Newspaper : SAILOR TODAY
Date : September 2002

Boldness and Vision: Keys to Success
Ved S. Chhabra, Chairman of Inter Ocean Ship Repairs, Dubai, and V2Infotech, is a man whose success does not have many parallels. His visionary voyage began in 1957, when he joined merchant navy as a Marine Engineer. Eleven years later in 1968, he gave up his sailing career to take on the more challenging task of running his own shipping business and create a history of sorts in the course. Today, he heads the largest privately owned ship repair yard in Dubai, and is the driving force behind a global IT solutions company concentrating on the shipping vertical. In an informal discussion with Executive Editor Bharat Kukreti, he unveils his corporate exterior to reveal that first and foremost, he is a true seafarer to the core.

When asked the secret of being very successful in his shore ventures, Chhabra smiles and says, "I was perhaps bolder than the others." A gross understatement, considering that his vision, strong business acumen and in-depth understanding of the shipping industry are traits admired by an impressive clientele that consists of names such as Wallems Ltd., Worldwide Shipping Agency, United Arab Shipping Company, National Iranian Tanker Company, Bay Ship Management Inc. and Emirates Telecommunications. His expertise and experience have earned him the prestigious position of Chairman of The Engineering Export Promotion Council (Ship Building Division), and he has also been appointed as Member of the Board of Indian Register of Shipping, representing the interests of the Indian ship repair industry.

Although he started his shore business in India, Chhabra achieved real success with the setting up of Inter Ocean Ship Repairs in Dubai. The reasons, according to him, were simple, and many. "I started a shipyard here, but shifted to Dubai in 1991. In Dubai, the entire set up - the working environment, the administrations outlook - everything contributes favourably to bring out the best in you. We have easy availability of any kind of systems we want to hire. If I have a requirement for 50 wireless sets and am willing to pay the price, I can have them in a day. There are companies ready to supply manpower to us as and when required. Dubai is today doing better than Singapore, which at one time had the monopoly in ship repair. The entire culture is such. There is no question of power not being available or customs holding our machinery back. In fact, they go out of their way to facilitate out smooth functioning. Even if the paper work is not complete, they will hold back some document critical to your existence, but will not delay the machinery. In India, every obstacle that you can imagine will be put in your way to slow down your functioning. Even the climate in Dubai is very conducive to the activity. It almost never rains there, and rain can spoil the quality of paint if it happens after grid blasting. This is the reason why the quality of paintwork in Dubai is never suspected. In India, we had no such atmosphere to growth and the volume of business was very limited. A job to renew 100 tons of steel on a ship in a year was considered quite big there, whereas in Dubai we materialise this volume of work every third day."

All these factors, combined with a dedicated workforce of over a thousand professionals, ensure that the yard delivers quality service in committed time. "It is a known fact that a job for which an Indian repair yard takes 30 days, we complete it in 10-12 days in Dubai. The question is, how can we achieve a work which Indian shipyards are not able to, as cheap as in Dubai, and that too in one-third the time. I personally feel that the commitment of the owners to deliver in time is not so strong in India. It similarly reflects on the pricing. The managers take everything lightly and there is excessive wastage. As for us, we even accept the penalty clause, which makes the owner feel much more confident. He does not want to penalize us in any way, but he appreciates the seriousness we accord to this work. No Indian yard accepts this clause, so how can India feature on the ship repair map of the world."

Chhabra feels that it is the general easygoing attitude of the Indians that acts against them in the international arena. "Sad to say, but Indians generally have a laid back attitude all through their shipping careers. We find that the superintendents that come from India to supervise the repairs have certain listlessness in them. The commitment to be up and about early in the morning so that they can ensure that the work gets in progress in time is not there. We are used to dealing with international superintendents and supervisors, particularly from Greece, who are very agile and active. They are ready to pounce upon us if there is any delay from our side, whereas nothing of this sort happens with their Indian counterparts. As a comparison, the people working at our ship repair yard at Dubai are also Indian, but they have adopted the culture that prevails in international shipping. They have Filipinos and other nationals working very hard alongside them on similar salary scales, so they have to perform at par," he says.

Within the six years that it has been in existence, InterOcean Ship Repairs has already gained an enviable reputation for being professional, punctual and perfect in every aspect. Based in Al Jadaf dockyards, it has a highly trained and dedicated team of over 600 professionals, including the most qualified and experienced engineers and technicians.

In the venture, Chhabra is ably supported by his son Viresh, the Managing Director, who is a manufacturing engineer educated in the U.S. The father-son team leads the workforce in placing maximum stress upon efficient time management. The yard is equipped with all essential equipment and geared for contingencies by keeping a long inventory of consumables. The yard also lays emphasis on quality, which is evident by the fact that it is in the process of obtaining ISO 9220 accreditation.

However, Chhabra sees that now he is directing more of his energy towards application of emerging technology in shipping. "Now, I dedicate more time developing IT primarily directed towards shipping, but not restricted to it. We are so advanced in shipping today, yet I feel that IT has not played its role to the extent to which it can. We are still following very conservative systems. In marine education, particularly for marine engineers, very limited time has been allotted for IT awareness. I feel that atleast 20% of the time at education level should be spent on training them on computer matters," he says. Revealing the solid reasoning behind this new drive he has undertaken under the name of V2Infoech, Chhabra says, "We found that in the shipping industry, there are certain areas that could be automated by software. As such, people have had software on the ships for some time now, which is basically Planned Maintenance Software. Our company has two vital assets - one, solid contacts in the shipping world and two, impeccable software platform. Our knowledge base comes from our contacts in the shipping world, and we are building a shipping vertical to cater to the needs of shipping companies that are neither too big nor too small. Earlier there was a huge gap, with the major IT companies providing services to the small businesses. Now, we are providing services to the companies in the middle bracket, and that too in granules. A company can pick and choose a particular granule that it feels it requires, and does not have to procure the entire package as a whole. If it is satisfied with the product, it can then go in for other granules."

