Journey of 12 Years

Watching a talk last week, given by an extremely accomplished person I have known very well in the past, I realised that during the long period 2000 ~ 2008 when I knew him, interacted with him, I never knew his pioneering efforts in the Indian Infotech Hardware industry. Way back in the 70’s, he and his company developed technology products and solutions, which were used globally as a benchmark. I learnt of this in 2022, as I am sure many of his own industry colleagues also.

Often organisations don't realise, that they are creating history. History must be recorded in real time lest people forget who did what, what happened and this is especially so for companies that are pioneers and individuals involved in this effort. Hence, the motivation to write about this Indian journey of Hexagon Agility and my own small part in it.

As I move on from Hexagon Agility after 12 years, even if my association will continue in a small manner, I felt that Indian clean energy industry and the Indian automotive industry in particular must know the pioneering efforts and work done to create the foundation of high-pressure storage technology in India using composites, and in particular what is termed Type 4 (T4) composite cylinder technology. This effort extended to other surrounding markets also, and the story of that journey deserves to be told. Posterity, when composite cylinder technology becomes common place in India, must remember history & Hexagon Agility. If not, the one who grabs the market becomes the creator of history and claims credit.

The journey was not mine alone, many across the organisation and eco-system helped, supported, ideated and often, even tolerated me, as we fought to introduce something, that in 2022, is becoming mainstream, but in 2010, was as unknown as life on Mars. The history is shared with main highlights to share the journey.

Getting Noticed – 2010:

The Hexagon product – T4 Composite LPG Cylinder, started its Indian journey sometime in 2007, and I was indirectly involved in supporting their efforts when working for someone else. It gained momentum by 2010 and that is when I joined them directly. This product had a competing offering in steel that was commonplace, and at Rs. 1,500 (20 $) was priced at half the Hexagon Ragasco product Rs. 3,500 (47 $), and with just one customer – the Govt of India – the task was herculean. The solution ? Offer, non subsidised LPG with this solution and attempt to do, what was done with fair price shops of the olden days. Create an exciting & convenient marketing experience, so that customers will buy a higher priced product, in a higher priced packaging. This story was actually SOLD, and the result was – The Standing Committee of the Indian Parliament passed a resolution recommending this strategy.

History must remember that the Indian parliament in early 2010 recommended the use of composite cylinder technology and subsequently members were asking questions on the progress of this decision. Realising that consumers and end users were ready to pay the premium price, unlike the intermediate customers, we tried to get press coverage in India and other countries, so that there is a subtle pressure on the system. There was no social media to make things go viral in those days, and the press gave us coverage because they saw an excitement in the product themselves.

24 hrs before the Govt of India could release the formal purchase orders, local vested interests succeeded in preventing this product from being launched, but that is a different story. But 12 years later these vested interests have spectacularly failed and lost humungous amount of money, if it is of any consolation.

India & Surrounding Markets:

The LPG product was so attractive and unique, that I spent hours describing its features, benefits to curious passengers, security staff, immigration/ customs officials, taxi drivers, hotel guests and sundry others who accosted me as I walked through airports, hotel lobbies etc – in India, Nepal, Sri Lanka, Bangladesh, Australia, New Zealand, Maldives, Bhutan - carrying the product. The unique learning from that experience was, even as every single customer, in every single place hemmed and hawed about the price being too high, I did not meet one consumer/ end user in my travels who said that they would NOT be willing to buy this product, at the premium price, given its features.

The Nepal govt in its budget announced the reduction in import duty from around 55% to 15% ONLY for this product. Other countries approved it for usage.

In Bangladesh, the Ambassador of Norway launched the Hexagon product, talking of how she had used it back home in Norway. All countries gave approvals and we have sold in Sri Lanka, Maldives and Bangladesh. Bangladesh has been purchasing this is in large numbers.

A key issue noticed was that most pictures of the product showed foreign environs and customers needed to see the local connect, but we did not have the luxury of local photo shoots. The result was that, I became the photographer and cajoled a attractive marketing executive in a client company, my daughter, a friend's daughter to model for amateur photos. Finally the MD of a Sri Lanka customer, Laughs Gas also gave us a photo shoot. These when used in presentations, posters and literature, created a subtle connect when we met clients. The impact is difficult to explain.

