"The water-injected compressor was introduced to eliminate oil in the system and be environmentally friendly"

...says Dr Jairam Varadaraj, Managing Director, Elgi Equipments. In an interaction with Neha Basudkar Ghate, he explains the significance with a series of strategies to globalise while remaining relevant in India.

- Neha Basudkar Ghate

You have mentored the organisation’s business strategy for nearly 30 years now; looking back, how do you trace this journey?

The journey started in the early 90’s when India was going through a lot of changes. It was opening up its economy and integrating itself into the world at that time. Until then, there was a licensing system with the markets protected and high import duties for all products. Since this was being dismantled, we had to rethink our strategy. We were into eight to nine different products at that time, and we decided to sell or shut down quite a few.

We anticipated an opportunity in our compressor and automotive business and retained them at the time. We identified that our automotive segment would be a dominant, India-centric business while compressors would be a global business for us. While the global opportunity was significant, even to remain relevant in India, we invested in the backend with a focus on technology, processes, and products that were world-class.

Then, with a series of strategies to globalise, we experimented with a lot of markets and realised that the strategy we are focusing on today is the right one for us. We tested this strategy in select markets internationally and gained confidence that the markets accept our products, and the value propositions we give to our distributors and customers are quite compelling. Therefore, from 2012 onwards, we truly started expanding globally.