Sujoy Guha
CEO & MD
The government has brought-up so many new policies like ‘Zero Defect Zero Effect’ so that our country ranks-up higher in the global market. Major trends that also gave a solid reinforcement to growth in the forward years include the recent GST roll-out, hyper growth in e-Commerce, ‘make in India’ initiative, rapid development of road, rail, air infrastructure and overseas investments. Consistent efforts are being put into pushing the Indian logistics paradigm towards a better tomorrow, and Bengaluru based CriticaLog is one such name which has been delivering highly reliable critical logistics services creating value for client’s and client’s customers.
CriticaLog hs been seed funded by Switzer land based investment firm, LoGon Investments Gmbh. Positioned at the high end of growth rates and margins of this industry, CriticaLog’s business model allow specialized knowledge, expertise, technology, processes and people to come together to design and operate customized supply chain solutions for clients and deliver on its performance and quality promises continually allowing complete stability between demand and supply under complex situations. Started in 2013 by Sujoy Guha (CEO & MD), an industry veteran with over 30 years of business experience in India and International geographies across the spectrum of the Logistics Industry, CriticaLog aims at market leadership by leveraging Sujoy’s extensive industry knowledge, which helps to build a solution that reduces your transportation costs, increases efficiency and improves shipment and cost visibility.
“Unlike normally believed, logistics is a highly technical subject. It requires multidimensional skills and sophisticated automation to create a differentiation in this industry. The western world has reached a degree of sophistication, where stringent automated processes, excellent infrastructure, sectorial skills and strict labour laws are considered as hygiene. Indian industry, on the other hand is vibrant in its development and divergent in its approach. Today, the enterprises are not shy to adopt innovation as a part of their improvement plans and have higher risktaking abilities and greater tolerance towards change management. CriticaLog is a critical logistics organization, and as the name suggests, it specializes in logistics of critical and sensitive products across the globe. Our company has been built through a unique amalgamation of logistical expertise, proprietary customer friendly technology, overseas experiences, along with thorough bred processes and individualistic customization. We offer, for the first time in India, a logistics partnership where challenges exist, where priorities demand higher level of logistical sensitiveness, and where customization is a must. This is achieved by collaborating closely with customers by building logistics based business solutions, using secured network, loggedon team members and a highly customizable IT backbone,” shares Sujoy.
In this one-on-one interaction with CEO Insights, Sujoy gives a brief insight into his professional journey while high lighting upon his significant contribution towards the growth of CriticaLog.
Throw some light on your educational and professional background. How did you leverage this knowledge to lead your organization?
Having pursued my education from army boarding school, I had learnt discipline and developed agility from a very young age. After this, I have done Mechanical Engineering from NIT, Calicut, which equipped me with adequate theoretical knowledge to face the world of science. Post my bachelors, I was selected in ONGC as an Engineer but came out of it within two years to try my luck in private sector. My real business training took place at HCL when I joined them in a special cadre. While it was a demanding eighteen months of institutional, class room and management training, it prepared me to face the world. In my later life, the business training was augmented through postgraduate award from Warwick Business School. Engineering taught me to be balanced and logical, while business school prepared me to face various challenges and helped in developing decision making abilities. The prolonged training in HCL taught me to remain calm in front of challenges and face them with logic and determination. Apart from my classroom and formal trainings, TNT gave me the opportunity to attend scores of symposiums, short courses, competitions and even trained me on public speaking.
Throughout my work around the globe, I learnt how to appreciate cultures, build network and learnt to think outside the box, and this helped me in overcoming the fear of unknown. We had the privilege to operate different functions of logistics operations, be it international freight or express, import or export, domestic air, road or rail, both small forward stocking or large warehouses with
experience in handling end-to-end operations. With the background of oil and tech, I had the opportunity to build most of these services from scratch, allowing immense learning.
Over the years, I had gained a lot of knowledge and experience, and this along with the inherent characteristic of being brought-up with firm Indian values of humility and ethics, helped me to create the initial pillars of compliance for CriticaLog. We were building an organization which will continue to grow and emulate such values long after we are gone.
What are the challenges that you encountered in the early days of your entrepreneurial journey? How did you overcome those to evolve as a business leader?
