Three words for entrepreneurs – P. Kaniappan, Whole-time Director, Wabco India

“The first thing is vision and passion. The second one, I would say,is courage. You should have the courage to take that path,the path normally not taken by the people. Third, of course, is the execution;you should have the ability to execute what you have decided upon.” Thus responds P. Kaniappan, Whole-time Director, Wabco India, when asked what he considers as the three most important words for entrepreneurs.“We hear from the successful people that all it needs is the courage to take the path that has not been taken by other people. There could be a lot of possible failures, but then you actually succeed through your courage and your own passion to succeed,” adds Kaniappan.

P. Kaniappan

A B.Tech. in mechanical engineering from the National Institute of Technology, Karnataka (1977-1982), and M.Sc. inmanufacturing systems engineering from the University of Warwick (1987-1988), Kaniappan pursued business education in Great Lakes Institute of Management (2005-2007), and the University of Pennsylvania - The Wharton School (2011). Among the different positions in his profile are: Vice President of Operations at Sundaram-Clayton Ltd (SCL);Business head of foundry division of SCL; Operations head of brakes division of SCL; and Assistant Manager of TVS Motor Company Ltd. “We are proud of our TVS heritage as it has helped us to build strong relationships with customers across India for over 40 years. Indeed, we have delivered better value to customers and shareholders by leveraging our award-winning, world-class processes,” saysKaniappan, in an interview. He established a world-class manufacturing system in Wabco, incorporating some of the best practices such as TotalQuality Management (TQM), Lean and Total Productive Maintenance(TPM), with year-over-year productivity improvement, the Businessweekprofile informs. “He developed and implemented a vendor development modelresulting in low cost and high quality supplier base.”

Wabco

A leading global supplier of technologies and control systems for the safety and efficiency of commercial vehicles,and founded nearly 150 years ago, Wabco is into mechanical, mechatronic and electronic technologies for braking, stability and transmission automation systems supplied to the commercial truck, bus and trailer manufacturers, states the company site. With more than 10,000 employees in 31 countries and sales of $2.5 billion in 2012, Wabco has many firsts to its credit, beginning with the first anti-lock braking system (ABS) in 1981. Wabco India has four manufacturing facilities, located in Ambattur, Chennai; Jamshedpur; Mahindra World City, Chennai; and Pantnagar, Uttarakhand.