Milind Nirmal
Executive Director, DB ECO Group
With increasing participation expected from private players, both domestic and foreign, due to favourable policy measures, both passenger and freight traffic is expected to grow rapidly over the medium to long term. Rail infrastructure provides connectivity to markets and communities and brings the two closer together. Currently the rail infrastructure market is trying to adapt to the latest technologies and with a high push towards digitalization in operations and maintenance of railways. A rapidly growing population has led to a demand for mobility services and infrastructure and the railway industry is uniquely poised to meet both local and intra regional and also international travel demands. Additionally, rail transport is increasingly moving towards greener technology and environmental sustainability and is seen as being far more climate friendly than current road based transport solutions.
Europe has traditionally been very strong with urban transportation but in most other regions, urban transportation is either non-existent or is unable to cope up with the present demand. To resolve these problems governments in many countries, are investing huge amount of money in transportation infrastructure projects.
The expansion of the rail infrastructure market can be associated with growing urbanization, growing demand and the increasing the need for cleaner, more efficient, faster transportation modes, and economic growth.
This has resulted in an unprecedented demand for both urban and regional rail solutions with investments at an all time high in many countries across the world. It is estimated that the highest investments globally, will be in the Asia Pacific region in the decades to come.
With a post graduation in infrastructure planning from the University of Stuttgart in Germany, Milind Nirmal, Executive Director, DB ECO Group is an experienced civil engineer working exclusively in the railway engineering industry. In his work with the DB E.C.O Group, Milind is overall in charge and responsible for the work of DB E.C.O in Asia Pacific and works with the management teams in Australia, China, India and Southeast Asia to deliver railway engineering, consulting and operation and maintenance solutions to a variety of public sector and private clients, bringing the German technical
excellence of Deutsche Bahn across the world.
Milind Nirmal is a versatile individual with close to three decades of experience and is utilizing his extensive knowledge of the rail industry, business development, client relationship management, bidding and sales, project delivery, management and strategic leadership to further strengthen and establish the DB brand and know how in Asia Pacific.
CEO Insights Magazine engaged in an exclusive interaction with Milind Nirmal who is the Executive Director for Asia Pacific for DB E.C.O as well as a Board Member for DB RRTS Operations India Pvt. Ltd. Let’s hear from him.
How would you define DB ECO GROUP as an organization and its current position in the market?
Deutsche Bahn(DB)is widely perceived as one of the world's driving mobility and logistics companies and is also the German public railroad administrator and maintainer. DB E.C.O. Group provides its customers with services in the field of railway engineering, consulting and operations that focus on the future. The savvy incorporation of our foundation mastery into all service regions frames the foundation of the DB E.C.O. Group. We consolidate more than 180 years of Deutsche Bahn's railroad insight with its engineering and tasks expertise and computerized innovations and are carrying this information to business sectors across the world with around 6900 specialists and experts from 91 unique nations. In the Asia Pacific district, DB E.C.O.Group offers the required expertise, and the background of a rail route tasks legacy which makes us stand out from our competitors and ensures our unique position on the market.
Tell us about your flagship offerings and what are value additions customers can expect from your services and solutions.
Our flagship offerings are confined in our name, i.e. DB E.C.O. Group, which stands for Engineering, Consulting and Operations in an integrated and seamless delivery model. While we offer practically all arrangements that are required to set up and run a fruitful rail line organization, tasks and support of railway frameworks are in our DNA, and this likewise shapes the foundation of our designing and counselling administrations. We are covering the entire lifecycle of a railway project, from feasibility studies through technical consulting to railway operation for infrastructure and rolling stock. The ethos of the DB E.C.O. Group is to provide the most elevated level of quality at each step and have the highest degree of the executive’s thought fulness regarding our ventures to guarantee that customers are getting the services they have been guaranteed.
You possess about three decades of experience, how has your path to success been, and what is your success mantra?
Success is a result of being able to understand and react to multiple business environments and human factors simultaneously and react in a way that benefits all stake holders.
Throughout my career I have always tried to do things in a way that was better than status quo thus continuous improvement in what I do, in a more efficient way that again is beneficial to stake holders.
Milind Nirmal is a versatile individual with close to three decades of experience and is utilizing his extensive knowledge of the rail industry, business development, client relationship management, bidding and sales, project delivery, management and strategic leadership to further strengthen and establish the DB brand and know how in Asia Pacific.
The focus should always be to deliver well without losing sight of profits and not focus on profits to the extent your delivery suffers
CEO Insights Magazine engaged in an exclusive interaction with Milind Nirmal who is the Executive Director for Asia Pacific for DB E.C.O as well as a Board Member for DB RRTS Operations India Pvt. Ltd. Let’s hear from him.
How would you define DB ECO GROUP as an organization and its current position in the market?
Deutsche Bahn(DB)is widely perceived as one of the world's driving mobility and logistics companies and is also the German public railroad administrator and maintainer. DB E.C.O. Group provides its customers with services in the field of railway engineering, consulting and operations that focus on the future. The savvy incorporation of our foundation mastery into all service regions frames the foundation of the DB E.C.O. Group. We consolidate more than 180 years of Deutsche Bahn's railroad insight with its engineering and tasks expertise and computerized innovations and are carrying this information to business sectors across the world with around 6900 specialists and experts from 91 unique nations. In the Asia Pacific district, DB E.C.O.Group offers the required expertise, and the background of a rail route tasks legacy which makes us stand out from our competitors and ensures our unique position on the market.
Tell us about your flagship offerings and what are value additions customers can expect from your services and solutions.
