THINK AFRESH; ACT ANEW

THE HOUSE MAGAZINE OF GODREJ & BOYCE VOL 21-22 AUG 2021

THINK AFRESH; ACT ANEW FOCUS

Message From J N Godrej

The New Godrej.com

Yes! We Can Win

Managing Cashflows During the Pandemic

Godrej Americas Inc.

No part of the magazine can be reproduced in any form without due permission of the editor.

Read the magazine online anytime at www.change.godrej.com Mail your contributions, suggestions and feedback to: The Editor, Plant 12, 2nd Floor Godrej & Boyce Mfg. Co. Ltd. Pirojshanagar, Vikhroli (W) Mumbai 400079, India or email us at change@godrej.com Published by Indrapal Singh on behalf of Godrej & Boyce Mfg. Co. Ltd. Designed by Design Stack

THE HOUSE MAGAZINE OF GODREJ & BOYCE VOL 21-22 AUG 2021

It’s Now Time To Do Different Things, Differently!

Create your own tomorrows with your thoughts and actions today – Catherine DeVrye.

Indrapal Singh Editor

The theme, THINK AFRESH, ACT ANEW brings into focus the next steps we need to take to make G&B a thriving organization in the decade ahead.

What do we need to Think Afresh?

Customers served, markets addressed, products offered, our distinctive capabilities, cost structures, people policies, digitalization, technologies deployed and the like that impact our ‘right to win’.

Mr. J N Godrej gives us five priorities which must be thought through in depth and acted upon urgently. It is worth noting that some of our businesses have undertaken several strategic initiatives to emerge stronger despite the pandemic.

Also, Mr. J N Godrej took a pledge supporting the EP100 global initiative to double the energy productivity of G&B by 2030. Likewise, G&B has voluntarily set ambitious goals to reduce emissions by 60% by 2030. Tejashree and her colleagues have TEAM

Nalini Kala

Gillian Dennett

Edit Board

Edit Board

written about these commitments with us which are worth reading.

The concept of Aatma Nirbhar Bharat and what needs to be done more, is elaborated in an article by Dr. R. A. Mashelkar. Poorav Seth shares with us all about the digital transformation in progress at Godrej.

Anil Verma told CHANGE about how our businesses and corporate departments aligned strongly to have enough and more cash to sustain operations. The trials and tribulations faced in collecting more cash than the billed sales are shared in a compelling manner by Raghavendra of Godrej E&E. Godrej Precision Engineering (GPE) won the CII Exim Bank Award - 2020 for Business Excellence and has the distinction of being the first capital goods manufacturer to do so.

The new www.godrej.com is up and running. Do visit us and read about what it took to develop this state-of-the-art website

in an article written by Kalpesh and Deepak.

Notwithstanding the pandemic, our people in the field have achieved remarkable results.

And we have recognized the super achievers of Interio and E&E, which makes an inspiring read. Besides these articles, we have many interesting stories that convey meaningful lessons.

As always, we have many features for Godrejiites and their families to enjoy and benefit from. Do frequently delve into an e-version of CHANGE and encourage your family and friends to do so as well.

The emerging contours of G&B point towards a better future for all.

Stay Safe. Stay Healthy. Stay Strong.

Happy Reading!

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Contents

04 Message from J N Godrej

FOCUS

06

12

Yes! We Can Win

Managing Cashflows during the Pandemic

A 360° perspective on how India can win in the post

To be better prepared, we are using agile scenario planning for navigating shifts in the operating environment.

Covid-19 world.

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48

The New Godrej.com

Godrej Americas Inc.

A contemporary well-designed resource for a powerful online presence.

A pathway to fulfill our growth aspirations in the power sector.

SUCCESS STORIES

32 38

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Striking an 'Upbeat' Note with Personalized & Vibrant Work Desks

Collection Efficiency During The Pandemic

Are the Upbeat solutions cost-effective?

The answer is a resounding Yes!

In crisis, the ships that sail to our advantage are our relationships!

58 68

Godrej Strengthens India’s COVID-19 Vaccine Cold Chain

GPE Wins The Coveted CIIEXIM Bank Award for Business Excellence

Superachievers Interio Superachievers Godrej Electronics & Electricals

PERSPECTIVE

10 One Big Idea!

“The hedgehog knows only one thing but he wins ultimately.”

INSIGHT

16

Towards Digital Transformation

22

Enhancing Productivity at Railways

42

Collaboration in Competition

56

Chipping away at the Great wall

44 Climate Change: Challenges And The Way Forward

Godrej Leads The Way To Energy Efficiency And Reducing Emissions

Risks of climate change are increasing at an alarming rate, calling for urgent actions on all fronts.

To make progress, ambition should be higher than what is comfortably achievable.

BOOKMARK

84 Don’t QUIT! By John Whittier Learning to stay strong at the edge, makes the edge seem not dangerous anymore.

INSIDE G&B

64

Global Cotton - A Historical Perspective

76

DIGITAL SPRINT-A-THON 2020

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An Oasis of Wilderness

46

BOOKMARK

34

Courage in the Face of Danger

62

Gratitude - A new approach to life

72

Constant Change – The Normal New

74

Life Hacks for Children

LAUNCH PAD

20 Critical, Partial Oxidation Reactors for Linde, Singapore

By Godrej Process Equipment LAUNCH PAD

36

Home Cameras by Godrej Security Solutions

50

Safire Fire-Resistant Safes by Godrej Security Solutions

70

Aurelia Dining Set by Godrej Interio

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MESSAGE FOCUS

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Focus On What Matters Most As the economy recovers from the second wave of the pandemic, we can clearly see a host of new opportunities for growth. These opportunities exist alongside a plethora of challenges triggered by the hugely accelerated changes all around and the widespread impact of the pandemic.

In these unpredictable and chaotic business conditions, what remains unchanged is an urgent need to strengthen and deepen our improvement efforts that will enable our businesses to achieve the goals set.

Regardless of the changes happening externally, I believe, if we remain focused on a few big things, we will become intrinsically stronger and more capable of achieving better outcomes in the future.

Let me share five priorities that are vital to help us focus and align our efforts.

These priorities are interlinked and need to be addressed in an integrated way.

The first is, Health and Safety of our employees, our channel and supplier partners as well as those associated with us in the conduct of our business. We must establish processes and protocols and ensure their compliance for the wellbeing of all involved.

Customer-Centricity comes next. To win, we must place the customer at the very center of everything that we do. If we design our work with customer at the core, we will end up working on the right things that matter most. We must strive to understand and anticipate the changing needs of our customers to orient all our processes and metrics to meet these needs. A custom-

er-centric mindset must be at the core for designing and redesigning our product-service offerings, business models and such like.

Promises made must be delivered upon so that we continue to build equity, which will ensure that more customers prefer us repeatedly over longer timeframes.

The third one is customer insight based Ongoing Innovations in our products, processes, and practices to serve our customers better. Also, we need to renovate and at times, augment our existing offerings for delivering what customers want, at a lower cost.

New products with shorter development cycles will create dynamism in our brands and help us stay relevant for the new emerging buyers. NPD cycle times must be progressively shortened to have an advantage in the marketplace. Some of our businesses have reduced their NPD cycles which is encouraging. These efforts will enable us to grow faster.

The fourth area is Operational Excellence.

Operational Excellence is even more critical in times like this as it enhances our competitiveness besides making us more resilient to external shocks.

Let us work towards getting ‘efficiency premium’ in the form of better realizations and repeat business from our customers.

This premium should be realized and enhanced continually through the ongoing improvement initiatives such as Kaizen, TPM, TOC and so on. Higher scores on safety, quality, on-time & full delivery, appealing designs and the service that delights, ought to be the outcomes of our efforts. Productivity of both, our people and capital deployed, must be improved year on year. The use of modern

methods and technologies, especially digital, must be explored to enhance productivity.

We have made some progress here, but we need to do more, quickly.

The final overarching priority is to secure a Deeper Commitment from everyone for achieving the promised outcomes. Greater commitment becomes a reality only when people have a heightened sense of ownership towards their contribution. To facilitate this, we need to find and adopt newer and more effective ways of managing. Managers must see themselves as enablers who bring their unique contribution to the teams they lead. Managers must work towards removing barriers and demotivators so that people can give their best. We have no option but to get better at bringing out the unutilized storehouse of imagination, capabilities and talent of our people.

All these priorities must be pursued on the foundation of integrity and respect including respect for the environment.

To align our efforts on these priorities, constant communication is essential. Also, to trigger and reinforce new behaviors appropriate for the ‘New Normal’, we need to facilitate deeper conversations about these priorities at various fora so that we can learn from each other and shared understanding emerges.

As we envision a brighter future for G&B, let’s work together to make a continuous, irreversible progress on these enduring and game-changing priorities.

J N Godrej

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Yes! We Can Win A 360° perspective on how India can win in the post COVID-19 world Dr. R.A.Mashelkar, FRS

As we are good at getting more from less, let us accelerate less resource intensive and faster ways to deliver value.

It is not just new ideas, but the pace of implementation of known ideas that is staggering.

For instance, work from home (WFH) is itself not new. Our own Indian IT industry created a global revolution by pioneering the concept of remote work around three decades ago. However, the COVID-driven lockdown has led to a vast increase in the speed, scale and scope of WFH.

What would have happened gingerly in ten years is happening now.

Post COVID, the changes in all spheres of activity; economic, social and political will be very profound. Indeed, a new world order is in the offing. The first and foremost is the rapidity of change itself.

In 2020, in just three months, the virus spread from Wuhan, China, to Italy in less than 16 weeks. In 1331, the bubonic plague spread the Black Death from China to Italy in 16 years, and went up to 1347.

Second point is that the change is massive besides being rapid.

In just 3 months, 1.6 billion children moved from physical school to virtual school. Homes became class-rooms, on-line learning opportunities suddenly increased exponentially.

Look at the rapid change in adapting telemedicine in Britain.

“We’re basically witnessing 10 years of change in one week.” This was a statement made last month by Dr. Sam Wessely, a general practitioner in London.

