Skip to main content

Celebrating with Hexagon

 


One fateful day in October 2009 I met the senior management of Hexagon, Norway. That was the first time in my life I had even heard that name. My ONLY task was to escort them from their hotel to our office because my boss Vasudev Avadhani was out of town.

Their meeting didn't go as well as planned, they left post lunch & Dev was not happy when he heard about it. He called me to go meet them in their hotel and say sorry for the failed meeting & reluctantly I did so.

On that same day I had quit my job and honestly wasn't in a good mood. But I went, apologised & spoke for a while & said that I had quit my job & wanted to leave.

Next thing - Hans Henrik Oyvind Hamre Erik Espeset huddled speaking in Norwegian & then Hans called up somebody (it was Dev) & I stood around feeling stupid and "ignored". Few minutes later Oyvind asks me if I was joining elsewhere & I say nothing decided yet. He said give us a chance to talk to you before you decide because we would like you to join us. Taken aback I said yes & left.

On 1st February 2010 encouraged by Dev, I joined Hexagon Composites . 10 yrs 7 months 14 days & what a glorious journey it has been. Hexagon gave me the opportunity to travel the world, backed me almost every single time, trusted & supported me personally & officially & I know one thing for sure - this will be my last professional/ formal job before I hang up my boots.

Oslo, Paris, Rome, Madrid, Doha, Lagos, Melbourne, Auckland, Dubai were some of the places amongst many others I visited promoting the Hexagon Composites name. Its been a roller coaster ride but more than anything else I have met and made so many wonderful friends, well wishers.

I take a few names only because I have known them the longest. Kim Henning Frank Haberli Jack Schimenti Norm Newhouse John Eihusen Irene Saeboe Brock Petersen Chet Dawes Marc Meyer Irene actually made me ski as seen above. 

Friends, colleagues who have been a source of support, caring for you and these have been enduring relationships. David Bandele Jon Erik Engeset Eric Bippus Seung Baik Alfred Walberer are some current colleagues.

There are so many more names that it will cover a whole page to even list them. So you are still a friend, cherished, remembered even if your name is missing in this list.

No story about Hexagon and India is complete without this trademark ubiquitous photo of its global leadership driving in a 3 wheeler -typical Indian style. 




Above all Hexagon has been a company that has understood, accepted that there will be failures & every time I have failed I have yet gotten support, encouragement & motivated not to give up.

Officially the Indian business is now being driven under Agility Fuel Solutions a Hexagon company. 2020 saw Agility being recognized in the Indian automotive Industry with the "Auto Component of the Year" award by the Auto Components Magazine a part of NextGen Publishing & in front of the industry senior leadership.
These 10 years have seen many changes ranging from Re-branding to Acquisitions to Mergers to JV's to break ups & somewhere along the line I created 4 ambitious obsessive dreams for myself.

(1) To popularise and obtain acceptance for the composite high pressure technology offered by Hexagon/Agility in India

(2) To create and make Hexagon/ Agility a respected brand in Indian industry, widely known and accepted as a pioneering leader

(3) To build a large market and business for the group(2) To create and make Hexagon/ Agility a respected brand in Indian industry, widely known and accepted as a pioneering leader

(4) To establish a world class manufacturing organisation in India.

Mr. Dharmendra Pradhan India's Minister for Petroleum & Natural gas inaugurated the FIRST bus in India with Agility technology on 24th December 2019

For the first time in Indian history a bus that could run as long as 1000 Kms on CNG was launched by the minister. 2020 was to see the take off phase for Agility till the pandemic put a brake. 
Hexagon in 2020 saw success even in the field of bulk transportation of Natural gas with an order for its product for use in 40 modules which will be built in India for a Mobile pipeline application.

My obsessive dreams - Work in progress, glass half full/ half empty, how successful, when, how and what would be the finish line only time will tell.

But I am immensely proud, happy and privileged to have shared 50% of the journey that Hexagon has taken so far as the group celebrates its 20th Anniversary. I may or may not be around for its 25th, 50th anniversaries but wherever I am, I am sure I will be looking at it happy to have been a part of its journey.

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

The INDI Alliance has indeed won !!!!

Quite a long time back when I first got the opportunity to sit in a company board meeting, I noticed the Chairman making a strange remark as he opened the board meeting. He used to say something like – “Please unhide your hidden agendas and keep your vested interests outside”. Young, intrigued I finally summoned enough courage to understand this from some other seniors and got a lesson I have never forgotten. He said that be it a person or an organisation, in many a situation, they have a stated intent and a real intent. Meaning that when they approach a situation, they explain what is their intent which would be more popular, acceptable and palatable to the audience but the real intent could well be very different. Most likely the real intent would be self-defeating or unpopular. In this just concluded election for the Lok Sabha we saw this happening in full flow and to my mind the BJP likely missed reading the message. It is not as if I have some inside information but am using log...
Post a Comment
Read more

Narendra Modi - Evolution of a Leader

  This is NOT about Narendra Modi, even though he is the central character. This is about the evolution of a leader particularly in the BJP and in the NDA/ India in general. Post the electoral defeat in 2009 the BJP was rudderless, notwithstanding the presence of LK Advani. He was old, tired, defeated and BJP could not find a pan India leader to lead the party in the Lok Sabha elections of 2014. They had leaders like Gadkari, Rajnath, Jaitley, Sushma, and however popular none could qualify as an all-India election campaign leader. Popular opinion was it would be a hung parliament. The nation was in a mess, and nobody wanted to clean it given that voter expectations were high, trust low. Kejriwal/ Hazare had mortally wounded the Indian political system. BJP at that point needed a fall guy.  Someone to do the hard work, and if they failed to win, take the blame. If they won, there would be many aspirants to stake a claim to be PM. Parties, barring for those family owned, rarely ...
4 comments
Read more

Questions - Answers anyone ?

Life & weight, certainly changes with time. This is both enduring & educative. A picture they say speaks a million words. The allegation is that in the last 10 years only opposition leaders have been arrested by the Modi govt and these are only political vendetta and nothing more. Let’s not argue that point and grant it as true. That does not mean there are no questions that cannot be asked. The problem is nobody has dared to raise these questions and if one raises them, bingo, the allegation is that one is supporting the Modi govt, blinded being a bhakth and unable to see reality etc. The message is – don’t anybody dare ask questions. Only the old eco-system has the wisdom and freedom to ask questions. Those who ask any question that is inconvenient to the old eco-system you become an apologist for the evil, fascist, dictatorial kind of adjectives. But questions must be asked. They will be asked. If folks don’t have the courage to answer and prefer to be belligerent, then so b...
3 comments
Read more