Purnendu Kumar Chaubey, vice-president, Kal-pataru Power Transmission Limited, has over 23 years of experience working in various public and private sector transmission companies and has a close understanding of the segment’s challenges. “EPC projects in the transmission industry have experienced a perceptible change in the past few years. The transformation from the era of cost-plus tariffs to tariff-based competitive bidding has led to the development of a fixed price contract by developers. Right-of-way issues are in the scope of the contractor,” he says. The introduction of reverse auction, which is taking prices to extremely low levels, has also increased the challenges for EPC players. “Overall, the margins of EPC contractors are under tremendous stress”, he says.
Chaubey leads the business development, govern-ment relations and marketing businesses for Kalpataru Power. His expertise lies in project management, business process re-engineering and strategic management. He also represents the company on various policymaking and industry bodies, and has contributed white papers to various journals.
In the past, he has worked with IDFC, Accenture, Power Grid Corporation of India and Isolux in areas such as business development, government liaising, tendering, marketing, project management and consultancy. Most memorably for him, as sales director for the resources domain at Accenture, he was instrumental in the development of new business relationships. He has also successfully implemented many grid and mining sector-related initiatives.
Chaubey says that he has consistently handled his assignments with a sense of responsibility and commitment to achieve targets and deliver positive results. He has been considered a significant resource for the companies he has been associated with, and has been responsible for enhanced revenues and market share for them. One of his key strengths is aligning sales functions to achieve optimum output and maximum benefits. He adds that strong communication and interpersonal skills, besides effective leadership, have helped him excel in his work.
Chaubey has a bachelor’s degree from IIT Kanpur and a postgraduate degree in management from the Asian Institute of Management, Manila, where he was an Asian Development Bank scholar. His family includes his wife, a dhrupad singer, a daughter and a son.