SUCCESS STORY

Sagittarius Metals Pvt Ltd

Rest is Rust, for This Man of Steel

In the seventies, Tata Steel ran a popular ad with a tagline 'We also make Steel'. You could say the same about Steel processing company Sagittarius Metals Private Limited's director, Sri Pramod Baliga. 
Yes, Pramod Baliga is ALSO an industrialist. Check it out: His vision is to "be a good human being". He "can't see people suffer". His company's mission statement, is not just to just make tons of steel - and money - but do it the ethical way, "not to cheat people, and cut corners". His employees are like an extension of his family. 

So, everyone says this, you think? Well, Ratnakar, his manager, has a revealing thing to say. When his employees need medical assistance, he takes them not to the ESI hospital, but to Columbia Asia hospital, and even bears all the expenses. He once spent one and a half lakhs towards the medical expenses of one of his staff. Lakshman Reddy, a long time worker, says admiringly that his company also takes care of the educational expenses of the children of all the staff. Baliga has a stake - not just in his company's growth curve and its balance sheet - but also "in the growth of my employees". Kantharaj, joined as a driver, and today exclusively takes care of one of Baliga's units. 

Pramod Baliga's Sagittarius Metals Private Limited is situated in an imposing building in the sprawling Peenya Industrial Estate. Today it caters to the steel processing needs of several big ticket companies and MNCs all over south India. 

Comprising of three units in all, Sagittarius Metals has cut to length line, Goliath Crane, Blanking line, Slitter, Slitting line, Precision leveling, EOT Crane, Packing, weighing scale, with a closed circuit TV. The company executes contracts with top companies like SAIL, Jindal Steel, Ispat Industries and Tata Ryerson, among others. 

Baliga, a graduate in pharmacy and hailing from a business family of pharmacists, did the unthinkable in his family. He chose to become an entrepreneur, and in 1986, teamed up with his friend Sanjay Nadgir to start Sagittarious Associates, which was incorporated in 1996 as a private limited company. The company is into manufacture of steel coil processing as a 100% job work for TVS and its ancillaries, Ashok Leyland and its ancillaries, Toyota Kirloskar Motors Ltd and its ancillaries, Kalyan Brakes, Pune, and OTIS, Bangalore among others. 

"The dawn of Y2K was a turning point in my life," recalls Baliga. "It was truly a learning curve for me in business as well as life". 

Baliga went to Europe for a first hand account of how the big steel companies functioned, their systems and processes, quality checks, machinery, shop floor, work ethic and so on. Always learn from people better than you, he says. So as a small scale industrialist from a developing country, he went to the developed countries to learn from his peers. 

Back from Europe, he drew up a 10-year road map for Sagittarius Metals. The future begins now, he vowed to himself. 

And then Fate, struck a deadly blow, to test his resilience. 

Baliga had taken a loan from KSFC, and suddenly went broke. But it didn't break him, or weaken his moral scruples. Baliga apprised KSFC of his position with total honesty. The KSFC appreciated his honesty and said, at least pay up the interest. Baliga candidly said even this was beyond his means, and KSFC bailed him out. 

A few years later, he had completely cleared all his dues with the KSFC and they even profiled his success in their publication!

"Never cheat people, own up to your position and life will never let you down," says Baliga. 
In the event, what he set out to achieve in 10 years, Sagittarius Metals did that in 3 years - the preferred steel processing company in all of south India. 

The secret of Pramod Baliga's success can be attributed to his people management skills. It is not h.r. or p.r., but to coin a phrase, f.r. - filial relationship. Employees as family members is a terrific tonic to boost morale and motivation in the shop floor. Baliga, the Boss is incidental, while Baliga, the Bandhu, is fundamental. He works with his employees, eats the same food, follows the same dress code, sets an example with his 13-14 hours workdays, knows all of them by name ("Which company head knows his workers by name, asks his manager, in obvious pride, and challenges us to find out from a unit nearby!), takes care of their medical expenses and their children's education, and is in the fullest sense, their friend, philosopher, mentor and guide. Enough to make you wonder whether Sagittarius Metals is driven more by family bonding than profit making…

Says his wife Smita Baliga, "Sagittarius is his first family, and we are the extended family!". 
His advice for aspiring entrepreneurs is, "to first and foremost, be honest to yourself, your family and people, don't take shortcuts to success and get tempted by short-term gains as they are always long-time disasters, aim for the highest quality at the lowest price for quality today is taken for granted unlike before, be very systematic and deeply committed to your goal." 

Baliga also chips in with some time-tested wisdom for existing entrepreneurs. "In trading, when your turnover stagnates or stops, it means that a downfall is imminent. In an industry, the downfall is imminent when you stop investing in machinery."

Many SSIs fail because they expect the fruits before the plant grows, says Baliga. "Setting up a unit is like planting a seed, you have to wait for the plant to grow, and bear fruit. Don't expect overnight profits. Rome after all was not built in a day." For lasting success, realize that success is a poor teacher, while you really learn from failure and suffering, he says. Spoken like a seer and not like an entrepreneur!

A devout man, much loved employer, devoted husband and father of two wonderful children - daughter Nikita who scored the second rank in AIEEE, and son, Aditya, , an MBA cum electronics engineer - Baliga is indeed blessed. 
It is now an hour before midnight, and Baliga is still in his office, looking as if he has just come in, fresh and fit as ever. How does he manage to be like this? "I like work. For me rest is rust," he answers. Are all Sagittarians like this??