedingly high standards for performance and expect those who work for us to be just as obsessed as we are about doing things faster and better.
JSPL is a collective of 50000 + workforce, having enormous collective experience and wisdom. Sometime it’s prudent to build consensus among the ranks through taking a participative role. To draw on people’s knowledge, skills and works to build a team that is firmly united behind a goal is recipe for success.
The most importantly, steering the organization with cool and congenial way without being panicked even in crisis situation is what’s defining a leader.
The Journey
I started my career with Tata Steel, Jamshedpur in 1974 and worked there in various capacities for about 34 years. During this period worked largely for modernising the steel plant and developed expertise in managing large projects. Leading a abled team of Kalinganagar project was my last assignment with TSL.
I joined JSPL group as Executive Director at Patratu unit during 2008 and led successfully commissioning of two rolling mills of combined capacity of 1.6 MTPA. Subsequently led JSPL Raigarh unit to achieve the rated capacity and beyond it. During this time I was whole time Director of JSPL-India, the flagship company of JSPL group producing over 3.0 MTPA of steel through integrated route.
As CEO JSIS, led a team responsible for turnaround and transforming the plant to an integrated steel plant with installation of new 2 MTPA EAF& 1.4 MTPA Bar Mill. Our Rebar Brand “Jindal Panther ”acquired leadership position in Middle East Long product market.
Having 43 years of rich industry experience enables me to work for turnaround of JSPL Group after long 14 quarters of loss.
I obtained B.Sc. Engineering degree in Mechanical Engineering from AMU, Aligarh in 1974, obtaining first class first position & thus securing gold medal. I also did various management courses from Wharton School of Business-USA, INSEAD-Singapore and ISB-Hyderabad.
Approach To Change
Communication of goal with great conviction where employee not only gets convinced but also sees great alignment with his personal and professional goal is the key to effective communication.
It is far more important to understand and identify crisply what change is essential for achieving the goal. A big part of this will be an adequate assessment of you’re the starting point.
In order to change, we should not limit ourselves to understanding the organization’s existing culture. One should also be prepared to take a hard look in the mirror.
During the journey of change, one can encounter some resistance along the way. One may want to chalk it up to a general resistance to change, but remember: People don’t resist change in general—they resist doing things that don’t make sense to them, and, more important, they resist doing anything where the primary reason is “because I said so.
Of course, sometimes employee, who resist change are not pushing back just to be difficult. They really don’t like the direction of the new culture, and, in many of those cases, they should be coached
What are you really into outside of work?
Family, Reading, Golf, Yoga and music.
5 key roles of a successful leader
- Build trust Adopt a personal approach
- Openly engage others
- Practice what you preach
- Take symbolic action
- Building a strong and committed top team
- Invest team time
The Pivotal Changes in the Company
Being in commodity business, capacity utilization and cost excellence is having paramount importance with de-commoditization of the end steel products.
Steel is cyclical business; survival and sustainability of any steel company depend upon its position in industry cost curve. A lowest cost producer will always able to utilize the given capacity to fullest and enrich shareholders value.
De-commoditization of finished steel product is short of de-risking the business from usual cyclical business. In this endeavor we are trying to develop an eco-system while working closely with the customer and suppliers.
We want to graduate from customer satisfaction to customer’s delight.
One word that describes you the best
Trustworthy
