Bharat Forge's Chairman and MD Baba Kalyani tells how the best advice helped the company sail through slowdown

The global financial crisis struck unexpectedly. Companies had to redefine strategies and make mid-course corrections to their investment and growth plans. Nimble and fleetfooted organisations weathered the storm. We at Bharat Forge decided to use our own counsel in responding to the crisis. We decided to keep things simple by focusing on internal measures primarily aimed at improving competitiveness.

Improving Cost and Operational Efficiencies: Our strategy focused on ensuring that every rupee spent would deliver significantly more value. We took a critical look at processes across the organisation to eliminate waste and reduce costs. We also took steps to create a lean organisation.

Strengthening Customer Relationships: As a result of our initiatives, Bharat Forge is now a preferred partner by choice of most customers, and an end-to-end service provider across the value chain.

Developing High Quality Human Resources: Our HRD strategy focused on creating a strong base of knowledge resources to drive growth. We invested in enhancing our people's capabilities through training programmes delivered in collaboration with leading academic institutions.

Our performance in the past two to three years reflects that Bharat Forge emerged from the crisis a stronger, focused and more efficient organisation.