It has been almost two years since Pratyush Kumar has been at the helm of affairs as President, Boeing India, and Vice President, Boeing International. As Boeing's most senior in-country leader, he is responsible for development and execution of the company's strategy in India.
When asked to describe the journey so far, he calls these two years as fabulous, fantastic and fast moving - the excitement and exhilaration in his voice cannot be missed. And almost as an after-thought, he adds that the two years have also been quite compelling, very challenging and at times even exhaustive. "But nonetheless, very engaging and meaningful," he says with a quick smile.
Prat, as he is popularly known, says that Boeing's India strategy is two pronged. "This involves bringing the best of Boeing to India and bringing the best of India to Boeing. And we have made great progress in the last two years in strengthening this partnership between India and Boeing." Of course, Boeing has had an enduring and vibrant relationship with Indian aerospace going back to more than seven decades - it all started when the then Tata airlines flew the DC-3 aircraft.
Down the line, that association has only become stronger with more than two hundred jets in service with its key customers like Air India, Jet Airways and SpiceJet. Today, Boeing continues to deliver what Prat calls ‘Boeing's proven work horse 737' to SpiceJet and Jet Airways.
"And we have added the defence portfolio in the last two years delivering nine C17 aircrafts, which has reached unprecedented level of readiness which has helped India during a couple of natural disasters," he says. Then, there's the P-8I Maritime reconnaissance aircraft, which has done incredible missions not just during the search of the Malaysian aircraft but also during Cyclone Hudhud. "Really, it has been an amazing time for us in the country in terms of the activity level that has gone on and in terms of bringing the best of Boeing to India," he says.
On the second prong of the strategy - in bringing the best of India to Boeing - Prat believes a huge amount has happened. "We have had strong partnerships - from collaborating with leading institutions in the country like IIT Bombay and IISc to really kind of delivering the partnership we have with Tatas for manufacturing the 787s floor beams in Nagpur to creating a world class MRO for Air India that is to be handed over soon. And that's not all; we are also creating an ecosystem for aerospace manufacturing in India through partnerships with Dynamatic Technologies, with HAL, with Mahindras and many others.
"We have been working with these organisations very closely. We have also been working with the National Skill Development Corporation (NSDC) to skill the frontline factory workers. So that is all in the spirit of bringing the best of India to Boeing. We know that we have incredible breadth of capabilities in the country and amazing cost structure. So we want to work with them to help develop the skillsets so we can harness that for our competitive advantage across the globe," he says, almost in a single breath.
(Continued on the next page)
