Complete Overhaul

In an Upfront interaction, Rohit Saboo, President and Chief Executive Officer at National Engineering Industries (NEI), talks about using the Covid-19 induced slowdown for a complete overhaul and finding ways to delight the customer.

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Q. How did the company pace itself through the pandemic marred FY2021 on a QoQ basis? Give us a sense of the impact on production and sales?

A. We concentrated on other things rather than production. However, the recovery was promising in Q2FY2021, and especially during the festive season. I would say, it was very heartening to see the recovery in sales. By the last quarter, exports also improved. For us, Q3FY2021 turned out to be better in comparison to the same period last year (FY2020). It wouldn’t be wrong to say that the automotive industry could count itself among industries that witnessed a V-shaped recovery, and we consider ourselves fortunate to be a part of it. We did all we could to keep up production in line with the customer requirement. To break it up, during the first quarter, the focus was on setting the norms for the returning workforce on fronts like social distancing and Covid-19 appropriate SOPs. The slow pace was limited to the month of, I think, the end of May and to an extent in June. The focus then helped us in the subsequent quarters, and till now, we have kept the guard up and are lucky to have not had a single fatality.

Q. Could you share with us instances of going beyond the call of duty for the benefit of your key stakeholders and society at large in the hour of crisis?