Reflections: Ahead of the curve
Srinivas Krishnan, Regional Managing Director for South Asia completed his 25th work anniversary this month and the felicitation ceremony on the 16th of September truly captured the impact that he has had over the years on the business, senior global managers and the South Asia team.
Present during the ceremony, attending virtually were Jim Thompson, Ken Madrid and Norah Franchetti who spoke about the growth story that is India and Srinivas’ indelible imprint on it. Barry Koolen and Dennis Muldowney along with Crown Indonesia team shared video messages congratulating him on achieving this milestone. Other senior leaders from the Group including Tze Shen Kong. Sherry Liu, Magali Delafosse, Chris Davis Pipe and Mona Lai shared their congratulatory notes which were read out during the call.
Srinivas Krishnan over the last 25 years donned several roles in various capacities across many countries in
Crown, He has had a great and unmistakably positive impact on the business, people and the work culture wherever and whoever be has worked with. Taking over Crown India reins in 2010, he has led admirably and through his strategic interventions has turned around the operations into one of the fastest growing in the Group. Crown South Asia has exponentially grown in his leadership and his drive for pushing the boundaries has led to sustainable growth and innovation in our services and its delivery. Truly ahead of the curve, we at Crown South Asia congratulate him on his 25th work anniversary and his recent appointment to the Executive Leadership Team (ELT).
Here he shares his mantra for success and continuous learning:
Congratulations on your 25th work anniversary. Can you please recount your journey in Crown for 25 years for the benefit of our readers?
Thanks for your wishes, Abhilash. The whole 25-year journey has been quite eventful and interesting. The first part of the journey was more varied, volatile and ambiguous. This stint lasted for 13 years, and I was closely involved interacting and working with nationalities from Indonesia, Malaysia, Singapore, Australia, America, Kiwi and Canada at diferent point in time to rebuild the indonesian operation of Crown.
The second part of the journey till date has been more complex and uncertain but more satisfying and personally more successful relative to Group performance.
In the first part, I had an occasion to don different roles in the group like Acquisition integration specialist, Internal Auditor, Financial consultant for Group Control Systems and trainer for Balanced score card. Further, I got to visit several Crown offices situated in Malaysia, Vietnam, Philippines, Singapore, Hong Kong China. Australia Russia, Italy. South Africa.
In both the stints, perseverance and a firm self-belief that it is possible to surmount all challenges and a committed team helped a lot.
In both the stints, the task was to handle projects and challenges which were undefined, the onus was either to break / downsize or makel grow the operation by creating a horizon with the formation of a team.
You have handled several responsibilities in multiple capacities over 25 years in Crown. How does one continuously prepare themselves for newer challenges and opportunities?
As a sportsman, I had always faced different situations and ecosystem calling for out of the box solution requiring deep thought process. In the game of professional cricket involving several matches, I have been able to be a team player where we emerged as winner by snatching victory from a near certain jaws of defeat Further throughout the career, I made it at point to continuously learn, formally and informally plus find an avenue to apply the learning to practical workplace. Moreover, my better half Jayashree is quite equipped to handle unforeseen challenges under difficult circumstances without giving up. She sacrificed her professional career and took care of handing the family affairs largely. A sports background, continuous learning and having an ideal life partner have helped cope up with all possible issues to emerge successful.
What do you consider as your most significant intervention/interventions in turning around an operations like Crown India since you took over the reins in 2010!
It is difficult to pinpoint one case of intervention as we have had several issues to deal with since the year 2010. 360 degree turn-around of customer perception about our service levels for the better, internally identifying potential talent masters. cleaning the place of few people phobic Managers with questionable governance, entitlement mindset and re-recruiting some of the Talented staff and Managers, who had left Crown India before the year 2010 for their second stint by convincing them of a climate to allow them to give their best and assisting them with a supporting talent base were possibly some of the most satisfying Interventions Thankfully, every one of them are with us till date and are firing from all quarters. Few of them have had their longest stint with us in their career to date.
Crown South Asia today is one of the fastest growing operations in the Group. What has been the key (s) to success in as challenging a market as India!
Implementing Group initiatives, following Board directives, encouraging every staff to treat every day as if it was the first day in our job, formal reward
recognition and career growth path for deserving staff and Managers, avoiding complacency plus generation of innovative solutions on sustainable basis within the framework of group norms were the key factors.
Timely assatance from Group resources – Shen for prepaying the loan we had borrowed for Taloja warehouse in 2009, training assistance from Narah on several counts, HR advises from Magali, Gary’s involvement on a number of Risk Areas and Chris’s overview with our IT team on infrastructure played a significant part in our growth story.
Where do you see / or want to see Crown South Asia in the next 5 years!
In the last 12 years we have grown quite successfully along with the growth mindset of some Key Managers Further, the Board has been kind enough to include me in the ELT. With such a strong foundation, the aim as to create a succession for them, learn best practices from other ELT members lift the region by enhancing the capabilities of our team further whereby we shift from being successful to significant, by sustaining the growth tempo and become a role model for many other Crown offices to emulate.
