Convergence of Cognisance

L&T IPM's Project Management Conclave witnesses convergence of great minds

The 3rd edition of the Project Management Conclave, hosted at Vadodara in Gujarat on 2 December, brought together L&T business leaders, project professionals and academicians from all over the globe.

Organised by L&T’s Institute of Project Management (IPM), the event saw sharing of best practices, technological advancements, success stories, and discussions on strategies for the future, vis-à-vis project management. The event was themed around ‘Project Management for Profitable Growth.

L&T dignitaries who attended the conclave included Mr Subramanian Sarma (Whole-time Director & Sr EVP – Energy), Mr SV Desai (Whole- time Director & Sr EVP - Civil Infrastructure), Mr A L Sekar, Advisor to CMD – Heavy Civil Infrastructure), Dr C Jayakumar (EVP & Head – Corporate HR), Mr Satish Palekar (EVP & Head – Power), Mr Y S Srikanth (VP & Head – Operations – Power), Mr Ajay Jain (EVP & Head – Onshore EPC, L&T Energy Hydrocarbon), Mr Nandakumar R Kulkarni (EVP & Chief Executive – Algeria Operations, L&T Energy Hydrocarbon, Prof VTCS Rao (VP & Dean – IPM and Prof Rajiv Nehru (Dean (Designate) – IPM.

In his welcome address, Prof Rao touched upon the various initiatives of L&T IPM, such as Knowledge@Work (K@W), PRISM, Project Management Conclave, etc.

Speaking on ‘Mindset for Business Growth & Profitability’, Mr Sarma highlighted that about 60-70% of L&T’s portfolio consists of EPC projects, while the remaining focus on hi- tech manufacturing, IT and financial services, all involving a significant amount of project management. He outlined three simple mantras – selective bidding, execution par excellence, and value setting – as the key for improving profitability in projects.

Mr Desai spoke on ‘Megaproject Delivery as Growth Engine’ and said that the revenue CAGR of L&T Civil Infrastructure is expected to touch 25% in the coming years.

Following a video commemorating the crystal year celebration (15 years) of L&T IPM, awards for 15 years of service were presented to Dr Hiren Maniar (Dy Dean – IPM-Vadodara) and Dr Dharmendra Trivedi (Librarian).

The conclave witnessed four keynote addresses respectively delivered by Mr Palekar on ‘Supply-Chain Strategies as the key enabler for profitable delivery’, Prof Jennifer Whyte (Director – John Grill Institute for Project Leadership, University of Sydney) on ‘Strategies for De-risking Complex Projects', Mr Francis Verstraete (CEO – Verstraete) on the ‘Importance of Digitalisation & Automation in Project Profitability' and Mr Vijay Gupta (Founder & CEO - SoftTech Engineers Ltd) on ‘Application of AI & ML for profitable project execution’.

The two panel discussions – ‘Enabling Technologies for Profitable Growth’ and ‘Extreme Innovation for Profitable Execution’ – witnessed active participation of stalwarts from both industry and the academia. Apart from several L&T speakers, there were external speakers such as Prof Ashwin Mahalingam (IIT Madras), Mr Kalyan Vaidyanathan (Bentley System), and Mr Juzer Bastawala (BEXEL India Consulting LLP), Prof Manoj Kumar Tiwari (IIM Mumbai), Dr Saji Gopinath (Digital University Kerala), and Mr Manesh Alias (Wrench Solutions).

The discussions revolved around the capabilities of new Generative AI in interpreting contractual, technical and legal provisions in contracts, the need for policy interventions from the government to promote technology and digitalisation, and the advancements being pursued by start-ups and how those can be integrated into ongoing and future projects.

Based on the case study presentations made on 24 November as a run-up to the Conclave, and their subsequent evaluation, the Winners and Runners-up were announced, and the awards were handed over by Mr Sekar and Dr Jayakumar.

CASE-STUDY RESULTS

Sub-Theme: Data-Driven Decision Making for Profitable Execution

Winners: Suresh K S, Viswanath M S, Debidutta Mishra from Water & Effluent Treatment
Runners-up: Suprotim Banerjee, Abhishek Raut, Apurva Patel, Rushabh Shah, Rinkesh Patel from L&T Energy Hydrocarbon

Sub-Theme: De-risking Mega Project Delivery

Winners: Lakshmanan R, Suthandraselvam A, Raamkumar D, Sairam S, Ganesh S, Kalle Seetharam from Heavy Civil Infrastructure

Runner-up: Dipen Jayeshbhai Shah from Heavy Engineering

Sub-Theme: Digitalisation and Automation for Operational Efficiency

Winners: Dr Rajesh Kumar V, Hussain Babu D, Sathiyanarayanan S, Kumaresan P, Nitessh Kumar L R from Water & Effluent Treatment

Runners-up: R Raju, Vijiayalakshmi M, Debidutta Mishra, Chaitanya Pachori, Manavalaperumal S from Water & Effluent Treatment

Sub-Theme: Innovation in Engineering and Supply Chain Management

Winners: Rakesh Arora, Christopher Mark Cooper, Shamim Ahmed, Rajiv Sharma, Sharotri Munish from Heavy Civil Infrastructure

Runners-up: Pavani Saroja K, Arun Kumar K, Bonagiri Venkanna, Akash Kumar, Priyanka from Water & Effluent Treatment

Sub-Theme: Productivity and Cost Optimisation

Winners: Rohit Raghwendra Tiwari, Shiba Prasad Patra, Rajkumar S from Buildings & Factories

Runners-up: Ch. Anil Kumar; V. Sruthi; Sruthy S; Swastika Singh; K. Sameer Kashyap from Heavy Engineering

News & Views // <![CDATA[ _spBodyOnLoadFunctionNames.push("setupPageDescriptionCallout"); // ]]>

News & Views