Our flagship offerings are confined in our name, i.e. DB E.C.O. Group, which stands for Engineering, Consulting and Operations in an integrated and seamless delivery model. While we offer practically all arrangements that are required to set up and run a fruitful rail line organization, tasks and support of railway frameworks are in our DNA, and this likewise shapes the foundation of our designing and counselling administrations. We are covering the entire lifecycle of a railway project, from feasibility studies through technical consulting to railway operation for infrastructure and rolling stock. The ethos of the DB E.C.O. Group is to provide the most elevated level of quality at each step and have the highest degree of the executive’s thought fulness regarding our ventures to guarantee that customers are getting the services they have been guaranteed.
You possess about three decades of experience, how has your path to success been, and what is your success mantra?
Success is a result of being able to understand and react to multiple business environments and human factors simultaneously and react in a way that benefits all stake holders.
Throughout my career I have always tried to do things in a way that was better than status quo thus continuous improvement in what I do, in a more efficient way that again is beneficial to stake holders.
A large part of my success has been the people factor being able to understand and connect with people and working together in diverse teams.
Success is a combination of responses to multiple factors and there is no one mantra for success. However, one key component to being successful is being adaptable and flexible. To paraphrase Bruce Lee – “Be like water Do not be assertive, but adjust to the object, and you shall find a way around or through it”. These are powerful words indeed and indeed important for both collaboration and leadership.
Tell us about your leadership approach and the guidelines you follow as a leader
My leadership approach and one of the reasons for my success is that I believe in a high level of collaboration and working together and feel a high degree of responsibility for the success of my team members.
“Leading by example’ may seem like a cliché, but I live by this approach. I believe in a human approach to leadership, where loyalty and attitude are just as important as high performance and targets. I believe KPI’s are a by product of leadership, rather than the ultimate goal.
What advice would you give to budding industry leaders?
After close to three decades of working in the industry my first advice to the next generation of leaders is focus on doing business in a way that is ethical and compliant and with a focus on high quality delivery. This will lead you to much success and sustainability in the long term. This also allows you to really focus on your customer and the quality of product or service you are delivering and be proud in what you achieve. Focus on delivery at high quality this will have so many positive benefits not only for your business for your client and for the nation.
Quality in delivery will lead to demand for quality in manufacturing, production, and accompanying technological advances, even to the extent that our educational systems will finally benefit from our actions as leaders. The focus should always be to deliver well without losing sight of profits and not focus on profits to the extent your delivery suffers.
As a leader you will always be in position to turn this paradigm around and make quality the focus and force people to inculcate quality as a behaviour. It is also very important to realise your limitations and span of control this also helps in dealing with stress.
Milind Nirmal, Executive Director, DB ECO Group
I was born in Maharashtra, studied in Oxford, Bangalore and Pune, worked in rural Karnataka, studied in Germany and now in Bangalore for over two decades. The focus growing up was good education and we were taught to be humble and grateful for what we had as finances were scarce. Now I love spending time with my family – their support and love is one of the secret ingredients of my success.
Quick Facts:
•Hobbies:Reading, traveling, movies and supporting nature conservation
•Favorite Cuisine: I love all kinds of foods but I can never resist a good biriyani
•Favorite Book:“The Lord of the Rings” by JRR Tolkien
•Favorite Travel Destination:
No favourites I love travelling everywhere, but Kerala is some where at the top of the list.
Success is a combination of responses to multiple factors and there is no one mantra for success. However, one key component to being successful is being adaptable and flexible. To paraphrase Bruce Lee – “Be like water Do not be assertive, but adjust to the object, and you shall find a way around or through it”. These are powerful words indeed and indeed important for both collaboration and leadership.
Tell us about your leadership approach and the guidelines you follow as a leader
My leadership approach and one of the reasons for my success is that I believe in a high level of collaboration and working together and feel a high degree of responsibility for the success of my team members.
“Leading by example’ may seem like a cliché, but I live by this approach. I believe in a human approach to leadership, where loyalty and attitude are just as important as high performance and targets. I believe KPI’s are a by product of leadership, rather than the ultimate goal.
What advice would you give to budding industry leaders?
After close to three decades of working in the industry my first advice to the next generation of leaders is focus on doing business in a way that is ethical and compliant and with a focus on high quality delivery. This will lead you to much success and sustainability in the long term. This also allows you to really focus on your customer and the quality of product or service you are delivering and be proud in what you achieve. Focus on delivery at high quality this will have so many positive benefits not only for your business for your client and for the nation.
Quality in delivery will lead to demand for quality in manufacturing, production, and accompanying technological advances, even to the extent that our educational systems will finally benefit from our actions as leaders. The focus should always be to deliver well without losing sight of profits and not focus on profits to the extent your delivery suffers.
As a leader you will always be in position to turn this paradigm around and make quality the focus and force people to inculcate quality as a behaviour. It is also very important to realise your limitations and span of control this also helps in dealing with stress.
Milind Nirmal, Executive Director, DB ECO Group
I was born in Maharashtra, studied in Oxford, Bangalore and Pune, worked in rural Karnataka, studied in Germany and now in Bangalore for over two decades. The focus growing up was good education and we were taught to be humble and grateful for what we had as finances were scarce. Now I love spending time with my family – their support and love is one of the secret ingredients of my success.
Quick Facts:
•Hobbies:Reading, traveling, movies and supporting nature conservation
•Favorite Cuisine: I love all kinds of foods but I can never resist a good biriyani
•Favorite Book:“The Lord of the Rings” by JRR Tolkien
•Favorite Travel Destination:
No favourites I love travelling everywhere, but Kerala is some where at the top of the list.