With over 30 years of experience in leading steel, mining, and mineral projects, including mining project and project finance for underground mining (as EPC contract finalization with finance support), flat steel and ferro chrome, chrome supply chain, and strategic management, Vijay K Singh presently holds the position of Country Head and Director for China and NE Asia at ISPAT Group.
Vijay’s primary responsibility is to add value to all of ISPAT Group’s business segments, and he personally oversees some of them. His daily routine involves ensuring that the products and services are functioning correctly and addressing any issues that may arise. The majority of his day is dedicated to product development for the accounting department.
Vijay subscribes to the belief that it is essential to take risks, but not simply because they are safe and certain. He values self-motivation and trust as critical factors for achieving growth and success in business. By embracing risk and taking calculated chances while also relying on one’s own internal motivation and trusting in the abilities of oneself and one’s team, he believes that ISPAT Group can continue to thrive and innovate in an ever-changing market. Throughout his career, he has remained committed to driving bottom-line profitability as a key focus.
Identifying an Unmet Need
Vijay’s path towards the steel, mining, and minerals industries was not straightforward. After obtaining his bachelor’s degree in engineering, he initially joined the R&D division of Asian Paints. While there, he became aware of a new concept that was gaining traction in developed nations, particularly in the white goods OEM sector and high-end roofing and paneling applications: pre-painted steel coils. This technology was novel in India during the 1990s, and it was at this time that ISPAT Group made plans to manufacture pre-painted steel coils for the first time. This encouraged Vijay to pursue new opportunities and innovation in the steel industry, which was a completely new field and experience for him, leading him to join ISPAT Group.
Following ISPAT Group’s introduction of coated steel products, Vijay engaged in various discussions with high-end users of white goods appliances and PEB manufacturers. Through these interactions, he was introduced to other concepts related to base metals, including galvanized, cold-rolled, and hot-rolled products tailored to individual OEMs. This further fueled his desire to deepen his knowledge of and involvement in this area of the steel manufacturing industry.
Throughout his professional journey, from his early 20s to the present day, Vijay’s diverse experiences have instilled in him a passion for continuous learning and staying up-to-date with the latest industry trends. He remains committed to bringing fresh ideas to his business and team, and to fostering an environment of innovation and growth.
ISPAT Group
The ISPAT Group is a prominent corporate entity in India and abroad, with extensive expertise in metals and mining. The group has a proven track record of constructing steel plants from scratch, even in challenging conditions, and transforming them into world-class facilities. The group is involved in the production of flat steel products and Ferro Chrome, and it possesses a chrome mine with a reserve exceeding 100 million tons. The group’s goal is to become one of the world’s top five new-generation Ferrochrome manufacturing companies. They strive to achieve this by continuously improving the quality of their products, providing exceptional service to their clients, maintaining high ethical standards, and integrating with society at large.
The ISPAT Group gained a reputation as a trailblazer in the steel industry, thanks to its early adoption of cutting-edge technology and successful product launches. Even in its formative years, the group boasted a diversified range of products and was vertically integrated, with both forward and backward operations. In the early 1990s, the group introduced galvanized coated steel, a unique product in India that quickly gained popularity and had consistent demand.
Shortly thereafter, the group introduced a coated steel product for the first time in India, with the aim of replacing the need for paint shops in white goods and automobile manufacturing. The new product was designed to be easy to apply and highly durable, while also promoting environmental sustainability. This launch helped cement the ISPAT Group’s reputation for innovation and leadership in the steel industry.
Sustainability is the Key to Growth
Many industries now consider sustainability a crucial issue, and business owners, leaders, and administrators must prioritize sustainable business practices. Companies that prioritize green values are viewed positively by people, and as a result, they are eager to promote these values. In modern marketing, authenticity, relationship building, and transparency have become important factors.
In today’s competitive business environment, companies must strive to maintain their competitiveness and gain an advantage over their rivals. To make informed strategic decisions, companies must receive relevant and timely information about their competitors.
To achieve this, businesses use essential tools and tactics such as business intelligence, market intelligence, knowledge management, and market research to stay ahead in the business industry.
The Success Path
Life is a continuous journey that unfolds and guides us towards the next step. This process is accompanied by difficult challenges, tough days, and moments of confusion, which may serve as opportunities for personal growth, strength building, and the testing of one’s determination to keep moving forward. Despite facing criticism and failure, one can strive to do good for themselves, the company, and team members, recognizing that perfection is unattainable.
In 1990, during the initial launch and production of coated steel, various issues arose, such as problems with the product, the production process, and customers’ limited knowledge of handling coated steel with old conventional roll-forming machines. As a responsible individual, Vijay took charge of addressing these problems through multiple brainstorming sessions and Ishikawa analysis, with the aim of eliminating defects and optimizing the process. By closely interacting with end-users and appliance manufacturers, they continuously updated their products, processes, and raw material selection. This involved monitoring steel alloy composition, hot- rolling, the galvanizing process, and flatness control, along with upgrading technology and using the right pre-treatment and paints. Through custom-tailored products, they successfully met individual customer requirements while reducing emissions and fire hazards, leading to customer satisfaction and overall success.
After opening a China office in 2003, during the initial stage of operation, ISPAT Group faced many challenges with customer loyalty and the quality of raw material sourcing from various vendors. To understand the system, Vijay and his team worked on updating the customer rating, vendor rating, and made frequent visits to both the customer and vendor sites for assessments of their capabilities and processes.
