An Inspiring Leader and a Change maker

“Don’t worry about being successful but work towards being significant, and the success will naturally follow.” K M Ramachandran’s life philosophy resonates with these words by Oprah Winfrey.

A Senior Vice President at Troikaa Pharmaceuticals Ltd., he is also known as a “Change maker” and “Visionary leader” amongst his associates and team members at both professional and philanthropic levels. Growing up in a big family in a remote village of Kerala that lacked basic amenities, Ramachandran has undoubtedly broken all shackles that limited him, to become the grand success story that he is today.

In his professional journey, he has worked for many firms, but joining Torrent Group was the turning point of his career, where he worked for twenty-one years. The company offered him several learning opportunities in the domains of HR, administration, strategy, and implementation. With the tremendous experience Ramachandran gathered from Torrent, he joined as Executive Director for Rai Corporation.

With education being one of his greatest challenges, initially, Ramachandran faced difficulty when it came to conversing in the English language. Given his refreshing candor and diligent practice, he soon mastered this shortcoming. Being a man who moves along with time, Ramachandran stayed persistent on the path of continuous learning, adding degrees and certificates to his educational bio. Today, he is a respected and well-read person who believes that learning is a lifelong process.

Ramachandran has always been in the driving seat of affairs in his assignments with a varied portfolio comprising Human Resources, Corporate Communications, General Administration, and Corporate Affairs. What really sets him apart is his “out-of-the-box” thinking and a focused “common-sense” approach to all activities with a positive attitude. As a core member of various project teams, he has significantly contributed to these projects right from their conceptualization to execution.

As someone at the helm of HR & Admin, Ramachandran saw one of the worst phases of the employment scenario in the world during the pandemic of 2020. His over three decades of experience played a crucial role in controlling the challenging situation of manpower unavailability. The three-step-process employed by the team at Troikaa Pharmaceuticals Ltd., under Ramachandran’s direction, received wide acclaim, not just from the management but was also presented as a case study in webinars and print media.

“To overcome the problem, we devised a sustainable ‘employee well-being’ centric strategy, that focused on (a) Making our workplace safe through thorough sanitization and proactive refraining of affected employees, (b) Ensuring individual well-being through Palliative care advisories developed under the visionary leadership of our CMD and providing Immunity Boosters as part of it (c) Counseling for emotional well-being”, Ramachandran shares with pride.

Known for his “never say never attitude,” he is a doughty spirit who believes that his strengths lie in persistence and humility, which propelled him towards success; though he also feels that his weaknesses spring from his strengths since he tends to overstretch and over-involve, often also getting detached from people and things around him.

A voracious leader, Ramachandran, finds that every individual has the potential to serve the society in their own way. This thought inspired him to take up various other roles like Presidency of Ahmedabad Kerala Samajam, member of Convener-Education Committee of Shree Narayana Cultural Mission School, Managing Committee Member of ASIA (Ahmedabad South Indian Association) Education Trust, and Chairman, Ahmedabad Kerala Samajam Education Trust, apart from serving on various other Committees and Boards like Nirma Institute of Management, GCCI, Vibrant Gujarat, etc.

Despite being a man who plays so many roles, Ramachandran always remains grounded. He is forever mindful of his journey that started with nothing until he became the influential leader that he is. Handling multiple portfolios and a large team of more than three hundred highly qualified professionals was itself a challenge, which he achieved with considerable ease and acumen. “My most humbling accolade is the blessings earned for the support infrastructure built during the COVID pandemic in my organization as also the Social Institutions I am involved with”, Ramachandran articulates.

With the experience that Ramachandran has, he is an inspiring icon for those who wish to walk the same path as him. “Deserve before you desire”, he recommends since nothing comes easy in life. His two life mantras that he wants to share with all for everlasting success are persistence and hard work.

Even at this stage, Ramachandran continues to learn from the overwhelming Covid-19 situation. He claims that life will continue throwing curveballs at the most unexpected times, but adapting to the situation and embracing change is the only way to survive.

“Always be grateful and value what you have, especially the people and opportunities in your life! You ever know what will happen next”, he signs off.