[Interview] John general manager of the New Delhi office

“Knowing your enemy well is Key point to win the battle”

 

We interviewed John general manager of the New Delhi office to hear about the success of the sales story.

■ Congratulations! You managed to close the deal despite the difficulty!
= Awesome!! I got great sense of relief, achievement and had pride for having secured this order for my company. My heart was full.

■ Please say about the project overview.

= Hyundai Corporation and New Delhi office achieved a business which was Dangote Refinery and Petrochemicals Project (DRPP) led by Dangote Group (DORC), the largest Nigerian company.

 

 

Construction work for the refinery which will cost USD 10-12 billion, has already started and expected to be completed sometime in the end of 2019. Dangote is carried out through Project Management Consultant (PMC) companies. PMC means the job of conducting a preliminary qualification check on the entire project or managing the bid in advance. Engineers India Limited, New Delhi, India is the Project Management Consultant (PMC) for this project.

Hyundai Corporation, in association with Hyundai Heavy Industries Co. Ltd (HHI) from 2014 has been closely associated with this project. We have already bagged prestigious orders for two packages in this project. The first was the reactor & regenerator, 2016. The second was the diesel power plant, 2017. This year bagged the new order called Mounded bullets. This item weighs about 20,000 tons with 15 items in total.

 

■ You found difficult while winning.

= By virtue of our excellent relationship with the PMC – Engineers India Limited, New Delhi, Hyundai Corporation, New Delhi office was able to get timely and valuable information about this project in Nigeria and find a way to be involved in this project.

The client DORC had already placed the order initially to a Chinese company, who ultimately failed to execute the order because of technical problems. Our company participated along with stiff competition from Indian and Chinese fabricators.

Dangote emphasized deliveries had to be expedited recovering the lost time due to order cancellation. After hard discussions, we agreed for a very challenging delivery schedule of 19 months from order, the entire quantity of 15 bullets. The ability to reduce the deadline was competitive.

Having tasted the Chinese price levels, DORC was looking for very low price levels. However, we convinced DORC of the merits in ordering such a package to HHI, explaining our high levels of credibility and reliability along with very large pool of equipment resources to fabricate and deliver such process equipment. As a result, after a very long and hard price negotiation process, we were also able to secure a premium on our price as compared to the competition.

 

■ What was the most difficult while winning it and how did you manage the problems?

= The most difficult part was beating the competition that had already spoiled the picture by quoting ridiculously low price and delivery levels. So convincing the client of the ground reality and reliability was really very hard. Added to this, sitting in New Delhi, India and coordinating with Lagos, Nigeria, was indeed a major challenge for effective communication.

It is said, knowing your enemy well, is important to win the battle. As we sat for final price negotiation in the client’s office in Lagos, we went fully armed with all important information like the competitors movements. For example, there were the importance of timely delivery in the overall project schedule, the options available with the client and the internal thinking of their top management. So, we approached the DORC management with very strong confidence building assurances and virtually demanded a premium for our reputation and capability to deliver.

Feeding them with all information timely was very crucial during the price negotiation process. HHI’s close coordination and persuasion were very important role to result in a mutually acceptable price level with the client. All our efforts paid off and we were eventually declared the winner!!

 

■ Any other comments?

= Thank you very much, my respected seniors and colleagues in Seoul, Head office and in New Delhi who supported me so well. The New Year has just begun, the journey shall continue. And as Robert Frost said, there are miles to go, before we can sleep.