Tribune News Service
India has all the ingredients of becoming the global outsourcing hub for automotive components provided the government offers support through an appropriate regulatory framework and optimal infrastructure development, feels Mr Jagdip Singh, Chairman and CEO of Sigma Corporation (India) Limited.“A time will definitely come when global wheels would be running on Indian components,” Mr Jagdip Singh told The Tribune.
Mr Jagdip Singh, who has led Sigma Corporation from a small exporter to one of the largest auto-component manufacturing companies in the country, feels that lack of suitable regulatory environment could decelerate the growth momentum.
Reeling out statistics from global research firm Frost and Sullivan, he said that India is ahead of many of its far-eastern neighbours, including China in such parameters as design and engineering capability, quality supply and customer and after sales support.
“However, we lag behind in government regulations which also brings down our price-competitiveness,” he said.
Sigma Automotive Components, the flagship company of Sigma Corporation, is supplying auto-components to mostleading automobile manufacturing companies in the world.
“Our customers include DalmierChrysler, Volkswagen, Volvo, Audi, and Ford,” he said. At present, the group has a combined turnover of Rs 150 crore. The group companies include Sigma Vibracoustic India Pvt Ltd, Sigma Freudenberg Nok Pvt Ltd, and Sigma Moulds and Stampings Pvt Ltd.
The company was initially exporting anti-vibration rubber components to Iran in 1970. “I was 26 years old then and nurtured the dream of conquering the European markets. The turning point for our company came in 1972 when we received our first overseas order from Germany. To make a product that conformed to German specifications was by no means an easy task. Yet we accepted the challenge and were successful in executing the order to customer satisfaction,” Mr Jagdip Singh said.
To be sure, Mr Jagdip Singh learnt the first lessons of enterprise at home. “Automotive components have been a traditional line of business, albeit it was retailing and not in manufacturing before the partition of the country.”
He said this exposure to global markets and their norms and procedures enabled Sigma Corporation to emerge as a major player in the global auto-components market.
“We made our first overseas acquisition by buying out a German plant in New Frankfurt in 1980. We sold it off in 1989 because we did not find ourselves very competitive. Today, the buyer is one of our major customers in Germany,” he said.
Driven by the success, the company started looking for a joint venture partner “because we always thought we needed an elder brother.”
The company has now initiated a dialogue to set up a plant in China. “It is still at the drawing board stage. I cannot give you a time frame for when the plant will be up and running,” he said.
The company, which has set a target of achieving a group turnover of Rs 300 crore by 2008, has stringent quality control norms in place. “Our quality focus is customer-centric in order to make products that meet and exceed customer expectations,” he said. The company has put in place a “very high quality pre-shipment quality control system,” he added.
Elaborating on the recipe of his and the company’s success, Mr Jagdip Singh said he strongly believes that “the function of the leadership is to produce more leaders and not more followers.” Today, at the age of 60, he believes his role in the company now is “more of an advisory nature, rather than operational.”
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