Entrepreneurship is another name for dare. For setting-up a solution oriented logistics company, one needs sophisticated IT system, physical network across the country, skilled & efficient teams, infrastructure, assets, governmental permissions, adherence to statutory compliances, money, RBI formalities (as we are foreign funded) and so many related factors. In our case, all these were to be developed with a tight budget. We were building a specialized logistics organization that required, in addition to these fundamental necessities, skill sets to produce customized solutions for various logistical challenges faced by our prospective clients. Looking back today, it seems surreal to have overcome those early tests and prepare the company to even withstand a pandemic that has wrought havoc among global business community.
Today, CriticaLog offers shipping, specialized handling, fulfilment and technology services. It provides differentiated supply chain solutions addressing complex and critical logistical requirements. The company designs, implements and operates supply chain solutions using multiple modes of transportation, storage, technology, custom processes, and people to address requirements with ‘Time’, Value’, ‘Temperature’ or any other criticality. CriticaLog approaches its offerings as a holistic solution to a client’s unique supply chain requirements and integrates technology, transportation, warehousing, inventory management, operations processes, assurance of security and faster transit time with the unique knowledge, skills and capability of handling goods with the care that they uniquely require.
During my professional career, I have noticed primarily two kinds of Indian companies. One that is Owner driven, and the other with a corporate structure. Most of the logistics companies here fall in the first category. At CriticaLog, we have emphasized the need to be honest and ethical. Rather than basking in past glory, we have continually focused on adding value to our customers and to our customers’ customers. Succession plan is in place for every senior position including that of the CEO. I believe this motivates each team member, creates trust worthiness and helps in bringing-out the best in everyone.
Give a brief account of the methods/strategies of yours that have transformed CriticaLog entire work culture and client relationships.
In my leadership roles, spanning more than thirty years, I have noticed numerous occasions where industries required differentiated logistics solutions but the traditional Logistics companies have resolutely refused to oblige all such requirements. After all, traditional high volume transportation and warehousing allows greater economy of scale and better productivity. On the other hand, creating innovating and differentiated solutions need time and money. Such differentiated solution needed the skilled and talented teams for creating innovative logistics solutions.
This niche logistics business, once planned and implemented suitably, can not only be path breaker, but also a sustainable and highly profitable business. We have tested this theory by crafting an extremely profitable business in organized logistics for precious metals and stones across the country.
Our strong belief that similar differentiation can be created in other industry verticals gave us the motivation to gain entry to all major industry verticals and deliver innovations in their supply chains. We have demonstrated our unique market positioning within the logistics industry by partnering with more than five hundred top brands over the last eight years.
How do you balance your personal and professional life? According to you, what is your success mantra?
Building-up a service organization from scratch is no mean feat and it demands heart, soul and all the time that one can manage. Hence, personal and professional life is often lop-sided and dangerously unbalanced. Fortunately, my Better Half, who manages our home, takes active part in an international NGO, volunteers as a committee member of our housing society and enjoys culinary and gardening activities. She, along with our children, have been a constant support in this endeavor. Without their support, I could not have given my 100 percent to this venture. Over the years, life has slowly leaned towards a more balanced regime with competent functional heads joining the game and taking charge of their functions independently.
In my opinion there is no specific mantra for success.A dream, smart work, undivided attention, placing organization before self and walk the talk should do the trick. Basically, one continually should go on as the model worker in every way and for every function. This process is slightly demanding, but should bring-in results in the long run.
In your journey so far, which are the milestones that bestowed you with utmost satisfaction both as an individual and CEO?
The pleasure that one can draw from seeing the organization steadily grow month on month and year on year, in a controlled manner, is probably unmatched and only similar to observing your offspring growing up. Apart from financial mile stones recognitions from customers and industry veterans are something to cherish. Though built on a shoe string budget, the
Over the years, I had gained a lot of knowledge and experience, and this along with the inherent characteristic of being brought-up with firm Indian values of humility and ethics, helped me to create the initial pillars of compliance for CriticaLog. We were building an organization which will continue to grow and emulate such values long after we are gone.
Criticalog approaches its offerings as a holistic solution to a client’s unique supply chain requirements
What are the challenges that you encountered in the early days of your entrepreneurial journey? How did you overcome those to evolve as a business leader?