TCS announced that their current 20% WFH will change to 75% by 2025. KPIT Technology will do 50% WFH as soon as lockdown is fully lifted. Why? Ravi Pandit, the Chairman, told me “We were transporting a few thousand of our employees by buses everyday to the company, making them spend 2/3 hours of time in buses, wasting their time, creating carbon footprint. No more so.”

There is an opportunity in every adversity.

Post COVID, the continued need for caution and physical distancing will mean increasing movement towards WFH. This will, in the medium-term, open up job opportunities for millions of home-bound women who - for social, time or safety reasons – were unable to take up full-time jobs. Continued WFH will facilitate a shift of work to smaller towns and rural areas, opening up job opportunities there. WFH will lead to a big increase in the number of gig workers: those who may work

only part-time or for multiple organisations.

Companies would welcome this, as it will lower their wage costs and also lead to saving overheads like office space, electricity etc.

I have always talked about the 3 D’s shaping the 21st century, namely - Digitalisation, Decentralisation and Decarbonisation.

These are all interlinked, one affecting the other. WFH would not be possible without digitalisation, but it is leading to de-centralization of work, as well as decarbonisation.

But post COVID, some of these terms will take a new meaning. Take Decentralisation of manufacturing.

Supply chains built on just-in-time inventory and distributed component sourcing will undergo radical change, given the massive post COVID disruption.

In the auto sector, for example, companies have relied on global just-in-time-based supply chains; they will be under pressure to change so that continuity of supply is just as valued as cost and speed to market.

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In other words, ‘just in time’ will give way to ‘just in case’. There will be a trade-off between price and safety in favour of safety.

Resilience will take precedence over efficiency.

There is much talk about China being displaced as a preferred destination for manufacturing. But I feel that the new model will not be ‘no China’. It will be ‘less China’. In fact it will be ‘China +1’.

For instance, Google is investing in Vietnam to produce its Pixel smartphone.

Microsoft will produce its Surface tablet there. Both want to ensure that alternative supply options are built too, while altogether not abandoning China.

In that context, India certainly has a window of opportunity, provided ease of doing business is dramatically improved by firmly and speedily dealing with the well known

challenges that we have, be they linked to land, labour, law, high cost of inputs…

Our PM has given an inspiring challenge by announcing ‘Aatma Nirbhar Bharat’.

And there is much discussion about what it exactly means.

I just saw an explanation by the Chief Economic Advisor. According to him, this idea of self-reliance is not about a return to

import substitution, or to licence-permit raj and inspector raj but an active participation in post-COVID global supply chains coupled with a strategy to attract foreign direct investment. It is about standing up confidently in the world, and not about isolationism behind “narrow domestic walls”. If this is so, then it is really good news!

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But Aatma Nirbhar Bharat first and foremost will require Aatma Vishwas, self belief, trust.

India desperately needed (and will need) large scale testing during this pandemic, and even after. For the Coronavirus testing kits, we were completely dependent on China.

One million kits were imported. States started testing. ICMR stopped the tests, since the tests were faulty. On 27th April, India cancelled an order that was already placed for half a million Chinese testing kits.

My question is simple.

Why did we have to depend on the import?

Can’t we trust ourselves to design, develop and deploy them ourselves? The answer to this is yes.

Rising to the challenge, IGIB laboratory of CSIR has created an innovative test, which uses cutting edge CRISPR technology for detection of genomic sequence of novel coronavirus. It specifically recognises COVID-19 sequence in a sample with greater specificity

than the state of the art. An innovative combination of CRISPR biology and paper-strip chemistry leads to a visible signal readout on a paper strip. Its main advantages are its affordability (Rs 500 only), relative ease of use and non-dependency on expensive Q-PCR machines. CSIR IGIB and TATA Sons will bring it in the market within a month. Maybe we will export the test kits too rather than importing millions of them from China.

I have a ringside view from another perspective. Marico Innovation Foundation set up a grand challenge ‘Innovate2beatCOVID’ with a cash prize of Rs 2.5 crores. The focus is on PPEs and ventilators, because the fear was that we will fall short in both cases. I happen to be the chairman of the jury. We have now selected the winners. And there is a lot of good news. We found some remarkable innovations. Many of them are designed to suit the Indian conditions and some of them are even having features ahead of the state of the art. Collectively we will have to help them to move from mind to marketplace.

That will require trust.

Collectively we will have to help them to move from mind to marketplace.

That will require trust.

Besides trust, building ‘Aatma Nirbhar Bharat’ will require proactive thinking, not reactive. We had post COVID shocks affecting our drugs and pharmaceuticals industry.

Because we were totally dependent on China for Active Pharmaceutical Ingredients (APIs).

Why? Because we closed down our IDPLs of the world, because Chinese APIs were so cheap. Now there is a rethinking in terms of boosting indigenous API manufacturing.

And we can do that because we can leverage India’s amazing strength in process chemistry and engineering.

But the API initiative is reactive. It came after receiving a shock.

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Can we be proactive by anticipating the ‘future shocks’?

India is moving aggressively towards Electric Vehicles and rightly so. These EVs are based on Lithium ion batteries. We don’t produce Lithium. China dominates that space, not only through their own mines but also the mines that they have acquired across the world. We need Cobalt that is supplied by Congo, a rouge state. We are vulnerable to future supply chain disruptions.

So we need alternatives. And some wonderful research and development work is being done on alternate materials that are abundant in India, like Sodium, Zinc and Manganese. And even better alternatives are fuel cells using hydrogen. I have been a witness to some great work in this space,

and mercifully, not just by our academics or national laboratories, but by our leading tech savvy industry players. One leading industrialist has even shown confidence in becoming the largest and the cheapest producer of Hydrogen in the world. Post COVID, we have to push all this very hard with aggressive policy support.

Finally, what about Business Management Education? Business itself is changing dramatically so its management requires new thinking. Return ‘of’ capital and not just return ‘on’ capital is the way business will be conducted for some time. Success will hopefully follow, but survival is first. Achieving resilience with returns will require innovation in business as well as its management.

I have always said that we need education in innovation and innovation in education.

The crisis has managed to reimagine education completely. What did not happen in 10 years happened in 10 days and that too seamlessly.

Management education will have to lead this from the front. It cannot just look at business cases in hindsight. It should start solving problems that are imminent and build forward-looking cases.

There is an opportunity to solve global problems now - with global data points, insights and resources. People from various geographies, professions and industries can huddle together in not only solving a problem but also anticipating one.

For that, the business and management schools will need to change 3 M’s - Mindset, Modus-operandi and Metrics.

At the end, the coronavirus pandemic will be forcing both, the pace and scale of technology as well as workplace and busi-

ness model innovation. The businesses will be forced to follow, what I had coined as the MLM mantra, that means getting more from less for more; meaning finding better, simpler, less resource intensive and faster ways to operate so that the stakeholders could be delivered more value. And this is what India has been good at, on delivering affordable excellence, so we have a huge comparative advantage.

I have the reputation of being a ‘dangerous’ optimist. I know that post COVID, we will have to bear a lot of pain, while we are rebuilding. But I am also confident that we will emerge stronger, if we focus on not just recovering but reinventing, with a spirit of ‘Yes We Can’. *This article is reproduced with the permission of Bombay Management Association, from their journal e-ambit.

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INSIDE G&B PERSPECTIVE

One Big Idea!

“The hedgehog knows only one thing but he wins ultimately.”

S.M. Vaidya, Godrej Aerospace

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According to me, the big idea that we at Godrej Aerospace would like to pursue is:

‘To enhance our workforce productivity to the levels achievable by deploying robots in a big way.’

The thought behind this idea is to improve human productivity multifold by using all possible aids such as tools, jigs, fixtures, gauges, templates, low-cost automation and robots in operations, wherever absolutely essential. Our ERP system will become a foundation that would support digitization and the use of IoT on a larger scale. Also, all manufacturing systems including quality assurance and documentation systems will be automated as required.

On the softer side, all managers must strive to create a work culture that is inspiring and enabling around work centers. I believe not imagined hitherto high levels of productivity can be achieved by aligning all our people-related policies and practices to the requirements of this big idea. This idea needs to be pursued to make Godrej Aerospace globally competitive, capable of winning sizably large business from

major players such as Boeing, Airbus, Rolls Royce, Saffran and others. The new levels of productivity will create a sustainable business, creating higher levels of human employment that can set in motion a virtuous cycle of higher prosperity for all, through higher disposable incomes leading to higher consumption, which will then lead to higher growth of businesses and so on.

I believe this idea can become a reality in three years by implementing it in a focused manner with the full involvement of the corporate departments and higher management. All policy and resource constraints need to be identified so that they are eliminated.

To demonstrate the doability of the idea, I would like to take a process and make improvements on the above lines to find the challenges to be overcome. If required, we would take expert help. I would like to incentivize the outcomes to make our people rally around the idea.

The entire exercise can be done with an investment recoverable in less than three years. I can kickstart this journey in about eight weeks of receiving the commitments for making this idea a success.

Going for this one big idea will prove to be a game-changer for Godrej Aerospace and help create a brighter future for G&B.

Going for this one big idea will prove to be a game-changer for Godrej Aerospace and help create a brighter future for G&B.

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Managing Cashflows during the Pandemic To be better prepared, we are using agile scenario planning for navigating shifts in the operating environment.

An E-Interview of Mr. Anil Verma by Team CHANGE.

TCH: The pandemic hit our economy with a complete lockdown, paralysing all activities in March 2020.

What were the priorities that we chose to pursue at that point in time?

AV: The announcement of the lockdown which resulted in shutting down of everything - markets, factories, transportation of goods and even movement of people to contain the spread of the coronavirus took us by surprise. We were coasting to a year where we would have met, to a large extent, our financial plan. But alas this was not to be!

We chose, after many deliberations, three priorities for vigorous, sustained action as the pandemic raged on.

The first priority was to stay connected with our employees and our ecosystem partners.

The aim was to ensure the health and safety of our team and our ecosystem partners and to assure them that we were with them in the uncertain, unprecedented, and fearful times. The need to take preventive measures to protect health and safety required constant communication to all employees, the unions, as well as our ecosystem partners based on whatever credible information we were receiving about the transmission of the virus and the measures to be taken to prevent its spread. To protect our people from COVID-19, we communicated the protocols

and established the required infrastructure at our plants and offices across our country and to enable them to function, if permitted by the government authorities. For this, we leveraged all the digital tools at our disposal.

