Loyalty, conscience and dedication cement his place

Chennai: The story of south India’s largest cement maker was scripted by a man from a small town educated in the Tamil medium. Over the 40 years A V Dharmakrishnan has spent at the company, Ramco Cements’ production capacity has increased from 0.4 million tonnes from a single factory in Virudhunagar, to nearly 20 million tonnes across nine factories (including a capacity addition to be completed in three months) without diluting a rupee in equity. Its capital has been unchanged since 1962.

"Life was not any struggle, it was easy paced," says Dharmakrishnan, who was born in a family of farmers, went to the government high school in Rajapalayam, and to Madurai’s Vellaichamy Nadar College to study BCom. He then went to Chennai to pursue chartered accountancy.

After that, he chose Madras Cements (now rechristened Ramco Cements) as his parents saw the promoters Rajhas (from Rajapalayam) as people who followed a good value system. "SAIL was offering a job for Rs 1,600, but I joined Madras Cements for Rs 1,200 a month," he recalled. He joined the group as accounts officer. Four years later he was CFO and became the MD by 2012.

AVD, as his close friends call him, follows what he calls the LCD principle in management --

loyalty

, decision making with a conscience, and dedication to work. "Loyalty to the place (Ramco group), and all decisions must satisfy my conscience, and dedication to work will drive my work life,"

he says.

Early on in his career, when cement manufacturing was seen as dull and drab, Ramco went on a massive digitisation drive, initially undertaken to reduce accountancy lag from six months. "The ERP project of Ramco Systems (a group company) has helped the company significantly," he says.

"The world is waking up to ESG (environment, sustainability and governance) now. We set up our wind farm (capable of generating 166MW) way back in 1990," says Dharmakrishnan.

His goal was to make Ramco a benchmark of efficiency in every parameter. "Today. we are among the most efficient cement makers and also the benchmark on shareholder returns for other companies to emulate," he said.

To create price advantage, Dharmakrishnan spearheaded two key actions __ focus on cost reduction and commodity branding by introducing Ramco Supergrade. "I am happy that we were able to achieve both and that is because of a solid team at Ramco". The entire senior management has been with him for more than 25 years.

"If I am not in the office I am at home, spending time with my granddaughter. With the pandemic, I have stopped my routine meditation at Ramakrishna Mutt, which allowed me to declutter my mind. I shall restart once things settle down," he says.

Dharmakrishnan’s next goal is to sell the right type of cement to the buyer and provide concrete solutions. "If you visit a stockist you will see him dump some cement on the buyer. We have now developed 12 types of cement, each one for a different application. A buyer needs to be given the right product for the right application. It cannot be one size fits all. Things will change and we will evangelise this," he says.