Somashekar Sathnaur: A Pioneer With Unrivalled Industry Expertise, Striving For Consistent Improvement
Somashekar Sathnaur
Project Director
In an exclusive interview with CEO Insights, Somashekar talks more about his professional journey and how he has been able to make a name for himself in the industry.
Can you elaborate more on your professional background?
I kick started my professional journey at Indian Petrochemicals Corporation Limited (IPCL) as a management trainee through all India selection, the first batch of Management Trainees for the first mega petrochemical complex being setup at Nagothane, Maharashtra, India. During that period, IPCL was premier petrochemical company in India experiencing exponential growth in Polymers. It was a dream job for any Chemical Engineer to be a part of such prestigious organization which had immense potential for theknowledge and experience to grow.
I spearheaded the major manufacturing expansion to position the business in the best possible way to achieve the cost and margin leadership. The immense success of the project(Safety,Cost & Time) catapulted me to develop the confidence in the industry to take higher responsibility at such young age, which the industry has never seen earlier. I never looked back from then onwards and started executing projects on a mega scale in sector with safety, quality, time and cost control aspects, which
were the key to the success of my identi fication. Currently, over 25 + projects executed without a blemish on the execution gives an immense satisfaction which no position or possession can provide.
Having 30+ years of experience in project management and worked with different verticals of industries, how is your professional experience helping you in the current organization?
Having worked in various phases like Project Conceptualization, Techno commercial Feasibility Analysis, Bankable Documents for Project Financing, Safe Project Execution Interaction with Governmental Authorities/IBRD World Bank, Commissioning & Continuous Operation of Petro chemical Plant/Complexes/ Refinery including technology related activities like Bench marking. Having successfully completed more than 25+ projects, I realized that it is extremely rare for the project to not have challenges. In fact I cannot recall a project that didn't present its unique set of challenges.
Can you share a lesson from the last project launch and how do you measure the success of a new launch?
Win it and Do it are the key mantras of our business strategy. We connect the new ideas based on the lessons learnt in the past projects, which is ploughed back successfully on to the new projects to win and execute. This helps in improving better cash flow/margins/early start on the project compared to all the previous executed ones in this highly competitive environment. Several lessons learnt from the past projects which were just comple ted resulted in improvement in execution of projects doing it right for the first time. New project launch in year 2021 saw improved cash flow and better project progress, which was not seen earlier. Also, in everything we do, we never compromise on five foundational beliefs Safety, Integrity, Quality, Respect and Sustainability.
How do you develop your projectstrategy to ensure that it meets the vision and goals of the company?
Leadership skills revolves around improve ment of execution of the projects implemen tation of lessons learned doing it right the first time.Ensuring projects delivered keeping quality, cost and schedule of paramount importance to ensure customer business continuity. Each company has a clear vision, mission and strategy that drives the direc
At Technip,we are accele rating the global (and Indian)Energy Transition while maintaining focus on our five foundational beliefs Safety, Quality, Respect, Sustainability and Integrity
Having 30+ years of experience in project management and worked with different verticals of industries, how is your professional experience helping you in the current organization?
Having worked in various phases like Project Conceptualization, Techno commercial Feasibility Analysis, Bankable Documents for Project Financing, Safe Project Execution Interaction with Governmental Authorities/IBRD World Bank, Commissioning & Continuous Operation of Petro chemical Plant/Complexes/ Refinery including technology related activities like Bench marking. Having successfully completed more than 25+ projects, I realized that it is extremely rare for the project to not have challenges. In fact I cannot recall a project that didn't present its unique set of challenges.
Can you share a lesson from the last project launch and how do you measure the success of a new launch?
Win it and Do it are the key mantras of our business strategy. We connect the new ideas based on the lessons learnt in the past projects, which is ploughed back successfully on to the new projects to win and execute. This helps in improving better cash flow/margins/early start on the project compared to all the previous executed ones in this highly competitive environment. Several lessons learnt from the past projects which were just comple ted resulted in improvement in execution of projects doing it right for the first time. New project launch in year 2021 saw improved cash flow and better project progress, which was not seen earlier. Also, in everything we do, we never compromise on five foundational beliefs Safety, Integrity, Quality, Respect and Sustainability.
How do you develop your projectstrategy to ensure that it meets the vision and goals of the company?
