EKKI has constructed a name round strategic alliances and JVs. What impressed you to position collaboration on the centre of your expansion fashion?
“My thesis on the College of Oxford and the College of Warwick concerned with riding expansion for EKKI thru joint ventures and alliances. I used to be specifically impressed through a hit fashions within the automobile trade—akin to TVS–BMW, Bajaj–KTM–Kawasaki, the Renault–Nissan–Mitsubishi Alliance, and Krohne–Marshall. Those examples deeply influenced my pondering. As of late, at EKKI, we perceive alliances higher than somebody else in our trade.”
After I joined EKKI in 2015, it used to be clean to me that we couldn’t have the funds for to play small—or play by myself. The worldwide pump trade is valued at over USD 60 billion, but India contributes most effective round USD 250 million in exports. That’s a large disparity, bearing in mind our engineering intensity and marketplace attainable.
To leapfrog into world relevance, we made a mindful resolution to position collaboration on the center of our technique. Strategic alliances have allowed us to carry in combination India’s frugal innovation with the precision and reliability of worldwide engineering.
As I incessantly say, nowadays’s buyer desires German engineering, Eastern high quality, Italian end, Korean potency, American advertising innovation—and it all at Chinese language costs, delivered from India. It’s a tricky ask. However assembly that expectation calls for shared experience, now not siloed effort. Our collaborations aren’t tactical—they’re foundational.
From world-class infrastructure and cost-competitive production depended on through world corporations to a robust R&D engine sponsored through our family-run college, we’ve constructed the functions to co-create with the arena. At EKKI, we mix deep marketplace perception, next-gen management, and an international community of companions to ship worth this is each aggressive and future-ready. Our fashion prospers on organizational ambidexterity—the facility to peer the long run whilst executing the present with self-discipline. In the end, collaboration has empowered us to head additional, sooner—and to take action sustainably.
“However EKKI’s industry fashion isn’t one thing that may be replicated in a single day. I’ve in my opinion spent just about a decade constructing and nurturing those strategic relationships. Because the fourth-largest participant in our area, we stand aside—whilst the highest 3 both focal point only on growing their very own product portfolios or goal to easily replica the era of international corporations. We’re other. Our fashion positions us uniquely available in the market: partnering with the most efficient and beating the remaining, making EKKI a gorgeous spouse for world avid gamers looking for significant, long-term collaboration.”
2. What differentiates a tactical partnership from a actually strategic alliance for your view?
A tactical partnership is incessantly non permanent—transactional, restricted in scope, and simply replaceable. Strategic alliances, alternatively, call for deep alignment, mutual compromise, and long-term co-creation.
Take our 50:50 three way partnership with Germany’s HOMA Crew. It wasn’t shaped in a single day. It took years of discussion, shared manufacturing unit visits, co-engineering paintings, and trust-building. As of late, we don’t simply paintings in combination—we form destiny marketplace methods collectively.
The variation is modest: tactical is opportunistic; strategic is transformational.
Dr. Klaus Hoffmann, former CEO and Board Member of HOMA Pumps Germany, who initiated the alliance with then 25-year-old Kanishka just about a decade in the past, recollects:
Kanishka’s entrepreneurial force to construct a novel industry fashion and amplify his relations endeavor led him to effectively forge a partnership with HOMA. We’re extraordinarily happy with EKKI’s cost-effectiveness, high quality, and supply requirements. Only a few producers are able to assembly our German high quality expectancies for the Indian marketplace.
Like his father, Arumugam, Kanishka embodies humility and a powerful paintings ethic—an extraordinary mixture in nowadays’s fast moving industry international. Their group displays and reinforces this management, making it a particular energy of EKKI.
Don’t be misled through Kanishka’s amusing and easy-going nature—he’s sharply targeted and clear-sighted concerning the important position of R&D, buyer focal point, and world alliances in riding sustainable industry luck. With a outstanding educational background from the College of Oxford and the College of Warwick, outstanding interpersonal abilities, and a visionary outlook for the trade, Kanishka is undeniably one of the promising next-generation leaders within the world trade.
3. EKKI approaches alliances as 1+1 = 11, and with an indefinite type of co-operation. In an international that’s incessantly obsessive about quarterly effects, how do you take care of this long-term focal point? How do you assessment attainable companions for alignment in the sort of long-term view?
I come from a relations industry that used to be began in 1981 with simply ₹50,000 through my father, P. Arumugam. That more or less starting place tale instills resilience, self-discipline, and a deep admire for the lengthy recreation. At EKKI, our tradition is formed through this legacy—we see time as our best friend, now not our enemy.
We manner each alliance with what we name an “indefinite co-operation” mindset. Those aren’t transactional partnerships, however strategic relationships constructed for the lengthy haul. We assessment attainable companions throughout six dimensions:
- Shared values
- Complementary functions
- Governance compatibility
- Consider and transparency
- Scalability of the partnership
- Give-and-take mindset
This framework is helping us keep grounded in objective at the same time as we transfer with velocity.
As an example, our alliance within the U.S. has been in quiet construction with a spirit of co-operation. It’s now evolving into a proper three way partnership—now not as a result of we rushed into it, however as a result of we allowed it the time to mature into the correct are compatible. We consider long-term worth advent comes from resisting the entice of non permanent wins.
Tactical partnerships might be offering fast returns, however they’re incessantly shallow—restricted in scope and simply changed. Strategic alliances, alternatively, call for have confidence, co-creation, and a willingness to construct one thing larger than both spouse may just by myself.
