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IRJ: Were both your companies SBM Chemicals and Instruments Private Limited and PPC (Polymer Products Corporation) started at the same time?

VSM: They were both started at basically the same time.

IRJ: I recall that among the major products you started selling was Nirlon's tyre cord. What other products did you start off with?

VSM: Besides Nirlon, we were assigned by Wallace, an agency we still work for, as their agents in India. Other major agencies included Enka (now Akzo Nobel Fibres), whom we still continue to represent in India, for their Nylon 6.6. We enjoy long term relationships with our principals.

IRJ: What were the first few years like?

VSM: As with any new business, my first few years were tough. The company was started in my residence and the first two employees were my wife and I. Subsequently, Mr. K.V. Sethumadhavan joined us in 1973. Sethu, who has contributed significantly, is still with us and is like a member of our family. Mr. Vasant Bijur (ex- Bayer) joined us in 1975 and has been very loyal to our organization, a fact which we appreciate very much.

IRJ: What were the major problems that you had to contend with in the early years?

VSM: In those days, India's infrastructure was quiet poor - logistics were a real hassle. Poor infrastructure, and telecommunications especially, were a real hindrance. Today's commodities, such as fax machines, E-mail, etc. were not even luxuries then - they just didn't exist. Finance also was a problem. I was a salaried man, and did not come from a rich family. In fact, both my wife and I were displaced from our homes in Sindh (now Pakistan) in the aftermath of partition, and our families had to start life afresh. Our only strength in those days was our family support, our hard work, and I think, our intelligence.

IRJ: Presently, you represent some of the world's finest raw material manufacturers for the rubber industry. Can you tell us something about your organization structure and your success in handling such a wide and diverse portfolio of products?

VSM: We have created a very flat organizational structure, with only 2 layers of management, and a relatively wide span of control of approximately 8-10. We have also dedicated teams of personnel, organized by process, and by industry segment. Our in house technical support function is also a real asset. This ensures a deep understanding of our customer's needs, industry trends, and a high level of efficiency, in terms of service to both our customers, and our principals. Good performers are also identified easily, recognized and rewarded for their achievements.

IRJ: Which have been the most exciting events in the last 25 years?

VSM: From the business perspective, the globalization of the world economy, and the subsequent liberalization and integration of India's economy with that of the world, is I believe, the most exciting, and frankly, challenging, event of the last twenty- five years. In addition, the rapid evolution of the Information Technology and Telecommunications industry, which clearly has proved to be a catalyst, and is contributing significantly, to world economic integration, and elimination of artificial barriers, is also extremely exciting. These events of course have posed both opportunities, and challenges and risks. The downside, is that we all sleep a lot less, and have far less time to ourselves - the business world is now awake twenty-four hours.

On a more personal level, our organization has pioneered the entry, and sustained sales, of numerous advanced products from all over the world - raw materials, equipment, and machinery - in India. We have been thrilled to contribute to the overall product developments, and advancements of technology, within our customer base. We are proud of our small contributions, in this regard, to the industry's developments.

IRJ: There has been a definite increase in your activities after your son Ronil joined in 1993. What part of the business is Ronil responsible for?

VSM: Ronil has been involved in all aspects of the business, and his most significant contributions have been with respect to the marketing and sales of our wide product range. His efforts and contributions especially in terms of new business development and rapid commercialization of new products, our own infrastructure developments in terms of expanding and strengthening our own workforce, opening of new offices, and systems improvement, are also paying dividends. Additionally, our efforts to gain a deeper understanding of our customer's requirements, by understanding their technical issues, changing market scenarios, overall economic impact, etc., is also basically led by Ronil. This has increased the depth of knowledge amongst us all in the organization.

IRJ: What are your plans for the future?

VSM: Our continuous goal is to better serve our customers. We believe one way of increasing our commitment level to our customers is by entering into a manufacturing venture, preferably in a joint venture with a leading global supplier to the industry. We believe that some of our key strengths, such as our depth of knowledge, industry experience, distribution network, and most of all, our relationship with the customer's would be attractive to companies wanting to manufacture in India.

At the same time, however, our entry into manufacturing will not just be for the sake of doing so. Our basic premise will be - Do we add more value to our customers by manufacturing locally, and is the project viable. These would be the key drivers in our decision making. If our current activities support our overall objective of providing the highest levels of service to our customers, then that's fine too.

We strongly believe in this industry, and will look for all possible ways to improve our service levels to our valued customers.

SBM Group Celebrates Twenty Five Years

of Dedicated Service.

The SBM group has the widest product portfolio including various synthetic rubbers, chemicals, re-inforcement materials, machinery and instruments for the Indian rubber and tyre industry. Founded in 1972 and based in Bombay, it is clearly the largest supplier of raw materials to the Indian rubber industry.

The group consists of three companies - SBM Chemicals & Instruments Pvt. Ltd., Polymer Products Corporation, and Ronash Corporation, and is led by its dynamic Managing Director, Vishnu Malaney. Malaney has been at the forefront of the industry for about forty years, first at Bayer, and since then in the capacity of Managing Director of his group. Besides the excellent support of his executive team, Malaney is also now ably assisted by his older son Ronil, who has a B.Sc. in Applied Mathematics and Economics, from Brown University (USA), and who has had excellent global industry experience as a consultant with AT Kearney, a global Management Consultancy.

