Exclusive Q&A round between Smt.Rita Menon,IAS,..
Exclusive Q&A round between Smt.Rita Menon,IAS, Chairperson and Managing Director ,ITPO and Tarun Sharma ,Editor-in-chief ,Sarkarimirror.com the first to report breaking news of Pakistan hosting a standalone lifestyle exhibition at ITPO from 12th-14th inaugurated jointly by Minster of Commerce Pakistan and Minister of Commerce India.
T.S: Please tell us something on your new role as CMD of ITPO and little comparison of your current role to your former role of Secretary, Ministry of Textiles?
R.M: Well a very important role for me in the textile ministry besides the regulatory policy implementation issues was marketing and I perceived this job in ITPO to be a very very vast multiplication of my responsibilities. In textiles agreed it was a focussed area though it was large encompassing silk ,jute, formal textile, cotton fibre, handicraft ,lot of policy issues ,but out here I think the call is to assist the Government of India on one hand and to assist the industry groups on the other hand to showcase their wares in best possible manner and more importantly to be a facilitator for business to business negotiations and happenings so that at the end of the day the exhibitor or the business visitor who enters ITPO he goes back with an extra added achievement of having met more people and more companies .So I think it is an extremely serious role because the range of products and services that India has to offer domestically and internationally is very wide. It is between services, to leather, to textiles, to a very vast section- food. The number of exhibitions that place, responsibilities like security, housekeeping, and engineering is attached to the same which require daily monitoring of the same. So I personally feel it is an extremely serious role and responsible role as a Chief Executive, because one there is a lot of ideation and very importantly you have to maintain the infrastructure which is pretty ageing. So to sum it I am very excited about the new role and it’s a serious role.
T.S: What are the challenges in your new role?
R.M: One challenge I will go back is infrastructure, I won’t call it haphazard, it’s a standalone infrastructure, some halls are made in 1972 for Asia 1972, some in early 1980 some in late 1980 so what connect one to the other is roads and greenery that is a bit of challenge. Engineering aspect of aged infrastructure is many and that comes in the way of providing full satisfaction of our clients. There are small small things like toilet sensors not working etc. which has to be addressed daily so our whole team really have to be on their toes to resolve these small small issues and secondly in a liberalised economy there are many players in the business of exhibition and exposition. ITPO fortunately has a long standing reputation partly on account of the fact that we have been there since 1976 as an organisation and partly because we have infrastructure right in the centre of the city so everybody wants to setup there show here so we have whole lot of bookings in place and have to manage big tickets also like Defence Expo and IITF also. Big tickets like IITF attracted 1, 25,000 visitors a day previous year and this year it might be 1, 30,000 a day so there are challenges of circulations, traffic plans, security these are very nut and bolts. Third challenge is to be able to showcase yourself overseas in best possible manner, not by taking part in small small shows and showing diverse products, the challenge is to identify serious show and put up an India Show that means showcase India in India pavilion through the Indian range from a sewing machine to a missile. We got to go to serious fairs so that participation is adequately serious. Large large conglomerates have lot of resources so can do standalone things so may not come to us ,so we are left with MSME’s which is again our challenge because we are assisting MSME’s in finding markets which is a very important responsibility and next year India is hosting the annual trade fair convention in Bangkok which I am attending and is from 17th-21st April ,making presentation of how ITPO is supporting small scale industry and MSME’s .But one of the focussed area is MSME’s and we are proud that we can capture a large no . of them but it’s a challenge for newer and newer MSME’s to come to us. Fourth Challenge is going to new markets, we are very delighted that our engagement with Japan has been very strong, the standards which are set by Japan are very high. We were delighted that this year in Aahar 2012 which attracted 24,000 business visitors this year as against 14,345 visitors last year Japan was a very strong partner, they sent delegations and exhibited too in the fair. We have challenges going to Latin America, African continent and CIS nations and capturing more and more area to partner with and that we are doing also which is reflected in our yearly calendar. We are balancing it and are sync with nation bilateral. And my last challenge is to enthuse my officer’s, they are in an organisation which is there for decades I would like to give the organisation a new flavour, make employee’s more enthusiastic, motivated so that they are on track and are extremely enthusiastic for work related to ITPO and take it as a pride and a challenge to be done excellently.
