Q. Kindly give us an insight into your first few hiring for your company.
A. Employees are behind the success of any organisation and it is indeed the strength of the organisation to have employees on board who can be trusted and are loyal. When we began our business in 1987, the first few people who joined our company proved as a key to our success and are still working with us. And a handful of the people who joined in the initial stages are the business heads now, having the experience of the business right from the grass-roots level.
Q. Agarwal Packers & Movers Ltd. is one of the largest private sector-integrated logistics companies in India. What challenges did you face when you decided to expand the manpower?
A. The logistics industry is still unorganised and moreover we do not have specialised courses related to this industry. Hence, the major challenge of the logistics industry is to find suitable manpower based on requirements. The industry is growing at a very rapid pace, and in times of high demand for specialised manpower we decided to put an end to the problem of trained packers and drivers by opening our own training institute.
We specialise in including young boys from rural areas who are trained and recruited in our company as per the requirement.
Q. According to you, what are the much-awaited leadership trends in logistics industry in 2013.
A. The logistics industry has been facing the challenge of dynamism in its field. As for the leadership trends in 2013, the logistics industry would be expected to address various key areas of concern, which include people development, innovation, technology application and majorly the acquiring of efficient resources, hiring, deployment and retention of the right people at the right places. Bold leadership would be required to ensure that the business and industry as a whole prospers.
Q. After shifting 45,000 homes this year, residential movement remains the core of your business. Please share your views on the same.
A. Household shifting has always been and would always be the core of our business. Our foray into the supply chain management started about six years ago, and we are certainly developing a highly managed division in our company, as this sector still remains highly unorganised in our country.
Q. Please throw some light on the talent-acquisition strategies you have adopted.
A. Our major thrust to remain close to the hearts of people is reflected in our core business of household shifting, which involves movement of household goods to respective locations. We need to be more sensitive towards people’s requirement of safe shifting.
Our talent acquisition strategies also remain centred towards hiring people who are sensitive and have high regard for family values and emotions; the same is done through psychometric profiling during interaction through various questions.
Q. How do different teams in the management tend to cater to different sections of the society?
A. We have clientele from all parts of the society – from households to corporate, government departments, defence officers and ministries; we can also proudly claim to have provided our services to the President of India. We have different teams headed by competent team heads and have divided the entire operations into domestic and international operations. There is a further segregation of the clients based on their profiling like household, corporate, defence, government, commercial, warehousing, car carriers, airport terminal management etc, and while servicing all these verticals the prime focus remains on excellent and efficient delivery of service on time.
Q. How do you tend to quality control your relocation services? Kindly share.
A. We already have a centralised control over operations and all enquiries are received at one location – the corporate office. It is from there that the distribution is eventually done to different locations.
Hence, any deficiency in terms of knowledge base or service delivery is immediately catered to by the top teams present. Even if any enquiry is related to policy decision, the same is immediately addressed there.
Q. Kindly focus on the important developments of 2012 in your organisation.
A. The major achievement of our company in 2012 has been to come up with the unique concept of Driver Seva Kendra, the first of its kind in India, on September 7 at DUDU – Jaipur, and this initiative was a dream come true for us. It is one of the many other efforts in pipeline towards a larger role that our group is supervising in the country.
