Manvinder Singh Kohli gave up a potential career in cricket for an engineering degree. ?As a child, I would have loved to pursue my ambitions in cricket. However, at some point, I felt that I was not good enough to make it to the Indian cricket team and thus gave up my dreams to pursue engineering,? he says.
It is not a decision he regrets. Kohli has had a successful and satisfying career innings so far. He began his career as a trainee with Samtel in 1985. Since then, Kohli has handled a number of assignments in diverse fields, ranging from application engineering to international and domestic marketing, and technology development. In his previous assignment, Kohli headed a business unit dealing with industrial automation machines.
He joined ACME Tele Power as business unit head, products, almost a year ago, and is enthusiastic about tackling the challenges this role entails. The company is involved in providing technology solutions to the wireless telecom industry. ACME designs, manufactures and maintains passive infrastructure solutions, including enclosures, cooling and power solutions for the sector. The company?s clientele in India includes operators such as Bharti airtel, Idea Cellular and Tata Teleservices. ?This industry is completely new for me, but the people and processes are the same,? he says. ?The challenge here will be to keep up a trend of continuous innovation and achieve profitable growth.?
Kohli follows an entrepreneurial style of management. ?My emphasis has always has been on building teams,? he says. ?Having a strong team is a must, especially cross-functional teams that work together, driven by common objectives. Once there is a common mission for all team members and that is understood by one and all, more than half the work is done.?
The future target is to create and build an organisation that can leverage the enormous opportunities that are emerging in the telecom sector, through product innovations in energy management.
?There are huge opportunities for the industry to work together in the area of energy management. Some work has already started, in the form of commencement of certain trial projects, in solar, fuel cells, etc. In the coming years, we will witness a greater collaborative approach in the industry to leverage such opportunities,? he says.
So, what does Kohli do in his leisure hours? ?I enjoy playing cricket and tennis, as well as listening to classical music. A drive with the family is mandatory almost every day.?
