Helped build competitiveness of SMEs in India: CII
The Confederation of Indian Industry (CII) expressed deep shock and condolences at the sad demise of Dr Surinder Kapur, Founder Chairman, Sona Group and Member of CII’s National Council.
“The untimely passing away of Dr Kapur is major loss for Indian industry as he was immensely active in shaping a new regime for building competitiveness of Indian enterprises, particularly SMEs. He was truly a visionary who realized the great need for Indian companies to be globally competitive and proactively led efforts to assist them towards change management,” said Mr Sumit Mazumder, President, CII.
“We in CII benefited greatly from the leadership of Dr Surinder Kapur as he initiated and drove a number of campaigns for inculcating Quality Management into the DNA of firms. His energy and passion for building the capacities of Indian companies had unmatched results. We will always remember him as an outstanding industry leader who led by example,” said the CII President.
Dr Kapur was the Chairman of the CII Industrial Relations Committee and a long standing member of the CII National Council in various capacities. He led many important initiatives and Committees for CII over the last many years. He was also the Chairman of CII Northern Region during 1993-94.
Dr Kapur was one of the early proponents of CII’s Quality intervention and helped to develop the successful CII Cluster Movement that engages in firm-level competitiveness for smaller enterprises through a shared learning program. Working closely with renowned Japanese gurus in Quality Management (QM), Dr Kapur spearheaded new and innovative campaigns for bringing cutting-edge ‘breakthrough’ practices to Indian industry. His objective was to enable Indian companies to gain the lead in global best practices in Total Quality Management, Total Productive Maintenance, Six Sigma, Lean Management, and Manufacturing Innovation.
Dr Kapur also led the initiative of Visionary Leaders for Manufacturing or VLFM with the National Manufacturing Competitiveness Council (NMCC). VLFM is a learning program developed by Prof. Shoji Shiba with CII, Indian Institute of Technology, Kanpur and Indian Institute of Management, Kolkata that converges technical and managerial expertise for manufacturing excellence. Thousands of young leaders have been developed through the VLFM program to date.
Making his company, Sona Koyo Steering Systems, the crucible for such practices, Dr Kapur effectively demonstrated how a small company could go global by deploying QM, Innovation and Breakthrough tools. Under his leadership, the Sona Group gained scale, undertook acquisitions in overseas markets and developed new products. Sona Koyo Steering Systems Ltd., the flagship company of the Sona Group, was recognized as a top–performing Global Growth Company by the World Economic Forum and was also awarded the prestigious Deming Award in 2003 and the TPM Excellence Award in 2008 – only the second company in the country to have achieved this dual distinction.
New Delhi
1st July 2015