01 Biography
Ramesh Subramaniam was born in Pune, had his early education in Pune and Bangalore, and acquired a Post Graduate degree in Physics from IIT Bombay in 1971.
He joined Bata India Limited as a management trainee in 1971 and spent nine years in various management positions. He then spent over twenty-six years with Tata International Limited in senior management, and was Vice President of the footwear business.
He spent five years with UNIDO as a national expert and was appointed as the first Technical Director of the Footwear Design and Development Institute in Noida. He helped set up and expand the operations of FDDI, which is today an Institute of National Importance. Later he worked as President of Sri City, an industrial park developer in South India.
That span — a multinational consumer company, a Tata group exporter, a United Nations development agency, a national institute, and an industrial park — is unusual. It is also why the book moves comfortably between a detergent brand in Gujarat, a public sector power utility, and a global footwear supply chain.
02 Career
Post Graduate degree in Physics.
Joined as a management trainee and spent nine years in various management positions.
Over twenty-six years in senior management, latterly as Vice President of the footwear business.
National expert with the United Nations Industrial Development Organization.
First Technical Director of the Footwear Design and Development Institute; helped set up and expand operations at what is today an Institute of National Importance.
President of Sri City, an industrial park developer in South India.
Perspective
Long careers make certain patterns visible that a quarterly view cannot show: which advantages compound, which ones evaporate the moment the market shifts, and how often the decisive choice was made years before anyone noticed its effect.
The companies in this book are assessed on that timescale. Several of them look very different at thirty years than they did at three.
Purpose of the book
To inspire young managers and students to study real business stories and apply practical lessons — rather than learning management as a set of frameworks detached from the firms that produced them.
The book was written for management students, management professors, and managers working in companies, from 50 companies in India and abroad that have done inspirational work to build and grow their businesses.
03 Speaking & sessions
Ramesh Subramaniam is available for guest lectures, management programmes, founder sessions, and corporate learning workshops built around the stories in the book.
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