He further adds, "The total annual expense on supply chain management in world shipping is $35 billion, which is a huge amount. Out of this, maximum is going towards purchases. If we show some transparency and allow people to come on a common platform to bid for the owner's requirements. I'm sure we can cut down the costs by 5 to 10%. With this kind of saving possible, one can easily assess what kind of volume we are looking at. V2Infotech is geared to provide software solutions to the maritime industry for integrating financial and MIS systems with supply chain management, CRM, productivity improvement and job costing, thereby making it a more cost effective and quality driven industry."

Although Chhabra has established V2Infotech in Mumbai, he says that he aims to tap the international market more as the Indian market does not have much potential. "We see that though the market is not so big in India, it is huge outside. India is addressed by some very big market players as of now, such as AMOS, which is a very expensive software. Our product aims to target the small-medium sector and fill the areas where the shipping companies cannot afford to put in crores of investment. We work in the range of 35-70 lakhs for complete automation of a shipping company. We are very familiar with what is required to run a shipping company efficiently. We already have a ready software to demonstrate to the shipping companies; we are just putting in the last bits together," he informs.

Dispelling any doubts that one might have heard about the product's application in shipping. He says, "The product which we are working on is a standardized product worldwide. We are just modifying it to suit the needs of the shipping industry. The people who operate this software will have to undergo a certain amount of training. We have a product called NetOp School, through which we can train people from a remote location also. There is nobody in India so far who is working on this particular vertical. It is a worldwide product sold at 130,000 places and we are customizing it for the shipping industry." Informing about the business strategy that he plans to employ and which, according to him, is certain to be a success, Chhabra says, "We have targeted all the major shipping centers including Norway, Greece and the U.S. We are the certified Microsoft Business Solution Centre. It used to be called Navision, but was then acquired by Microsoft. The company basically provides end-to-end business solution for any sector, and we basically plan to introduce the entire technology sector to our clients. We are also tying up with other sectors, and bring a world-class readymade solution into the country. We have already tied up with a company called Danware for remote technology. We are heavily targeting logistics right now, because it matches with the background of our company and we understand the business. Our aim is to tie up with the top tow or three players in the world market, then introduce the concept in South-East Asia, and then break it to the Middle-East."

As far as the shipping industry is concerned Chhabra plans to target the ship owners first, as he has already established his credentials with them. "We are targeting the ship owners first. We have a fantastic established clientele consisting of the most reputed shipping companies, and we enjoy their confidence because we have executed very big ship repair jobs for most of them. Now that we are introducing our IT face to them, we are very positive that they will most certainly take us seriously. We are definitely concentrating on the ship owners, but most of these exploration and hotel industry. However, right now all our energy is focused upon doing a great job in the shipping industry. We are also tapping the shipyards and the ports, but we feel that the ship owners will be more willing to spend money on cost-cutting measure," he explains.

Although he is very positive about the benefits that can accrue by introduction of new technology in any company, Chhabra agrees that it is not easy to change set patterns. "We feel that there is still a large scope for educating people in this aspect. The general attitude is that things have been going on in the set system for years, so why change them. However, we have to try and educate people that if they introduce these systems into their companies' functioning, there are large potential for savings. We are just trying to educate people; we are not creating any need. People have to realize there is a definite need if they want to stay at par with the rest of the world. We have hard-core functional experts on our team, who very well understand who are the end users of our product and develop technology that they can easily understand. We understand that if we give too sophisticated a product to the marine people, they will not be able to use it. The Microsoft Business Solution is simply, and it adapts to the business of the user. We are very excited about developing this shipping vertical, as we understand the needs of the industry and we have Microsoft to back us in his venture," he says.

Although he had come ashore more than three decades ago, Chhabra constantly keeps himself updated with the changes that take place onboard. He compares his sailing days with the present and says, "Unlike my time, when we had to physically touch each part of the engine room to see that it worked well, today we have unmanned engine rooms. Engineers are setting in air-conditioned control rooms and the consoles are right in front of them to be able to monitor and adjust. Who knows that in the future, we might even have unmanned navigation systems. There is greater emphasis on safety now, and this is where technology can play a very vital role. Safety cannot be seen in isolation; it is the functioning of the entire ship that counts. Human error has to be avoided as much as possible and therefore the more we computerize, the lesser the chances of human error. Of course, ultimately, intelligence interpretation is of prime importance."

Chhabra has done exceptionally well ashore, but not many seafarers find shore opportunities that give him a chance to utilize their vast onboard experience. He, however, feels that the marine engineers have a greater chance of finding employment ashore than the nautical officers. "As far as engineers are concerned, they have a large opportunity in the chemical and pharmaceutical industry. In fact, if we go by the world standards, marine engineers hold some of the most prized jobs in the pharmaceutical industry. They also have an option in hotel industry, shipyards, ship repairs and ship management. Engineers can always find alternate engagements for themselves, but it is well known that those in the nautical side obviously have difficulties in finding shore jobs in the same numbers. However, some of them are required on the commercial side of shipping."

It is difficult to comment whether marine engineers get shore engagements in large number, but going by Chhabra's example, they can surely excel if they appropriately channelise their energy and experience in the right direction.