Kriate Consultants

Introduce your business and what you do there.

We’re a downstream petrochemical company. We’re at $200 million in terms of revenue, and we’re a strong and significant player in a small, narrow field. The company is around 40 years old, and we’re listed on the Bombay Stock Exchange (BSE). Family and promoters hold around 45% of the company, and the rest is public. I’m the president of one of the business verticals of the company, and I’ve been here since 2014. We have family members closely working with us on the board, one of whom is the chairman and managing director of the company. 

What challenge were you trying to address with Kriate Consultants?

The challenge was creating a culture of accountability among senior managers, in terms of their performance and taking the company from family-managed processes to self-driven, self-managed ones.

What was the scope of their involvement?

Kriate’s mandate has been to address the issue of mid- to senior-level management in our company and to change toward a self-directed approach to performance. The aim was to take the company toward a more performance-driven culture, which would originate more from the bottom than from the top. This needed a lot of alignment of the company goals with those of the people.

Secondly, we needed to specifically identify various levels of management that could take up future roles and responsibilities, as well as identify the skills and competencies required for moving from this kind of culture to a more professionally-managed and self-driven culture for the people that were identified. We have around 450 employees, and we needed to go through this exercise for a good percentage of those, so that it would become intrinsic after a period of time.

The first step was to understand a set of problem areas for the company. Kriate sat down and had one-on-one discussions with a vast section of people, including promoters, senior managers, and junior managers, which were identified as the people who’d grow to senior roles in the organization. Kriate learned our issues, culture, and the underlying aspects of our problem areas, based on dialogue across the organization, from very high levels to junior-level people.

We identified a set of issues, including that a lot of managers didn’t have a clear understanding of their roles and responsibilities. It was an exercise that identified roles and responsibilities for individual managers across departments and the organization itself. While going about this, Kriate had feedback sessions with senior managers like me and with the very top management. They worked again through the employees and identified roles and responsibilities. They evolved the criteria as to which people would be part of this exercise. They identified high-performing individuals that had received good ratings consecutively over the last 2–3 years. Kriate eliminated people who were very junior, in the sense of just having joined the company. We chose 60–70 people for the exercise, a number we felt was good enough for driving the change program.

The next step was to split those people into groups. We had a few off-site workshops, with a feedback session with the top management after each of those. The sessions were primarily meant to address two things: the cultural problems the company faced and why people were waiting for pushes from the top rather than being self-driven. We identified changes that needed to be made going forward, and roles and responsibilities were clearly defined. We went through a process of looking at key KPIs for each person at both a department and a personal level. We identified what kind of organization we were in terms of organizational evolution from more of a clan kind of organization to more of a networked one.

What is the team composition?

We worked with three people on a regular basis and there were 4–5 outside people engaged at certain points in time for specific activities or types of expertise.

How did you come to work with Kriate Consultants?

They were referred very positively by some of our peer companies. Kriate had already done an exercise with a company we’re associated very closely with, which is run by relatives of our promoters. We talked to another multinational company that had worked with them, and they gave very favorable opinions about Kriate’s methodology and the effectiveness of the program. We also considered pricing and other aspects of their service.

What is the status of this engagement?

We worked with Kriate Consultants between July 2018–February 2020.

What evidence can you share that demonstrates the impact of the engagement?

One of the measurables was to identify successions for individuals with high responsibilities within the organization. We’ve ticked all the boxes in that area. For each position, we needed to identify the critical roles the person would play and that was done. Then, there was a five-parameter exercise to test whether those individuals had the skillsets to perform those roles. Kriate was successful in getting us to do that assessment. A fourth measurable parameter is a way people carry out efficiency. This is more long-term and I think that we’ll have a measurement for it by the end of 2020.

I don’t have any specific metrics at this moment, but the feedback from the individuals going through the program has been very positive. Our top management has also been very happy with the outcomes. There are some small issues that we haven’t been able to solve, but that’s more because of our own internal time conflicts. There was a section of people in the projects area that were unavailable and couldn’t go through the program at all.

How did Kriate Consultants perform from a project management standpoint?

The communication was very good. They were always coming back to us ahead of what we expected in terms of communication. They were a little off target with timelines, but most of that was due to our side. I wouldn’t entirely blame them for taking a little longer, and it wasn’t so much of a delay as to hinder us.

What did you find most impressive about them?

They were very honest in their feedback to us. Most people would’ve tucked away some very contentious issues, but Kriate surfaced those back to us for resolution. Secondly, the sessions were very carefully planned and executed. There weren’t any hiccups during them, and everything went like clockwork. Kriate also customized the sessions to our kind of culture and didn’t just take some concepts and drive them through the exercise. They got a very good grasp of the organizational culture and DNA before the programs were laid out. This aspect differentiated them from other consultants.

Are there any areas they could improve?

They could’ve gotten more outside experts involved. They had a few outside consultants involved in assessing the skill levels of individuals, but maybe some of them weren’t really specialists in those areas. For example, Kriate had a single external consultant facilitating marketing, purchasing, and all other commercial areas, whereas they should’ve had one expert for each subdomain.

Do you have any advice for future clients of theirs?

The person engaging Kriate has to be very clear on what problems they’re trying to address and what outcome they’re expecting. Also, there should be an agreement beforehand on the external experts that’ll be engaged.

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I’m the president of Arkema Peroxides India Private Limited, a chemical company.

What challenge were you trying to address with Kriate Consultants?

I needed HR consulting. We don’t have a full-fledge HR unit.

What was the scope of their involvement?

We had them do some job comparisons with other organizations to make sure we had the right organizational structure. It was important that we were aligned with the market. They made a presentation on their findings, and we took corrective action based on that. They interviewed our senior leadership thoroughly in the process.

What is the team composition?

There were four people.

How did you come to work with Kriate Consultants?

We found them through word of mouth. They’re really friendly people and understood our needs. They were able to read between the lines.

How much have you invested with them?

We spent between $10,000–$15,000.

What is the status of this engagement?

We started working together in June-October 2012.

What evidence can you share that demonstrates the impact of the engagement?

In the end, some of our initial job descriptions were found to be ineffective, so we made changes based on their suggestions.

How did Kriate Consultants perform from a project management standpoint?

Project management was to the point. They were friendly and they met the timelines they agreed to. I interacted with them regularly.

What did you find most impressive about them?

They gave the report and later followed up to see if we implemented anything. If there were any problems we faced, they gave suggestions. It was nice that they didn't stop the engagement after delivering the report.

Are there any areas they could improve?

There’s nothing I’d have them do differently.

Do you have any advice for potential customers?

I don’t find any reason why they shouldn’t work with them.