A People’s Leader
At ISPAT Group, Vijay’s objective is to establish, invest in, and cultivate relationships with employees, clients, and other stakeholders of the company. He believes that being a leader entails being a mentor and guide who fosters a communicative environment and helps the team comprehend the company’s objectives and guidelines.
Vijay always endeavors to maintain integrity and trust among the team to keep their spirits high and provide them with ample opportunities to excel and thrive in achieving the company’s targets and performance. He also believes that, as a leader, it is crucial to remain passionate in every meeting, presentation, and project and keep the commitment despite setbacks to keep the team inspired and motivated. Additionally, effective communication, integrity, and sensitivity to the team’s needs are critical in becoming an inspiring guide.
Working Building Team Spirit
Vijay stresses the importance of carefully considering the decision to add a new team member due to the potential negative impact on productivity, progress, and team morale caused by frequent replacements. When hiring, it’s crucial to seek candidates who align with the team’s culture and possess an approachable personality and the ability to work under pressure. Additionally, reliability, timely delivery, positivity, enthusiasm, and a thirst for knowledge are essential qualities that every team member should possess. With the job market and trends constantly evolving, it’s crucial for team members to be willing to learn and upskill themselves in areas where the team lacks expertise.
Passion for Improving Work Progress
At the start of one’s career, innovation and advanced technology can provide a competitive advantage in the marketplace, leading to success. Vijay experienced recognition and appreciation from management for his work, which motivated him to work freely and excel in his role.
However, it is essential to recognize that great leaders need to consistently demonstrate integrity, adaptability, vision, accountability, and communication skills to effectively lead their teams towards achieving greatness. In contrast, poor leaders may become complacent and remain satisfied with the current situation. Without a clear plan for continuous improvement and a focus on the future, progress is unlikely to occur.
Insights on Current Mining Industry Developments
Vijay recognizes the importance of innovation and advanced technology in gaining a competitive advantage in the marketplace, especially at the beginning of one’s career. He has witnessed firsthand how the ISPAT Group adapted and evolved to meet the changing demands of the market.
As the supplier of raw materials to the economy, the mining sector will need to expand rapidly to enable the necessary technological changes. Despite its reputation as a long lead-time, capital-intensive industry, the sector will be expected to move quickly and keep pace with the market’s demands. This will require significant investments in innovation and technology, as well as a focus on efficiency and sustainability.
The current market conditions, characterized by volatility and declining commodity prices, have led to a new normal in which cost reduction, automation, and operational efficiency are critical for survival. In addition to these challenges, the mining industry is facing a range of issues that are unique to the sector, including regulatory constraints, geopolitical risks, legal limits on natural resource use, shareholder activism, and public scrutiny.
Despite these challenges, Vijay anticipates that demand for minerals will continue to grow in the years ahead. However, the mining companies that will succeed in the future will be those that can adapt to several key trends that are shaping the industry. These trends may include a focus on sustainability, a shift toward renewable energy sources, the increasing importance of automation and digitization, and a greater emphasis on social responsibility and community engagement. The ability to navigate these trends successfully will be a crucial factor in determining which mining companies will thrive in the future.
- Transition to a low-carbon economy: Demand for most minerals is projected to be high in order to achieve the energy transition. In order to avoid reaching temperatures that will have catastrophic consequences for the planet, countries must decarbonize their energy systems by the middle of this century. Mining companies that power their operations with renewable energy, operate electric or hydrogen-powered truck fleets, and integrate recycling into their value chains will be best placed to sell low-carbon premium minerals.
- Access to resources: Automation and digitalization will result in more targeted and efficient mining, which could further be enhanced through technological breakthrough. In the search for high-grade ore deposits, deep sea and asteroid mining will be increasingly explored by governments and companies. While these technologies will open up new ways for mining companies to optimize the valorization of existing resources or allow access to new ones, they are unchartered territory in terms of business models, processes, and potential social and environmental externalities.
- New ways to finance mining: As mining companies try to limit risk, novel financing and production models will become more common. To spread the risk of new capital-intensive projects, these financing solutions are likely to continue to grow.
- A social contract for mining:Creating real benefits for communities near mine sites will be key for successful new projects. Obtaining the ‘license to operate’ from local communities has been a challenge for the mining industry in recent years
- Big data and mining:Data transparency to aid the mining industry’s relations with stakeholders. Collecting and processing massive amounts of data will be essential for mining companies as they digitalize and automate their operations.
The Future Mantra; ‘Reduce, Reuse & Recycle’
As per Vijay “Going global” is defined as the worldwide movement toward economic, financial, trade, and communications integration. The pace of globalized trade, outsourcing, and supply-chaining was speeding up and that its impact on business organizations and business practices would continue to grow in the 21st century.
The effective selling and marketing of your products or services requires a comprehensive, cohesive strategy that addresses sales strategy, sales delivery, branding/value proposition, marketing strategy, marketing programs, and pricing, which together create clear market differentiators that propel market acceptance and revenue growth.
In recent decades, the iron and steel industry has reduced its energy intensity by 60%, and most recent iron and steel production sites operate close to a thermodynamic limit of crude steel but still leaving an emission gap with respect to the requirement for a sectoral target.
The concept of green energy and the shift towards a circular economy presentS a new business opportunity that can decouple the world’s growth from consumption by embracing the principles of “reduce, reuse, and recycle.” The construction sector holds significant potential for a circular economy, with broad-based recycling of construction materials and smart design playing a critical role in reducing CO2 emissions generated by buildings by over 30%.
Written by Steve Sanchez.