T.S: What are the changes in the organisation you perceive to bring forth and till when?
R.M: One is a very very important job & a responsibility is to upgrade the infrastructure. So we have got a proposal for revamping this infrastructure to make it state of the art and we are beginning by doing a phase development wherein we bring about a convention facility for about 5000 people which we don’t have in Delhi today along with the state of the art exhibition space totalling a lakh squaremetre.we have ask for a global bid and I am happy to say that lot of people have responded. We have been able to shortlist eligible companies and we will soon be opening their financial bid so that we get a world class consultant who will be providing to us a plan of action for transforming the ITPO area into a state of the art convention cum exhibition complex and I feel this is what Delhi needs and this is what Government of India feel is a big gap and a big need and we are on the track to do this, that is one. And then we must provide quality service and in that we are taking small steps like engaging with the organisers as you know there are three types of fairs that ITPO do one group of fairs is done by ITPO, we assess it ,we plan for it, we mobilize along with some partners/exhibitors and we take it forward like IITF/Aahar/Nakshatra etc. The second type of fairs are the third party fairs where people come to us to use our infrastructure ,it is there that our officers are concentrating along the first category of fairs for instance we have daily meeting with the organizers so that any & error, any problem, any modification required can be taken up straightaway. It is something that you cannot put to words but it’s very intangible, it’s not something which I can really put to money but I would like people to go back feeling that there is a change in ITPO, there is much more sensitivity and much more caring. Third type of fairs are one we are ourselves abroad there too we require to engage very well with High Commissions and the Ambassador’s ,we need to engage in advance so that we can have quality exhibitors we don’t want low quality fair to take place. We want serious showcasing of India’s Industrial and services potential ,so that’s really the kind of hardwork that has to be done and I am myself actively looking for ways and means to improve all three aspects of the engagement we have. The last that I want to say that from a consumer orientation i.e. IITF, International Book Fair you and I can visit and buy things, I believe now we have to focus more on business to business. We are not looking to Janta fairs and we have taken a series of measures in regard to this .We had cleaned a series of food and beverage outlets and now we have only four food and beverage outlets which are serious and they cater to the exhibitions which are going on. We have closed Shakuntalam because we believe that product launches, seminar where 300 people have to sit are very very important for business to business expansions so we closed it down. We will only do quality theatre and we will not have commercial theatre ,we will use that hall for business promotion and second thing we have done is closed down Phoolwari Restaurant & there three units of seminar space ,business promotion space, meeting halls along with fooding facility are being created which will be done by Diwali. Third and most significant we are soon going to ask the commerce industry and textile minister to inaugurate an international business lounge where small negotiations upto 32-40 people can be conducted and that incidentally is the CMD residence itself, We have transformed the CMD residence into a meeting place along with four breakouts rooms and a business centre, so that the trade and business can be facilititated.so a lot has been done by me in three months.
T.S: Any special exhibitions international or domestic on anvil which were not there previously.
R.M: Cosmetica, Technical Textiles in association with Ministry of textiles is a very sunrise area, Hospital & Medico exhibition is there on cards, we have appealed to MMTC to bring in Gem & Jewellery show ,housing and furnishing etc. We have planned 5-8 new fairs and even if 3 happen will be an achievement.
T.S: What is the future growth you are aiming in regard to organisational environment, manpower, infrastructure, IT etc. if any?
R.M: We have a very high caarying cost of manpower .With 1060 odd employees many of them with unproductive nature the cost of our institution is very high .We have a good corpus but we should be more profitable sitting on a valuable property.VRS first round has already happened, second is under consideration with the concerned ministry let us see what happens.
T.S: Who are the key officials whom you think are the main drivers of the organisation apart from you.
R.M: Executive Director a senior officer there are some GM’s who are insiders, OSD of my cadre and a string of officers and executives attached to them. I as a chief will certainly take it as my duty to enthuse my officers so that they do better and better.
T.S: ITPO –please describe it in brief your definition of the same
R.M: A middle aged organisation which requires more enthusiasm, injection of Ideas, motivation & Action
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