Over the past ten years, CV Designers India (CVD), the Hyderabad subsidiary of CV Engineering (CVE), has become an integral part of the company. CVD has dedicated many hours to larger initiatives such as North American Stainless’s AP4 line, the SeverCorr plant in Mississippi, and a number of public schools in the Pittsburgh area. But the CVD team faced new levels of challenges in the second half of 2008; in addition to the global economic slowdown, the entire group restructured following the unexpected passing of Director and Vice President B. Venu Gopal Rao, while also relocating to a new office building. Deputy General Manager Bolla Sudarshan acknowledges the challenges, but thinks this period has brought more growth and maturity to CVD as a whole: “The team has learnt how to react in tough times, interact and work as a group.”

Mr. Venu Gopal Rao’s contributions to CVD were enormous – according to CVE President Subra Sennerikuppam, Venu was the one who started the Hyderabad office, developed the work ethic, and recruited and trained a quality staff. Venu and Sennerikuppam worked closely together for ten years, “coming through all the tough times together,” says Sudarshan. Now the team faced their largest challenge without Venu.

But with Sudarshan now managing the group, they were able to pull together: “As the roots of CVD as an organization were really strong, we were able to bounce back and continue delivering quality goods.” Assistant Manager Vinod Kumar agrees that “all of us learned to stick through such difficult times only because of the continuous support and encouragement” the team received from Sudarshan and from Manager Kalidas Mekala.

Part of this can be credited to greater communication between CVD and CVE’s headquarters in Pittsburgh: according to Sudarshan,“The interactions between CVD and CVE have improved quite a lot, by email, [instant message] communicators, and phone” – for example, project managers in the individual disciplines (Civil/Structural, Electrical, and Mechanical) can now hold daily discussions between Hyderabad and Pittsburgh. All of this is “helping in working together as a single unit.”

More technological upgrades came in late 2008, when CV Designers moved to its new headquarters at 304 & 305 Balaji Nivas in Hyderabad, India. The Balaji Nivas offices are brand new; the lighting, networking, and other features were built to CVD’s specifications. The building also features AC units and its own UPS facility. Sudarshan calls the new building “very well planned and equipped...infrastructure wise, we have grown a lot.”

Sudarshan thinks these changes have the CVD team well positioned to handle whatever the next few years might bring. “In five years from now,” he says, “I am confident that we are going to be a strong, experienced team with a good number of quality [projects] under our belts.” While CVD understands that “the year 2009 is a challenging one”, Sudarshan notes the team is expanding their global scope: “In the last year, we have worked on some Indian projects also… We need to [find] more opportunities in the Indian industry, with some tie-ups with the local engineering firms.”

Sennerikuppam agrees that CVD’s recent evolution was an important step on the way to achieving their goals for the next five years; to become ever more client-oriented, and to keep living CV Engineering’s motto that “We deliver more than we promise.”