Planning for the engineering clients take back

I am chief strategy officer of Varunthal Engineering Services, a Pune-headquartered engineering research and development company listed on the NSE and BSE. We design, simulate, validate and document products for vehicle makers, industrial-machinery companies and medical-device manufacturers. Revenue for the year ended March 2026 was ₹2,840 crore. About 11,600 people work in our Pune, Hyderabad and Coimbatore centres and three small offices abroad. I report to the managing director and chief executive, lead a team of 24 and present the five-year plan to our board. Pricing, delivery and people decisions rest with business and functional heads; I frame the choices that they and the directors make.

My view of this industry was formed from the buyer's chair before the seller's. I spent seven years designing steering and suspension parts for a Pune supplier, then seven more in the Indian subsidiary of a German truck maker, packaging engineering work for Indian vendors. Once that subsidiary understood a task well enough, it brought the task in-house. When I joined Varunthal in 2001 I saw the same pattern from the other side. I later ran our vehicle-engineering delivery centres and then the mobility business unit, before the board created this role in April 2019.

Three decisions since then show how I work. We helped a European chassis-systems client build and own an engineering centre in Pune, then transferred it after thirty months, rather than defending the account with a discount. We redirected capability spending away from our dependence on vehicle programmes, accepting slower progress in electrification. We opened a third centre in Coimbatore instead of enlarging Hyderabad. Each choice had a cost that someone in our leadership team argued was too high, and I keep those costs beside the results.

Current focus

I am working with our three business heads on a map of the client relationships most likely to move towards a captive engineering centre within three years, and on what we would offer each client before that conversation begins on its side.

Conversations I welcome

I would welcome one independent directorship with a listed or larger unlisted Indian company in industrial manufacturing, engineering or technology services outside my employer's competitive field, and a few advisory conversations. I can offer about twenty-four days a year, with my employer's written approval.