Eyeing Strong Profits And Long-Term Growth

In an upfront interaction, Nitin Chalke, President – Hydraulics and Vehicle, Asia Pacific, Eaton spoke of the transmission manufacturer emerging stronger from Covid-19 hit quarters. He drew attention to the company staying focused on building a strong profit plan for 2021 to stay on course with the long term strategic goals.

- Ashish Bhatia

Q. How was the Virtual Mechanics’ Training initiative conceived amidst a disruptive pandemic and with strained resources?

A. Mechanics and technicians of commercial vehicles constitute a significant share of the end-user community for Eaton. They are essential pillars of the automotive industry, as they keep the customer’s vehicle running. This makes it vital for them to have indepth knowledge to inturn increase the serviceability aspect of the vehicle. Eaton has been conducting hands-on practical training workshops with mechanics from Tamil Nadu since 2019. This was a part of our strategic end-user and influencer engagement program. We had trained almost 75 independent mechanics across four locations in Tamil Nadu and had plans in place to continue with the hands on training for more locations across India when the pandemic struck.

To ensure we went through with our plans, we came up with the idea of focussed-group training through virtual platforms with a focus on skill development and to reach out to our target group. We switched to virtual training in April 2020, where we used video conference apps to broadcast our comprehensive product animation and training videos using minimal resources. So far 250+ mechanics have been trained under the initiative. It has grown to a pan India implementation now.

Q. Which key skillsets and focus areas are targeted and what is the demography of the target group like?