WM 9 - Speaker: Mr. Thomas Dose, MD BMW Group Plant & Author on "Ilaya Principle"

Attendees: RCG Rotarians(39): President Radha Krish, Secretary Venkatesh K V, Treasurer Arunkumar, PP Ramesh Babu, PP Venugopal J, Jt Secretary Saravanan, PP Balaji SM, PP Sridhar T, Membership Chair Madhan, ISD Meiyappan, PI Chair Rafeek, Club Service Director Jemima, CSHD Srirarman, PE Prabhoo, PN Nandagopal, Anantha Seshan, Basheer, Karthik V, Vivek, Muthu Kannan, Dharmaraj, Riyaz, Vasu Venkat, Avinash, Sushil, Narayanan, Samapangiraja, Manju, Akash, Suresh Franklin, Jaffer, Sathyanarayanan, Deepan, Selvakumar, Satheeesh Kumar Elangovan, Radhakrishnan M, Prospects: Dr Elangkumaran, Abhy Joseph, Saravanan

Visiting Presidents Rotarians (5) : Mohanbabu-RC Royals, Vishnu - RC Kodambakkam, Madan - RC Sunrise, Habeeb - RC Central Aditya, Sangeetha - RC Metropolis

Guests (5): Speaker Mr.Thomas Dose, Mr. Shankar (Rtn Balaji's brother), Rtn. Kulandaivelu (Rtn. Meiyappan's brother), Ram Raj (s/o Mr. Shankar) + 1

Annettes (3): Saindhavi Balaji, Kaleeswar (s/o Rtn. Krithika), D/o Co-President Rtn Vishnu)

"The Eliya Principle" Speaker Session

Event Title: Blockbuster Night of Wisdom and Club Fellowship: Speaker session on “The Eliya Principle” Speaker: Mr. Thomas Dose, MD – BMW Group Plant Chennai Date: 26th November, 2025

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I. Event Highlights and Acknowledgments

The event was an "absolutely wonderful evening" and a "blockbuster evening" with 52 attendees, characterized by a highly engaging atmosphere and fellowship that lasted until 11 PM.

Acknowledgments:

• PP Balaji and his brother Shankar were thanked for referring Mr. Thomas Dose, a speaker of high caliber.

• Balaji provided a "brilliant introduction".

• CSD Jemima received special appreciation for "delivering hit after hit, week after week".

• The vote of thanks was delivered in German by Muthukannan, which left the speaker "absolutely awestruck".

• Membership Chair Madan introduced three prospects.

• PN Nandagopal announced JHC.

II. The Speaker and The Ilaya Principle

Mr. Thomas Dose, who learned everything through experience rather than university, shared management lessons in an eliya, simple yet profound way.

Cross-Cultural Genesis:

• Initially, Mr. Dose viewed the world through the lens of German precision and Japanese efficiency, seeing the universe as "perfect clockwork".

• In India, his team taught him that the normal situation is chaos, leading him to learn about humanity and cooperation.

The Ilaya Principle: The principle, meaning simple and easy, combines lean production, out of the box thinking, and the Indian way to approach things. Its core foundation is that every modern problem was already solved in the past.

III. Operational Transformation and Results

Mr. Dose applied the Ilaya principle in 2019 when he was ordered to close or sell the Indian plant due to high costs.

• 70% Cost Transformation: By clearly focusing the team on cost saving, the production cost per car was dramatically reduced from 2.8 lakhs to 80,000 within 12 months, saving the plant.

• Simplification: He reduced 250 KPIs to just three critical KPIs: Quality, Cost, and Time (Super Plan).

• Forward Thinking: He banned computers from production meetings, insisting managers focus on solving future bottlenecks, rejecting "post-mortems".

• Visual System: A completely manual, visual management system was implemented; since then, the plant has not stopped a single day.

IV. Key Leadership Tenets

Mr. Dose advocates for human-centric leadership based on common sense and trust:

• Servant Leadership: Leaders must remove their ego and act as the highest servant of the shop floor.

• Trust over Targets: He advocates for trusting people 100% and releasing targets completely to allow intrinsic motivation driven by passion, not fear.

• Empowerment: He stopped attending meetings to ensure the organization wasn't limited to his own intelligence. He protects his team from outside pressures.

• Diversity: He selects team members who challenge him or think completely opposite, believing a powerful team is a diverse team.

• Experience: Experience beats theory and is derived from doing.

The Ilaya principle is universally applicable and requires courage, trust, and common sense. Mr. Dose invited club members to visit the Chennai plant to verify the principle in practice