What is our fuel? What drives us to our vision and mission?
If you can't explain it simply you don't understand it well enough
Albert Einstein
Simplicity, matters! Especially so, in Engineering!
Engineering has existed for over three centuries now and it is our belief that, with time, we only seem to be making engineering complex. Society demands innovative and cost effective solutions which are also enduring and high in quality. The world is in an advent of path breaking approach towards solution building. We at Principle ACS, with our strong and experienced engineering, leadership and teams focus on "Simplicity in Engineering" which enables our teams to be efficient and innovative at all times. Minus the complexity.
Engineering at Principle ACS - Watch this Video!
Among other things, we are passionate about history of Engineering. It helped us gain access to the laboratory of human experience. It helped us empathise with people and needs of societies.
It helped us understand change.
It helped us lay the foundation for "Simplicity in Engineering." And our "Idea Lab" approach to solutions for tomorrow. Here is a short video on history of engineering that shows how we derived a sense of identity, purpose, vision and mission by looking back.
Integrity
The Quality of being Honest and having Strong Moral Principles. Sincerity. Probity.
Passion
Passion is the Genesis of Genius. Dedication, Devotion, Excitement. An emotion that comes from within you.
Agility
The ability of the team to rapidly respond to change by adapting its initial stable configuration. Quick, Swift, Sharp.
Commitment
A promise or a firm decision to do something. Engagement, Promise, Pledge.
Empathy
Is about finding echoes of another person in yourself. Understand, Insight, Perceive, interpret.
Some Stories We Share and Tell and Live By
Integrity
“Success will come and go, but integrity is forever. Integrity means doing the right thing at all times and in all circumstances, whether or not anyone is watching. Many times it requires courage to do the right thing, no matter what the consequences will be. Building a reputation of integrity take years, but it takes only a second to lose, so never allow yourself to ever do anything that would damage your integrity and affect the Organization image.
A person who has integrity lives his or her values in relationships with coworkers, customers, and stakeholders. Honesty and trust are central to integrity.
Every person who trusts you will spread the word of the trust to at least a few of his associates, and word of your character will spread like wildfire in the company. The value of the trust others have in you is far beyond anything that can be measured.”
An ageing emperor in the East decided on a novel way to choose his successor. He called the city's youths to his palace. Handing out some special seeds, he told them, "Go and plant these seeds. In a year's time, I will judge your plants and choose the new emperor."
One boy named Ling took his pot home and planted the seed. Every day he watered it but nothing grew. Even though his friends at school were talking about their growing plants, Ling only had an empty pot.
When the day came to return to the palace, Ling went with a frightened heart. The emperor appeared. All the other youths had magnificent plants. When the emperor saw that Ling had no plant, he summoned him to the front and announced to the crowd, "Behold your new emperor!! He has courage and integrity. All the seeds I gave away last year were boiled and useless. Ling was the only one who did not cheat. He will be a wise ruler to you all."
King said “Integrity is doing what you say you are going to do; keeping your promises; being a person of your word”.
Passion
“Passion is an emotion that comes from within you. It is your enthusiasm, your zeal, your drive and your motivation. You should not only just feel passionate about your job; you should put passion into it. You should apply all of your skills and all of your energy into your work.
Passion does not go unnoticed. People will see how well you do your job and your attitude towards it. They will notice your drive and your motivation.
If a man is called to be an Engineer, he should be constructive in same lines as how Pablo Picasso painted, or Beethoven composed music, or Shakespeare wrote poetry or Sir M Visvesvaraya or Sir Arthur Cotton Engineered. You should work so well that your work is remembered and people pause to say, here lived a great Engineer who did his job well.”
Steve Jobs was an impressive entrepreneur because of his passion towards innovations. Jobs found success in his 20s when Apple became a massive empire, but when he was 30, Apple’s board of directors decided to fire him.
Undaunted by the failure, Jobs founded a new company, NeXT, which was eventually acquired by Apple. Once back at Apple, Jobs proved his capacity for greatness by reinventing the company’s image and taking the Apple brand to new heights.
In 2005, during commencement to Stanford graduates Jobs gave famous lecture where he said, “Your time is limited, so don’t waste it living someone else’s life. Stay hungry. Stay foolish.” Remember those words of a great leader, because your best days are ahead if you remain passionate about your work.
Steve Jobs: "People with Passion Can Change the World"
Agility
“An agile approach to project management, indeed to any process simply means being able to adapt with change take on new approaches and essentially be ready to move the goalposts when change, take on new approaches and essentially be ready to move the goalposts when necessary.