Business Continuity was the second priority for us. We began preparing to withstand even more severe impact of the pandemic in the coming months. Wherever possible, work from home was mandated and facilitated.

Given the reality of lower revenues, the challenge was to enhance cash flows for having adequate liquidity. The aim was to have sufficient cash not only to pay salaries and wages to our people, but also for meeting our financial obligations to our suppliers, bankers, and other partners in our ecosystem.

The third priority was to quickly build alternate scenario plans for the year ahead. This was done in two cycles, to have in place plans that were as realistic as possible. Amidst all the chaos surrounding us, we pushed forward our resolve of achieving the desired outcomes in the immediate term. We resumed the manufacture of hospital furniture in the first phase of lockdown in April 2020.

Though completely new to us, we also took up the challenge of manufacturing ventilator valves on a war footing, to help our country combat the pandemic! The project was successfully delivered in record time despite the lockdown everywhere.

TCH: Could you please share some of the measures that we took to ensure the health and safety of our people?

AV: The government had come out with a set of guidelines for industrial establishments which included the use of Arogya Setu app, thermal scanners, sanitizing of premises, instituting measures for social (spatial) distancing, use of PPE-like masks and availability of sanitisers besides others. This required us to put in place protocols and to install the supporting infrastructure at our plants and offices as well as at that of our supplierpartners. Besides the workspaces, we had to ensure that the canteens and common spaces too, had in place protective measures

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like separators and other hygiene assuring protocols. More importantly, we had to educate and sensitize our employees on these measures at multiple touch points. We also had to encourage them to voluntarily declare as early as possible, any symptoms indicative of Covid-19 infections to their families and to us, so that the measures could be taken to contain the spread of the virus.

I am glad to say that our teams responded splendidly to the situation and adopted the guidelines with alacrity and diligence.

Kudos to our Plant Administration, Safety and Security teams for making this happen under trying circumstances.

TCH: That is truly inspiring.

How did we manage to have enough cash to fund our operations?

AV: A quick check of our finances indicated that to manage the cash flows we had to only step up on the large opportunity pool of collections that were due or overdue to us.

And, to phase out payments to our supplier partners to balance both.

We discussed this at the GMC meetings and the DMC meetings of our businesses.

We decided that we would leave no stone unturned to collect every rupee that was due to us including the retention monies paid through demand drafts and bank guarantees. We sensitized our teams accordingly. Every meeting began with a review of the progress on collections for the month

against the plan. What followed was truly incredible. We collected a large part of our outstandings in the first three months of the pandemic itself!

The focus on collections remained unchanged even after the markets opened and revenues witnessed traction. The new mantra was ‘collect amounts that were equal to or more than the amounts billed.’

On phasing the payments to our supplier partners, we analysed carefully the overall amounts due and ensured that not a single day’s delay (deliberate), occurred for the payments to the SME or MSME category of partners. For the larger partners having adequate financial strength, we worked out workable payment schedules and informed them accordingly. Requests for urgent payments were entertained. We explored for our supplier partners financing arrangements with banks at favourable rates.

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The entire credit for achieving this goes to all Godrejiites; our business leaders who prioritised cash flows, our teams in sales, purchase, finance, and other functions at HO, at our branches and our plants all over the country. The credit goes to them for their efforts made with missionary zeal for collections and payments. Engaging with customers was not easy with offices shut and invoices remaining unprocessed. Engaging with supplier partners and rescheduling payments in a win-win manner required perseverance and a lot of effort. All this was accomplished in an exemplary manner!

TCH: We can imagine the efforts taken by the Godrej team. What role did our relationships with our clients play in this effort of collecting receivables?

AV: The entire endeavour of collecting cash is a remarkable story of our sound and enduring relationships with our customers and ecosystem partners. There are hundreds of stories of dealer-partners and corporate officials going beyond the call of duty to ensure that our unprocessed payments were cleared speedily. It speaks volumes about the goodwill that Godrej enjoys.

Customers value us and want Godrej to do well always. Just as we think about them and their needs, they too appreciate our way of conducting business and reciprocate heartily.

This is a testimony to the adage ‘Trust begets trust’ in our context.

TCH: What are the major changes that we initiated in our businesses to help them meet the challenges emanating from the pandemic? Going forward, which of these should be retained to emerge stronger in the future?

AV: With the gradual easing of the lockdown, we first marshalled our resources to resume operations. We introduced a greater rigour in our operations reviews – from the GMC level to Commercial, Manufacturing

and Finance, and all our Business Units.

Our functional councils who were active during the pandemic and are active today became platforms for businesses to share and discuss problems and obtain solutions.

Scenario planning exercises were conducted twice with our BUs for aggregation of demand for the current year and to project our financial performance. This was refined through many iterations to arrive at clear objectives for each BU to achieve.

We began the process of strengthening our resilience to future shocks and began preparing for leveraging the recovery of the economy.

We worked to identify the strategic shifts in consumer and customer behaviour and align ourselves accordingly.

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In many ways, the pandemic was a tipping point for the organisation and provided us an opportunity to improve ourselves.

We worked to identify the strategic shifts in consumer and customer behaviour and align ourselves accordingly. We introduced products such as Dishwashers that would help with household chores, UV lockers to sanitise stuff coming to homes and offices and thermal imagers to detect possible cases of covid infections at the entry points. We also stepped up our visibility in the online media

as well as our presence in online channels where customers shopped.

We made structural changes to become more cost competitive. We are also working on zero-based budgeting initiatives to overhaul the cost structure. We have embraced digital tools to improve the ways we work – whether in providing visibility on our operations through the creation of dashboards or in sales force management. We have also introduced agile scenario planning to be conducted on a periodic basis to be better prepared for new shifts in the operating environment.

To be able to ride the waves of change better in the future, we plan to carry forward all these well thought-out measures which are essential to stay nimble and resilient.

TCH: All this makes for a fascinating story of bouncing back successfully in the face of adversity. Any comments before we end?

AV: Yes indeed. It is said that adversity does not build character, it reveals it. What we witnessed was an exemplary character, amply demonstrated by Team Godrej – our sales and service, project teams, manufacturing, sourcing, commercial, finance, HR, our unions....everyone indeed! Our teams went through the trying times to emerge stronger, more resilient to face sterner tests ahead.

Undoubtedly, the true heroes of the day are our people.

Let me congratulate them and wish them all success as we move forward.

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INSIGHT

Towards Digital Transformation Cornerstones of winning at the competitive markets are digital approaches and strategies.

Poorav Sheth, Corporate Digital Team

By going digital, we can substantially modify existing business models and create new business models that are relevant.

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Today, the words “Going Digital” or “Digital Transformation” are constantly heard by us when we talk about businesses and their plans to thrive and grow in these pandemic times and in the future. Digital approaches and strategies have become cornerstones for businesses to move forward and make a mark for themselves in the prevalent highly competitive environment. It is worth taking a pause here to clearly understand what it means to ‘Go Digital’, and simplify its meaning so that a shared understanding of the concepts can be created to facilitate rapid progress on the Digital journey.

The Anatomy Of Digital

Digitization is the process of transitioning from analog to digital

digitize

At a granular level, the word “Digital” relates to the use of computers & electronic systems that make use of the digits - 0 & 1 in their cellular (binary) form to perform tasks.

By this definition, everything from a scanned piece of document to giant cloud servers falls under “Digital”. For that matter, the way this edition of CHANGE is put together, is Digital and the way it will be read using a device will be Digital. Today, Digital is all pervasive – difficult to draw the line!

Digitization, Digitalization or Digital Transformation?

Digitization is simply a process of converting information from analogue to digital.

Scanning of a photograph or converting a paper report to a portable document format (PDF) are some of the examples of digitization. Here the data itself is not changed; it is merely encoded into a digital format.

Digitalization is about embracing the ability of digital technologies to collect data digitally and use it to transform the way customers & businesses engage with each other. The data is also used to arrive at better decisions.

Digital Transformation is the process of using new and emerging digital technologies to modify the existing business models or create new business models in anticipation of dynamic, ever-changing business and market requirements. It is more associated with the cultural change within businesses which involves leveraging of technologies to empower and enable employees as well as customers. In the end, it is more about people than technologies!

Digitalization is the process of making digitized information work for business

save money

Digital Transformation is the journey of applying the digitalization to transform business

grow money

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INSIGHT

Connected Supply Chain

Customer Centricity The Pandemic Kick In the wake of the current COVID-19 situation, Digital transformation has emerged at the top of the priority list for businesses.

The pandemic has forced companies to redraw their strategic IT roadmaps, with many adopting cloud software, building apps and implementing policies policies that would benefit both the employees and customers.

With serious measures such as lockdowns enforced by the Government, adoption of digital technologies stands accelerated. For example, in 2020, Microsoft Teams had 115 million daily users as against only 20 million daily users in 2019; a growth of 575%.

Digital@G&B

NextGen Workplace

Operational Efficiency

Digital At G&B G&B embarked on its Digital Transformation journey in 2019, where multiple Digital initiatives like O365, Microsoft Teams and OneCRM were successfully implemented by cross-functional teams. These initiatives laid a good foundation for the new central Digital team that was created in September 2020.

In a world that is increasingly going online, businesses need the help of digital strategy teams to stay relevant and competitive.

Constant consumer contact is the new rule in the acquisition game. To emerge as winners, our larger businesses need their own core digital teams who must work collaboratively with the corporate digital team. The Corporate Digital team at G&B is a diverse team with each team member acting as a ‘change agent’ for enabling and supporting businesses in different aspects of digital technology. The team has a diverse set of knowledge and skills in areas such as emerging technologies, creative design, product visualization, business transformation, data architecture and the like. Amalgamation of this knowledge and skill base with the exist-

ing knowledge and skill base in our businesses will bring forth broader thinking, creativity, greater empathy, and newer perspectives to the ways they conduct their businesses and their business plans, both annual as well as strategic.