What I have learnt in my career by actual experience is that, pictures convey a million messages more effectively, than whatever global standing and credibility a company, technology or product may have. The more subtle and subliminal the message designed, keeping local markets in mind, the more effective it is. Especially when a technology/ product is new, a marketing strategy from a mature market is often counter productive. Creating local content, which Hexagon Ragasco - happily allowed me to create - helped us convey our message faster, better. Most global companies get stuck in global, one size fits all, templates and end up taking a route, to learn things, the hard frustrated way. A key success for Hexagon has been this freedom and trust given to me, as I designed posters/ advertisements myself, using a artist to create the content.

The CNG Story:

Even as the main focus of the company was on LPG, we decided to participate in a NGV event with CNG systems in 2010, and, forget about customer interest, even we had little or no hope for this technology, of finding a place in the Indian automotive market. We were at best making a market statement to promote LPG composite cylinders and the CNG composite cylinders were tagging along.

When we started presenting about CNG applications, the then Minister in the Government of India, in spite of my best efforts, simply refused to accept that such a highly premium priced product could be sold in India.

On the last day of the show, we ran into a very surprising series of experiences, that played up our – we don’t know what we don’t know – like a slap in the face. My colleague from USA, on her first visit outside of USA, told me about unusual interest in the CNG tanks and maybe I needed to stay in the booth to experience it. Sure enough, we got person after person, walking in and after a look at the tank, getting basic feedback asking – can we buy it? I ignored the first, second, third such request, but by then had become intrigued. Started asking searching questions and was amazed that they were all local retrofitting agencies, and the premium price was very much acceptable to them. Meeting many of them in subsequent months, I got a lifetime of education on the market, consumer behavior and a conviction, that if we targeted the after market retrofitters we could get the premium price accepted in the market.

As an interesting aside, one gentleman Mr. Adwani simply refused to leave our booth and kept insisting that we must introduce our product in India and he must be the first. Post 2010, Mr. Adwani periodically would call me, demanding to know status, encouraging me, supporting me and at every stage say that he must be the first in India. Any show or event where he knew I would be present, he would land up and talk about T4 technology.

10 years later when we finally had a product that he could use, I heard that he was seriously ill with cancer and bedridden. Our product was yet to reach India, but I had a sample. I had it delivered to him and was told by his son that he kept the cylinder next to his father’s bedside and Mr. Adwani was so happy that he would keep looking at it. Most unfortunately, Mr. Adwani passed away before he could use our product in the market. But his son did become the first to use it. Such well wishers are rare in the market, especially one who is MORE convinced and optimistic, about your product than you yourself.

Difficult Times:

We went through a particularly difficult period when the country was facing political challenges and I had almost given up. The LPG market plans were at a dead end with no hope whatsoever. So we shifted gears and focused on the CNG industry applications. This was not easy either, but the crucial difference was, that our potential clients were private sector automotive OEM's and quasi Govt city gas companies, and not a Govt PSU or Ministry. We had bigger challenges here, as popular opinion was that this technology had failed in China. Clients asked tough technical questions.

Even after auto industry associations made representations for this technology, we hit a dead wall. The number of questions and concerns raised in the market, by customers, users, other agencies, and with vested interests fueling the fears, were one too many, and some concerns were almost impossible to answer. Once questions were raised, anything I said, ended up as a defending position and often we didn’t win these arguments. That is when I stepped back from the market and adapted a strategy that was insanely illogical, but was driven by desperation.

I started meeting anybody and everybody, who were a part of the eco-system, but not necessarily a customer or concerned party. I told them my story and about our product. I was no longer defending any position, but just telling our story. I myself raised every concern the markets had raised, and gave answers. They LISTENED. That made a humungous difference, since when these people attended meetings or met others in the eco system, and questions about our technology came up, THEY answered the concerns or asked questions, and thus forced the decision makers to rethink their position. I was carpet bombing anybody who was willing to listen to me, so much so, a friend told me that in an industry-government meeting, when someone raised the question on composites technology, the Chairman apparently said something like – we listen to it so much, let's not discuss it here also.

