CEO CONNECT presents Mr. Sanjeev Sinha, MD of Siemens Information Systems Limited

Department of Management Studies (DoMS), IIT-Madras hosted Mr. Sanjeev Sinha, MD of Siemens Information Systems Limited for the CEO CONNECT session “The Role of Corporate Strategies “on 26^th October 2009. In CEO CONNECT, eminent business leaders are invited to the campus by the department to share their experiences and lessons of excellence. The essence of the event is to provide the students an opportunity to get the perspective of the captains of the industry.

Mr. Sinha comes with a rich and an extensive experience of 28 years from the manufacturing industry to his current position, amassed over his entire professional career with steel producers, consulting firms, and plant engineering companies.  After having completed his education in Electrical Engineering from UVCE, Bangalore University, he began his career in 1980 at Tata Steel in India. He started his career with Siemens as a project manager for steel and aluminium plants and has worked in most European countries, U.S.A., South Africa, Southeast Asian countries and in Brazil.  Mr. Sinha has held various positions within Siemens playing significant roles in sales and marketing, project management, engineering, strategic planning, mergers & acquisitions and other corporate functions. Mr. Sinha largely worked in an international environment on varied and complex portfolios. Before returning to India after having stayed in Germany for 25 years, he was on the Executive Board of Metals Technologies (MT) at Siemens AG and also on the Boards of Siemens VAI GmbH & Co, in Linz (Austria), France, Spain and UK.

 Mr. Sinha started the presentation with an introduction about Siemens and its long journey o f 162 years. He pointed out the role of the “value system” of Siemens as an organisation in its sustainability against many odds. He emphasized that the value system is the guiding spirit of the Vision of any organisation which in turn decides the strategies to be followed in the long run. He elaborated on how Siemens aligned their strategies by focussing on the emerging “Megatrends” and their significance.

Siemens is well perceived as a benchmark of “Innovation” and Mr.Sinha provided some valuable insights into what Siemens does differently. He stressed the importance of a long term strategy rather than using tactics for short term benefits. He also defined this often “misunderstood” term innovation as small steps at a time towards excellence. He concluded with these very valuable words of wisdom – “Compare yourself with the best and benchmark yourself against their strengths”.

The audience engaged Mr.Sinha with their questions regarding Siemens as an organisation, Innovations, factors affecting Innovation and the intricacies of Strategic Management. The hour long interaction with Mr.Sinha was a rare opportunity for the students of DoMS, IIT-Madras to closely read a MD’s mind. The session ended with a hope of yet another association in the future.

Team DoMS Interface
Batch of 2011