Over 27 years work experience in automotive industry (Global Tier I) - in wide areas of responsibilities including Operations, Program Management , Product planning, Business development, Commercials, Strategy and General management. P and L responsibility for over 18 years in manufacturing plants and JVs. Traveled widely, worked across cultures in multinational matrix organizations, built organizations, customer relations and developed high performance teams. Currently heading Continental in India.

Transition to Agile Organization from Traditional, A Leadership Perspective

The growing market needs, and advanced vehicle architecture in various domains, demand adaptive strategy and business model to facilitate delivery of high quality products with minimal time to market, in any industry. Implementing agile methods is one of the realization technique.

At Continental, Agile came into practice initially in large projects and seemed to be a hypothesis. The culture and methods incorporated required a true paradigm shift in the management system. The approach was initially deemed to be considered as successful. As the incremental development progressed, the scope of transformation and the true needs of people and processes had taken a complete makeshift. With continuous retrospection and learning, the purpose and main principles of agile methods was reachable at a larger scale.

Being one of the topmost automotive industry in aiding the rapid evolution of current and future technologies, we have been consistently and diligently brainstorming on the right investment for continuous improvement of customer satisfaction. On the contemporary, organizational transformation into agile in a large scale is one of the vital decisions taken.

With the recent success story of being the first supplier of the most advanced high-performance computing units in the industry, our drum brake for improved performance and durability, with advanced driver assistance system and energy saving tires for Volkswagen ID.3, Continental has gone one step ahead on innovation in terms of technology and methodology. The ID.3 is filled with Continental technology for the best driving experience. The success is an absolute result of embracing the change with a positive mindset. The backbone being the leadership hierarchy living the Continental core values of Trust, Freedom to Act, Passion to Win and For One Another.

• Business agility
• Know your organization scope for transformation
• Proactive Investment
• Key stakeholder engagement
• Lean Leadership management.