Mr Shashank Vaidya is one of the Directors of GEM Engserv.
This time we have one of the stalwarts in the construction industry, his company GEM is an end to end project management company, established in the year 2009 with Engserv the vision of being an engineering consultant of choice. GEM Engserv has provided services to clients across the USA, Canada, UK, Singapore, Middle East, Indonesia & Africa. Shashank, along with his team, has been doing project management consultation, predominantly, in India. Mr Shashank Vaidya is one of the Directors of GEM Engserv.
Shashank is an alumnus of IIT Madras, with a gold medal from President, in MTech. Shashank has an experience of over three decades in bridge engineering, quality management, training, and concrete technology.
LET’S GET STARTED!
This time we have one of the stalwarts in the construction industry, his company GEM is an end to end project management company, established in the year 2009 with Engserv the vision of being an engineering consultant of choice. It is one of India’s leading construction project management consultancy firm, carrying a rich experience of providing engineering & construction management services to the major developers and organisations in infrastructure, residential, commercial, hospitality, integrated townships, logistics sector. GEM Engserv has provided services to clients across the USA, Canada, UK, Singapore, Middle East, Indonesia & Africa. Shashank, along with his team, has been doing project management consultation, predominantly, in India. Mr Shashank Vaidya is one of the Directors of GEM Engserv.
He says it’s not just one decision in life that you take; it’s a series of choices & decisions that you make from time to time. When he looks back to his time, spanning last 40 years, right from the day he decided to join civil engineering stream, he sees two themes running parallel in many choices he has been making from time to time. The first theme is that it is less critical which stream/career we choose to follow; it is far more essential to excel in whatever field you choose. In the early stages of life, many do not exactly know what they want to do. Not all of us are blessed with a vision in childhood, so we simply followed our peers or chose what our parents wanted us to do, & thus excelling in that particular field was to be held as a goal. And the second theme that runs in his mind is very similar. At the same time, it is important to analyse before taking a decision, but once you have taken a decision, put everything into that decision. It is better to make the decision right by giving your best, rather than to regret ahead in life. Because some decisions cannot be undone & Shashank also claims that what he today is all because of the decisions he took at critical junctures in his life.
He points out a few traits that, according to him, were engraved in all the engineers back then. He also gives credit to his early career in Indian Railways & to the fantastic group of leaders he had. He says that a thing that was common among all the engineers who were in the Railways was the habit of drilling down into details and fundamentals of any subject. Shashank had a particular kind of diversity provided to him. When he began his carrier as a civil engineer, there was only one engineer or construction engineer in the field as the engineering fraternity was broadly divided into design engineers & non-design engineers. They did not have separate supervisors, separate/QC Engineers/Schedulers/Billing Engineers or safety engineers etc. Every little task that is part of Construction Engineering, they had to do on their own. Therefore, he had to have 360-degree experience of the field in order to get going & this process helped him tremendously in his career. Sometimes, Shashank was not given choices; he had to go out of his comfort zone and gain as much knowledge and experience in other areas. This opportunity of taking assignments from the unchartered territory and the way he was guided to deliver the same prepared him for all the upcoming challenges. He attributes his success to these factors.
The top list of his philosophy is that, While there is an excellent talk about ‘customer delight’, Customer centricity etc. (while that is very important), one should give first preference to his/her profession that he/she practises. Because there are times where there is a conflict between what the profession wants you to do and what your customer demands. If faced with this scenario, he would always prefer his decision which first supports his profession.
In all facets of your life, you need to work, act, behave, such that you inspire confidence in your ability and trust in your integrity. i.e. you claim what you are capable of and you do what the right thing to do is.
He advises young one’s or the civil engineers to gain competitive advantage by being the “jack of all” (knows all aspects of construction) and master of “at least one of the field” (concrete, scheduling, design, quality etc.). Initially, for a couple of years, at least for 2 to 5 years, they must sweat it out in the field. Civil engineering as we rightly say is not what happens inside the office as much of it occurs in the field- across the rivers, under the ground, at 40th or 50th storey of a high-rise tower and in the jungles. So, you need to dirty your hands and understand what it takes to build what was conceived on the drawing board. It is one of the industry where there is a large gap between theory and practice, and that’s what he like the most. Unless you comfortable with what you practice and unless you understand why things are practised the way they are practised, you will not be able to make changes & appreciate the “why of things”. Shashank also believes that field experience is vital in the construction field for this reason.
Shashank ends with a note for his partner late Jagdish Raje, who set up the company with him. It was both of their efforts that brought their company to the position that it has reached today.
