He has sage advice to offer – ‘Feel honour in your work rather than feeling responsible, and you will excel!’
Umesh K Jhamb is known in automotive and business circles for his strategic thinking. Born in 1953 in Haryana at Ambala Cantonment or Ambala Cantt in popular colloquialism, he comes from a modest but highly educated family of hardworking parents and 3 siblings. His own 2 sons – Amit and Rohit – are also well-educated and settled in US and Europe respectively. And, he gives the entire credit to his wife, Uma, for having nurtured them when he was immersed in developing his own career.
Jhamb believes in sharing his life’s learnings and his passion as a mentor – for which, he gives credit to his own mentor, Ashok Taneja, the Managing Director at Shriram Pistons & Rings. Jhamb had the opportunity to work with Taneja twice in his career. He imbibed a few crucial things from Taneja –checking and rechecking data for better management, being customer-centric, being aware of competition always and preparing Plan B. A fitting tribute to Taneja lies in the fact that Jhamb shares these lessons with each one of his mentees for he has only gained from it. He also makes it a point that his mentees constantly upgrade and update themselves technologically.
Jhamb holds a Bachelor’s degree in Technology and was a gold medalist in PGDMA in marketing and sales. His long career began in 1975 when he joined a company that dealt in farm machinery for which he created extensive sales, distribution and customer service network. After 5 years, he went on to become Regional Manager with another company that made pistons and rings. Later, he shifted to become Country Head for another company that manufactured automotive batteries. A couple of more job hops later in the automotive segment, he went back to the pistons and rings company who wanted him to head their aftermarket division.
He shares: “In my second stint, I helped the company improve their turnover from Rs. 60 crores a year to over 300 crores. Though they did not want to relieve me, I superannuated in 2015 as I wanted to devote time to my family. In 2016, I began writing articles on management and marketing auto components on the digital media. Now I have built a following of a few 1000s of active seekers.”
One such article caught the attention of an automotive component company based in Punjab and invited Jhamb to become their mentor and advisor. But Jhamb follows a criterion before he accepts any client: “I believe in offering quality advice. I do not take on many clients at a time and I avoid more than one client per industry because I think it will be unethical to help competitors. I get a deep understanding of the company’s product and brand strength, the management’s vision and how open they are to adopt new technology among a few other things.”
Once a client is onboard, Jhamb throws himself into making the team feel comfortable with him around though it may not always be hunky-dory. He explains: “Many a time, the employees may feel threatened and I make them see that I am on their team and not working against them.”
That is when he wields his ‘magical’ strategic thinking. He says: “Strategic thinking is about adding value. I help my clients strategize in various aspects of business – be it technology, pricing, brand positioning, or optimization.”
But Jhamb is a hard task master too. For him, achieving numbers is as important as achieving them within a timeframe: “I would rather that they make mistakes while following my suggestions instead of not taking any action. I always make it a point to strike a balance between giving them a realistic target but which is achievable only if they strive outside of their comfort zones.”
Throwing the mentees at the deep end of learning is but one of the many ways that Jhamb teaches. Since, ego has no place in receiving mentoring, he does not shy away from playing the ‘good cop, bad cop’ at least occasionally. He created the concept of cross-functional teaming in which he brings the heads of various departments together to discuss and thrash out a problem to arrive at a strategic solution – which is not only acceptable to everyone but also benefits the company.
On two occasions as the Country Head – Operations with a company, Jhamb recounts how his strategies worked when he was part of the leadership team and saved the day: “In 1993, we wanted to launch an engine valve but the market leader in that segment was almost untouchable. We brainstormed on the price of our product – if it should be higher, same or lower than the top product. Together it was decided that our engine valve should be priced higher even if only marginally because higher price will tell our competitor that we are not competing with them. If they feel that we are, they can easily kill our product by reducing their cost further as they have deep pockets. Pricing higher would tell them that we are but a minor player and do not plan to disturb their market share. Simultaneously, the higher price of our product signals the market that our quality and technology are better than the market leader, while also not starting a price war. The strategy worked extremely well and our engine valve became a big hit in the first year of launch itself.”
The other instance was when Jhamb helped turn around the sales of the company’s flagship product. He shares: “Though the company manufactured both the pistons and rings, the market generally opted for only the low-priced pistons as there was no other qualitative source for both – whether within or outside the country. The strategy team discussed and together we decided to sell the two as a combo product. We hired a designer and gave strict instructions to create an innovative packaging which could not be imitated or tampered with. We launched it as a combo product at a marginally higher price than before. The packaging design was patented later and the combo became a grand success as we spread the message that when used in combination, our pistons and rings improved vehicle performance. The best part is that even today it is a brand and price leader in the market.”
But even a mentor needs to finetune his skills consistently. Jhamb does it by – one, updating his knowledge about the market that his clients play in and two, working continuously on his articulation, and three, by reading and researching extensively to understand the probable trends in the market and technology allowing him to predict the future of it. That way he is able to steer his clients in the direction of success and diversification.
His mentor’s declaration in front of the entire team at his superannuation that – ‘I will always remember Jhamb as a great strategist. I wish I had 10 more like him in my company which would have helped me increase my turnover exponentially by now’ – will always be the ultimate kudos for Umesh K Jhamb!