It takes a visionary to change lives of less privileged for better because he or she knows the pulse of the market. In other words, the visionary is in harmony with the market vibes and in rhythm with the needs of those underprivileged.
Y. Nagaraj, for one, can vouch for it. He was at the right place at the right time when he met Mr. G.S. Ramesh, Chairman, Layam Group, a few years ago. As someone who could not pursue academics beyond higher level schooling, Nagaraj did not see a bright future for himself. Coupled with the pressure to keep his family financially stable, he did odd jobs at a variety of places, including a garment factory, granite company, selling SIM cards and the like. Things changed for him when he met Mr. Ramesh when he was offered relevant training suited for his qualifications. Soon, Nagaraj found work as a supervisor with a major Indian CV OEM in Tamil Nadu.
Nagaraj soon grew in his career and supervised over 30 people and took on the additional work in administration. He shares: “I joined the OEM’s Hosur plant in 2011 as a supervisor, and today I have become Assistant Manager with over 350 people working under me. I have found financial stability for my family and I am glad that I have proved Mr. Ramesh’s belief in me right by working hard because he has always guided many like me to perform well so that we get noticed for our talent.”
Layam inception
Layam was born in 2009 as a brain child of Mr. Ramesh with an aim to provide opportunities to school and system drop-outs. As an HR specialist, he spent 20 years with a major Indian automotive OEM followed by another 12 years of setting up and running a Korean car maker’s Indian set-up.
He says: “In my second stint, I headed their HR besides production initially, while in my first job, I imbibed their unique Indian culture that had a multinational flavour. Early on, I realised that usually the best in a field are prioritized. No one looks at those who are less than the best or even the unsuccessful ones. I do not believe that giving the best people the best things defines ‘giving back’ to the society. I found out that the B.E. and diploma holders or ITI pass-outs who score 60 per cent and above either opt for further studies or they get placed well. But the others are left behind with not many good opportunities. Hence, my first philosophy was to give these people opportunities in multinationals. So, initially, I recruited them into Layam for operator training and then placed them in the multinationals to learn over a period of two years on the job.”
According to Mr. Ramesh, Layam Management Solutions till date has placed 6,000-8,000 people in different capacities in the automotive sector alone. In close to a decade of its existence, the Layam Group has opened different companies that follow the same vision and the passion of its founder.
Mr. Ramesh adds: “Layam Management Solutions conducts talent hunt and management, besides consulting and furthering learning and development among the trainees. Then there is Layam Flexi Solutions which offers opportunities to those people who need them. Another company is Layam Exim which basically is a back-end IT set-up for a firm in Kuwait, and Layam Talent Academy Foundation takes care of higher training and deployment. We train the boys for free so that they can find employment with different companies.”
According to their official report, Layam takes care of performance issues with companies in manufacturing, IT, BFSI, petroleum and gas, pharma, etc., besides retail sectors among others. Mr. Ramesh shares: “Our 20-80 model is a proven robust and practical solution that has created several success stories and has been tested and certified by European, Japanese and American MNCs.”
With the Group’s turnover exceeding Rs. 100 crores with 7,000 and above personnel working in different companies on Layam’s payroll, Mr. Ramesh is happy to have provided training to more than 10,000 people since 2009.
He says: “I have started contract manufacturing and engineering services in the same format. We now body-build for a major Indian CV OEM on the chassis delivered by them. Traditionally, the automotive sector has always survived on head count. But I believe in the brains of the people to bring quality to products. So Layam brings transformation from head to brain count, while the automotive sector gets quality output. This is the cycle that we have set in motion.”
He has all the reason to feel satisfied because those who started out as trainees are now working as engineers or assistant managers in companies.
Change in perception
Mr. Ramesh firmly believes in changing the way people look at any problem. And he has always been driven by his belief to convert peoples’ weaknesses into their strengths.
He explains: “When I began Layam, not many believed that I could deliver solutions to their problems. But I persevered, got involved, evaluated their problems, offered intervention and designed the program and executed it. This has brought about the desired transformation in many ways.”
His team of 100 or so people is made up of professionals with management backgrounds from prestigious institutions in India. And that is why the training that the Group offers – for instance, training about 16,000 people at an oil company – is fondly termed as organizational intervention.
He further says: “I believe in designing our training around the pain points of my clients. We show them the improvement through our training. Till date we have delivered 35 training sessions across India and we have the capacity to increase it based on our clients’ needs.”
F is not for failure
For Mr. Ramesh, failure does not exist: “I believe that each person is unique in her / his own way. They are just waiting to be polished. I take something that needs nurturing and help it to shine. For any issue, we need to know the root cause which is making the person under-achieve. It takes time and patience to do this.”
Whether it is Nagaraj, K. Kumar, Pandyan, Saranraj, A. Mohan, A. Madhavan or Maniarasu – all the new recruits know that Mr. Ramesh does not offer a job guarantee, instead advises them to ‘perform well and people will see you’, which they seem to take to heart.
Mr. Ramesh shares: “We hand-hold them and help them build their careers and grow. At times, some people are not able to come up to the mark professionally. We give them refresher courses and help them because I believe that once we take on something to nurture we must continue with it.”
The Layam Group is certified by the All India Council for Technical Education (AICTE), ASDC, United Registrar of Systems and TNV UK. All its boys have found successful placements in different departments, including aftersales, sales and marketing, finance, logistics, purchase, HR and production, besides R&D, to name a few.
Layam offers a turnaround time of 48 hours with its teams spread out in Chennai, Bangalore, Pune, Gurgaon and Ahmedabad. The Group also boasts of pan-India training deployment capability.
After all, it is a visionary one goes to when a solution is needed. And Mr. Ramesh is just that for many.