KAPTURE Leveraging Diverse Talent for Cross Functional Projects In bid to promote talent development, involve employees in org-level strategic planning and in the process, provide them exposure to areas beyond their regular scope of work, the India Leadership Team identified 5 key themes that are the core to enabling Kennametal India realize its aspirational growth: Identifying new high growth spaces in India, Building Kennametal as a Top-of-the-Mind brand among relevant stakeholders in India, Improving Customer Experience on Delivery and Response Time, Creating New Product Development Process and Ensuring Commercial Launch Success, Effective Talent Management, and Improving Learning and Development Process.
initiative that helped me gain knowledge in new areas and bond with my colleagues from other domains,” said one of the team members.
Cross functional teams were formed for each theme involving close to 30 employees , who worked on these projects for three months and presented their respective detailed plans, which were then handed over to the concerned businesses / functions for implementation. The final presentations were made to the ILC followed by Franklin Cardenas, President, Infrastructure during his visit to India. “It was a great experience to be a part of the A couple of the cross-functional teams
KATCH UP In this edition, we’re ‘katching up’ with Rajesh V- DGM, Manufacturing. Read on to find out more!
Rajesh V DGM, Manufacturing
1. Please tell us a little bit about yourself, your educational background, and your professional journey at Kennametal. I have always been interested in the field of engineering. I studied to be a Mechanical Engineer, and I joined WIDIA in 1995 as a graduate trainee in PU5. Then, after receiving confirmation from the company in 1997, I moved to a role in the grinding department, reporting to Mr. Shivashankar, who was leading the operations at the time. Subsequently, I worked under close to 10 different leaders till
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Kronicle | Issue 05 | April - June 2022
2007 and I got the opportunity to lead the insert manufacturing plant in 2008. So, I have been with the company for close to 27 years now, and currently hold the position of Deputy General Manager, Manufacturing. I would like to mention that Mr. Bhaskara played a crucial role in my progress and development at Kennametal, as he guided me closely throughout, and was a great mentor, every step of the way. 2. What does your job entail? The routine elements are visiting all the departments, ensuring machines are running properly on the shop floor, take stock of operations, gauge performance/ output and inform supervisors if something needs their immediate attention. However, every day can be a surprise! In this role, it is very important to think quickly on your feet, and be ready to deploy Plan B or C if there are some issues in executing Plan A. As I have worked in several roles in the company, my responsibilities have changed accordingly, but putting customers’ needs first, focusing on performance, © Copyrighted material. All rights reserved with Kennametal India Limited