Entrepreneurship is another name for dare. For setting-up a solution oriented logistics company, one needs sophisticated IT system, physical network across the country, skilled & efficient teams, infrastructure, assets, governmental permissions, adherence to statutory compliances, money, RBI formalities (as we are foreign funded) and so many related factors. In our case, all these were to be developed with a tight budget. We were building a specialized logistics organization that required, in addition to these fundamental necessities, skill sets to produce customized solutions for various logistical challenges faced by our prospective clients. Looking back today, it seems surreal to have overcome those early tests and prepare the company to even withstand a pandemic that has wrought havoc among global business community.
Today, CriticaLog offers shipping, specialized handling, fulfilment and technology services. It provides differentiated supply chain solutions addressing complex and critical logistical requirements. The company designs, implements and operates supply chain solutions using multiple modes of transportation, storage, technology, custom processes, and people to address requirements with ‘Time’, Value’, ‘Temperature’ or any other criticality. CriticaLog approaches its offerings as a holistic solution to a client’s unique supply chain requirements and integrates technology, transportation, warehousing, inventory management, operations processes, assurance of security and faster transit time with the unique knowledge, skills and capability of handling goods with the care that they uniquely require.
During my professional career, I have noticed primarily two kinds of Indian companies. One that is Owner driven, and the other with a corporate structure. Most of the logistics companies here fall in the first category. At CriticaLog, we have emphasized the need to be honest and ethical. Rather than basking in past glory, we have continually focused on adding value to our customers and to our customers’ customers. Succession plan is in place for every senior position including that of the CEO. I believe this motivates each team member, creates trust worthiness and helps in bringing-out the best in everyone.
Give a brief account of the methods/strategies of yours that have transformed CriticaLog entire work culture and client relationships.
In my leadership roles, spanning more than thirty years, I have noticed numerous occasions where industries required differentiated logistics solutions but the traditional Logistics companies have resolutely refused to oblige all such requirements. After all, traditional high volume transportation and warehousing allows greater economy of scale and better productivity. On the other hand, creating innovating and differentiated solutions need time and money. Such differentiated solution needed the skilled and talented teams for creating innovative logistics solutions.
This niche logistics business, once planned and implemented suitably, can not only be path breaker, but also a sustainable and highly profitable business. We have tested this theory by crafting an extremely profitable business in organized logistics for precious metals and stones across the country.
Our strong belief that similar differentiation can be created in other industry verticals gave us the motivation to gain entry to all major industry verticals and deliver innovations in their supply chains. We have demonstrated our unique market positioning within the logistics industry by partnering with more than five hundred top brands over the last eight years.
How do you balance your personal and professional life? According to you, what is your success mantra?
Building-up a service organization from scratch is no mean feat and it demands heart, soul and all the time that one can manage. Hence, personal and professional life is often lop-sided and dangerously unbalanced. Fortunately, my Better Half, who manages our home, takes active part in an international NGO, volunteers as a committee member of our housing society and enjoys culinary and gardening activities. She, along with our children, have been a constant support in this endeavor. Without their support, I could not have given my 100 percent to this venture. Over the years, life has slowly leaned towards a more balanced regime with competent functional heads joining the game and taking charge of their functions independently.
In my opinion there is no specific mantra for success.A dream, smart work, undivided attention, placing organization before self and walk the talk should do the trick. Basically, one continually should go on as the model worker in every way and for every function. This process is slightly demanding, but should bring-in results in the long run.
In your journey so far, which are the milestones that bestowed you with utmost satisfaction both as an individual and CEO?
The pleasure that one can draw from seeing the organization steadily grow month on month and year on year, in a controlled manner, is probably unmatched and only similar to observing your offspring growing up. Apart from financial mile stones recognitions from customers and industry veterans are something to cherish. Though built on a shoe string budget, the
pleasure of being able to pay salaries on time every month over the last eight years is no mean achievement for a SME. Acknowledgement of strict compliances by Govt.Tax authorities, global certification bodies like ISO, IATA, TAPA, WCA, GDP, Great Place to Work and others, tells you that we are moving in the right direction.
The most expensive resource in any company is their Business Development or the Sales structure. We couldn’t afford a BD structure in the initial years and had to be satisfied with a couple of Managers or so across the country. In order to build-up business, we therefore addressed the leading company in an industry vertical. Diving deep into their logistical challenges, we developed unique and customized solution incorporating information technology and implemented them with passion and sincerity. Addressing similar companies in the same vertical then was relatively simpler and required minor variations in the solutions deployed. Working this way, we created distinctive solutions for different industry verticals and perfected them for faster deployment.
