Vineet Taneja
CEO
Vineet’s passion lies in addressing clients’ needs & solving their problems. Such dedication has made Ace Automation complete 30 successful years in the market with a track record of working with over 1500 industrial units across Paper, Sugar, Cement, Steel, Power, Automobiles, Agricultural, and Gearbox industries. Under his leadership, the company has analyzed over 500 equipment failures and helped manufacturers improve profits. Talking about the roadmap for his company, he says, “I aim to make Ace a 500 Crore company in the next five years. With my mantra to genuinely care for all the stake holders, team members, suppliers & of course clients, the 500 Crore would be a cakewalk”.
Apart from having great business acumen, Vineet is also the author of his book ‘The Ultimate Guide to Air-Cooled Oil Coolers’. Parallelly he is a trainer who has conducted Oil Cooler Training sessions for engineers from diverse industries. Let’s hear it from the leader who holds a unique capacity of translating vision into reality.
Taking us through your illustrious professional journey, tell us what influenced you to be an entrepreneur. Also, what is the idea behind Air-Cooled Oil Coolers?
As a young engineer, fresh out of college, I joined an American MNC. After the initial romance with the glamour of the MNC culture, I realized that it was not resonating with me. I wanted to do some thing, make a difference and one fine day I
just quit and started on my own. I started with no business plan, little capital to invest and just a three people team.Today we have our factory at Mayapuri in the heart of Delhi with about 50 engineers & technicians.
My work has taken me to various locations across the world. I realized that as we use hydraulic & automation equipment to produce more & more goods each year, which meant more oil needed to be cooled. The usage of water to cool oil resulted in the water becoming hot. The hot water was then cooled down using a large fan in a cooling tower. To me, it made better sense to combine the two processes & cool the oil directly with air. Also, using air as acooling medium had an environmental advantage. This technique also saved the recurring cost of equipment maintenance, running water pumps & plumbing. That is the basic idea behind my taking on this mission that led to me becoming an Air-Cooled Oil Cooling Expert.
What learnings have you acquired from BITS?And how have those experiences aided you so far in your entrepreneurial journey?
Education at BITS gave me an overall perspective of things. Most of all it enabled me to develop a problem solving ability. The institute enables you to get a flavor of all engineering streams, sciences, management & even arts. Similarly on the non-academic front a healthy mix of cultural & sports opportunities. Even back then in the 80s everything was computerized and worked systematically. This developed key insights on how any activity should be run, be it the establishment, R&D, training or sales.
Define Ace Automation Engineers as an organization. How are you leveraging your professional expertise to craft outcome driven solutions in the company?
There are two ways of going about any business. One, you have a product line & you go about selling it & generate revenue. The second is to focus on understanding the pain points of the client & then providing a workable solution. At Ace, we always stick to the latter working consistently on alleviating the client’s problem and providing optimal, energy efficient solutions. For us, the money comes in as a by product. Our position as Industrial Hydraulics experts with 30 years of diverse exposure, qualifies us to accurately estimate the amount of heat produced in a machine. Many times, we can reduce the heat load by offering an optimized solution rather than selling the biggest cooler that fits the bill. That has made a difference. At Ace, we believe in solving the client’s real problem.With this business strategy, today we export our products to 14 countries including Japan, the US Slovenia and the Gulf.
What is your leadership approach & governance style?
I believe that every organization must have Standard Operating
I aim to make Ace a 500 Crore company in the next five years. With my mantra to genuinely care for all thestakeholders, team members, suppliers & of course clients, the 500 Crore would be a cakewalk
My work has taken me to various locations across the world. I realized that as we use hydraulic & automation equipment to produce more & more goods each year, which meant more oil needed to be cooled. The usage of water to cool oil resulted in the water becoming hot. The hot water was then cooled down using a large fan in a cooling tower. To me, it made better sense to combine the two processes & cool the oil directly with air. Also, using air as acooling medium had an environmental advantage. This technique also saved the recurring cost of equipment maintenance, running water pumps & plumbing. That is the basic idea behind my taking on this mission that led to me becoming an Air-Cooled Oil Cooling Expert.
What learnings have you acquired from BITS?And how have those experiences aided you so far in your entrepreneurial journey?
Education at BITS gave me an overall perspective of things. Most of all it enabled me to develop a problem solving ability. The institute enables you to get a flavor of all engineering streams, sciences, management & even arts. Similarly on the non-academic front a healthy mix of cultural & sports opportunities. Even back then in the 80s everything was computerized and worked systematically. This developed key insights on how any activity should be run, be it the establishment, R&D, training or sales.
Define Ace Automation Engineers as an organization. How are you leveraging your professional expertise to craft outcome driven solutions in the company?
