The TPMS–Tantum Journey
Extraordinary outcomes emerge from well-designed management systems, not extraordinary people alone. TPMS evolved from repeated exposure to a persistent gap—between effort and outcomes, between intent and impact. These stories document the experiences that exposed, tested, and gradually addressed that gap.
Why These Stories Exist
Each episode captures a distinct moment where work, value, execution, and economics were forced into the open—failures, partial successes, and ethical confrontations.
The Evolution
Some stories precede TPMS. Some shaped Tantum. Others led to MSI formalization and Game-Changing Buddhas governance.
Lived Episodes
These aren't polished success stories. Individually they describe events. Together they explain why TPMS exists and continues to evolve.
NAVIGATION GUIDE
Choose Your Story
Story 1
When Passion Wasn't Enough
The Setting: Intent Was Not the Problem
After completing a Master's in Industrial Engineering in 1988, I built optimization software at Tata Steel and led Industrial Engineering at Cable Corporation of India. By mid-1994, I co-founded a consulting firm with Dr. H. E. Nagarwalla, building a 15-member team delivering complex optimization projects.The work was demanding. The problems were real. The effort was unquestionable.
The Tension
Despite sustained effort and increasing activity, the business remained fragile. More work meant more complexity and stress—not stronger economics. The pattern repeated: effort increased, outcomes delivered, viability did not follow.
System Insight
What was missing was a system making value explicit and defensible—defining what outcomes mattered, how they translated into economic value, and how that value could be priced and sustained.
What Became Clear
Two things: I could deliver meaningful, high-impact work. Without a system to define and protect value, even good work could quietly destroy itself. That clarity became foundational.
From Brilliant Work to Bold Pricing
A Different Starting Point
In 1997, I co-founded Thru-Put Technologies India (TPTI) with C. Sridhar, implementing Resonance—an Advanced Production Scheduling system based on Drum-Buffer-Rope. This time, there was a defined product, recognizable methodology, and international benchmarks.
Recognition
TOC was Operations Research translated into business language—a familiar way of thinking made explicit.
Bold Pricing
We priced at international benchmarks, with fees explicitly linked to outcomes rather than activities—removing the safety of effort-based justification.
The Proof
At HINDALCO, 33% of fees were payable only after inventory dropped and throughput improved. The work delivered. The client paid.
Define Outcomes
Agree measurable results before work
Price with Logic
Set fees based on value, not hope
Make Value Explicit
Communicate impact in business terms
For the first time, value creation and economic reward moved together—not through persuasion, but by design. This was the first confirmation that the earlier lesson could survive contact with reality.
Survival Pressure
When There Is No Margin for Abstraction
2000: The Collapse
U.S. parent company exited. TPTI stranded. Income cut 50%. Three months working capital. Small group stayed, deferring salaries. Renamed to Thru-Put Management Systems (TPMS).
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2002: The Defining Moment
Rolling average throughput increased 50%. WIP inventory and cycle times reduced 30-50%. Vice-Chairman announced 21% bonus—statutory maximum—for every workman, crediting TPMS team.
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2001: Choosing Courage
Ring Plus Aqua Ltd. near Nashik faced severe labour unrest. TPMS proposed payment from added throughput only. No job cuts. Gains reward workers first, then staff, then managers.
What Changed
Watching workers read that festival bonus notice, something irreversible settled. That moment defined the first non-negotiable value of TPMS: Respect for Value. TPMS became a system grounded in outcomes, courage, and fairness.
The Reset
With no capital, no product, no institutional backing—only whiteboards, spreadsheets, and experience. One decision: fees would track results, not effort. This was a statement of values.
When Giants Revealed the Limits of Borrowed Power
The First Reality
Between 2003-2006, TPMS executed largest project transformations in Indian industry. At a major multinational, Delivery Performance Index climbed from 40% to 80% across 600+ projects using only ERP and Excel. TPMS was paid milestone-linked fees and performance bonus.
The Second Reality
In parallel, TPMS executed large CCPM transformations as part of global software partnerships—multi-year, multi-million-dollar "Viable Vision" initiatives. TPMS was the execution arm on record.
The Erosion
Consulting and software partners pressured us to erase TPMS from view. Revenue shares cut without negotiation by people we'd never met, in countries we didn't operate in.
The Contradiction
We were delivering results. But the brand, the income, and the power belonged to someone else. I could survive. But I could not grow.
The Limit
No matter how much value TPMS delivered, as long as the software was owned by someone else, the ceiling was fixed. Execution alone would never be enough.
If TPMS was to stand for anything beyond survival, it would need to own the product. There was no funding, no platform, no team waiting—only a realization and the restlessness it ignited.
The Birth of Tantum
The Persistent Challenge
Despite sound thinking and non-negotiable values, TPMS faced a recurring issue: execution relied too heavily on individual interpretation. Each engagement demanded recreating clarity, and value remained vulnerable to erosion without a persistent, embodied system. Independence alone proved fragile.
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Across projects, systemic gaps led to drifting decisions and fragmented thinking. The need for explicit, shared, and persistent thought became critical as scale increased.
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The Unexpected Trigger
A pilot with the Indian Naval Dockyard at Visakhapatnam delivered clear results using a standalone tool. When a US vendor's enterprise software proved too expensive, a pivotal question arose.
The Defining Question
After replicating results at Naval Dockyard Mumbai, TPMS was asked: "Can TPMS develop enterprise-grade software within our budget?" Facing a lack of funding or a ready team, TPMS committed to ownership to break the dependency cycle.
Tantum Takes Shape
What began as GEMS, then DRMS for the dockyards, evolved. It wasn't just a project management tool; it embodied the thinking, preventing drift, ensuring accountability, and anchoring decisions to value. This general system of record became Tantum.
In 2012, TPMS declined a Naval directive for a wider DRMS rollout, affirming that Tantum would grow by integrity, not compromise. It emerged as a necessity, anchoring the consulting work and ensuring its core principles could not erode.