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The working world of Regional Project Management Officer Kranthi Kiran
The answers lie in the journey
Kranthi Kiran, head of the Project Management Office (PMO) at Klueber Lubrication (KL) Asia Pacific, has visited more than 46 countries across the world, and been to most of India’s states. In his professional life, the senior manager and experienced yoga practitioner has also gone through multiple role changes at KL in India. “Life is quite an adventure,” he says, adding that, “there are many ways to experience and to discover it. The key is to find your own.”
Kranthi first joined Freudenberg in 2008 as a member of the Freudenberg India Entrepreneurial Leadership Development Program (FIELD), right after graduating from one of India’s leading colleges for management and engineering. Following the year-long FIELD program, he spent seven months in Munich with KL’s Global Operations Management, gaining invaluable insights into the organization and its culture. Since then, the 32-year-old has held several cross-functional roles at KL India. “There is a lot that my travels have taught me for my professional life,” Kranthi says. “Adaptability, dealing with uncertainties, opening up to new thoughts through new cultures, learning new languages, experiencing
new cuisines, seeing new landscapes and finding order in chaos.”
The ability to adapt has come in handy for Kranthi, who first managed operations at KL’s Mysore plant before working in the field as a key account manager at the Heavy Industry Division, dealing with customers across all of India. He then took on the role of pricing commissioner, streamlining the pricing process, in coordination with Klueber Lubrication Munich while also establishing mechanisms for effective price control. If that were not enough, at the same time Kranthi also served as head of the customer service team, where he initiated and streamlined various continuous improvement projects. Throughout this process, he sought to engage colleagues at all levels in the organization in order to understand how their functions work. Here, too, the experiences gained on his global travels have come in handy: “When I was in the city of Grasse in France, I discovered the world of a perfumer, and
learnt how a fine fragrance is based on different notes that are brought together in just the right proportion. The same is true of any team or company.”
Equipped with this comprehensive understanding of the organization, Kranthi took on his current role as Regional Project Management Officer for Klueber Lubrication Asia Pacific. Part of his responsibility now is to promote “lean” thinking through various Operational Excellence projects as well as monitoring and reviewing the deployment of the KL 2020 strategy. He also serves as regional representative responsible for driving forward digitalization projects, a field he is already active in through his work in data analytics and data visualization. In addition, Kranthi has been tasked with promoting the “sustainability” topic in the region by establishing key metrics to measure and track projects that minimize the footprint and maximize the handprint. Here, as in many of his other tasks, he can draw
on his yoga experiences. “Yoga helps to still the fluctuations of the mind. This in turn inculcates the spirit of enquiry, critical thinking and continuous learning, which are central to both my professional and personal lives.”
His dedication and focus has been recognized by Freudenberg as well. Kranthi helped secure the “We all take care” award for Klueber Mysore’s “Safe Square” in 2008, and has also been the recipient of a number of personal awards, honoring his sales abilities and innovative mind.
At Freudenberg, Kranthi has been able to not only explore various professional roles but also pursue his personal goals. Taking his on and off the job experiences into account, the manager turned world traveler turned yoga practitioner says it is essential to “seek new ways of seeing this world and be open to
embrace all that life has to offer.”