The Plying Man Keshav Bhajanka, Executive Director, Century Plyboards India

In 2010, Keshav entered the shop of Gopal Plywood in Bowbazaar in Kolkata. Within the first thirty minutes of entering the shop, he realized that education does not prepare you for the business environment. The challenges, complications, and nuances that you face in creating a business are completely different and theory varies from reality to a great extent. Hence he joined the family business immediately after his education.

Initially, for three months he was put on the market in Howrah. "I used to ride behind the scooter of an Area Sales manager. That was a grueling experience in the heat and the Sun where you have to go and meet the contractors, and carpenters; you have to go to retail shops and outlets. So that earned me my first promotion, then I took charge of a particular facet different component of the business, a different part of the business- known as the 'Nesta Furniture' which unfortunately did not do very well. But through that, I learned the art of management. I learned the art of how to empower employees, and how to drive forward a business and due to the hard work, I put into that, I was put in charge of the laminate division, and from there I became the Director and I never looked back," remembers Keshav Bhajanka, Executive Director, Century Plyboards India.

While comparing the operating style with his father, Keshav relies more on data while Sr Bhajanka takes bold calls by virtue of experience. He also finds himself more cautious in terms of risk-taking while calling his father the true blue entrepreneur who takes risks often. Talking about some of his bold moves at the company, Keshav mentions, "After joining the business, I noticed there were certain facets where restructuring could add value. For instance, our supply chain network needed change, so I worked with a consultant, and we tried to understand how better to serve the customers. Secondly, certain product characteristics had to be revamped. I took it up so that we could offer enhanced features in our products. Thirdly I had to provide strategic inputs for the laminate division. I had taken charge of this division after 4 years of joining the business. At that point in time, this division was struggling. Perhaps the strategy that proved successful for the plywood business did not work out for laminates. We had to shift our priorities, our route to market, we had to shift our aesthetic management and design selection process."

When asked about introducing changes in the family business, Keshav recalls, "Fortunately, this is one issue I never faced. My father and his business partner Mr. Sanjay Agarwal both are very adaptive to change. They are very clear on the fact that what has brought us here will not take us to the next level. At the grassroots level, any change is difficult. Change in culture is something that takes a long time to implement. For instance, when we launched our latest Salesforce automation tool, it took us 2-2.5 years to get it down to the last round, to train and make the sales executives adopt it."

Sharing his future plans. Keshav concludes, "We are more than doubling our particle board capacity. We are expanding our plywood capacity going forward by 30% percent. We are expanding our laminate capacity going forward by close to 50% and we are expanding our particle board capacity to more than double. I think there is tremendous growth in each segment, and we are focusing on all."

Factsheet

• Age–33 years
• Current turnover – 2,113.48 crore FY 20-21
• Number of employees–1500 (approx.)