This organization of approximately forty-five people represents some of the world's most renowned manufacturers for the sales of their various products in India. A very professional and experienced organization - the senior ranks of the team consists of highly qualified rubber and plastics technologist and chemical engineers, who have a combined industry experience in excess of 200 years.

The young and versatile group has recently added another feather to its cap, as Allied Signal Fibers has earlier this year appointed the group as its exclusives representative in India for its polyester tyre cords, and industrial polyester yarn. Along with Allied, the group also represents companies such as Flexsys (World's largest manufacturer of Rubber Chemicals), Bekaert (world's largest independent manufacturer of steel cord, beadwire, and hose wire), of Belgium, Akzo Nobel, DSM and VMI all from Holland, PT GT Petrochem from Indonesia, Repsol from Spain. In addition, the group also represents some of India's leading suppliers. In total the group represents approximately thirty companies from all major geographic areas of the world, including Asia, Europe and the U.S.

Over the past twenty-five years, the group has grown steadily, and since the liberalization of the Indian economy, the group's growth has accelerated. In anticipation of the growth demands on the organization, and to better serve its almost 1000 strong customer base, it continues to expand its workforce, geographic presence, and product portfolio.

Furthermore, the company not only tries to understand its own customer's requirements, but also the requirements of these customers' customers.

As part of its ongoing efforts to increase the level of its service, the group also has its own warehousing facility which not only allows its overseas Principals to avail of a local stock point, but also aids smaller customers who generally prefer to purchase material in smaller quantities, ex-stock.

The well-rounded and dedicated team's systematic approach to growing the business has thus mitigated many of the risks associated with such a growth effort. The Group has very effectively differentiated itself from its competitors, and as a result, the group is usually recognized as the supplier of choice. In fact, the organization has generally realized the highest market share for its various Principal's and many of their Principals are the number one suppliers of their respective products in India.

Of the numerous differentiating factors that separate this group most from its competitors, the ones that stand out include the Malaneys' business philosophy - that of significant and long term investments to introduce the Indian customers early on to state of the art products.

Recently, the group has introduced polyester, a product that is also expected to realize its potential in the near to mid term future, with the shift towards radial tyre manufacturing in India.

Another cornerstone of Malaney's philosophy is that customers have the right to receive the absolute highest levels of service. This personal dedication and relentless drive, to ensure a superior level of customer satisfaction, from the entire team at the company, has been well appreciated by their customers. The Group's focus in this regard has been developed into a culture in itself, and the organization makes continuous and significant investments towards maintaining this critical advantage and its overall leadership position.

Vishnu Malaney, who along with his colleague Liedtke was responsible for the creation of Bayer India's Technical Services Laboratory in India, is a strong proponent of technical service, and fully recognizes its value added potential. The group employs highly qualified personnel who make up a dedicated technical support function. To ensure that their various customers and Principal's have the opportunity to avail themselves of strong local technical support, technical personnel are regularly deputed to the technical facilities of their various overseas Principal's for training.

In fact, the group's technical capabilities include the expeditious introduction of new products (case in point - Perkalink 900, a state of the art anti-reversion agent from Flexsys); joint product trials; advice to customers with respect to their own product development; problem solving; and the installation and servicing of equipment.

To fully support their customer's needs, the group has invested in both its people and its systems. The excellent sales and technical field force is backed up by a strong operations and customer service department, which ensures that the highest level of after sales service are sustained for both customers and principals alike. The customer service departments objectives is to not only execute orders effectively, but to also respond to all queries very promptly.

To support this objective of speedy and timely responses there have been substantial and ongoing investments in automating the organizations systems and procedures.

The group truly believes that effective after sales service is essential to achieving a high level of customer satisfaction.

In addition, the Group has invested well in its infrastructure, and has offices in Bombay and Madras; its branch office in New Delhi is also due to start up very soon.

The organization, built on a very strong service foundation, has become a formidable force to compete with.

This level of effort obviously requires strong commitment and the Malaney's have embedded a very strong performance and results oriented culture within their organization.

Key executives, such as K.V. Sethumadhavan, V.S. Bijur, R.S. Mahesh, G.S. Pingle, Ravi Subrahmanyam, Mohan Pujar, K. Haridas and A.S. Pujari, who are very well supported by excellent customer service personnel, have all been well recognized for the vital roles, and their contributions, with respect to the overall sales and marketing efforts.

The organization has demonstrated a remarkable level of leadership in the industry as a whole, and has contributed more than its fair share to the growth of the rubber industry in India. Vishnu Malaney, who is recognized by all as a true statesman of the rubber industry, has also been a very active member of the All India Rubber Industries Association (AIRIA), and has been on this Managing Committee for many years now.

The company's very active participation in, and encouragement of, world class conferences in India is yet another example of its Industry leadership. In November 1994, the group contributed significantly at the superb conference organized by the IRI in Cochin; this year, the group has made tremendous contributions to the International Conference on rubbers, being organized by the IIT Kharagpur, in Calcutta. In fact, the group has been fully recognized by not only the conference organizers, but also by other participants, and the industry at large, for these exemplary contributions.

The group's close contact with its customers, its vast experience, the excellent team that has been built and nurtured over the past twenty five years, and timely and accurate market intelligence have allowed this David to compete very effectively with the Goliath's of the industry. With the full involvement of Ronil Malaney in the business for over three years now, the continued growth and success of this group now also seems assured. Twenty-five years ago Malaney traveled the world seeking agencies; today his group of companies is the most sought after in India, to represent the world's leading companies.