Kalyani Studio: Making the world come to India for high-strength engineering solutions Viraj Kalyani launches his Entrepreneurial Venture

by Suman Gupta

India, April 10th, 2017: Finding the need to infuse creativity and design into high-strength engineering solutions is what spurred Viraj Kalyani to launch his entrepreneurial venture- Kalyani Studio. Viraj Kalyani, the executive director of Kalyani Forge (KFL), and nephew to Baba Kalyani, chairman and managing director of Bharat Forge has a keen understanding of manufacturing and the forging business. Considering himself a disrupter in the engineering solutions space, Viraj is keen on championing the Government of India’s mission of ‘Make in India’ with his pioneering vision of ‘Design in India’ through Kalyani Studio. 

Kalyani Studio believes in the latent power of the physical strength of products which can be unlocked through better design and engineering to improve performance and cost. High strength products are present everywhere and require a high level of performance. To a large extent, these are under-the-hood products and applications that withstand tremendously challenging physical conditions like forces, motion, temperature and time. Kalyani Studio is therefore building a new ecosystem and category of high-strength engineering and design to cater to OEMs across all industries like railway, aerospace, automotive, agro-tech, construction equipment. The driven, new age leader is clear that the next wave of growth has to come from design which in his opinion is the next logical progression for the sector. 

Commenting on his entrepreneurial venture, Viraj Kalyani, Founder and Chairman, Kalyani Studio, said, “My purpose of setting up Kalyani Studio is to create high-tech jobs in India and catalyze clients to design high performance products as well as push the boundaries of high performance. We want to help evolve the industry to having specialized players and build global recognition for India’s capabilities in high-end engineering and design. The world came to India for forging and we continue to prove them right, the world will soon come to India for high-strength engineering solutions.”

Mastering the art of building a company from scratch and scaling it in a sustainable fashion came but naturally to the young entrepreneur who has had engineering, design thinking and manufacturing in his blood and wants to bring new vigour to the engineering, research & development (ER&D) industry. 

Having honed his skills on the shop floor at Kalyani Forge, Viraj was keen that he wanted to power up Original Equipment Manufacturers (OEMs) with engineering solutions and go beyond manufacturing capabilities. A graduate from the University of Pennsylvania, Viraj has successfully completed the Jerome Fisher Program in Management and Technology, a rigorous and selective dual-degree program, with a Bachelor of Science in Economics (Finance) at the Wharton School, and a Bachelor of Science in Engineering (Mechanical) at the School of Engineering and Applied Science.  

Offering new-age services for key industrial sectors, Kalyani Studio is all set to make India self-reliant in the fields of technology development in high-strength applications with service suites of Product Design, Engineering and Analysis, Design for Manufacturing and Technical Publication. In its next phase of growth, the company will expand its one-stop-shop offering to include prototyping and testing.

About Viraj Kalyani: Founder and Chairman, Kalyani Studio,  Executive Director, Kalyani Forge.

Viraj is a turnaround specialist and a champion of change management, leadership development and lean philosophy. While leading Kalyani Forge, a 1000 person organization from the age of 22, over a short time span, he brought steady growth in cash flows, the true success milestone of a lean transformation, enhanced facilities and new business orders worth 70 cr or 30% of existing revenues in the company. 

He is known for his highly professional approach when it comes to management and strives to benchmark with the best in the world. He has developed an internal system called the Kalyani Operating System to scale up and systematize operations and meet increasingly complex demands from customers with ease. He continues to grasp the latest management ideas and implements them and devotes time to training his team and learn from them. He promotes entrepreneurial ventures both inside and outside of the company.

Viraj is a firm believer in the potential of India and ties his ambitions to the growth of the country. He served on the Executive Committee of Young Indians, Pune, for three years. He was Chairman of Yi Pune in 2015-16, being the youngest Chairman in the country, and collaborated with CII on youth leadership projects, where young entrepreneurs come together to discuss and build the new business ecosystems. He also delivers talks in various educational forums & is closely associated with young talent. He promotes interdisciplinary learning and takes interest in various areas like economics, arts, philosophy, politics and applies them to business. He is an avid reader & is inspired by work.