TATA Power Delhi Distribution - The Forever Voyage

October-December 2016 n Tata Review 25Tata Review n October-December 201624

COVER STORYCOVER STORY

Tata Power Delhi Distribution has banked on business excellence to overhaul its organisational structure, overcome challenges galore and build an exceptional enterprise

Ramshackle infrastructure, aggregate technical and commercial (AT&C) losses of over 50 percent, a disgruntled consumer

base, a dispirited workforce and one antique computer, solitary in its splendour — it wasn’t much of an inheritance that Tata Power Delhi Distribution (TPDDL) came into at birth.

That was back in July 2002, when TPDDL (formerly known as North Delhi Power) began life as a joint venture involving Tata Power and the Delhi government. The new enterprise emerged from the debris of the Delhi Vidyut Board, a state-owned institution that had proved less than successful, to put it mildly, in fulfilling its mandate of distributing power in India’s national capital. From such infancy to the strapping adulthood of today, TPDDL has travelled a long distance in a relatively short period.

An invaluable navigator in the journey that has taken TPDDL from the tumbledown

Energy to spare in quality quest

juncture at its origin to where it is today — a profitable, award-winning, consumer-obsessed company that has evolved to become an exemplar of public-private partnerships — has been business excellence, in every one of its many dimensions and across all organisational functions.

TPDDL started down the business excellence road in 2004, the principal intent at that point being to inculcate the Tata culture of working in an establishment that had, in its previous avatar, not experienced anything quite like it (see People power redefined on page 27). From employees to other facets, among them consumers, technology, leadership and strategy, TPDDL has dug deeper and gone further with every passing year to make business excellence a way of thinking and living for the company and its people.

Lighting the path in this programme of



continuous improvement has been the Tata Business Excellence Model (TBEM). The progress made has been hard-won, there has been a truckload of struggles, and a lot remains to be accomplished, but TPDDL has shown in spades what can be wrested from the most challenging of situations when commitment to the model and its minutiae are aligned with overall business objectives.

HITTING A HIGHThe company’s score in the TBEM evaluation has risen steadily and consistently over the years. TPDDL notched up 516 in its maiden TBEM assessment in 2006, becoming the first company in the Tata group to score above 500 in its very first attempt. It hit a high of 615 (out of a maximum 1,000) in 2015. A year prior to that, TPDDL bagged the JRD QV award, the coveted honour bestowed on Tata enterprises that stand out in the implementation of the model. There was vindication as much as satisfaction in the winning of the award, validating as it did TPDDL’s exertions and mindset.

“We have gone about business excellence step by step and each of these has been crucial,” says Praveer Sinha, TPDDL’s chief executive officer and managing director. “TBEM has

enabled us to groom our processes, systems and people; it has brought about the cultural change that is required to be part of the Tata group. The improvements we have made are because of the inputs and learning delivered through the model’s assessment process.”

The initial difficulties were, expectedly, the toughest for TPDDL to deal with. “This was a company which had no processes; not a single process was documented,” says Mr Sinha. “We inherited one computer and that was used to draft letters. The transformation we have been through has happened because we brought in all these processes and systems. We now have

TPDDL’s TBEM journey

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2014: TPDDL wins the JRD QV Award

TBEM journey

October-December 2016

2014: TPDDL wins the JRD QV Award

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330-odd processes; our entire work has become process oriented.”

Employee ethos aside, the biggest benefit that has accrued to TPDDL from its embrace of business excellence has been the cutting down of AT&C losses. Much of this could be blamed on power theft, a perennial problem in India. The company attacked the menace in three phases: by putting up electronic meters at every consumer point, by analysing usage data to identify culprits, and by reaching out to consumers through social initiatives and commercial incentives.

The outcome in TPDDL’s battle against AT&C losses has been remarkable. These have been brought down from 53.1 percent in 2002 — that means losing just over half of the total power distributed — to today’s 8.8 percent, which makes the company an industry leader in this regard. “That’s what our transformation journey is about,” says Ajit Maleyvar, TPDDL’s head of business excellence. “We targeted AT&C losses through concerted efforts in process orientation, customer centricity, strategy and leadership. These are all ingredients of TBEM.”

WHERE KNOWLEDGE IS KINGMr Maleyvar talks about the role knowledge management, another component of the business excellence framework, plays to highlight TBEM’s merits. “We are in multiple locations,” points out Mr Maleyvar. “We have 100-plus offices spread across 510 sq km. How quickly can people from one area or function learn from another, an enhancement, maybe, or a new technique? Knowledge management of the kind is very important in our type of business.”

There are a variety of other elements where business excellence has helped TPDDL secure advantages: on work environment and safety, consumer friendliness, the environment, social accountability, technology and innovation.