Set to Roll on a Successful Path Ahead
CriticaLog has been adjusted as ‘Great Place to Work’ for the second year in a row. For a service oriented organization, people are its biggest asset, and for an organization as experienced and big as CriticaLog, achieving this feat has been extremely pleasing and demonstratedthe firm has reflected commitment to each of our team members in this organization. To create such a great company, one needs to surround them self with an environment where greatness can thrive – be it the people or the partners that one works with.
From the very beginning, that has been CriticaLog’s endeavor. The company is audited by the fifth largest Audit firm in the world and has strict quarterly internal audit process to discover process gaps, if any. All its associates and partners are best in their business be it the airlines, insurance or legal support. CriticaLog moved from foundation stage to acceleration stage rapidly, relying on the support of these top grade companies and now has started realizing value not only for itself, but also for its customers and stakeholders. In the fast evolving marketplace, change is the only constant. CriticaLog continues to develop new solutions for its esteemed customers and will continue to expand into newer segments and geographies.
Staying Ahead of the IndustryBenchmark
With 20 years of strong experience in managing and optimizing operations for Fortune 500 organizations, Tamal Das has successfully led Sales, Business Development and Operations Teams in India, Middle East, and South East Asia with over 30 percent business growth year over year. He has driven Solution Design, developed and implemented Greenfield and Brownfield Supply Chain Turnaround projects for Automotive, Consumer Electronics, Healthcare, Hi-Tech, Heavy Engineering, Luxury, FMCG and Retail industries. He has driven operational transformation through end-to-end high value supply chain transformation projects to deliver increased value at each stage of the chain.
Speaking about the current market landscape of Supply Chain industry, Tamal says, “In today’s challenging times, supply chain service providers are needed to continue with the old ways as best as they could while implementing a host of new procedures. They were forced to reimagine how their supply chains worked and re examine the features they valued most. In early days, the primary desires of supply chain service providers were to optimize operations, minimize costs, reduce inventories and drive-up asset utilization. Those goals remain, but supply chain service providers also need to respond quickly and avoid future supply shocks”.
In order to stay updated and gain those capabilities, global supply chains are now adopting modern technology such as cloud, mobile platforms, the Internet of Things (IoT) and data analytics. These solutions automate manual functions and create new ways to move products. Technology and data can make supply chains more efficient, so they run more smoothly and deliver greater value to customers, partners, and the company. In many cases, these firms need help to understand their technical possibilities. Working with channel partners who understand digital disruption can help them in transition.
“The pandemic shook supply chain enterprises to their core. Immediately, they had to adjust to the chaos. Many businesses continue to struggle with the volatility. Technology adoption offers them a way to gain the needed agility. At CriticaLog, we have been a consistent part of the ring side view of this change, as we continue to sustain and grow our partnership with Fortune 500 organizations. At CriticaLog, we have been ahead of the curve in weathering this change and managing black swan events, driven consistently by its mission of value driven profitable growth. We have witnessed a high double digit revenue growth during the last two years and the performance in the last financial year due to Covid-19 challenges was unprecedented, and yet, we grew in revenues and sustained profits in a very difficult pandemic year,” speaks Tamal.
CriticaLog has adapted its operations to global economic uncertainties and focused on increasing customer delight by developing technology powered customized supply chain solutions, mobilized crisis response leadership initiatives by forming corporate level and regional level steering commit-tees and war rooms. The firm still continues to be actively engaged with Government of India (Ministry of Health & Family Welfare, Ministry of External Affairs), various state governments in moving critical healthcare cargo.
•Recognized for its Excellence
•Business Excellence Leader in Operational Transformation–Volkswagen Group
•Customer Centric Leader (Continuous Improvement)– Asia Business Leader Conclave
•Top 40 Asia Pacific Leader (Change Evangelist)–Super Brands, APAC
•Member and Panel Speaker with Indo French Chamber of Commerce & Industry
•Panel speaker with The Economic Times
The most expensive resource in any company is their Business Development or the Sales structure. We couldn’t afford a BD structure in the initial years and had to be satisfied with a couple of Managers or so across the country. In order to build-up business, we therefore addressed the leading company in an industry vertical. Diving deep into their logistical challenges, we developed unique and customized solution incorporating information technology and implemented them with passion and sincerity. Addressing similar companies in the same vertical then was relatively simpler and required minor variations in the solutions deployed. Working this way, we created distinctive solutions for different industry verticals and perfected them for faster deployment.
