Nerves Of Steel
The 5th Auto Components India Awards acknowledges the resilience and strength of equal, OEM partner suppliers, in the pandemic marred 2020. Efficient rollouts and delivery of clean tech solutions with an inclusive approach are testimony to the stakeholders of this industry having nerves of steel.
2020 is proof that the stakeholders of the components and allied industries have nerves of steel. Despite unprecedented challenges, the calendar year 2020 can be remembered for going beyond the call of duty; efficient rollouts; delivery of clean tech solutions with an inclusive approach and commercialisation for both the domestic and export markets. This feat was duly acknowledged as a standout effort of all the five edition of the awards. Keeping the safety of this brave community, the foremost concern, the fifth edition of Auto Components India Awards - 2021, opted for an ‘In-magazine’ announcement over the erstwhile format of hosting a ground event with the rest of the processes unchanged.
The awards this year attracted nominations from over 25 companies with only 21 making the cut to qualify for the jury round. Each of the qualifying company, in turn, put forth multiple nominations, for the category deemed relevant to its product/people and processes. This year, of the 11 categories for which nominations were invited over the month of February and March 2021 in an exhaustive exchange with the companies, none from the pool of nominations received fit the popular category - ‘Auto Component Emerging Company Of The
Year’. Encouraging SMEs (including startups), this category was left uncontested by the jury members in the interest of keeping the integrity behind its inception, intact. We hope to see deserving companies qualifying and contesting over the course of future editions.
Hoshang S. Billimoria, Founder & Mentor, Next Gen Publishing Pvt. Ltd., expressed hope on the industry regaining pre-Covid levels of business in the near future. “I’d like to give my congratulations to all the winners of the fifth edition of the Auto Components India Awards 2021. 2020 was a very testing time for the automotive industry as also for the components industry. The latter as did the industry as a whole reacted to the pandemic with a great degree of resilience and strength,” he mentioned. Billimoria opined that Government intervention came to the aid of the industry as it addressed supply-side concerns from time to time through the year. “The announcement of the scrappage policy which is expected to help the industry in due course of time continues to be a work in progress and only time will tell how it impacts the tier suppliers and ancillaries both of which are vital cogs of the automotive ecosystem,” he added.
Referring to the Covid-19 resurgence, he also acknowledged that the industry was better prepared to deal with the associated
volatility compared to the same period last year when the pandemic wreaked havoc. Billimoria thanked Shapoorji Pallonji for their rock-solid and unconditional support over the years. Last but not the least, he also thanked the technical partners in Frost & Sullivan and Avanteum Advisors besides the validation and knowledge partner in Mazars for the 2021 edition of the awards.
Ashish Bhatia, Executive Editor, Auto Components India humbly thanked the stakeholders of the components and allied industry for yet again wholeheartedly supporting the intellectual property of Next Gen Publishing Pvt. Ltd. At first, he drew attention to the industry support multiplying with each passing year over this half a decade old journey since the first edition was hosted in 2017. He thanked the industry for a welcome opportunity to honour excellence and best practices particularly in the calendar year 2020. “It comes at a time when the world economy came to a grinding halt and here we are hosting the awards with a pool of nominations,” he expressed. In an endeavour to keep the integrity of the awards intact, the jury rose to the challenge yet again. “Well aware of the resilience and strength on the show by all nominees, the jury proved yet again that it was up to the task of gauging excellence, in instances by a narrow margin,” he stated. “By scoring metrics across the domains of excellence in technology, business and sustainable best practices, the jury picked the most deserving winner amongst winners but not without the trademark banter,” he quipped.
Jury process
Continuing from the previous editions were old hands and technical pillars in VG Ramakrishnan, Managing Partner & MD, Avanteum Advisors, Kaushik Madhavan, Vice President - Mobility, Frost & Sullivan. Bhushan Mhapralkar, Editor, Commercial Vehicle magazine and Ashish Bhatia, Executive Editor, Auto Components India brought their own to the mix. A first for the jury, the process this year was conducted virtually with the respective jurors joining from their native states. From the Covid-19 hotspot, Maharashtra to then poll-bound and emerging hotspot Tamil Nadu. The constructive arguments on behalf of each of the nominees formed the ethos of the jury process this year as well. “There was a conscious effort to streamline the nominations such that every category held its own with at least two nominations at par,” he explained.
This year, the awards inducted two new categories: ‘Ancillary Of The Year’ and ‘Supply Chain Management Of The Year’. Through the first category addition, the idea was to reach out to a wider supplier base and give tier suppliers and ancillaries into the aftermarket space a fair opportunity to hold their own when compared to the tier1 suppliers up the automotive value chain. As a testimony to the continual evolution of the niche awards, the second category was introduced to honour the supply chain efficiencies added as part of an overhauling exercise undertaken by most in 2020 including paying close attention to the vendor level management. Through the nominations, this year, the inclusive approach of the Original Equipment Manufacturers, tier supplier partners and ancillaries also drew attention from the jury. The industry can take great pride, in hindsight, as it attempts to fast-track growth in the quarters to follow.
Scores gathered across these heads made for a grand total in each juror’s dossier. Post the jury scores were collated, the company with the highest cumulative score was adjudged as the winner in each of the respective categories. The jury also unanimously agreed to dive deeper into the vendor level efficiencies and overall management processes in a bid to make the awards a matter of pride for participating companies. The objective being to acknowledge the product, process, machinery and the people involved throughout the development cycles. While the complexities of refining the information to suit the relevance and underline the winning potential in the respective category continued to pose a challenge this year as well, nominees were scrutinised thoroughly even if it meant going back to the company for further elaboration on any areas deemed grey or weakly represented in the information suite. It takes that much more to be counted as credible in the niche spacehe explained.