This method being adopted more and more these days. Newer and newer technologies are changing the world, it’s almost impossible to stick to rigid plans. Even a project planner also keeps contingency reserves in schedule for absorbing the delays due to changes.
Trying to keep projects on track by restricting the chance of change and resisting it as much as possible simply doesn’t work these days, you have to be ready to adapt.”
Elattuvalapil Sreedharan the "Metro Man" of India was an Indian Engineering Service (IES) officer. He is known as an Agile Leader. At a renowned Management Institute, his case studies are taught.
His skills of Project Management are known worldwide. One of the most recent and popular project was Delhi Metro project. It is the biggest metro project in India till date. Being in the heart of country, the project was monitored by central government also.
Delhi metro Project was undergoing many difficulties like poor work by contractors, Traffic issues, political pressure and many more. An incident of collapse of bridge came in to lime light and hampered the speed of the project and was expected to get delayed.
It was Sreedharan’s management due to which the project was successfully completed way before schedule.
He has a track record of completing projects before the scheduled date. His first project “Pamban Bridge” that connected Rameswaram to mainland Tamil Nadu was a restoration project. The Railways set a target of six months for the bridge to be repaired while Sreedharan's boss, under whose jurisdiction the bridge came, reduced it to three months. Sreedharan was put in-charge of the execution and he restored the bridge in just 46 days.
His Major Projects Include Delhi Metro, Kolkata Metro, Cochin Shipyard Limited, Konkan Railway, and Kochi Metro. He has also been appointed as Chief Advisor for the Lucknow Metro. He has been advising for the Jaipur Metro as well as DMRC has undertaken its implementation. He has also been roped in as advisor for a proposed Metro rail system in Andhra Pradesh in the Visakhapatnam and Vijayawada (VGTM) areas.
“The only permanent thing is change. Change may be in the process of work or in schedules or change in entire project. We should be Agile enough to adapt to changes”
Commitment
“Commitment is dedication to a particular work, organization, cause, or belief, and a willingness to get involved.
People who are committed to an organization or effort truly believe that it is important, and they show up, follow through, and stick with it. The more people who are committed to your organization, the greater the momentum you can generate to get the job done.
Individual commitment to a group effort is what makes a team work, a company work, a society work, a civilization work. But it is important that the commitment and efforts is consistent till the completion of work”
Just having knowledge & talent does not guarantee success, one need to have commitment. A classic example is of Sachin Tendulkar.
Sachin Tendulkar and Vinod Kambli both started career at same time. Even though both were hugely talented, one touched the skies and one failed even to survive in team.
Unfortunately, Kambli did not have the commitment. He didn’t have the roadmap for himself as to what he wanted to achieve. Sometimes, you have the talent, but if you are not committed, you can’t become Sachin Tendulkar.
“Human race would fall behind” if the record is not broken in the future. – Kapil Dev.
Empathy
“A formal definition of Empathy is the ability to identify and understand another’s situation, feelings and motives. It’s our capacity to recognize the concerns other people have. Empathy means: “putting yourself in the other person’s shoes” or “seeing things through someone else’s eyes.” where the other person might be your colleague, boss or client.
Indeed, empathy is valued currency. It allows us to create bonds of trust, it gives us insights into what others may be feeling or thinking; it helps us understand how or why others are reacting to situations, it sharpens our “people acumen” and it informs our decisions.”
Mahatma Gandhi, after his return to India from South Africa in 1915, decided that if he was going to campaign for Indian independence from British rule, he would need to experience what life was really like for the poorest people in the country. So he threw away his fancy barrister’s suit and collar, wrapped himself in a dhoti or loincloth, and established the Sabarmati Ashram, where he lived from 1917 to 1930. Ashram life was about stepping into the shoes of peasant farmers. He and his followers grew their own food, spun their own cloth, and cleaned out the latrines.
Gandhi’s deep empathetic instinct also took him across religious boundaries. He was appalled by the violence between Hindus and Muslims, and fervently opposed the creation of a separate Muslim state. A devout Hindu himself, he once declared to a group of Hindu nationalists: ‘I am a Muslim! And a Hindu, and a Christian and a Jew – and so are all of you.’ These words, which still resonate today, rank amongst the greatest empathetic statements of all times.
Do you resonate with these values? We would love to hear from you. See open opportunities and post your profile to us.
