As the CEO of LG Chem Power Inc., which supplies lithium ion batteries to the auto industry, Prabhakar Patil is dealing with constant change. As the auto industry shifts toward more reliance on renewable energy sources for vehicles, Patil must keep his company ready to answer the challenge.
It became particularly evident in 2007, when Patil’s company began rolling out prototype battery packs for GM.
When we got started with GM, the original announcement came out in April of ’07,” Patil says. “The first prototype pack had to be delivered by October of ’07, which was a very short period given that the first time we were doing a battery pack of this size and magnitude, for a plug-in application.”
To address the needs of the evolving auto industry, Patil needed to keep everyone at his $25 million, 150-employee company focused on a well-defined mission and set of goals.
Smart Business spoke with Patil about how you can adapt to change by putting your company’s foundational principles at the forefront.
How do you get people on board with these new ideas and concepts?
People recognize that we are sort of fortunate to be in the position that we are in. There is a fundamental transformation that is taking place in terms of what I call the transportation paradigm, shifting from internal combustion petroleum-based engines to more electrified vehicles. Not that the transportation industry is going to roll over to all hybrid vehicles anytime soon, but there is a basic and fundamental shift that is going on. To be part of that is indeed sort of a privilege and, in some sense, luck that we area in the right place at the right time. We have to do everything to make sure it is successful. What would make the opportunity go bad more than anything else is if it disappoints the customers when these vehicles are on the road, and that is something that none of us want to be responsible for.
What would you tell other business leaders about relating the goals of the company to employees and their individual work?
It is figuring out a way where you personalize the relationship between the job and the person. Sometimes, it can be an intellectual kind of connection but is much better if it becomes a more visceral connection, where people internalize the significance and importance of what it is they’re trying to do, because of the impact that it is going to have either on their own lives or on the family that is going to be using the product or on making a fundamental change in the technology. You have to find a nobility of purpose, something that people can relate to, something that people can say, ‘This is critical, painful though it may be for the hours I have to put in. This is something we have to do and do right.’
How do you find nobility of purpose in a company’s mission?
In our case, it was relatively straightforward to
do. It’s seldom that you get a chance to do something that is good for the environment, for the country, for the community. In many ways, what we do is our opportunity to address the environmental issue as well as the energy security issue.
Does your own visibility and accessibility in the organization help to reinforce the mission?
It is doing it by example. I encourage suggestions and ideas, and I encourage our team leaders down the chain to have that kind of accessibility to their teams. For example, just looking at the subject of quality, once they see the due diligence, time and effort that is put in to not cut corners, I think that communicates the message more than anything else that quality is an important subject for us.
How to reach: LG Chem Power Inc., (248) 307-1800 or www.compactpower.com
