The Hindu Business Line : HR-centric

He strikes you at the very outset... suave and smart P.K. Madhav, CEO of Maytas Infra Pvt. Ltd, a Rs 400-crore infrastructure company of the Satyam group, brings with him an expertise and excellence that springs from wide ranging experience in corporate management. "It has been my philosophy at work to make ordinary people achieve extraordinary things. Teamwork requires a positive driving force to succeed," he says. His cool and unruffled attitude and sensitivity towards his colleagues make for an ideal leader; his transformational leadership qualities can be relied upon both in prosperity or adversity.

"I am a product of the military school (Rashtriya Indian Military School, Dehradun), so a sense of discipline and duty were imbibed in me at a very impressionable age," he says. The general secretary of the students' association and in charge of placements at the Faculty of Management Studies (New Delhi), from where he did his MBA, he says it was during this period that he learnt the art of real-time management — "getting my fellow-students nto the right slots with suitable employers. There was a rule that when one gets a placement, one had to bow out."

His first stint with IDL Chemicals (now a joint venture with ASTRA of Sweden) brought him to Hyderabad; "now, I have become an ardent admirer of this cross-cultural city," he says.

Later, he moved on to Radiant Cables (then a medium enterprise, now a niche player), to Nagarjuna Fertilizers & Chemicals (his longest stint — 20 years), to Balco and then to the Satyam group's Byrraju Foundation as its director and lead partner. From there he became and then became the CEO of Maytas. He says his brief is to chalk out a "clear vision" for the company. "Traditionally, construction men are nomadic. I would like to make my team `the best', a system and process-driven group that can serve the customers competently."

Maytas is the magnified version of the 20-year-old Satyam Constructions, he says. "Today, we are into irrigation projects in the State, roads (in Karnataka, Assam and Uttar Pradesh), and building sector (in Uttar Pradesh) with an eye on other states. Our next foray would be into power and urban transportation."

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