Leadership skills revolves around improve ment of execution of the projects implemen tation of lessons learned doing it right the first time.Ensuring projects delivered keeping quality, cost and schedule of paramount importance to ensure customer business continuity. Each company has a clear vision, mission and strategy that drives the direc
tion and focus from the top down. At Technip, we are accelerating the global (and Indian) Energy Transition while maintaining focus on our five founda tional beliefs Safety, Quality, Respect, Sustainability and Integrity.
How do you stay fresh on new technologies and how would you describe your product roadmap process?
I have a constant interaction through a very good network with various clients/ institution/manufacturing industries/ colleagues & friends and industrial leaders across the world. Thanks to the latest technological development, which we saw post year 2000. Any latest develop ments/troubleshooting aspects in Oil & Gas, Petrochemical units is discussed/ updated through this network constantly.
In your professional journey so far, which are the milestones that bestowed you with utmost satisfaction both as an individual and as a CPO?
During the professional journey, each project when executed and completed gave the utmost satisfaction, as the feedback from the major stakeholder were excellent and extraordinary. There were instances when the client said 'you did something different'. Some of them were special to me in a sense as these are the life time experience to handle and very few people will be lucky to in their life to get such opportunities. Some of the major projects that I have been a part of includes Major Expansion of Cracker, Down stream and Import Cryogenic Feedstock Facility Safely & Successfully with in cost and no time overrun. The prediction of the financials during the project stage and post implemen tation was realistic and accurate, which gave the utmost satisfaction which cannot be filled by any possession/position. The then Director(Projects) of the company happened to hug me and lift me in the control room in front of the team/ delegates, as he could see the success coming in the project seamlessly and was a surprise that a young manager could do. Implementation of expansion of Cracker in GAIL, Pata and RIL-DMD successfully and safely and connecting with the main running plant unit seamlessly within the time schedule and no cost overrun was another milestone in my pocket. Successful Safe completion of a million tonne Polymer project in the US Gulf Coast based on the shale gas ethane as the client was an early movers in US. RIL Ethane Feed Flexibility and capacity enhancement at three different sites was a great success with a lifetime achievement one can expect.
shekar Sathnaur, Project Director, Technip
Somashekar completed BE in Chemical Engineering from Surathkal, Regional College, and did his Masters Degree from UDCT, Mumbai (now called ICT). Leveraging his industry expertise, he has been able to cement his legacy in the industry.
How do you stay fresh on new technologies and how would you describe your product roadmap process?
I have a constant interaction through a very good network with various clients/ institution/manufacturing industries/ colleagues & friends and industrial leaders across the world. Thanks to the latest technological development, which we saw post year 2000. Any latest develop ments/troubleshooting aspects in Oil & Gas, Petrochemical units is discussed/ updated through this network constantly.
In your professional journey so far, which are the milestones that bestowed you with utmost satisfaction both as an individual and as a CPO?
During the professional journey, each project when executed and completed gave the utmost satisfaction, as the feedback from the major stakeholder were excellent and extraordinary. There were instances when the client said 'you did something different'. Some of them were special to me in a sense as these are the life time experience to handle and very few people will be lucky to in their life to get such opportunities. Some of the major projects that I have been a part of includes Major Expansion of Cracker, Down stream and Import Cryogenic Feedstock Facility Safely & Successfully with in cost and no time overrun. The prediction of the financials during the project stage and post implemen tation was realistic and accurate, which gave the utmost satisfaction which cannot be filled by any possession/position. The then Director(Projects) of the company happened to hug me and lift me in the control room in front of the team/ delegates, as he could see the success coming in the project seamlessly and was a surprise that a young manager could do. Implementation of expansion of Cracker in GAIL, Pata and RIL-DMD successfully and safely and connecting with the main running plant unit seamlessly within the time schedule and no cost overrun was another milestone in my pocket. Successful Safe completion of a million tonne Polymer project in the US Gulf Coast based on the shale gas ethane as the client was an early movers in US. RIL Ethane Feed Flexibility and capacity enhancement at three different sites was a great success with a lifetime achievement one can expect.
shekar Sathnaur, Project Director, Technip
Somashekar completed BE in Chemical Engineering from Surathkal, Regional College, and did his Masters Degree from UDCT, Mumbai (now called ICT). Leveraging his industry expertise, he has been able to cement his legacy in the industry.