The Law:

Very early in the journey I realised that one crucial law, that limited the quantity of gas that could be transported on road, would be a deal breaker, and within the limitations imposed, new technology would be unviable - be it ours or even competing technologies. Thus started the efforts, to get this changed and, but for the fact that the officers in the organisation – Oil Industries Safety Directorate – were professional and sincere, this would not have been possible. But in any case, changing laws in India, however minor, either need a hammer from the very top or significant effort and patience. Preparing and submitting reports, justifications, follow up letters, visits, I persevered to the point where finally someone said – study this and resolve it. Various others in the industry, who I kept meeting and asking to raise the issue, helped. This was finally changed and all limits removed. Since then the gas transportation market for this technology has opened up even if competition has gained far more business than us. But to me, the satisfaction is that the country, industry and technology has benefitted.

In the meantime, the Govt of India's standards organisation, BIS had prepared a Indian standard - ISO 15935 - that was specific to the technology that we were offering for the automotive industry. It had got stuck in some simple red tape, like where would it be printed, translating to Hindi etc. Consequently the standards though ready, was not published and it was crucial that this was done. Finally, someone gave me an idea – get people in the industry to write to BIS, asking about it. I prepared more than 20 differently worded letters, but all of them asking similar questions, and over the next few weeks, got every contact I knew to send it off from their end. It worked. A few months later I was invited to their office and asked to buy the first softcopy that was released.

Qatar:

While the Indian journey was on a slow track, we explored the market in the middle east and Qatar responded positively. The hitch was that the buses they purchased, were Chinese and our products were off limits in China. Once the trust and relationship had been built, the American educated Qatari CEO refused to budge and insisted that our product needed to be used on the bus. The Chinese also refused to budge, insisting that only Chinese make products can be used. The impasse continued for 9 months, as the Qatar folks told me to find a solution. Like an internet scam effort, I contacted dozens of folks globally and in China to find a solution – but just hit a concrete wall. Luckily, an unknown stranger responded and gave me some insights on how to approach the issue, giving me links to local websites in the Chinese language. He said that all I needed to do was share that link with the customer and my work would get done. I did and like magic, the company agreed to use our product and the bus was delivered to Qatar.

This one small sale had a profound effect on the Indian market. The customers, statutory agencies and even competition kept raising concerns about whether this technology can work well in a hot weather country like India. Once I shared the information on Qatar these questions disappeared instantly.

Hydrogen:

In the midst of all the other efforts, we dabbled around talking of Hydrogen applications when nobody in India was even thinking of it as an option. Mr. Sanjay Bandopadhyay the Joint Secretary in the Ministry of Transport who had played a key role in getting one major mental roadblock cleared, brought Dr. VK Saraswat one of the Scientific Advisers to the Prime Minister to introduce me. A gut feel told me to keep my mouth shut, luckily, since Dr Saraswat went all excited looking at the T4 cylinder. He told me all about the technology and how his team had worked on it for defence applications. He promised all help from the PMO in sourcing certain key input material required for manufacture which DRDO had developed and made me promise him that we would do manufacturing in India. When I did so, he happily asked for a picture with the Hydrogen tank.

Interestingly from day one, the entire Indian industry spoke about using only Type 4 technology when it came to Hydrogen storage and today when one sees the orders obtained and level of discussions, that intent has translated to reality. The reason for this is not far to seek. As it always happens in India, the first person telling the story wins. While everyone else ignored Hydrogen, I kept speaking about it, knowing that there was nobody to protest or counter our presence, because there was NO business. So when the business actually opened - 6 ~7 years later the ONLY name the entire India industry remembered was Hexagon and me.

Indian Approval:

The opposition to this unknown technology was significant and the Norwegian embassy in Delhi and the Ministry of Commerce went out on a limb to facilitate its approval expecting that when the market opens up, local investments would happen.

Once a new Indian government settled in, the progress was swift and in fact often we were slower than the govt systems. The Indian foreign office literally in minutes pushed their counterparts in USA to issue Visa’s to my colleagues to visit India and present our product and technology features.

Whenever any formal letters were required national agencies like SIAM and potential customers like Ashok Leyland issued those immediately. The latter even commissioned an independent report on the technology to present to the industry at large which is even now available online.

ASHOK LEYLAND - Report on Type 4 Composite Cylinders

Visiting the USA to see the manufacturing facility, the American embassy in India pulled out all stops and put together a large senior team from the Departments of Transport and Energy to welcome the Indian Govt officials and convince them of the technology.