Our approach is to determine the experiences that consumers demand and then work backwards to the features and technology necessary to meet those demands. After initial analysis, our team members can help embed digital into the existing core business processes and help create new digital ones.

With this approach, digital percolates into the DNA of the business itself, empowering it for faster response to new consumer needs and making constant innovation infinitely easier.

The Foundation Element In order to make the Digital Transformation at G&B more sustainable & scalable, we decided to take a closer look at an important building block – the Enterprise Architecture of G&B. The purpose was to create a map of Digital, information & operational technology (IT & OT) assets and their capabilities. We also wanted to articulate governing principles, targets and transient architecture that would drive ongoing discussions about business strategies and how the same should

be expressed through technology, platform strategy and the roadmap. We are also working with our businesses to help them design, select and implement platforms & updated architecture for new systems keeping in view the requirements of their customers and users. We are attempting to keep Total Cost of Ownership low by adopting the best practices, optimizing performance, and improving security, now and in the future.

Customer Experience Right from the onset our focus has been customer centricity, both at the front and back end. At the front end, we are bringing a strong focus on designing a superlative user experience and customer journeys for our applications. At the backend, we are implementing technologies to automate and optimize processes that impact the customer. We believe that this holistic approach will make G&B more customer-centric.

To maintain uniformity, we are creating a set of standards, processes, and guidelines for user experience (UX) design at G&B.

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This will help us develop engaging & intuitive digital products and solutions to serve our external & internal stakeholders.

We have also started our journey for implementing product visualization technologies, such as AR & VR. Recently, as a part of the Diwali 2020 campaign, we launched G&B’s first range of augmented reality filters for four of our businesses on Instagram & Facebook. These were created in-house in a short span of only three weeks to keep up with the trend and engage better with our audiences.

On the website front, the new godrej.com is live and we plan to integrate it with our common customer relationship management (CRM) system to optimise lead generation and conversions.

Robotic Process Automation To configure the next-generation workplaces, we are looking at implementing process automation using software bots called Robotic Process Automation (RPA). For this to happen in a bigger way, we have set up an “RPA Center of Excellence” comprising of process and technology experts. In Phase 1, we have identified a few processes along with our BU’s, where we will adopt industry best practices to deliver the required auto-

The purpose was to create a map of Digital, information & operational technology assets and their capabilities.

mation in a short span of time. By consolidating various platforms and processes across G&B, we have saved approx. 22% cost of RPA licenses and conserved a significant amount of manual efforts. To ensure RPA becomes a common phenomenon across G&B – all businesses and corporate departments, we are encouraging everyone to identify additional processes that can be enabled by RPA for serving customers better at lower costs.

Digital Upskilling No digital transformation is complete without people. In the future, all organizations are going to be technology organizations, and all workers will have to be technology workers. If this were to happen, upskilling of the workforce becomes an imperative. To increase the digital quotient of the workforce, we are looking at upskilling through various initiatives including online courses, digital events, virtual trainings etc. In partnership with Microsoft, the Digital Team has already set up an ‘Enterprise Skill Initiative’ to upskill the workforce through guided learning paths and interactive, hands-on modules. We will also be conducting awareness sessions to keep up with the emerging technologies.

We are also planning to start another program called “Digital Champions” soon, which will identify individuals from businesses and

create curated learning journeys for them to enable them to contribute to the digital transformation of G&B. Digital Champions will be required to contribute to areas such as design thinking, analytics, change management and the like.

We have also conducted digital awareness sessions, the first one being “Culture of Innovation at Amazon” through a masterclass in collaboration with the HR team. A senior executive from Amazon spoke about Amazon’s approach on innovation from his own firsthand experience. He also shared how this could be aligned to any specific end-customer problem or opportunity to define new product, service, or experience.

Our digital team gave a presentation on “Product Visualization Technologies” to G&B’s marketing council, explaining in detail various visualization technologies such as 3D Media, AR, VR and Virtual Stores. The team also shared alternate approaches, benefits and case studies.

As we move ahead…

Our aim is to facilitate the transformation of G&B by leveraging technologies, upskilling people, and changing the way we work. Going forward, we want everyone to go digital and embrace innovation to transform G&B to be more competitive and sustainable.

CH

D A P

N

U LA

CRITICAL, PA RT I A L O X I DAT I O N R E A C TO R S F O R LINDE, SINGAPORE FROM GODREJ PROCESS EQUIPMENT Our contribution for producing hydrogen, the fuel of the future.

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Godrej Process Equipment (PED), the heavy engineering arm of Godrej & Boyce Mfg. Co Ltd, has been, for over 40 years, serving the needs of its customers, worldwide. PED manufactures critical, static process equipment, such as reactors, columns, pressure vessels, feed water heaters (Yuba design), surface condensers (Ecolaire design), advanced direct contact condensers, air cooled heat exchangers and other equipment for applications in oil & gas, fertilizer, chemical and power sectors.

As it is known, the use of fossil fuels for energy generation is the largest contributor to the global emissions. To reach the aspirational goal of net-zero emissions by 2050, countries world over have been looking for cleaner sources of energy. Hydrogen is amongst the most promising and cleanest of the alternatives that is being considered, researched, and worked upon by almost all countries. It is believed that hydrogen with zero CO2 emissions will play a major role in our transition to cleaner energy in the coming decades.

To produce Hydrogen, the fuel of the future, PED recently supplied four partial oxidation (POX) reactors to Linde, for their project in Singapore. Linde is a global leader and has over 30 years of experience in partial oxidation process where hydrocarbon feedstock is used

for converting it into hydrogen and other fuels.

POX reactors are critical to oxidizing Tar Pitch obtained as a residue from crude distillation process for producing Syngas, which is further purified and separated to produce hydrogen, a cleaner fuel.

Linde’s business was secured in the face of tough global competition. This prestigious order was won on the basis of merit, i.e., our capabilities, track record as well as our strong relationships with Linde - one of the leading global EPC & Technology companies. These reactors called for stringent specifications to be met which we did successfully with the dedicated efforts of our teams. Despite the raging pandemic, the lockdowns and supply constraints, our teams rose to the occasion, put in the required efforts for executing the project to the satisfaction of this demanding customer.

Globally, a mammoth $300 Bn investment is planned until 2030 for Hydrogen projects. Our successful participation in Linde’s Singapore project helps us position GPE as a reliable and competent supplier of POX reactors. We intend to capitalize this success to win many such orders from our customers world-wide.

CHANGE congratulates TEAM PED for this outstanding success.

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FOCUS INSIGHT

Enhancing Productivity at Railways Ushering in state-of-the-art manufacturing at Railways.

Nagraj Pandit, Industrial Machines, Godrej Tooling

As we move forward, we want to leverage our experience to take on large and complex automation projects.

Industrial machines (IM) - a line of business of Godrej Tooling, provides customized solutions such as automation of jigs & fixtures, material handling, welding, and deploying of robots for improving productivity in a wide range of manufacturing activities.

In the recent years, IM has forayed into catering to the requirements of automation in ordinance factories, rail coach as well as other manufacturing factories of Indian Railways, and metro rail manufacturing establishments. Also, IM has helped many businesses of G&B to automate their operations.

Over the years, IM has acquired substantial, varied experience for taking on large and technically complex assignments for enhancing productivity through automation .

Currently, Indian Railways are facing the challenge of increasing productivity in their production shops to meet the growing demand for coaches and wagons.

In 2019, Rail Vikas Nigam Ltd (RVNL), approached Godrej Tooling to conceptualize and develop an indigenous solution incorporating ‘Universal Shell Body Assembly Fixture’ for automating assembly of coaches at their upcoming Rail Coach Factory in Latur, Maharashtra.

To offer a solution that would increase productivity substantially, the IM design team carried out extensive studies of manufacturing processes of coach-making factories of railways. The study also included in-depth interactions with the technical personnel of

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Integrated Coach Factory (ICF), Chennai. The key requirement that emerged was to design a flexible jig, fitted with automated welding arrangement to accommodate the variants of the coaches to be manufactured.

Hitherto, Coach Shell Bodies were assembled and welded on conventional types of fixtures having manual operations. This required large manpower and effort for clamping, alignment, and welding. The assembly of each coach required more than two working shifts. Further, the variants of coaches required separate sets of fixtures blocking a large amount of capital and floor space for storage.

The manufacturing process involves placing of underframe on trestles in the previous station where various brackets for underslung components are welded and couplers are fitted. The completed underframe is then lowered on dummy trollies which transfer the components into the UCAS. Here, the underframe is lifted, levelled, aligned, and clamped in the required position.

Shell parts such as roof, end walls and side walls are loaded on the underframe and clamped automatically in position to ensure squareness and defect-free welding.

Latest generation of metal and tungsten inert gas welding is carried out using autowelder cum oscillators powered by synergic pulse welding sources. Magnetic flexi-tracks are used for welding of doors and end walls.

Once the welding is completed, the shell body is de-clamped, lowered on dummy trollies and transferred to washing and painting stations for further operations.

Keeping in view the RVNL approved brief, the IM team designed and developed a state-of-the-art ‘Universal Coach Assembly Station (UCAS)’ with an In December 2020, despite auto-welder setup. the raging pandemic, This integrated station is capable of weld- the IM Team successfully ing many variants of EMU, MEMU and LHB installed and commistype coaches through built-in flexibility in sioned two UCASs at Latur. clamping, resting level pads and slides.

Each coach consists of components like underframe, side walls, end walls and a roof which are rigidly clamped in the UCAS and then welded sequentially for seamless welding through a set of auto-welders. This minimizes human intervention improving welding quality and reducing cycle time.

Trial production runs were carried out and then to the delight of the RVNL and IM teams, the first MEMU coach shell rolled out, assembled successfully.

RVNL is now enjoying several benefits like 100% increase in the productivity of the line,

enhanced production, deskilling of operations, conservation of storage space, reduction in the investment of multiple tools & fixtures and the like.

This success is likely to lead to more orders of such stations from other production units of Indian Railways and metro coach makers.

This achievement underscores the contribution of Godrej Tooling towards the initiatives of Aatma Nirbhar Bharat as well as Make In India. Kudos to the IM team!

