A meeting of all administrative heads at the various locations of the Sanmar group was held at Chennai on 8th November 2003. M N Radhakrishnan, Managing Director, Sanmar Engineering Corporation, initiated the discussion on standardisation of administrative functions and emphasized the need for all employees to understand the Sanmar group’s vision. He named the factors that necessitated central coordination and called on the forum members to work on the implementation details.

K Rajendran, Asst General Manager - Public Relations, spoke on central coordination and the role of administrative heads as service providers. He outlined an action plan for identifying best practices, stressing the importance of MIS and cost control.

P S Jayaraman referred to outsourcing as a measure of cost control and highlighted the merits of discipline, punctuality and a common approach. He stressed that uniformity be maintained at all locations with respect to activities like AMCs. While applauding the high standards set by the group in administrative activities, he cautioned that there was scope for improvement in a few areas like housekeeping, transportation and security.

S Sankaran, President- Controller Corporate, explained the process of retrieval of information from various account heads and promised help in the form of new accounting codes to enable effective MIS.

The meeting concluded with brief updates from the other participants on the activities at their respective locations. The need to prepare administrative manuals was explained and the task of preparing them assigned to some members.

K Rajendran (2nd from left) addressing the administrative heads from the various Sanmar locations.