When Neelesh joined the VSME Programme in 2014, he did not know he was taking his first steps towards not only transforming his company Creintors Teknosol Pvt Ltd but also transforming himself as a person. It was, ofcourse a chance conversation with his business partner, at a time when they were focusing on strengthening the manufacturing culture, that opened the doors of the "Visionary Small and Medium Enterprise" (VSME) programme for him. Much later, in 2015, Neelesh was intrigued by the unique VLFM Programme and he explored more with the VSME mentors, Mr C S Patel and Mr Saideep Rathnam. Neelesh says “The course content and structure convinced me that this was a Once a Life time Opportunity and THE course which would help me build the skills to lead my organization to the next leap of growth.” So convinced was he that he decided to take a bank loan to pay the programme fees of Rs 10 lacs for two participants.
While the VLMi programme was the stepping stone to VLFM for Creintors, it also helped to setup efficient plant operations based on the pull concept. Developed keeping in mind the three key concepts of Flow, Quality and Variety the company is now confident of setting up facilities of any magnitude necessary to meet the market demand.
The one year VLFM journey, preceded by the VSME journey, slowly but surely started transforming Neelesh. The inspiring speeches of CEOs, the mentors, the Self Initiated Research in Japan, skills of observation, listening to others, note taking, interviewing and making presentation have all had a deep rooted impact on him. “I have always understood, appreciated and applied a systems based approach. This has been so in my entrepreneurial journey as well as in expansion and diversification of the business. With VLFM I understood the missing element in me i.e. the Big- ’M’ thinking”, emphasizes Neelesh. He also tuned his management style for strengthening the organisation and nurturing leadership at all levels.
With personal and organisational transformation, also came breakthrough products and national recognition. Creintors won the National Award for “Product Innovation in Electronics and Hardware Security”, in the Small Scale Industries Category. The award winning product “Insert Dispenser” is an ideal example of a product based on the latent needs of the customer converted into a model and then a prototype.
VLFM learnings were the key to this innovation award. The working prototype made before learning from VLFM, was far from satisfactory. “I always felt the lack of clarity and future strategy leading to a low self confidence. I was never able to spell it out though, because I did not know how to” is how Neelesh puts it.
The product resulting from the application of VLFM learnings is a customer delight. The Big ‘M’ approach helped the company understand the integrated product needs, based on which R&D was initiated finally giving 3 families of the product. The product which is “CE” marked and under “UL” certification is in readiness for a US launch in September 2016 at the “IMTS” Exhibition. This is the outcome of applying the VLFM learnings; it is THE way for Neelesh and his colleagues to move ahead and take their companies to newer breakthroughs.