Mohan C Maghat : I am not an active member of CETA and in fact I have forgotten most of the events from my college days. That’s why I am a bit reluctant for this interview.    

Ninavu:  May be this is the right time for a long due recollection?    

MM: May be. I joined CET after completing my BSc graduation. I did BSc in Physics with Mathematics as optional subject from Victoria College, Palghat. (I am basically from Palghat) In fact I was about to join for a job with a central government organization in Pune by the time I got the telegram informing me about my admission to CET.    

I was an average student and got admission to CET only in the second list. When I joined the course, classes had already been on for more than a month. Mine was a three year engineering course.    

The Five year course was also on at that time. We were the “T” batch (Three year course) and the other one was “I” batch (Integrated 5 year course).    

During the Indo-China war, a shortage of Engineers in the country was felt and that is why the T (Three Year Compressed Course) was started. I had those from Indian Army   as well as those working with electricity board etc as my class mates. There were two Lt. Colonels: Balachandran and Mohanty on deputation from Army.  

We had to study all the papers in three years. It was quite difficult. In fact in the first year itself we had so many papers including Engineering Drawing (Mechanical, Electrical etc..) that we had to take home our drawing assignments and  most of us could be seen doing our drawings in hostel rooms until 2 or 3 am!    

N: Do you remember the room number in Hostel?    

For the first few months, I had to stay in a lodge in Kulathoor since I had joined late and could not get admission to the Hostel. Later on I moved to men’s hostel in the campus.

During my first year, I was in Ground Floor of B Block .

Abdul Rahman –Mechanical branch- (now in Abu Dhabi) was my room mate. And there was one Mahmood – recently retired from Al Ain Water & Electricity Department. I remember him because while studying in college he changed his name and he used to always carry with him a copy of the official Gazette notifying his name change!    

And I remember Poduval and Balachandran as my room mates. I was in C Block for final year

 While working in Pune I was in touch with classmates Vijayan who was employed by AIR Bombay, Ravindran working with Maharashtra Telephones, Poduval who was working with LRDL or DRDE in Pune  

I have no contact with them and do not know where they are now either. Of late I have been in touch with Hareendralal. After a gap of thirty years! I also had telecom with Gopi who has now probably retired from air force and settled in Bangalore  

By the way, I was the college representative/leader for our class and had arranged the study tour in the final year I think visiting various factories and institutes in Madras, Hyderabad, Bhili, Bombay etc and I remember we could not see the factories in Bombay as scheduled because there was a sudden power outage in Bombay on the particular day.  

I also recollect I was selected from CET with few other fellow mates for the test and interview for SSB board selection in Meerut. In those days it was all very prestige to get selected because if you come out successful you can get into officer cadres for the services. Any way I was not selected but I had the experience of the tough tests at Meerut in December in freezing cold weather- it was there I picked up the smoking habit, which of course I already quit since 1987.I had the opportunity in the trip to visit Delhi and witness the prestigious Indian Republic day parade and celebration very closely at India gate.

N:And you would be having something to say about the Hostel mess…    

MM: Yes. By the way, do you know, we had three types of mess those days: Veg. Mess, Non-Veg. Mess and Beef Mess . Some time during my second year, some hostel-ites were struck with jaundice and it was rumoured that it spread from the Veg. mess. From then on, I shifted from being a vegetarian to non-vegetarian!  

N: That seems a very convenient excuse!

Sir, from the college, how did your career take off?

Was it difficult to find jobs those days?    

MM:  I passed out of college in 1968. It was very difficult to find jobs. And I was not a very good student either. I sent my CV too many companies all over India - Madras, Bombay, Delhi etc. After 2-3 months, I got a job in Pune. My brother was working in Kirloskar group of companies. He helped me in finding a job in Kirloskar Pneumatics . I got into Sales and started my career selling Air Compressors for Kirloskar.    

N: What was your starting salary?    

MM: When I joined Kirloskar in 1968,   I was offered a starting salary of Rs. 250 . And when I left in 1975, my salary was less than Rs.600.    

N: Was that enough for you to lead a comfortable life in Pune at that time?    

MM: It would have been OK had I been alone. My sister and family were there in Pune at that time. My brother-in-law had expired and I was their local guardian- of course my elder brother used to support but every month I had to arrange some advances from friends to move on.    

N: Probably that what would have prompted you to look for other opportunities?    

MM: My brother was an Export Manager and he used to travel to many countries including the Middle East. It was he who became a catalyst for my relocation to Dubai.    

N: Could you please tell us something about Dubai in those days?    

MM: When I came here, I could not locate a decent place for my stay. Initially my company had arranged accommodation at the Excelsior Hotel. Later on I started house-hunting, managed to get myself a bed space for AED 450. It was a time when conversion rates hovered around IRS 300 = AED 1000! In addition to the rent, water & electricity charges plus 6 months advance payment etc hit my purse badly.    

