Thinking Outside The Box

From The Insurance Industry To Harvard Business School (Amp), Jayant Dua Has A Wealth Of Experience Under His Belt And Has Used It To Turn Around The Fortunes Of His Cement Division.

- Nikki Stefanoff

Three years ago, Jayant Dua took up the CEO role of Century Textiles and Industries’ Cement Division. Ever since then, he’s been busy turning around its success. “When I came on board, the company had a solid legacy but had been meandering along for a good few years,” Jayant says. “It could’ve been down to the way the whole cement industry was struggling through a phenomenal oversupply issue but, also, our organisation wasn’t doing very well. We had issues with our pricing, our operating margins and, essentially, had to look at how to turn things around.”

And, while Jayant admits that the cement industry is still facing an oversupply issue, he came into his role as CEO with clear plans about how to approach that turnaround. “I knew that the key to the continued success of the company had to be our finances, which is where I have continued to put my focus,” he explains. “The way they have grown over the past three years is the real success story of the entire business. Over this time, our profit before tax has seen a 200 per cent growth, our plant capacities have gone up by 16 per cent and our net sales are also up by about 19 per cent. If you look at it from a sales perspective, or a capacity perspective, the differences are remarkable.”