RVNL will now have several benefits like 100% increase in the productivity of the line, enhanced production...

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FOCUS

The New Godrej.com A contemporary well-designed resource for a powerful online presence.

Kalpesh Patel & Deepak Banota, Corporate Digital Team

An intuitive, user-friendly, smart website for an ease of connect, information and making choices.

If one is asked to describe the present generation, a few attributes will flash in our minds: like short attention span, impatience, hunger for fresh content, fascination with new technologies and so on. These characteristics also reflect the ways in which they research, engage, and consume content digitally. The fact that they have a fleeting attention span and are forever in a hurry, they expect digital touch points to be more intuitive, specific and without frills.

A website is a self serve ecosystem, that is supposed to pre-empt users’ requirements and offer relevant content or services to the user.

Seamless storytelling for meaningful engagement is essential.

The existing website was put in place a decade ago. As mentioned above, not only have the users evolved over this period, but the websites too. In this context, our existing website looked dated, had design language, tone of voice and functionalities that made navigating tedious and the user experience inconsistent. It had mostly corporate content which today’s users were not particularly interested in. The content was scattered across the websites of our Business Units (BUs) and their microsites making it difficult for the users to easily find what they wanted.

It was essentially a gateway to the offerings of our businesses.

Also, it was far from being intuitive; for example, locks and safes are both meant for providing security - peace of mind to the buyers. However, in reality, as these products are offered by two different BUs of G&B, in the existing website structure, the user may buy one or the other or miss out on buying both.

Overall, the existing website was sub-optimal in many ways. Most importantly, in its ability to readily offer what the user was looking for, showcase G&B as a whole and create an opportunity for cross-selling.

Given the above context, a decision was taken to create a new website, the journey of which began by the team asking itself a few vital questions. » How do we showcase Godrej (Group) as an entity that has an impressive scale, diversification, capabilities and have businesses that are vital for nation building but not commonly known, such as Aerospace, Nuclear Energy & Defence. » How can we have an all-encompassing website that enables us to do away with the existing websites and microsites of the businesses? » How can we make the new website user friendly so that the visitors can find whatever they need quickly by browsing seamlessly through all that Godrej has to offer? How do we make it more intuitive? » How can we simplify the new website structure so that it is easy to manage and can be updated & upgraded as required?

We began our journey of creating a new website keeping these considerations in view.

We wanted to have a design language that would appeal to the young buyers of today.

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The Journey The first step involved taking into account all the businesses of the Godrej group. We examined product and service offerings of each of the businesses to identify the related offerings that belong to a particular ‘business vertical’ so to speak. We ensured that these clusters of businesses were logically aligned to the business vertical to facilitate an intuitive browsing experience.

These business verticals were presented to all our stakeholders for their inputs and approval. To our pleasant surprise, we received a green signal from the majority of stakeholders. The final output was further

refined for sharing as a brief to our agency partners to be onboarded for creating our online presence.

We shortlisted many partners to work with, but after an in-depth deliberation, we selected Creativeland Asia as our partner.

To capture the expectations of our businesses, we had several Focus Group Discussions. Many extensive sessions ensued, before we could place each and every product or service offered by the Godrej group into the relevant business vertical to ensure deeper integration of these offerings with the Godrej brand. Now, the offerings were grouped in a way that the user would intuitively look for.

We then arrived at a manageable list of verticals that would be acceptable to our businesses and yet not overwhelm them or our visitors by being too long or too short. The business verticals are: Aerospace & Defence, Appliances, Chemicals, Financial Services, Food & Agri, Furniture, Furnishing & Fittings, General Engineering, Heavy Engineering, Home & Personal Care, Intra-Logistics, Information Technology, Infrastructure, Locks & Security Solutions, Power & Energy and Real Estate. This exercise was followed by collecting and collating a huge amount of data and placing it into the verticals so that visitors on our site can access whatever information they need to make choices.

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FOCUS

1

Category Trees As we were keen to connect every business to the right business vertical, up to the product level, we began creating category trees which provided an overview and linkages to all the SKUs of Godrej Group. The trees also showed which of the SKUs were sold online or not, product variants, images, hero products and the like. At the end of the exercise, we had a huge amount of raw data, the sensible processing of which was another mammoth task. Sifting of this data and organising it in a presentable way was a challenge. We accomplished this task with the help of our businesses. Also, we had to include fact sheets, brochures, user manuals, testimonials, case studies and many other things to make our website a useful and reliable resource for our visitors.

2

Language of Design We wanted to have a design language that would appeal to the young buyers of today. We chose a language that was simple and minimalistic to ensure clarity. Complex design elements were avoided. This minimalistic approach helped us tie together our B2C and B2B offerings seamlessly, creating a brand experience that is fresh, approachable and innovative.

3

Research for User Experience We conducted a comprehensive User Experience (UX) research involving all the stakeholders to create the UX strategy. Based on the research, we also created different design prototypes that were shared with all concerned for arriving at the templates to be used for the website.

4

Content Management System (CMS) This was developed parallelly with the generation of content. The CMS has capabilities to create promotional pages, customised URLs, implement SEO, add or update products with a few clicks as against days or weeks taken in case of our previous websites.

CMS keeps evolving as we work closely with our businesses to bring forth the content that may help serve both our customers and businesses better.

What makes our Website stand out?

To make our website distinctive, we analysed the behaviours and consumption patterns of digital natives and discovered that 85-90% online discovery happened through search. We replicated this behaviour into our new website fully appreciating the fact that search is the new currency today.

A short engagement with godrej.com is sufficient to convey to the user that it is indeed a state-of-the-art effort. This is because of the unique features that have been built in, some of which are:

1. Search The users today are short of time and want search experience similar to that of a search engine like Google. To provide a similar experience, we have taken care to integrate modern search capability and machine learning to make search smarter over time.

2. Browsing To ensure seamless browsing across devices, the website is designed for faster response. The website is optimised for faster loading on browsers of all devices - laptop, desktop, mobile and others with benchmark scores like google page speed better than our peers.

3. Continuous updating For having improved search engine results page (SERP) rankings, the website content is updated periodically with the first leg of comprehensive Search Engine Optimisation in progress currently.

4. Consumer support The design language of our website has allowed us to integrate support in a consistent way across all our businesses. Support centres are created for our B2C businesses where the users can raise a service request,

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access user manuals, watch installation videos, download mobile apps for the product concerned and the like. These info-aids are available for discontinued products as well.

All these can be accessed by a support button provided throughout the website along with a common toll-free number.

5. Deeper analytics To track user behaviour on the website, so that our BU teams can take sound decisions, we have provided on-page-analytics like comprehensive report of enquiries raised, clicks on various buttons throughout the website, statistics on products compared, detailed analysis of search terms used and so on. This is in addition to the Google analytics available to the businesses.

6. Cross-selling All our product pages have a section called ‘we also offer’ that smartly lists similar or complementary products to capture the at-

tention of the visitors. Now, we can engage our visitors for longer durations, facilitating cross-selling of products and services.

The Way Forward All well-managed websites essentially remain a work-in-progress in the face of constant changes in the profile of visitors, their needs, new products & service offerings.

Evolving technology and the imperative of staying relevant in the context of competition and global benchmarks also drive changes on the website.

Keeping these imperatives in view, we have identified a few areas of development which we plan to put in place soon. » A comprehensive search engine optimization plan, to give a decent boost

to the performance of our website. » A host of promotional activities in the coming year to improve the quality and length of engagement of visitors. » Integration of the CRM with our website is underway so that enquiries, feedback, and concerns of our website visitors for our products and services are captured and tracked until resolved. » Real time chat is planned to be installed to improve the quality of conversations with our visitors. » Integration of business and other ecosystems with our website are envisaged so that godrej.com becomes a single source of interaction for all our stakeholders.

The new godrej.com is live now. Being a dynamic entity, it requires constant modifications, updates, and enhancements to adapt to the requirements of the continually changing business world. To accomplish this task, we look forward to the support and active engagement of all.

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Striking an ‘Upbeat’ Note with Personalized & Vibrant Work Desks Are the Upbeat solutions cost-effective?

The answer is a resounding ‘YES!’ Venkat Ega, Godrej Interio

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Today, the offices are shrinking in size, leading to mundane and claustrophobic workspaces. As workstations are isolated spaces, they tend to restrict free and collaborative thinking, bringing in a degree of rigidity in the work culture. It is therefore essential to make modern offices more personalized and have home-like ambience to make individuals feel at ease, leading to improved productivity.

Upbeat is designed to create a cheerful lifestyle and deliver intuitive functionality in the offices by being able to facilitate activity-based layouts in the limited floor space available.

The Upbeat solutions help create not just the primary work desks but also impressive and useful interactive and rejuvenating work zones. It blends superbly with Interio’s Social Office Hubble products as well as related interior elements through design language and colors to create joyful, visually attractive, and inspiring workspaces.

In designing the Upbeat system, we faced many challenges; for instance, how to make office workers feel at ease in their personal workspaces.

Another challenge was how to facilitate creative freedom and give much desired ‘autonomy’ to the office workers in configuring their workspaces. And lastly, the challenge was how to build in portability of furniture and have flexibility in layouts so that the gaps

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Upbeat has been a distinctive commercial success with our plants having to increase production capacity within months of its introduction. between various work zones are blurred to have a seamless flow of thoughts and people.

The designer’s intent was to cleverly resolve product details and create a user-centric solution that provides enriching workspaces through modularity, flexibility, and a fresh visual appeal.

One of the interesting core innovations of Upbeat is the system’s modular understructure. It is designed for quick assembly especially in different configurations. Options for the designs of desk legs are readily possible.

Universal die-cast components effortlessly help connect various understructure elements.

This innovation also offers the required precision, stability and long-term durability as expected from Godrej Interio.

As office devices are becoming increasingly portable, Upbeat work desks facilitate agile and ingenious layouts to have interactive and a productive work culture.

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One of the interesting core innovations of Upbeat is its modular understructure.

It is designed for quick assembly especially in different configurations.