And there was the power cut to deal with! The only diesel power station was located in Deira – where Etisalat building stands now. To beat the extreme heat, I used to take bath more than four times a day!    

Roads weren’t as good as what we see now. Even the Dubai-Abu Dhabi highway was a single road. And getting a license was as difficult as today. It so happened that I came to Dubai just when the authorities stopped recognizing Indian driving license. But with help from one of my colleagues, I managed to get my Indian driving license endorsed by Traffic department.    

N: And your career took off in Dubai?    

MM: Al Naboodah group was looking for an Engineer to set up an Electrical Trading company in Dubai. I fit in with their requirements and was selected. Soon I flew in to Dubai.    

In fact due to some clerical error in my Visa application, I couldn’t reach Dubai immediately after leaving my job in Pune. I was idling for about four months in India, without a job.    

Even after coming to Dubai, I couldn’t take off with my assignment. The infrastructure wasn’t in place and I was sitting without any work in the head office. One day my boss called me up and informed that an accountant in the travel agency division is going on vacation and he wanted me to be the filler – reliever.    

And thus I started my first overseas job as an accountant!!  

With active help from my colleagues, I picked up the job in a couple of days and managed for a month until the accountant returned from vacation.

Immediately after that, I got a table to start with. And I started SMKA from scratch. Started communicating with overseas manufacturers and within the next three months, I was able to locate a couple of products including MK, Bill Switchgear, source them in bulk quantity and sell it to the local market, eventually concluding necessary agency agreements with them as their local agents and distributors., Second half of the seventies saw boom in construction activity in UAE. PVC pipes, copper cables etc were in short supply for all types of building construction. Besides enhancing the sales of MK and Bill I managed to source pipes from Garware Pipes, India so also cables from Delta, UK plus many other electrical goods and store it in the warehouses of Naboodah group companies. It was the time when we didn’t have too much procedures/restrictions from the consultants or many competitors in the industry and were able to sell the quality products for the commodity-hungry construction industry.  

N: That indeed was a good start! But coming from a sales background, that too in India, how tough was the job of setting up a new company in a foreign country?  

MM: With my sales background, I was fairly comfortable with all segments of sales. The only difference was that back home I had a product to sell. Here I had to, first, find out the right products, then source them and sell it to the local market.

I had fairly good support from our group head quarters in other areas like administration, imports etc. As I mentioned before, it was a boom time. If you had the right quantity of quality materials in stock, you could sell it!    

In the very first year 1975-77 we were able to have a decent profit starting as an electrical trading division of S&M Al Naboodah group. Later in 1977 it was formed into a separate co as SMKA Electric LLC with our first showroom and office located at Murshid Bazaar, Deira in an old building with storing facilities. Soon we had our branch in Abu Dhabi, later opened showrooms and main office at Dubai Airport road, branch in Deira, Sharjah and the very latest in Ras al Khaimah now in 2008.    

Growth curve of our company has been impressive. In 1992 I had a staff of 12 to 15 people. In 1998 the numbers grew to 40 and now we have strength of more than 100 people.    

We also have a separate professionally equipped LV Switchgear facility with strength of 20 people to build switchgears to project specifications and local regulations.    

Our products are mostly European, besides from USA, Australia, and Malayasia etc     

We deal in high quality wiring accessories, switchgear, cable trunking & trays, floor trunkings, lightning protection, lighting, lighting controls, bus bar, conduits and others for building industry  

We are proud to be associated with many of the prestigious projects in UAE such as public utility buildings, villas, malls and towers.  

Also we are adding more and more products in our profile.    

N: And now the question which is haunting most of us here. What is your perspective on current economic scenario?    

MM: Yes. We have to admit we are also affected by the economic slowdown . Last couple of years the growth has been extraordinary. We were in situation where we were not able to meet all business calls. What we see now is an inevitable correction.    

We had ups and downs in the past too. Growth graph of Dubai shot up drastically over the past few years. From early nineties to 2008, it was more than the quantum- in terms of value of business.  Now we are going back to the levels of 2005 or 2006. Not beyond that.  No, we are not going back to the nineties levels.  

Mid 80s was very bad. Running a company, I had gone through those bad times. I had a cash crunch and faced heavy overdrafts at that time. It lasted for 2 to 3 years but it eventually picked up again.    

Then we had lows in early 90s. But it was not so sharp.    

Definitely we are concerned. But it isn’t so bad here. Europe has suffered more. It’s not a similar case here in Dubai.  But people are more cautious now.    

And I keep telling my people, this is the best time to promote our products . We should utilize this time.

Previously, consultants and engineers didn’t have time to listen to us. It was either price or delivery that mattered. Now everyone has time to understand and judge the products on their own merits.     

If you were missing something on the promotion side, this is the time!    
 

N: In your company, you had to carry out any restructuring?  

