Pooja Narendra Hemke

student

Sushil Kumar Roongta is an engineer by qualification, has a yen for numbers and holds a postgraduate degree in international trade.Yet, when S.K Roongta, chairman, Steel Authority Of India (SAIL), began his professional innings, it was as humble marketing executive in same company he now heads .This was in 1972, when the license raj was its peak and working in a public sector undertaking was considered to be a matter of pride by most of the Indians. Being a brilliant student through his school days at Bagar in the jhunjhunu district of Rajasthan, Roongta went to study engineering at the prestigious Birla Institute Of Technology And Science, Pilani in Rajasthan.Then he enrolled for a postgraduate course in international trade at the IIFT, New Delhi.It was this diverse educational background that stood him in good stead as he made his way to the top of the corporate ladder at the Rs.45, 555cr steel company in his later years. After 36 years at SAIL, Roongta became its chairman in 2006.His ability to number-crunch make it easy for him to understand finance. At the same time, his experience, marketing shows that he knows how business development is done and what are the challenges involved thereof. He has a good theoretical grounding as well as an understanding of the practical side of business. His views are actively sought when it comes to anything concerning steel. The 58 years old veteran realizes that his marketing and financial acumen has helped him survive the many peaks and troughs of the business. As he works on putting his 2010-11 vision in place, Roongta has also set his sights on the way forward beyond this period. He would like to take hot metal production to 60 million tonne per annum by the year of 2020.That is an ambitious target he’s set but going by the way he’s steered his company this far, this should not so challenging afterall.