We obtained the requisite approvals from PESO and since then we have been supported by the organisation even if they ask tough questions. Vested interests have practically vanished as the market has evolved.

Indian Welcome:

With the approval in place, we decided to explore the Indian market and the Norwegian embassy in India promised continued support. When we decided to announced the entry, the Ambassador himself and the Dy Ambassador of the United States graciously joined us in an event and extended significant support to our efforts in India as mentioned earlier.

That promise has indeed been kept and even today the support we get is significant from the Norwegian embassy. Making us a part of the Norway family, I had the opportunity to meet the Noble peace prize winner Kailash Satyarthi and many others. The current Consul General and Commercial Director have been particularly aggressive in encouraging Norwegian company’s in India.

Doors Opened:

For all the hoopla and excitement and cheerleading support extended by the automotive and city gas industry, once approvals were in place, we did not exactly get business. Extraneous issues kept us occupied and the industry for all the goodwill extended to us was not very sure how and where our technology could add value. Whatever suggestions and ideas we gave was like disruptive strategies and market behavior being what it is – disruption is never an in-house activity.

A new team from Agility, within the company, decided to look at India and visited the country with an open mind. But to me personally, the writing was clear on the wall. New team meant change and change meant new people, new trusted networks, new ideas, new approaches and by this time I was mentally prepared to move on and in fact had decided to walk away and leave the new team to follow its own course. I assured the team a 360 Deg view of the country, so they made their own impressions, and in scorching summer heat the toss could go in any direction.

The trip started with the largest Indian fleet in Delhi giving us a rousing welcome followed by the largest automotive OEM opening their files with the challenge – demonstrate the value and we will implement.

2 weeks in the scorching sun with a punishing schedule that gave them a pan India pit stop tour, the excitement grew with each day, and by the time we visited the Niti Aayog office on the last day before the team flew back home, the India story was sold. When the CEO, Mr. Amitabh Kant, someone who directly works with the Prime Minister of the country, and who had literally hustled our entry into India, said – “Gentlemen, we want you to invest, start manufacturing in India and any legal hurdles you may face, even if it means changing the law, let us know and we will help. But we need you in India”. There could not be a more encouraging comment than this.

There could not have been a more aggressive invitation to work in India and we stepped in through the India door, to roll up our sleeves and start work - all my plans to move on forgotten. The comment from the Agility team was about becoming Kings in India. The excitement was palpable even if subdued.

The Catalyst:

All my working life, selling premium products in a value conscious Indian market I knew that unless the customers had a touch and feel experience, the efforts would remain empty promises, feel good working, but no results. Luck always plays a role even if it is hard work that is important.

2 months after the India tour, a government technical experts team from ARAI was planning to visit USA to learn more about Hydrogen, and by sheer luck called me to obtain some information. Luckily, thanks to the approval process earlier, I had met the Director of the USA Govt department of Energy and so offered to connect the two. Sheer courtesy, and opportunity meant that we invite the team to visit our manufacturing facility also and they agreed. I ended up travelling with them and they were simply bowled over by the sophistication, technology, quality they saw and offered to give us a platform in their campus back in India to present our capabilities. We finalised dates across the table.

We agreed and planned to demonstrate one of our bus modules at this seminar that was held at ARAI, Pune 3 months later. We were scrambling to make all this happen and be it PESO or the Pune city gas company led by Mr. Tambekar, everybody went out of their way to make us welcome and support us in our Indian journey.

The product was late in arriving and literally arrived hours before the event was to start. We ended up showing the product on top of the truck with visitors climbing up and the excitement it created was unbelievable.

When I spoke to the Niti Aayog in Delhi to appraise them of our activities, they suggested we hold a technical seminar in Delhi also. The Director General Mr. Anil Srivastava and his team would attend the seminar and give a talk. We literally had days to arrange this and even on the morning of the seminar, we were scared that the visitor count would be so low, that we hoped at best for 30 people, if we were lucky. By the time the event started, we ran out of chairs and by lunch time, ran out of food – literally – 95 people had turned up. People were standing at the back, I was telling my colleagues and close friends that they dare not have lunch.