As an advanced product platform, the system of solutions assures lively and happier experiences through its unique features, even for the on-going crucial spatial distancing mandate for the health and safety of office people. Upbeat can be readily repurposed for changing needs in the future by using its compact Mobile desks and Power Beam configurations.

Often, the users enquire if Upbeat is a cost-effective solution; the answer is a resounding ‘YES’. Upbeat provides an array of benefits to its users and stakeholders. It helps talent retention by providing personalized workspaces through intuitive and intelligent accessories that help them express their identity at work. The joy of working is enhanced at price points that are highly cost-effective.

As they say ‘proof of the pudding is in the eating’, Upbeat has been a distinctive commercial success with our plants having to increase production capacity within months of its introduction. We believe architects and facility managers are appreciating the value offered by Upbeat, especially when businesses are facing de-growth in their revenues and profits. Architects believe that the Upbeat System helps them create work-

spaces that are youthful and energizing to bring in much-required optimism in the work environment.

Upbeat has emerged as a product of significance having two patents at the approval stage; one for cable management and second for modular flexibility. It has received several worthy certifications such as BIFMA LEVEL III, IGBC GREEN PRO, ‘GRIHA Certified Plus’s and others.

Upbeat has also been the winner of several design awards such as the prestigious India Design Mark, the CII Design Excellence Award for Best-of-the-best in product design across all Indian products & in furniture specific category.

In a short span of time, Upbeat has become a milestone product in the timeline of office design.

It is an exceptional and highly relevant product platform, completely designed and delivered by Godrej Interio.

CHANGE congratulates the Upbeat team for this outstanding product offering and wishes them success in their future efforts.

SUCCESS STORIES 32FOCUS

Godrej Strengthens India’s COVID-19 Vaccine Cold Chain A proactive initiative that is making a difference.

Mr. Jaishankar Natarajan, Associate Vice President and Head - New Business Development, Godrej Appliances.

To achieve the goal of vaccinating maximum people with minimum number of doses, Godrej Vaccine refrigerators are crucial.

To contribute to the vision of self-reliant India, 2015 onwards, Godrej Appliances has built a vast portfolio of vaccine storage products which are World Health Organization compliant for performance, quality, and safety, 100% eco-friendly and above all, are manufactured in India.

Over 40 countries in North & South America, Africa, Asia, and countries in the

Pacific region such as Fiji are deploying Godrej vaccine storage products to support their vaccination programs.

The COVID-19 pandemic has impacted the world so greatly that almost all countries have come together in the fight against it.

Globally, the pharma and healthcare fraternity have joined hands to develop and test vaccines to curtail the spread of the virus.

COVID-19 vaccines need to be stored at specified temperatures as undercooling or overcooling can adversely affect the potency of the vaccine leading to avoidable vaccine wastage.

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Also, poorly managed logistics systems can lead to unnecessary wastage or stock-outs, resulting in higher operational costs and increased risks of infection in the population.

Wastage also means lost opportunities to inoculate and prevent transmission of the virus. And lastly, vaccine wastage becomes a roadblock to achieving the primary goal of inoculating as many people as early as possible.

Godrej has been at the forefront of eliminating some of these vaccine wastages in the supply chain. Advanced ‘Sure Chill’ technology is one of the powerful solutions with a hold-over of 2-3 days (at minimum), and it has proved reliable. This technology is particularly helpful for the areas that are not easily accessible for regular service. For example, in Assam, the SELCO Foundation’s unique “boat clinic” project uses Godrej Medical Refrigerators, which operate on solar power. These refrigerators are crucial for vaccinating 2.5 million people living on remote islands with limited access to medical care. Thanks to this program, the number of island villages served by these boat clinics have increased multifold.

To cater to this urgent demand for COVID-19 vaccine storage in India, Godrej Appliances offers a range of vaccine refrigerators which accurately keep the temperature within the band of 2-8°C, medical freezers which cool up to -25°C and now, the new ultra-low temperature freezers that cool below -70°C. These advanced medical refrigeration solutions help store sensitive vaccines at the specified temperatures to ensure their potency. Godrej is playing a vital role in strengthening a country-wide vaccination drive to defeat the virus.

Godrej Appliances recently received the prestigious ‘India Health and Wellness Award 2020 - Gold’, for its role in strengthening the Cold Chain in Public Health Care facilities where Covid19 vaccines are stored and deployed.

This award is instituted by the integrated health and wellness council. Godrej Appliances has taken several initiatives to increase the availability of medical refrigeration solutions and provide after-sales support virtually, even in the remotest areas.

Reliability Assured To fulfill the promise of superior quality and reliability, GA has invested in an in-house, well equipped testing facility that tests the medical refrigerators under extreme conditions. The products undergo a series of tests for performance, reliability, electromagnetic interference (EMI) and corrosion resistance to be certified as compliant to WHO’s Performance Quality & Safety Norms.

Training For Users As these are specialized products, the installations need to be backed up by proper training of the users to ensure that the products are operated as specified. Extensive virtual training programs are being conducted for the members of the central and state immunization departments on proper usage guidelines, temperature monitoring and more. The training sessions are currently conducted online according to the directives of the respective state-level Immunization establishments.

Advantage, Service Deployment and maintenance of cold chain equipment in remote locations still poses a challenge. Non-availability of service and spares can potentially lead to an inoperative cold chain. The service arm of GA, Godrej SmartCare, assumes critical importance here and is committed to 48-hour call closures in urban centers and 72 hours in rural centers.

A wide service network with over 680 service centers, 4500+ app-enabled Smart technicians and 185+ Smart Mobile Vans assure service resolution in the first visit itself.

Spares for medical refrigerators is prioritized. Reliable service augmented with longest hold-over times of Godrej medical refrigerators translate into ‘always on’ performance that virtually eliminates vaccine wastage – a vital benefit for higher efficiencies in large scale vaccination programs.

A wide service network with over 680 service centers, 4,500+ app-enabled technicians and 185+ Smart Mobile Vans assure service resolution in the first visit itself.

Expansion Of Capacity Until now, GA has received orders for 17,000 units valued at INR 200 crores approx. from central and state governments, public sector companies, international aid bodies as well as others for the storage of COVID-19 vaccine. Close to Rs150 Cr worth orders have been delivered in the FY ‘20-‘21 while around Rs 50 Cr will be delivered in the first quarter of FY ‘21-‘22.

To meet a local and international demand, GA has planned to ramp up the production of medical refrigerators by about 30%. Shirwal plant capacity will be enhanced to 35000 units per year as compared to its previous 10000 unit capacity. The capacity for medical freezers at Mohali will be enhanced to 50000 units per year and the capacity for Ultra-Low temperature freezers will be enhanced to 30000 units per year from the current capacity of 12000 units.

Godrej Appliances understands that the depth of coverage and sustenance of the COVID-19 vaccination drive is key to containing further spread of the pandemic. GA’s portfolio of cold storage solutions for lifesaving vaccines aims to help India and countries across the world win the fight against COVID-19 and bring alive Godrej’s vision of self-reliant India.

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BOOKMARK

Courage in the Face of Danger Knowing the risk and yet deciding to act is the real courage.

Poonam Mahal, A Homemaker

Our deeply engraved values enable us to decide and act consistently regardless of the circumstances and people involved.

Growing up, we had heard many stories of my father’s courage and his tenacity when faced with difficult situations. He was known in our family, friend circle and business associates as an upright and courageous person. He had the reputation of being a man of principles, who can be relied upon to keep the promises made.

The event that I’m going to narrate took place, when he was about 60 years of age and physically not as strong as he was in his younger days.

These limitations never deterred him from taking the right action that the situation demanded.

Hence, this story is of a special significance to me and remains etched in my memory as a reminder of his exceptional courage.

One day in the morning, my parents were returning from the Gurudwara after their daily prayers, when they saw a crowd gathered at the crossroad of the lane leading to our house. Coming closer, they saw a young man lying on the road and a bull attacking him with its horns and stomping his chest with its hoofs. The man was screaming for help and was bleeding profusely from his face, chest and arms. As they waited, it became evident to him that the bull would kill the man soon.

The people in the crowd were terrified at what was happening but were not doing anything to save the man. As mute spectators, they were letting the man die, being violently

As they waited, it became evident to him that the bull would kill the man soon. gorged by the bull. My father could not bear to see what was going on and on and in the spur of the moment, he decided that he ought to do something. He mentioned this to my mother and began getting out of the car as my mother kept pleading with him to come back and not risk it. He did not waver and ignoring her pleadings, he began walking towards the man.

He was still not sure as to what he would do, but moved along nevertheless.

A few steps ahead, some persons from the crowd rushed towards him to stop him, but ignoring them too, he kept moving. A little closer to the scene, his eyes fell on the man’s

cycle lying nearby. He quickly picked up the cycle with both his hands and decided that he would use the cycle to ward off the bull.

He moved closer towards the bull, looking squarely into its eyes and making loud ‘shoo shoo’ sounds. Soon, the cycle, the sounds and another man approaching diverted the attention of the bull, who shifted its gaze from the victim, to this new movement. My dad kept the bull engaged by making sounds and moving back and forth. For a minute or two, this dance went on and my dad succeeded in attracting the attention of the bull.

Now, suddenly, the bull wasn’t interested in the man, but it wanted to engage with this new movement nearby. The bull disengaged from the man and now turned his focus to-

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wards my dad. My father took advantage of this pause and shouted at the man to get up and run. He also shouted at the onlookers to help him get away. As the man’s luck would have it, my father saw a tractor with a trolley passing by and he shouted at the people to help the man get into the trolley and escape.

All this while, he kept the bull engaged with his sounds and movements. As this risky engagement was on, it is remarkable that my father had the presence of mind to tell the man to leave the scene.

Now, the bull was confused. It was not sure whether to go after the man or to do something about the cycle and the person nearby. The bull turned where the man was and didn’t see any. This made the bull slowly

quieten down and then, he turned towards my dad, who by now had thrown the cycle and backtracked to his car. He quickly started the car and as he drove on, the crowd began clapping at this desired outcome.

Later at home, dad told us that looking at the situation he had fathomed that the man must have somehow antagonized the bull to provoke an attack on him and the bull was not going to relent.