Our JV with Germany’s HOMA Crew is an ideal instance. It took years of discussion, shared engineering, and mutual admire prior to we signed a unmarried file. As of late, we don’t simply function in combination—we outline marketplace technique in combination.
The variation is modest: tactical is opportunistic; strategic is transformational.
4. You emphasize have confidence, transparency, and humility. How do those values manifest in day by day operations with world companions?
Consider isn’t a slogan—it’s a gadget. We embed it into operations thru shared dashboards, open-book costing, joint governance groups, and regimen cultural trade. Our Eu, U.S., and East Asian companions are invited to our Coimbatore HQ incessantly, and our groups are cross-trained in another country.
Humility presentations up in how we concentrate. We don’t suppose now we have the entire solutions—we ask, we adapt, and we admit after we’re incorrect. Even our JV buildings are incessantly equivalent—now not as a result of we should, however as a result of we consider in equivalent worth and shared possession.
Transparency is constructed into how we keep up a correspondence—widespread critiques, escalation protocols, and a “no surprises” coverage. That’s how have confidence turns into repeatable.
5. In an increasingly more transactional industry local weather, how do you give protection to and scale a values-driven tradition?
We give protection to it through operationalising it. At EKKI Academy, arrange in two universities in our area, each supervisor undergoes management coaching concerned with moral decision-making, humility, and cultural fluency—along technical coaching.
We recruit now not only for abilities, however for worth alignment.
We scale it through constructing methods that praise long-term behaviour—now not non permanent spikes. For instance, even in our alliances, we construct ‘values charters’ that information collaboration & warfare answer.
We additionally run social have an effect on tasks—from our not-for-profit engineering school to elder care houses—making sure that values don’t stay confined to boardrooms, however prolong into the communities wherein we function.
6. EKKI is increasing past pumps into engineering products and services and complex production. What new functions are you constructing internally to enhance this transition?
We’re making an investment in 4 pillars:
- KKV Labs, for complex design and R&D
- KOOT, for precision production products and services
- A Hyper Manufacturing facility, mixing automation with flexibility
- A remodeled world provide chain group to enhance multi-continental operations
We’re additionally partnering and scouting alternatives in adjoining, complementary merchandise—like complex production and engineering products and services—in collaboration with world corporations.
Schooling performs a large position. Our interior skill pipeline is fed through our faculty and trade–academia collaborations. We inspire all group individuals to pursue lifelong finding out techniques.
With an asset base of over USD 100 million, 4 manufacturing centres, and 550+ staff—we’re constructing now not simply merchandise, however platforms. This makes EKKI distinctive and engaging as a spouse for world corporations looking for significant collaboration.
7. How do you stability innovation and operational excellence, specifically in a legacy production context?
Balancing the 2 is the toughest phase—but additionally probably the most rewarding.
Our Hyper Manufacturing facility fashion co-locates manufacturing with R&D and quantum trying out amenities. This proximity reduces friction between design and supply.
We apply a dual-track governance fashion—one concerned with lean operations, the opposite on innovation sprints. Our groups paintings in cross-functional pods, which is helping bridge the space between what’s ideally suited and what’s sensible.
Legacy doesn’t imply sluggish—it method you could have the knowledge to innovate with out burning the home down.
8. EKKI’s world ambitions are rooted in Coimbatore. What benefits — and demanding situations — include constructing an international corporate from a Tier-2 Indian town?
The benefit is modest: deep engineering skill, charge potency, and generational production experience, mixed with EKKI’s infrastructure and the Arumugam relations values. Coimbatore is house to India’s pump capital. Our provide chain is native, dependable, and finding out speedy.
The problem? Belief. Convincing a German OEM {that a} Tier-2 Indian corporate can meet their requirements isn’t any small feat.
Our goal is to construct a globally revered corporate—now not simply a big one—from the guts of India.
10. The HOMA–EKKI JV is incessantly cited as a benchmark in Indo-German collaboration. What had been the defining elements in the back of this partnership’s luck? What makes EKKI a perfect JV spouse for a legacy German engineering company like HOMA?
HOMA scouted throughout India and China however selected EKKI—for one explanation why: deep have confidence infrastructure and operational excellence.
We met their strictest German requirements, however extra importantly, we shared a imaginative and prescient for the long run. Ours is an equivalent JV—their just one globally. We co-engineer, co-invest, co-make, and co-sell.
Even if demanding situations get up, the connection stays cast—as it used to be constructed on values, now not simply valuation.
What makes us a perfect spouse? Our humility, long-term mindset, infrastructure scale, and zero-debt corporate agility. However above all, we care about joint luck, now not simply person wins.
Hans Hoffmann, Crew CEO of HOMA Germany, mentioned:
“When opting for a spouse for our India technique, we sought greater than technical capacity — we additionally appeared for shared values, long-term alignment, and entrepreneurial imaginative and prescient.
EKKI, beneath the management of the Arumugam relations, has now not most effective demonstrated deep marketplace perception and operational reliability, but additionally an extraordinary skill to co-create worth.”
Marcel Hoffmann, Director at HOMA Germany, remarked:
“EKKI’s openness, ambition, and trust-driven mindset are precisely what robust joint ventures require—particularly in difficult fields like India’s wastewater sector.
We’re now not most effective increasing markets; we’re co-creating the long run. And for that, EKKI has confirmed to be the correct spouse: strategic, culturally attuned, and forward-thinking.”
