Mayur Makwana

Born to the anvil

I come from the Luhar community, the ironsmiths. For generations, my family's work began at the anvil: fire, metal, and a hammer that had to land in the right place every time. Like every family of craftsmen in India, we call ourselves children of Vishwakarma, the divine architect and the patron of everyone who makes things with their hands.

I didn't become a blacksmith. I became an engineer who builds software for factories. But the instinct came with me. When I walk onto a shopfloor I don't see a process diagram. I see operators, machines, material and the small frictions between them, the way my forefathers could read a piece of iron by its colour.

That is why my ERP work starts at the machine and the worker, not at the accountant's desk. Most ERP is designed by people who have never stood next to a press brake at the end of a double shift. I have, in more than 2,500 factories across 21 countries, and it changes what you build.