Getting the different arms of the organisation to share information and insights is vital in this context. “Innovation, for instance, does not happen in only one particular pocket,” explains Mr Maleyvar. “To have innovation ingrained in the organisational culture, it should come from across groups and all levels of employees. Business excellence addresses such aspects.”

A similar logic applies to technology. “There are different components associated with technology in our scenario,” says Mr Maleyvar. “There’s automation: reading a meter remotely, knowing consumption patterns, detecting abnormalities, etc. You can spot electricity theft and have systems that capture outage details. There will come a day when there will be multiple service providers for electricity in the same area of operation, like in mobile communications. Technology will be a differentiator then.”

Mr Sinha emphasises the ever-greater influence that technology will have. “Digital technology is playing a critical role already. Consumers want to be aware of what is happening in terms of the supply of electricity, its cost and quality. We have to be connected to our consumers on a continuous basis. Also, new forms of energy, such as solar, are coming and this will change the equation. People will consume electricity; they will also produce electricity and will supply to the grid. We are getting ready for such a future.”

Integration and alignment, notes Mr Maleyvar, is the tricky bit in getting business excellence firing on all cylinders. “When we talk of processes, there’s monitoring and complying with those processes. But you have to keep a finger on how well integrated all of your processes are. That’s a challenge because no one department or function can be left behind; you have to move forward in unison. We are focusing on getting to 5 percent AT&C losses by 2025. This cannot be driven only by people in operations; it demands support from other departments, too.”

As with all endeavours embedded in business excellence, there is no end to it. “We are happy with what has been accomplished, but we can improve, of course,” says Mr Maleyvar. “Back

“Business excellence, and what needs to be done to get it right, comes naturally to us now. It no longer takes any kind of special effort.”Praveer Sinha, chief executive, TPDDL



People power redefinedThere is no doubt in Praveer Sinha’s mind where business excellence has had the greatest impact in the recasting of Tata Power Delhi Distribution (TPDDL) — its employees.

“Our people and their working culture were the biggest issues for us when the company was formed in 2002,” says TPDDL’s chief executive officer and managing director. “Many of them were in their late 40s and 50s. Changing their way of thinking and working was a huge challenge but slowly, over a period of time, we managed to make them conversant with processes and systems, with computers and information technology, with the needs of consumers and the demands of the industry.”

It wasn’t as easy as it sounds. There was training and capacity building on TPDDL’s part, and realisation by the company’s workforce that the old ways of going about their responsibilities were dead and gone. “We brought about a mindset change in our people,” adds Mr Sinha, “and with that came the feeling and pride of being a Tata employee.”

To be seen as the TPDDL of today,

as a friend and partner of its 1.5 million consumers, is perhaps the company’s most sterling accomplishment. The credit for this goes in no small part to TPDDL’s 3,500-plus employees, who have been reoriented to consider consumer centricity the heart and soul of the power distribution business.

TPDDL overhauled its employee structure to get where it has. There was no rationalising or rightsizing. Instead, the company set about outsourcing some of the everyday tasks involved. “Those on contract with us are our business associates,” says Ajit Maleyvar, the company’s head of business excellence. “They are operational people and it was a strategic decision to go about it this way.”

The Tata Business Excellence Model has been central to this people transformation. “In our earliest application under the model, we talked about employee satisfaction as a challenge,” adds Mr Maleyvar. “These days we talk about employee engagement and delight, and we don’t view it as a challenge any longer.” ¨

in 2002, we never believed we could come this far. It shows that nothing is impossible. It also shows that we can get better still.”

Ultimately, it’s the consumer that concerns TPDDL the most. “Whatever improvements we have done are aimed at upping our consumer centricity,” says Mr Maleyvar. “That’s what drives us; that’s what drives our business.” Mr Sinha is even more emphatic: “We owe it to the people of Delhi for giving us this opportunity. As long as we can live up to the promise we have made to our consumers, nothing can stop us.”

“Testament to our commitment is the World Bank’s Doing Business – 2016 report, which highlights what we have done to simplify the process of getting electricity connections in

Delhi,” says Mr Sinha. “This is a perfect case of our process improvements for customer benefit as it involved interacting with statutory authorities and government ministries and departments to make changes in regulations, policies, rules and processes, and numerous changes in the company’s internal processes through business process reengineering,” adds Mr Maleyvar.

The overhauling of its organisational setup has resulted in a wave of positives for TPDDL, not least in business excellence becoming second nature across the company. “Business excellence, and what needs to be done to get it right, comes naturally to us now,” adds Mr Sinha. “It no longer takes any kind of special effort and that is hugely satisfying.” ¨

TATA Power Delhi Distribution - The Forever Voyage

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