Conversation with Mr. Vinayak Lokur

“Help others achieve their dreams and you will achieve yours”- Les Brown

The sound of the vedic chants reverberates the air as the silent sound of spirituality resonates out loud. The flames twirl out in ecstasy as a ladle of ghee pours down on it and the nascent holy fire crackles as it jumps up in joy as if it wishes to reach the zenith of the heavens up above. Sounds like a temple setting? Well this was a scene that greets many as one visits the factory of Expert Engineering Enterprises in Belgaum . When we asked Mr. Vinayak Lokur, CEO of Expert Engineering Enterprises and our local mentor in Belgaum regarding these prayers being conducted in the factory he went on to explain that these prayers are called Agnihotra. Agnihotra is mainly done for healing and to also make the whole atmosphere pure. “ A state of well being and happiness exudes in the employees due to agnihotra” he explained further.

Mr Vinayak Lokur has done his bachelors in industrial and production engineering post which he got a management certification from IIM Ahmedabad. He has a rich experience in areas pertaining to  computer aided materials management, production engineering, design, TQM and allied fields. A quality that standouts in him and makes him shine as bright as a diamond is his passion to do something good for the society. As we interacted with him he highlighted the point as to how his business till date has not seen any downfall and has remained quite sustainable. “ We do not believe in a single financial bottom line but we have a triple bottom line involving people, planet and profit” he exclaims perhaps due to which our business is always sustainable he remarks.

Mr. Vinayak Lokur, CEO of Expert Engineering Enterprises

A firm believer of the saying “ health is wealth”, he tries to reinforce this across his organisation and once during the week he along with all factory and office employees use their cycles to commute to office. This he says serves a dual purpose on one hand it promotes health and well being and on the other end it helps to reduce carbon footprints or pollution by even a miniscule amount. Education is the liberation of the soul  and an educated society steadily makes the society grow and the nation grow, with this objective they have started an interesting project called Vidhya Adhar Project. In this the company refunds the fees of the children of company staffs and workers in accordance to the percentage that the students score. Thus, this initiative has made the parents take keen interest in the studies of their wards and has also filled the children with a spirit of enthusiasm to study well.

“He that plants trees loves others besides himself” with the intent to increase green pockets in Belgaum, they are running projects like green zone where they plant 500 trees every year. Further to reduce the burgeoning problem of waste management, today they have waste collection vans going around the city collecting waste newspapers and magazines. They sell these for recycling and with the money collected they utilise it in various different charitable projects.

As one comes to the office of Expert Engineering another amusing scenario that confronts us is the throngs of people standing in queue. These people are beggars and sex workers who come here everyday in lieu of free food and other donated items which they receive. Post one month as they get accustomed to this they are then informed that they need to work for a sum of Rs 10 to earn the food and get the donated items. In this way they develop a zeal to work and are then placed in some unskilled jobs post which they are trained in  skill development.

Thus, the tete-a-tete session with Mr. Vinayak Lokur a highly dynamic and cheerful individual was an eye opener for us as we felt that by taking minute steps we could bring greater good for the society at large. Further the commitment he had towards the society was commendable but at the same time quite contagious as this filled us with a fire in our belly and it enthused us further to continue in full spirits towards this long and eventful journey.