Lalit Kumar
Class of 2008






Tell us a little about your family background/ history. How has it influenced you?
I hail from atypical middle class Indian family which witnesses each generation doing better than the one before. My father served in the Indian Navy and thereafter in a national bank, while my mother has been a home-maker throughout. My wife also comes from a similar background, always striving hard for betterment of our families. We setup goals and achieved them together, one supporting and sacrificing for other. Resources were neither scarce nor abundant and everything needed to be earned. This inculcated a habit of hard work and efficient utilization early on. The values of respect, humility and inclusion are apt for every aspect of life, at work or at home.

Briefly describe your personal and professional achievements (including recent awards/ special projects).
I always love to build something new. My first big achievement was the roll out of India’s largest private sector network of petroleum retail outlets with Reliance Industries limited from 2002 to 2005. This challenged existing industry practices, raised the bar for competition and valued customers by offering world-class services.
The next one was the establishment of a pan-India steel retail distribution network. This was more challenging as I was leading on all fronts; operations, sales, finance and management. In 3 years, we’d become the largest multi-brand retailer with a turnover of 200 MUSD with more than 25 warehouses across 9 states in India. It again challenged existing practices, shook competitors in their territories and, above all, valued the customers to retain them forever.

Tell us about your profile prior to attending ISB and recap your professional life after ISB, including your career progression.
I started my career as a Chemical engineer, with a brief stint in R&D followed by running a large scale production plant. Though, I soon realized that I am more inclined to functions where I work with new ideas and people. I changed track to business development, rolling out the largest network of petroleum retail outlets from India’s leading petrochemical company, Reliance Industries Ltd, from 2000-2007. The earlier stages involved first-hand market studies, multiple evaluations and business planning. As the project matured, I worked in operations, franchise management, sales and marketing functions.
Post ISB, the changes were more radical. A new industry (Steel), a new country (Luxembourg) and a multi-national set up (team, geography and business units). I worked on business development in emerging markets of South Africa, India and China for our business units. We launched several green-field and brown-field projects, each different from the other. Some of them grew well and I accepted the offer to lead the one in India.
The Indian project was the most enriching, and I matured as a professional as a result. It presented all challenges at once, from working capital management to taxation, going further into minute operational details, and the challenge of leading a big team. Thankfully, all the hard work paid off.
My latest challenge is in the world’s manufacturing hub, China. China is the world’s largest steel producing and consuming nation. And my job is to sell imported steel in China against all odds. At the same time, we are working to optimize our resources over China, HK and ASEAN to make a large region which has varied customers, rules and regulations and supply-demand challenges. With economic challenges, I look forward to another roller-coaster ride.
The successes and failures along my journey taught the basic rules of business and that there is no substitute to planning well and planning continuously. The golden rule of preserving “cash, cost and customers” is the key to success.

How do you think your time at ISB has contributed to your career and personal growth?
Greatly! The one year at ISB was a path changer, both as a professional and as an individual. ISB had the best environment for competing, cross-learning, networking across peers, alumni, faculty and industry. It gave us the platform to showcase our skills and experience through ELPs, projects, b-plans and lined up the best of companies.
During this 1 year we earned the knowledge and confidence to take on massive challenges and emerge triumphant. It imbued the value of friends (alumni) and families, who stood by us then and thereafter.

What do you enjoy most about your current career position?
I like two aspects most. One is that it’s the basic infrastructure industry, which I believe is essential to growth and development. Steel, though a base commodity is in every part of our life. It is like sowing the seeds of growth to build upon.
Secondly, ArcelorMittal being a global organization, I get to work on new projects every 3-4 years. Every project involves a new geography and new set of challenges, thereby learning new business practices, culture and working with new people, language and processes. The creation of a new business is always so enthralling; this keeps me going one to another.

Briefly describe a typical day at work, in a way that illuminates the kind of challenges and opportunities your role involves.
A daily routine involves working through multiple functions of management, sales, finance and operations. As a manager, I spent most time on business planning, addressing operational matters and team management.
A typical day would start with taking a round-up of industry and related economic news and daily/weekly MIS. This is followed by addressing the priority matters on business, to assign jobs/ actions to my team and myself.
The rest of the day is spent on business planning; to meet potential customers, business partners (trade, mills, vendors etc.) and various operational matters. I prefer to be in the field to keep abreast with the latest industry news and competitor movements, and understand customer needs.
Steel, though a base metal, has more than 1500 SKUs and several verticals. Our mills are spread across EU, NA, SA and CIS countries. We therefore need to liaise with multiple mills, country offices and trade platforms for every order. Co-ordination is a challenge, being spread across geographies, time-zones, currencies and business practices.

What is the next new thing in the industry or vertical you are working in? Are there any trends that you can identify?
The steel Industry is one of the oldest heavy industries. Currently, it’s battling the issue of massive over-capacity, and global economic slowdown is limiting demand growth. Off late, we can visualize a clear regionalization of capacities and consumption as most regions have overcapacity and are working for their own survival. This would lead to trade barriers and only high-end products being exchanged between countries.
Technical upgradation, product development and partnership are the key to success in this highly competitive industry. We are developing steel grades which have more strength at lower weight thereby reducing weights of automobiles, high-rise buildings, etc.
Lastly, steel will also enter the Internet age. Most mills are developing online sales/ trading platforms to sell steel. This reduces layers between a mill and its customers while easing the business transactions.
To summarise, steel producers will take every possible step to preserve “Cash, Costs and Customers”.

What was the main highlight or most memorable aspect of your programme at the ISB?
The most memorable aspect was to be a part of the ISB eco-structure; batch mates, faculty, campus and the program. It is difficult to single out one particular thing. Each one is still fresh in our memories and cherished every day.

If you could offer a word of advice to the current class at ISB, what would it be?
I would suggest always working for the community; that of ISB, of your past and future organisations, and the social neighbourhood. An individual can grow only when the community around him grows and in turn helps this individual to grow.
The phrase of “Vasudhaiva Kutumbakum – the world is one family” truly emulates this.

How do you feel you can contribute to ISB?
In every possible way: as an ambassador, as a provider of opportunities for ELP and jobs, as an advisor to new ISBians and so on… I would like to see alumni engage more and be leveraged for the growth of the ISB brand.