This was a note I penned 15 years ago for a newsletter. Kind of autobiographical till that point of time.

My message as Head-CRM of CDS&S: Meet the Leader - extract from the Apr 2006 edition: Cummins Cares 

Dear Friends,

When the editorial team of Cummins Cares asked me to pen a note for this edition, it was like Deja-vu in the reverse sense, I still recall the days when I used to hound folks to do the needful for the various newsletters that I was actively involved in releasing!!

I spent my formative years in the state of Karnataka, with most of my childhood in the town of Kolar Gold Fields. Little did I realize at that time that a time will come in my life when I would actually be directly involved in the supply of engines to Beml and end customers. I still have vivid memories of the sound of the air starters when the erstwhile LW-50 dumpers were cranked and our VTs roared into action and the trucks sped along the dusty test tracks of the 1970s.

The lure of engines was so strong that after completing my BE, I gravitated to Cummins. The early heady days of in-plant training at CDS&S, sweating it out dismantling and cleaning engines (come to think of it, it’s likely that I nicked my hands removing the exhaust manifolds & cylinder heads of some of the VTs that I revered as a lad). 

After my in-plant training I was inducted into the Sales Department at Pune where I had an opportunity to familiarize myself with our engine sales to our end customers –replacement, re-power and distributor OEM sales.  Then came the customary field posting, in my case it was in the South Zone where I learnt hands on what re-powering is all about. The 600CK re-power at NLC is still fresh in my mind. My first cross functional role was also at the South as I was responsible for vendor liason for both CDS&S and CIL(KCL). The interactions with Kirloskar Electric Company to get the alternators and allied controls inspected and shipped for many of our Navy Projects, especially the Corvettes and the OPVs, not to forget the alternators for the first 225 kVA Rajdhani power cars built at  E Rly Liluah, gave me an understanding of the intricacies of  such critical projects.

I was then recalled to our Sales Department at Pune where I handled R&R engine sales to the construction and mining markets. The first CAT 773B, 777B, 988B and Belaz re-powers happened at that time. Then came the historic merger of our Sales Department with CIL(KCL) Marketing. I still remember preparing the first quotes on behalf of CIL to a Coal subsidiary and carrying them to Ranchi and Singrauli for tender submissions. I was then given an opportunity to handle OEM accounts. Telcon, HM, HIL and Beml were my accounts. The 210M and the BH-40 saw the light of day at that time. In between all this, conducting CMS programs and Customer Satisfaction Measurement kept me fully occupied. Then came a major switch in my responsibilities, I moved to Market Planning, and then Marketing Services during which time the first IBU newsletter, the enquiry tracking system and the Market News database took shape. 

When the ‘Power Solutions’ concept took shape, a few of us were moved from various entities as a start-up team for CPSL. The early heady days were full of challenges and we burnt a lot of midnight oil in building up the business. The first version of Empower, the PGBU and IBU Marketing databases were launched and we made the  Infraline syndicated news and database available to many of our front end folks in CIL and CDSS.   Concurrently, I had another cross-functional role of customer relationship which was pan-entity.  This is when we started of the Voice of the Customer program, VOC as we know it.  As I write this note, we have completed 66 VOCs from all of which there have been take-aways for us as an organization.  Considering that CDS&S is the primary end-customer facing BU, my function and I  transitioned to CDSS where I am heading the CRM function of which our Customer Assistance Cell is a part.

I strongly believe in taking an unbiased view of all issues and ardently subscribe to our core value on diversity which is to embrace the diverse perspectives of all people and honour with both dignity and respect. I’ve been associated with our Diversity initiatives for the better part of a decade and am one of the lead facilitators of the Diversity Modules.

Be ceaselessly customer focused is my mantra for all of us. We have a great tradition of being a customer led organization and should continue to demonstrate this. Our stated objective is providing products, packages, services and solutions that enable the uptime of our customers’ assets.  I would like to refer to one of our guiding principles viz. Speed in all actions that affect the customer: clear role, responsibility and accountability across CDS&S. As we move ahead this year, measures like CCRI and CSI (from DSCSM) will help us see how we live up to our customers’ expectations.

So let’s provide our customers with best in class and dependable support and make Cummins their first choice.

 Arun Kumar  : Head - CRM