Hypratek Fluid Power’s aggressive growth strategy

Paolo Gemma as new MD firm on revolutionising management style

Mr. Paolo Gemma, an industrial expert, has taken over as the Managing Director at Hyptratek Fluid Power. A managerial consultant for better part of his more than 20-year long career, he goes by one thumb rule – any business with its growth strategy must be approached with simplicity.

Mr. Paolo Gemma, Managing Director, Hyptratek Fluid Power

A self-proclaimed non-technician, Mr. Gemma, with his wealth of experience in building companies, has worked with manufacturing companies around the world – be it a warehouse or company dealing in kitchenware, sanitaryware or trading in premium authentic ‘organic’ wines straight from the vineyards in Italy.

Mr. Gemma shared: “I am a curious person and hence I like to understand the process of how things are made from their raw material. And I think my experience would be useful to Hypratek. The shareholders of the company made this appointment and have asked me to come here to do a complete audit of the company. At this point, I must say that Hypratek does not need much help in the production process or in the technical ways.”

While Mr. Gemma agrees that Hypratek has been doing well, the business can still benefit from better methods, especially in the way data and information is circulated internally, with a special focus on synergy among other important issues.

As a major shareholder, Kyokuto Kaihatsu Kogyo’s Mr. Takeo Norimitsu, Director, Executive Officer – Overseas Business Division, was present at the time Mr. Gemma was in the process of stabilising the company working.

Mr. Gemma shared: “Till now the company was engineering oriented, but now onwards, we will look at the business aspect of it closely. We are also planning to increase the capacity of the company as the next step. Hence, we feel that this is the time to change the management to take the company in a different direction. I believe that I merely need to give the business here a different approach. Implementing business intelligence tools will give us a simple dashboard as to what is going on. And that is where my pragmatic approach will work. It is natural for any human being to get involved in a project, develop it once it is probed the person realises that the whole thing has become complex. I think one need not lose the idea that any business has a simple idea at its core.”

From left, Mr. Takeo Norimitsu, Director & Executive Officer (Overseas Business Division), Kyokuto Kaihatsu Kogyo, Mr. Sudhir Prabhu, outgoing MD, Hypratek Fluid Power, and Mr. Paolo Gemma

Mr. Gemma who will be based in Bangalore for at least for a year said: “My goal is to bring up the set-up to work autonomously without my full presence here post that. My aim is that Hypratek must break even this year and record profit. In my opinion, the company is mature enough to start gaining from its knowhow. The work that it has done in the past proves its worth. I hope by the end of this year, I can present a financial statement which is positive. This year they are going to invest huge and I wish to invest big in people. I am hoping that we shall recruit more people in the sales, both to expand our existing network and in aftersales.”

Referring to the existing dealer network, Mr. Gemma observed: “We are in a good position because our dealers are spread all over India. One of my many commitments is to go personally and meet each one of them in the first few months. I would like to understand how we can grow, and my aim is to create new dealerships in areas currently uncovered, say in northern India. I also would like to reinvent our equations with our existing dealers and assure them that Hypratek is here to stay and is already doing a good job and will continue to do so.”

Mr. Norimitsu said: “We need to expand our customer base too, and we plan to extend our business to other truck manufacturers, and that is directly linked to expanding our product lines. Then, we are also focusing on the aftermarket.”

The management team striking a pose with the dedicated Hypratek Fluid Power workforce

The key to achieving anything is simplicity and the message reverberates with everything that Mr. Gemma is planning. He shared: “While we want to make our sales network stronger and more efficient, we are also on the path to consolidate and strengthen our aftersales network. It is our priority. We have to follow up with everything but in a simpler way. I am going to reorganise and offer a few new procedures to simplify everyone’s work and help it get accomplished faster. Aftersales is crucial for our business. When a customer calls us with a problem, we have to react quickly. And we can do that only if we are fast and address the issue in a simpler manner. And that requires information flow to be smooth and efficient.”

Mr. Gemma, along with the shareholders and the existing staff at Hypratek, is already working towards bringing in changes. He said: “We are looking at different ways to run our internal processes to save costs and increase efficiency. We are also finding ways with Kyokuto to provide us with technical help as we are looking at a different of solution to make our hydraulic products more stable and reliable.”

Though he refused to divulge the nature of the product, he assured that the investors are all on the same page when it comes to the growth of the company. According to him, Hypratek commands a ‘mid-high’ position in the market in India. He was happy to note that the name is known in the field and that their customers think ‘high’ of their products.

He said: “We are in a position from where we can grow higher. We are happy that our products do not have many problems. But our aftersales market is not where we want it to be. Besides the replacement for warranty issues, we wish to be closer to our customers.”

With a positive approach, a sturdy investor backing and experience spanning two decades, Mr. Paolo Gemma is confident that he can help Hypratek grow fast. He hopes to leave a lasting impression on the people whose lives Hypratek is touching – be it their own employees, customers, investors or the dealers.

When the top management believes that its people are its assets and that they are their first priority, it is certain that the company is on the path of steady progress.