MM: We have reduced our staff by 10%. During 2007/08 we recruited more than 40 people. We had to make some redundancy. Even our group of companies, which has a collective strength of over 30000 people, reduced overall staff numbers by more than in 10%.    
 

N: How hopeful are you?    

MM: We are watching the market. We are hopeful. But we definitely don’t expect that it will go back to 2008 levels.    

If anyone wants to come and spend some quality time, Dubai is still the place . Compared to other destinations, it still offers more value for money compared to Europe or the US.  

Still projects are going on. Overall some projects have been shelved. But infrastructure- roads, power and other utilities etc are still continuing with expansion. Dubai Metro is a shining example.    

N: Coming from a person who has started from zero, seen ups and downs, and reached the top most position, these words offer us hope in these difficult times.

Sir, from 1975 to 2009, would you be able to give us a panoramic view of Dubai and its astonishing transitions?  

MM: Infrastructure, Power, Buildings- These were the key areas of change. Along with these, several workable systems have also been introduced and put in place so that growth doesn’t create chaos.    

Television, Computers etc are some of the more visible elements of change I have passed through. When I came to Dubai there was only one Arabic channel and one Persian. But we did have a quite a few cinema theatre – Deira, Dubai, Al Nasr and in Sharjah Concorde etc.  

The only road between Dubai and Sharjah was single lane and it stopped at Sheeba Hotel (currently King Faisal road), near the then Sharjah airport. Trade centre & Shindig Tunnel were under construction when I came here. Etisalat was a British Telecom company before UAE Government took it over.

N:  And how about the changes in your personal life? From a small boy from Kerala now occupying one of the key business positions in Dubai?    

MM: I was born in a small village called Karimba, Palghat . My father was manager in a Bank – it was not the mainstream bank but a small family bank. My mother was a housewife. We are 7 siblings – 3 brothers and 4 sisters.    

I did not attend early years of schooling and I started my school only from Grade 3. From my home, in order to reach the nearest school, I had to cross a small river along a secluded area and used to hear abnormal noises. I was even scared by rumours of witches and   yakshis   and didn’t go to school for a couple of years!  

After finishing my primary from 3 ^rd   grade to 5 ^th   in our village primary school I shifted to Palghat town –where my grandfather had built a house in the town to facilitate the education for the entire family- I did my secondary education in Pt. Motilal High School, Palghat. And later did BSc from Victoria College, Palghat. I was very active in sports and NCC. Used to captain the Basketball team for Victoria College. But while in CET, we were so short of time, I couldn’t pursue my other interests.    

My father was earning a salary of Rs 100 to 150 a month and I had to pay Rs.150 a month as fees and other expenses in CET. My brother was working and he supported my father.  

I picked up a lot of things from my sales job with Kirloskar in Pune. This helped me a lot later when I was entrusted with a task of setting up a trading unit here in Dubai. I didn’t get any formal training in any of the factories for understanding and selling the products. But I make it a point to study the product and the accompanying literature so that I know what I am selling to my clients.    

Even now I tell my staff to show me each and every new product so that I keep myself up to date. Nowadays, a lot of products are more electronics-oriented. And for a person like me, who could pass a paper in Electronics Engineering only in the second attempt, I consciously put a lot more effort to try and figure them out.  

N: Can you tell more about your family?    

MM: I got married in 1977. My wife is also from Palghat. We have three children. Two sons and a daughter. All of them were born and brought up in Dubai and did their entire schooling her in Dubai. Elder son, Sharat took his engineering degree from IIT Chennai, joined Wipro and worked in India and Japan. He later did MBA from INSEAD, France and is currently working with Procter & Gamble, Dubai as Asst. Brand Manager.  He and his wife have a one year old daughter. I am a grand father now!

Younger son, Suroop did his engineering from MS Rammaiah College, then MS from Pittsburgh University. He was working in California until recently. Got married 2 years back and now is with Wipro in Pune as a Network Security Consultant.  

Daughter just came out of London School of Economics, Dubai Knowledge Village and is trying for a suitable job.

That’s my family.    

N: What would you like to say about our alumni activities?    

MM: I am not an active member. So I won’t be able to comment much. But I feel such organizations should always keep away from being political. Also we should continue more activities for the betterment of society, our families and our home land.    

N: And what is your advice to the new generation of engineers?    

MM: The new generation is very impatient when it comes to career growth and development. We can not blame them as they have born and grown up in a fast era with very advanced technology development in which there are a lot of opportunities but severe competition.  Also the new generation from day one wants to be in a position to manage others since most of them are very well educated. However, unless you work hard under somebody, you can’t manage anyone! I also advise all the youngsters that they should have more attention to detail rather than just superficial knowledge as well as learn more from their colleagues. I always ask my colleagues to give me details of any product or services if I am not fully aware of the same. The capacity of our mind is limitless and we should continuously seek knowledge which ultimately leads to success.