The Hindu Business Line : ‘Firms need to focus on PPT to be competitive’

Mr R. Radhakrishnan, General Manager, South Zone, HPCL, addressing students of the Department of Business Administration, Kumararani Meena Muthaiah College of Arts and Science, as part of a Business Line Club event.

Chennai, Feb. 13 Organisations today, in order to be competitive, need to focus on PPT, according to Mr R. Radhakrishnan, General Manager, South Zone, Hindustan Petroleum Corporation Ltd.

“As students of management, I am sure all of you know that PPT stands for power point presentations, but the PPT I am referring to is people, processes and technology,” he told students of the Department of Business Administration, Kumararani Meena Muthiah College of Arts and Science, at a Business Line Club event at the college recently.

To be competitive, organisations need to have robust processes, understood by competent people who are constantly leveraging appropriate technology, explained Mr Radhakrishnan, while outlining the transformation that HPCL underwent in petro-retailing.

Mr Radhakrishnan, who gave the students an overview of the transformation of the petroleum sector over the years from the presence of the MNCs, to the nationalisation and an administered price mechanism in force and now the third phase where the sector, especially in the retail sphere, has been liberalised. He dwelt on how the oil major positioned itself to gain market share. “In the past it was all a commodity market where a pump is a pump. There was no differentiation and customers’ choice was based on dealer names and outlets,” he elaborated.

Branding

Firstly, HPCL undertook branding of all its retail outlets under the Club HP brand. This came about from a deeper understanding of customer needs and the realisation that the organisation would be catering to different sets of customers. Once the brand was unveiled, the organisation, he said, “had to deliver on promise to customers. That’s branding – a commitment to execute a promise.” HPCL also roped in tennis star Sania Mirza to endorse the new HPCL promise. To fulfil this, HPCL leveraged technology and undertook training of the petrol outlets’ attendants as well. “The person dispensing the fuel at the petrol pump determines your topline for it is he who is at the moment of truth when petrol is dispensed.”

Mr Radhakrishnan elaborated on HPCL’s new petrol bunk concept: the e.fuel stations where each bunk and dispensing unit can be monitored centrally. In the fully automated retail outlets even the billing can be reconciled instantaneously. HPCL has opened 200 such outlets and another 350 would be opened soon. The bunks would also be enabled with GPS technology to track truck movement to their ultimate destination.

Earlier, Mr Radhakrishnan released the college journal ‘KRMM Reflections’ in the presence of the principal, Ms P.V. Madhavi, Dr M.V. M. Alagappan, an industrial consultant, and Dr P.T. Vijayshree, Head of the department.

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