The Who’s who of the gas industry had turned up and the response was mind boggling. By the time we finished, we got a call that the Chairman of GAIL, who’s office was in the next building, wanted to see us. Unscheduled 30 minutes is what he said we would get. We spoke of our technology and the possible disruption – long distance buses/ trucks on CNG instead of Diesel. His question was why such buses/trucks were not available. OEM’s didn’t see customers, Fleet owners didn’t see products and between the two, they didn’t see CNG being available on highways. The Chairman took all of 30 seconds, literally, to tell us that his company & the Govt of India, would disrupt the market. The government of India organisation would fund this demonstration and we Agility needed to make it happen.

The Partner:

Globally, Hexagon had a competitor called Xperion and they in turn had a business associate in India - Advantek - the leaders in the Indian automotive CNG industry with pride of place and preference with every single automotive OEM. 

Hexagon took over Xperion globally and I had the unenviable task of getting Advantek to vacate the space they had created for themselves, knowing that they were a key influencing player in the automotive market. The end result was, they joined hands with Agility and a negative became a positive. Our speed to market increased significantly.

The Journey & the Results:

Meanwhile, after having had a look at the product, touch and feel, Mahindra’s wanted to carry out a trial and even the half hearted trials gave them a range of over 600 kms – a never before event in Indian automobile industry.

We decided to announced our entry and technology into India in a big way and in 2018 the President of Ashok Leyland graciously consented to light the lamp to show us the light for the future. The overall response from the industry was heart warming.

Soon after this launch, even though all Indian automotive OEM’s were fighting to meet the target of BSVI, they kept their interest alive in our product and technology. With GAIL/IGL moving ahead at top speed, I was actually witnessing a situation where the Government was sprinting at top speed, the industry and we ourselves were far slower in comparison. The aggressive follow up and a never accept no for an answer from IGL was a revelation. Getting a call at 11 in the night to ask about status became par for the course.

Prodded and pushed by the Ministry we finally managed to get the buses ready jointly with Mahindra. Thanks to Advantek we managed to get the entire bus homologated and approved by ARAI since the OEM was busy with BSVI and had no resources to spare us. ARAI like at every step in our journey worked extra hard to assist in making our dream a reality even though they were neck deep busy in BSVI programs.

The big day arrived and we were told that the Indian minister for Petroleum & Natural Gas Mr. Dharmendra Pradhan, would inaugurate the country’s first long distance CNG bus. Honestly, we expected a small event and on the day of the event we found that the grounds of the 60,000+ seater Jawaharlal Nehru Stadium was the venue and all the roads around the stadium had posters announcing the event.

The Minister, when he spoke was so well briefed about the product, including the price, that sitting far away in the audience, my eyes grew wide and the minister not only noticed, but stopped his talk midway to ask me ,whether he had spoken anything incorrectly. I was astounded at this level of interest and involvement at the highest levels.

The host, IGL team which had led and made this disruptive event happen was in full strength to encourage and support us. The feeling was humbling and the weight of expectation high.

The kind of media coverage that we obtained was literally mind boggling with over 37 news reports in various languages, including TV, that we became a household name across India overnight. The headlines were catchy and grabbed attention. The 1,000 kms range was a benchmark set for the industry like a world record. The headlines in leading national newspapers was across the whole page and covered close to 30% of the page. Monetarily this could cost a company tens of thousands of dollars for a paid coverage.

The deluge of opportunities and expectations started soon after this, but unfortunately due to the Covid pandemic, life itself changed. As I mentioned earlier, disruption is never in-house, someone else needs to do that. IGL had managed to do just that and we benefitted as a result.

Within days, we were the toast of the industry, that at a glittering ceremony in early 2020, that had the Who’s who of the Indian automotive world, we were given the Auto Component of the year award. Speakers, spoke of a major disruption caused by us in the Indian road transport industry. Exhausted after a long trip & efforts, while me and my colleagues looked forward to head to bed, the CEO’s of Indian OEM’s wanted to meet us, talk to us, start working with us. The feeling was exhilarating and all the exhaustion simply vanished.

On the day of the award ceremony, meeting the top management of one of India's largest automotive OEM, I was cringing and hiding in my chair as he called his team - my friends, supporters and well wishers of T4 technology & Hexagon Agility - and lambasted them given the kind of national publicity our launch had got, for not being the first in the country to use our product.