Set to Roll on a Successful Path Ahead
CriticaLog has been adjusted as ‘Great Place to Work’ for the second year in a row. For a service oriented organization, people are its biggest asset, and for an organization as experienced and big as CriticaLog, achieving this feat has been extremely pleasing and demonstratedthe firm has reflected commitment to each of our team members in this organization. To create such a great company, one needs to surround them self with an environment where greatness can thrive – be it the people or the partners that one works with.
From the very beginning, that has been CriticaLog’s endeavor. The company is audited by the fifth largest Audit firm in the world and has strict quarterly internal audit process to discover process gaps, if any. All its associates and partners are best in their business be it the airlines, insurance or legal support. CriticaLog moved from foundation stage to acceleration stage rapidly, relying on the support of these top grade companies and now has started realizing value not only for itself, but also for its customers and stakeholders. In the fast evolving marketplace, change is the only constant. CriticaLog continues to develop new solutions for its esteemed customers and will continue to expand into newer segments and geographies.
Staying Ahead of the IndustryBenchmark
With 20 years of strong experience in managing and optimizing operations for Fortune 500 organizations, Tamal Das has successfully led Sales, Business Development and Operations Teams in India, Middle East, and South East Asia with over 30 percent business growth year over year. He has driven Solution Design, developed and implemented Greenfield and Brownfield Supply Chain Turnaround projects for Automotive, Consumer Electronics, Healthcare, Hi-Tech, Heavy Engineering, Luxury, FMCG and Retail industries. He has driven operational transformation through end-to-end high value supply chain transformation projects to deliver increased value at each stage of the chain.
Speaking about the current market landscape of Supply Chain industry, Tamal says, “In today’s challenging times, supply chain service providers are needed to continue with the old ways as best as they could while implementing a host of new procedures. They were forced to reimagine how their supply chains worked and re examine the features they valued most. In early days, the primary desires of supply chain service providers were to optimize operations, minimize costs, reduce inventories and drive-up asset utilization. Those goals remain, but supply chain service providers also need to respond quickly and avoid future supply shocks”.
In order to stay updated and gain those capabilities, global supply chains are now adopting modern technology such as cloud, mobile platforms, the Internet of Things (IoT) and data analytics. These solutions automate manual functions and create new ways to move products. Technology and data can make supply chains more efficient, so they run more smoothly and deliver greater value to customers, partners, and the company. In many cases, these firms need help to understand their technical possibilities. Working with channel partners who understand digital disruption can help them in transition.
“The pandemic shook supply chain enterprises to their core. Immediately, they had to adjust to the chaos. Many businesses continue to struggle with the volatility. Technology adoption offers them a way to gain the needed agility. At CriticaLog, we have been a consistent part of the ring side view of this change, as we continue to sustain and grow our partnership with Fortune 500 organizations. At CriticaLog, we have been ahead of the curve in weathering this change and managing black swan events, driven consistently by its mission of value driven profitable growth. We have witnessed a high double digit revenue growth during the last two years and the performance in the last financial year due to Covid-19 challenges was unprecedented, and yet, we grew in revenues and sustained profits in a very difficult pandemic year,” speaks Tamal.
CriticaLog has adapted its operations to global economic uncertainties and focused on increasing customer delight by developing technology powered customized supply chain solutions, mobilized crisis response leadership initiatives by forming corporate level and regional level steering commit-tees and war rooms. The firm still continues to be actively engaged with Government of India (Ministry of Health & Family Welfare, Ministry of External Affairs), various state governments in moving critical healthcare cargo.
•Recognized for its Excellence
•Business Excellence Leader in Operational Transformation–Volkswagen Group
•Customer Centric Leader (Continuous Improvement)– Asia Business Leader Conclave
•Top 40 Asia Pacific Leader (Change Evangelist)–Super Brands, APAC
•Member and Panel Speaker with Indo French Chamber of Commerce & Industry
•Panel speaker with The Economic Times