There are two ways of going about any business. One, you have a product line & you go about selling it & generate revenue. The second is to focus on understanding the pain points of the client & then providing a workable solution. At Ace, we always stick to the latter working consistently on alleviating the client’s problem and providing optimal, energy efficient solutions. For us, the money comes in as a by product. Our position as Industrial Hydraulics experts with 30 years of diverse exposure, qualifies us to accurately estimate the amount of heat produced in a machine. Many times, we can reduce the heat load by offering an optimized solution rather than selling the biggest cooler that fits the bill. That has made a difference. At Ace, we believe in solving the client’s real problem.With this business strategy, today we export our products to 14 countries including Japan, the US Slovenia and the Gulf.
What is your leadership approach & governance style?
I believe that every organization must have Standard Operating
Procedures SOPs, for each activity that they perform. It is these systems that enable the organization to deliver goods & services consistently. The team should be a big part of defining these SOPs. Implementation & compliances become easy if the very people who have to execute them were involved in the process. One takes hundreds of decisions each day of the journey and it is not possible to be right every time. In my opinion, the trick is to analyze every mistake & learn from it.
How, in your perspective, have the requirements for hydraulic systems in various industries transformed over time?
Over the years, newer material technology has made parts more efficient, smaller in size, and has improved responses to control signals. This has reduced heat production. However, production volumes have multiplied many folds. As a result, the total amount of heat produced has also gone up considerably despite the improved material technology.
When Ace started its journey, we took up distribution of a prominent European company & worked hard to sell their air-cooled oil cooling solutions with little success. The Indian industry was not willing to shell out more money for a new concept. After having visited plants in Europe, Taiwan , and China I could use the knowledge harnessed to formulate the SFP Framework. This led to producing air-cooled oil coolers that were optimally priced & best suited for the hot & dusty Indian environment.
What advice would you give to the upcoming entrepreneurs in the same industry?
To be successful in this industry, the approach should be to understand the core reason for the heat production in the machines. Help in its reduction, then choose the right oil cooler to dissipate the unavoidable heat. I am a strong advocate of The Pareto Principle which states that roughly 80 percent of consequences come from 20 percent of causes. So, to achieve growth in business, list down the actions that could solve the problem. Choose the top 20 percent and implement them. This act will most likely deliver 80 percent improved results. Also, keeping a balance between your personal and professional life is crucial in the long haul. I have to thank my life & business partner, Priya for helping me manage this discipline.
Vineet Taneja, CEO, Ace Automation Engineers
Vineet has done his schooling at the Army Public School, completed his Mechanical Engineering degree from the BITS PILANI, and has four years of work experience in an MNC. Throughout his journey, he has learned to perform with discipline, accept diversity, and maintain a healthy work culture. Putting together each of his learnings he started Ace Automation Engineers and later became an expert in Industrial Hydraulics & Air- Cooled Oil Cooling.
•Hobbies: Trekking, Running
•Favorite Cuisine: South Indian, Italian
•Favorite Book: Who Moved My Cheese by Spencer Johnson
•Favorite Travel Destination: Kerala, Italy
How, in your perspective, have the requirements for hydraulic systems in various industries transformed over time?
Over the years, newer material technology has made parts more efficient, smaller in size, and has improved responses to control signals. This has reduced heat production. However, production volumes have multiplied many folds. As a result, the total amount of heat produced has also gone up considerably despite the improved material technology.
When Ace started its journey, we took up distribution of a prominent European company & worked hard to sell their air-cooled oil cooling solutions with little success. The Indian industry was not willing to shell out more money for a new concept. After having visited plants in Europe, Taiwan , and China I could use the knowledge harnessed to formulate the SFP Framework. This led to producing air-cooled oil coolers that were optimally priced & best suited for the hot & dusty Indian environment.
What advice would you give to the upcoming entrepreneurs in the same industry?
To be successful in this industry, the approach should be to understand the core reason for the heat production in the machines. Help in its reduction, then choose the right oil cooler to dissipate the unavoidable heat. I am a strong advocate of The Pareto Principle which states that roughly 80 percent of consequences come from 20 percent of causes. So, to achieve growth in business, list down the actions that could solve the problem. Choose the top 20 percent and implement them. This act will most likely deliver 80 percent improved results. Also, keeping a balance between your personal and professional life is crucial in the long haul. I have to thank my life & business partner, Priya for helping me manage this discipline.
Vineet Taneja, CEO, Ace Automation Engineers
Vineet has done his schooling at the Army Public School, completed his Mechanical Engineering degree from the BITS PILANI, and has four years of work experience in an MNC. Throughout his journey, he has learned to perform with discipline, accept diversity, and maintain a healthy work culture. Putting together each of his learnings he started Ace Automation Engineers and later became an expert in Industrial Hydraulics & Air- Cooled Oil Cooling.
•Hobbies: Trekking, Running
•Favorite Cuisine: South Indian, Italian
•Favorite Book: Who Moved My Cheese by Spencer Johnson
•Favorite Travel Destination: Kerala, Italy