If we obtained the award in 2020 and then stayed home for 2 years, the customers did not let us relax and got us working on plans that would be implemented once the pandemic was over. Our subsequent work was equally path breaking, that in late 2021 we were once again awarded as the best in India, for technological excellence.

The Success:

Meanwhile, the publicity that we obtained was so huge, that as the pandemic retreated, Diesel/ Petrol prices increased, making CNG attractive. I started getting an average of 2 to 3 calls from car owners across India wanting to know if we could deliver our product to them for their personal use. The level of research they had done was unbelievable. Where we did launch in a very small manner, with a few products, the response was heart warming. Unlike the popular notion of customers unwilling to pay a premium, I heard feedback of how clients, who had selected the traditional technology, were fighting with the retrofitter why they were not being given a better product. They readily agreed to pay hefty premiums and one car owner even had the work redone with our product.

When we called up one user to ask if we could take a picture, the gent made a plan, took us to a vacant lot and proudly had his picture taken.

In the commercial vehicle segment, fleet owners never stopped calling and asking for solutions, where they were ready to convert fleets of 1500 ~ 2000 trucks into CNG. They genuinely believed that we had a magic wand and could give them instant results. The reality, from a statutory and technological viewpoint, was far different and demanded many hoops to be jumped through, and what we had was just the major cog in the wheel. Anyone who is willing to address this market segment with quality and technology, can earn millions overnight even today.

Indian OEM's are looking to now create their own disruptions in the Indian transport industry and the next few years should see a sea change in how buses/trucks operate in India. Companies that offer this technology can look forward to a large market and business in the next decade. If they can add solutions to retrofitting existing diesel vehicles, they can buy a business class ticket to the moon.

The most satisfying part of this journey, not with any profound vision or intelligence, is that way back in 2010, in Rome, Italy I had given a small press interview and when I look back on that, it seems I was dead on, in terms of what we needed to do to succeed though I wrongly estimated the range we needed/ could achieve by 50% as the target market.

The Future:

For various reasons, and one can blame the Ukraine Russian war also, the Indian market would face a severe shortage of raw material coupled with price increase, just as the rest of the world is facing in the manufacture of this product. The response of clients is positive and the only questions, now asked are, how much does it cost, when can you deliver. Having been disrupted, the manufacturers are now looking at sub disruptions of their own. With the Hydrogen energy option likely to take off, albeit a bit slowly, the technology is well poised to cater to CNG in the medium future and move to Hydrogen in the long run.

The question is – someone needs to run with this, with as much passion, patience and perseverance as has been demonstrated by Hexagon Agility over the last 12 years. There are still many more hurdles in regulations, resources to cross and unless an organisation takes a holistic view, the journey will be longer and more frustrating. The market is significantly large and more than one player can find their place in the sun, but the first mover will decide the rules.

But one thing is for sure – Composites technology is an idea who’s time has come, it is here and now. The one who grabs this opportunity, and run will be the market leader, set the rules of the game and be the king for at least the next decade. The question is – who is that one?

Thanksgiving:

There have been many people who have extended support in some small or big manner, directly or indirectly and I am proud to say that till date, every single one of them have done their bit as friends, well wishers, technology enthusiasts, and even if it was a part of their job they have done so with utmost sincerity and integrity. OEM’s, PESO, BIS, OISD, City Gas companies like IGL, MNGL, MGL, GAIL, Ministry of Transport, Ministry of Commerce, Ministry of Petroleum & Natural Gas, Niti Aayog, ARAI, personal friends, and so many others have been a part of this journey and for the way they have helped, guided, pushed things I will always be grateful and no amount of thanks can suffice. If I take no names, I hope everybody understands.

Last but not the least – many colleagues over 12 years have tolerated me, my stubbornness, my frustration, my arrogance, my anger, and have helped me, educated me, taught me everything there was to know, worked hard to meet Indian bureaucratic demands, trusted me, encouraged me, supported me and I can never say thank you enough for them all. A few special colleagues, also personal friends, have helped pull me up during my darkest moments, my failures and displayed a faith that I did not have in myself. Again I take no names - but they know who they are.