This understanding of the situation had prompted him to take a split-second decision to do something to save the man’s life.

I believe this was an outcome of his love for animals and his values that had enabled him to act in this heroic manner.

When he was in his late 70s, I had asked him whether he would still do something like what he had done years ago to save a man’s life. He had responded, “Yes, I would!”

I suppose my dad’s generation had a different set of values, where the value of caring for others was way high up the stack.

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HOME CAMERAS

BY GODREJ SECURITY SOLUTIONS Secure your home and loved ones from anywhere, always!

The COVID-19 pandemic that began a year ago has made everyone realise the importance of securing their homes as well as the safety and health of their loved ones. Security as hitherto, perceived by our customers has undergone a complete change with the onslaught of the pandemic. Before the pandemic, by and large, we were dependent on external measures to keep ourselves secure.

Godrej ‘EVE NX’ cameras are designed to keep a watch on every corner of your home or office.

These cameras can be remotely operated in pan & tilt mode with just a tap on your smartphone.

However, with the constant evolution in technology, now there are many ways by which we keep a watchful eye on the safety & health of loved ones and secure our homes from external threats. Continuous, 24/7 home surveillance is a key development that we can take advantage of for ensuring security of our homes and families.

Knowing the whereabouts of our loved ones helps us avoid needless anxiety and keep our minds at peace.

The EVE NX cameras allow you to check multiple spots simultaneously as they can tilt from 10 degrees to 90 degrees and pan from 0 to 355 degrees, making sure that you’ve got an eye on the entire space, i.e. everything.

Godrej Security Solutions developed a product that enables us to protect our families remotely, from anywhere. To have that peace of mind that comes from knowing that our families are well protected, homeowners, now, can opt for Godrej Wi-Fi enabled home security cameras, which are available in a range called ‘EVE NX’, an acronym for Easy Viewing Everywhere – Next Generation.

The EVE range has two variants – EVE NX Cube and EVE NX PT. Unlike other conventional ones, these Godrej cameras allow a two-way conversation - their biggest USP.

EVE NX cameras come with the feature of smartphone viewing which enables you to view your home from anywhere. With this App, if you are the owner of a property, you can livestream your premises, take still pictures, converse, and even record the footage in real time. EVE also offers a motion-sensitive feature which activates record and stream functionality when needed.

Godrej EVE cameras, besides being highly dependable, are affordable and available readily. Why not opt for them now?

38

SUCCESS STORIES

GPE Wins The Coveted CII-EXIM Bank Award for Business Excellence A story of grit, determination and perseverance.

Prashant Borgaonkar with inputs from Team GPE

A higher level of excellence cannot be achieved without sincerely accepting discomforting feedback from third party assessors and taking diligent actions to eliminate shortcomings.

It was a proud moment for all of us when on 27th Nov. 2020 we learnt that the prestigious CII EXIM Bank Award for Business Excellence 2020 was awarded to Godrej Precision Engineering (GPE).

The Award and Criteria: We all know about the extremely tough and stringent assessment process leading to the coveted award. Equally tough is the Model and Award criteria that calls for an all-pervasive pursuit of excellence, attending to all stakeholders’ needs and expectations, consistent and improving trends to be evidenced for all results, relentless pursuit of the refinement of approaches, analysis of results and the like.

As we persevered against all odds, the award truly tests the resolve, character, leadership and teamwork of an organization.

Right from identifying the purpose of an organization, to creating a vision, strategy formulation and deployment involving various stakeholders can be an onerous task as we experienced.

We realized early in the journey that instead of focusing on the goal / objective of

winning the award, if we focused on improvement and excellence, we would enjoy the journey more. It did make a difference.

We resolved that we would strive to pursue excellence in the conduct of our business, and not merely pursue the Business Excellence Award.

Interestingly we did not create any special organization structure for this journey. Of course, some of us had to take up additional responsibility to understand the requirements of the model and award criteria and to guide the rest of us on what more was needed to be done for improving our business processes.

In a way, the award criteria acts like guiding lights. What is expected of us is clearly spelt out, how it will be evaluated is also known. Good understanding of the EFQM Criteria and the RADAR logic helped us self-assess better.

As we persevered against all odds, the award truly tests the resolve, character, leadership and teamwork of an organization.

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And know this – even after we have thought over all angles and addressed the criteria, assessors do come up with a certain perspective that we may have missed.

So, in a way, assessments we faced over the past few years helped refine our understanding.

This iterative process of self-assessment and introspection, assessors’ comments / perspective and opportunities for improvement helped make our processes richer, comprehensive, robust and predictable.

The above can be tiresome and demanding, but if we train ourselves to accept feedback as a bundle of opportunities for improvement, then the process becomes doable. We become better as we assimilate the insights gathered into our processes.

The assessment in FY ‘19- ‘20 was special in more than one way. The Business Excellence Model had undergone substantial changes.

The CII had asked us how we would like to be assessed; i.e., as per the previous EFQM model - 2013, or the revised EFQM model

- 2020 or a hybrid one. During our internal discussions we quickly concluded that if the new version is going to be applicable going forward, the sooner we adopt it, the better.

This decision had its own risks as we would be venturing into the uncharted seas! We took the decision to be assessed according to the latest version (2020) as our resolve has been to pursue excellence irrespective of how we were to be assessed.

The onset of the pandemic had affected us severely. While all of G&B’s businesses were affected, ours were affected even further as our projects tend to gather momentum towards the end of the financial year.

Consequently, our results at the year-end were truncated. Secondly, under the lockdown the assessment process was a challenge for us as well as for the assessors.

We debated if we should take a break from the assessment this year or continue to forge ahead.

We decided that it would not be in our interest to lose the momentum built,

hence we decided to challenge the award.

Preparations for the assessment coincided with extra unplanned work of restarting and managing the operations during the lockdown. Even a minor task like preparation of a position report, printing it and dispatching it to reach in the times specified was quite a challenge because of the lockdown.

True to the GPE spirit, all team members rose to the occasion to overcome these challenges.

As the assessment was conducted virtually, we created several videos to give the assessors a feel of a walk-through of shops.

All the videos were made in-house and were appreciated by the assessors.

Overall, the assessors were impressed with the indomitable spirit displayed by Team GPE all along the assessment process. It was indeed a very satisfying moment for all of us when we successfully completed the assessment according to the 2020 version of the EFQM model and that too against the backdrop of the pandemic.

SUCCESS STORIES SUCCESS STORIES 40 INSIDE G&B

GPE Journey - BE Score 600-625

Target 600+

350-400

2011

400-450

2012

500-549

450-500

2013

Characteristics and Challenges of our Business: As you know, GPE is the youngest business of G&B with unique characteristics which give rise to challenges, making it demanding in many ways.

1. Demand The Demand for the solutions that we offer arises from the programs of the government. Consequently, the levels of demand are uncertain and chunky - famine or floods.

2. Nature of Work Many orders are ‘Engineered to Order’ and are the first-time developments in the country. Often, these are from niche / specialized segments. Quantities ordered are small and varied with no commonalities across projects for size, specifications, bill of materials, manufacturing processes and acceptance standards and the like.

3. Order Placement Process The Government or the Government owned entities procure their requirements through a tendering process. From among the technically acceptable bidders, the lowest bidder wins the order. Previous performance does not count, and no premium can be claimed for previous successful executions.

4. Quality Assurance Quality assurance plans (QAPs) are mandatory. Surveillance is by third party inspectors who dictate the stages to be inspected. Infrastructure, processes, and the

550-574

2014

2015

2016

2017

workforce are required to be qualified frequently with every new project undertaken.

Documentation required is extensive for both, the processes followed and the outcomes achieved.

5. Developmental Projects These projects call for successful realization of prototypes, mockup trials and 1st part approval. Based on the outcomes, there may be changes in materials, specifications, manufacturing processes and acceptance criteria making the managing of changes cumbersome.

6. Efficiency & Productivity A large and varied infrastructure, both in terms of equipment and workforce, is required to be kept fit for deployment at a short notice, all the time. At any given time, there may not be sufficient workload for machines or men to have higher productivity.

Regimented approach of the buyers towards the processes to be used, often precludes the use of more modern and efficient processes, leading to inefficiencies.

7. Business Results Changing composition of orders in terms of complexity and value-addition is the reality. Often, excess of capacity over demand leads to taking orders at lower profitability.

Also, as the timelines for project completion are uncertain, it is difficult to predict the billable business for a given period.

In the face of such daunting challenges, GPE has been able to traverse the journey of excellence and emerge as the winner.

2018

575-599

2019

2020

What helped us: Strong Foundation of Integrated Management Systems, active participation of all departmental heads (Divisional Management Committee), criteria wise assigning of responsibility and establishing ownerships were the key factors that helped kickstart the BE journey in 2011. We learnt a lot from the BE Council and the Corporate BE cell.

We also adopted good practices shared by other G&B businesses who were ahead of us.

Adequate training for our teams was facilitated by the corporate BE cell with the help of the CII. We began by carrying out a gap analysis and added about 75 new processes to integrate BE into our management systems. In the same time frame, we had also started our TPM journey to become lean and improve resource utilization. This helped us streamline our processes, making them robust. All these efforts helped us derive benefits from the multiple initiatives under way.

Steering the Organizational Culture and Nurturing Values ​: We believe Organizational Culture and Values are crucial for persevering and pursuing excellence. Senior managers lead the process of building organizational culture, nurturing values, demonstrating ownership, displaying customer-centric-

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ity and providing encouragement. We strongly believe in respecting, uniting behind and engaging with our stakeholders.

Ensuring transparency with our customers as well as engaging, developing and recognizing our people is also a part of our belief system. Mission on Sustainable Growth and GreenCo initiatives were pursued by us on the environmental front. ​ ​Active participation of our people in Kaizen movement for incremental improvements, Project Management Office (PMO)​ for transformational & risk mitigation initiatives and TPM for resource utilization was promoted vigorously, all along the journey. ​

Our Improvement approaches are based on ‘no blame attitude’ and ‘freedom of expression’ for all our team members.

Our belief in results through processes, tenacity to prove processes in mock-ups and Operational Process Sheet (OPS) based working helped us get the desired outcomes.

Engaging Stakeholders​: We have passionately pursued to be known as an Organization of Choice for our customers, employees and partners. Customers have rated us best in class, bestowed good CSI scores and showed their willingness to give repeat orders in almost 100% of cases. ​On the people front, GPE is consistently amongst the best businesses in ‘Let’s Talk’ surveys, with highest engagement scores and lowest attrition rates in G&B. ​We believe in long-term relationships with our supplierpartners to create sustainable value. They are involved through partners’ meets, project execution meets and customer visits. We encourage improvement in their operations through training, performance monitoring and feedback. We complement their capabilities through our expertise, facilities and financial help if required. ​

Driving Performance and Transformation​: GPE is a process driven organization. We have been improving our management systems, from time to time, to stay contempo-

rary through our Integrated Management System (IMS). Our IMS consists of Quality Management System (QMS), Environmental Management System (EMS), Occupational Health and Safety Management System (OHSMS) and accreditation of our testing laboratories (NABL). Other performance improvement and management systems implemented are TPM, ERM, PMO, KMS and ultimately BEM.

» On time delivery – 100% » Quality – Nearly 100%, rework less than 2%

Harnessing creativity & innovation:

Processes​

We are a business with a start-up mentality – big on dreams but frugal on resources.

This ingrained frugality, passion and risk-taking ability in our team is manifested in actions / achievements like reconditioning machines rather than buying new ones, implementing low-cost automation, out-of-box​ welding automations, weavers and the like.

We believe in being emotionally intelligent in our dealing with people i.e. heart felt, heart-to-heart​. This is evidenced by the felicitation of students in different ways.

Recognizing our people through a family connect by their visits and awarding their achievements​. GPE is the business having to its credit several first executions in the country​. This provides us with a fertile territory for innovative Kaizens, developing as well as assimilating of new technologies in every such project.

Achieving and Sustaining Outstanding Results

Stakeholders » People Satisfaction Level: > 90%, Highest within G&B​ » Supplier Satisfaction index: > 90% » Environment – Platinum rating in GreenCo

Continual improvement in processes to retain and enhance competitiveness. » TPM Consistency award » Kaizens – Among the top performers in G&B. » Operational efficiency – Year on year improvement.​ Overall, our well thought-out strategy is backed by strong execution leading to impressive top and bottom-line results as well as other financial and non-financial results.

Path Ahead: While we draw a sense of pride from this award, we realise this is a mere milestone; a very important one, but nevertheless, still just a milestone in our journey of pursuit of excellence.

The pursuit of excellence is perpetual. The current achievements will become the new norm and we will have to strive more to go beyond. Our job is never done.

Financial

Once we reach a summit, new vistas open, urging us to continue our journey.

» Revenue: 3 Year CAGR​: 44%​ » ROCE: > ~ 20 % » Profitability: > 10% Orders » Healthy order bank for predictable performance – 3 years. » Foundation laid for repeat orders – 200 crores per year.

Isn’t this the beauty of pursuing excellence? We humbly offer ourselves for sharing the insights we have gained to other businesses of G&B and are open to learning new insights and perspectives from the others for progressing further.

Let’s all contribute to making G&B a role model organization in the coming years.

​Sustained efforts have yielded impressive results over a three-year period which are :

Customer » Customer Satisfaction Index (CSI): > 95% » Repeat orders – Over 100 crores. Nearly 100% of customers willing to buy again.

42

INSIGHT

Collaboration in Competition Mutual trust is the foundation of successful co-optition.

Vikas Choudaha, Godrej Storage Solutions

Working together to expand the size of market proves beneficial to all.

We live in a multipolar world. The domains in which businesses operate are no different either. Intra logistics, the chosen domain of Godrej Storage Solutions (GSS) aligns perfectly with this reality.

As we vie with the competitors for maximizing our market share and profitability, circumstances frequently spring surprises.

These surprises are opportunities to the keen eye, which if grabbed lead to successes and ‘paradigm shifts’ in the way we operate. Doing so is easier said than done, as it requires lines of thought and action that are contrary to the conventional logic and reason.

Let me take you through one such situation that changed the way we view the competition.

We, at GSS, are in the business of providing storage, movement and management

solutions within warehouses. Though we are the market leaders by a good margin, this is a domain that is seeing an aggressive emergence of many competitors who are strongly challenging our leadership position.

As we are into the business of projects, customisation is the name of the game and value selling holds the key to success.

What adds spice to this situation is the fact that there exists limited leeway in the customisation of profiles that make up components which go into the making of a solution.

As investments in machinery are significant having long-term impact, no competitor can invest in machinery that can produce the en-

tire range of profiles that may be required for having optimal solutions across applications.

In 2018, E-Commerce companies in India had started pumping in sizeable investments for creating state-of-the-art, massive fulfilment centres (FC). A large e-retailer into fashion and apparel was setting up the largest FC in India till date. It was a mammoth 25,500 sq. metres (2.75 lakh sq. ft) facility in northern India. The requirements were unique. The warehouse was required to store garments and footwear with the entire ground level dedicated for post-picking value addition.

We co-created the solution with our client, wherein the client wanted a mezzanine system with multi-tier shelving atop it. However, considering the glitches in that solution, we suggested a more flexible solution of having a multi-tier mezzanine and single tier racks upon it. In this way, the system could be reconfigured based on evolving requirements of the customer. The client loved the idea and we proceeded further.

The requirement created a ripple across all racking providers as the size of the order would be many times the largest order in the industry till date (roughly Rupees 250 Cr +).

There was, however, just one problem - we realised that we did not possess the entire range of products to meet the requirement in totality. For example, while the customer needed a large span between uprights to give enough clear working space at ground level, our design fell short of meeting that need. No Indian competitor was able to offer the complete solution either.

The choices we had were simple; either come up with a way to meet the needs of the

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outcome of the complete trust the client had in us.

This presented us with a tricky situation.

Now, we had to collaborate with a competitor without compromising on the technical differentiators we had created for ourselves.

Our international operations had allowed us to study foreign competitors in detail and we had a good grasp of their capabilities.

After due diligence, we decided to approach Dexion, one of the most reputed competitors in Asia who had the necessary product portfolio. Leadership level contact between us and Dexion predated 2018 and both organisations held each other in high esteem.

Any successful collaboration between entities depends on creating a beneficial situation for all involved.

customer or stand back and witness the customer bring in international competition who had the necessary portfolio of profiles to meet the needs. While the prospect of a new competitor was worrisome, we were deeply concerned about the larger ramifications of this predicament.

Our reputation as the most comprehensive and reliable solution provider for warehouse storage systems in India was built over many decades by working very closely with customers, big and small, spread across sectors. We had never once failed in providing the right solution to our customers. Our reputation was at stake!

Good relationships are like strong two-way bridges. We knew how significant this project was to our client. To meet their requirements, we suggested that if we were allowed to collaborate with a reputed competitor of our choice, we would be able to provide the best solution possible. We received a green signal to proceed, which we believe was an

As we engaged Dexion and the client in transparent yet detailed discussions, it became clear that this arrangement would create a winning proposition for all of us.

The client would be assured of the right solution. Dexion, hitherto having limited presence in the Indian market would improve their prospects of getting more business which would be beneficial to them for the plant in Malaysia. We at GSS, would get an opportunity to benchmark our products with the best in international markets. As Dexion would be supplying their products from Malaysia, with whom India has an FTA, the costs would remain affordable, besides GSS getting shielded from the vagaries of the Indian market. More than anything, the trust of our customers in us would get reinforced.

Our customer knew that part of the solution was from Dexion and yet their trust in the Godrej Brand was stronger than ever.

We presented the customer a hybrid design wherein the mezzanine would be sourced from Dexion and the racks on the mezzanine would be from GSS. The hallmark of this collaboration was transparency. Our customer knew that part of the solution was from Dexion and yet their trust in brand Godrej was stronger than ever. In fact, our solution was not the lowest on price; but the value the customer saw in our offering was far greater than that of any competitor. We won the order. The rest, as they say, is history. The project was a roaring success.

We continue to encounter Dexion as a competitor in many international projects.

And yet, we are so comfortable working with each other in India that the success of the first project has been replicated many times thereafter.

We firmly believe that if we put the interests of our customers first and are forthright and transparent in our dealings with a competitor, it is possible for us to come up with the solutions that are truly “out of the box” and successful.

44

PERSPECTIVE

Climate Change: Challenges And The Way Forward Risks of climate change are increasing at an alarming rate, calling for urgent actions on all fronts.

Tejashree Joshi, Environment Cell, Godrej Construction

It should be obligatory on the businesses that are leading the way to combat climate change, and to share their learnings with significant frequency and intensity with the businesses that are hesitant to move forward.

Climate change has affected us all over the world, with extreme weather conditions such as droughts, heat waves, heavy rains & floods and frequent landslides. Other consequences of the rapidly changing climate are rising sea levels, ocean acidification and loss of biodiversity. The socio-economic impact of global warming that we have witnessed so far is catastrophic and it would indeed need transformative actions on all three fronts Business, Economic & Societal.

As our planet braces itself to limit the most dangerous and irreversible effects of climate change, it becomes necessary for us to rigorously adhere to the 1.5°C Pathway. We must act now, to have any chance of limiting global warming to a maximum of 1.5°C, as mandated by the IPCC.

IPCC’s report warns that every fraction of a degree increase in the warming will significantly worsen the risks associated with climate change.

A warmer planet will affect adversely the livelihoods of millions of people, pushing

them into poverty and damaging severely the already stressed ecosystems that are essential for our wellbeing.

The year 2020 was critical for furthering the climate policy. Governments all over the world and organizations are updating their climate plans under the Paris Agreement and formulating policies as they struggle to recover from the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic.

The Paris agreement is being rolled out into action through two major initiatives, namely the EP 100 and Business Ambition for 1.5°C.

The EP100 The global EP100 initiative of the UK’s Climate Group in partnership with the ‘Alliance to Save Energy’ aims to bring together energy-smart companies that are committed to using energy more productively, lower greenhouse gas emissions and accelerate clean and green economy.

The EP100 is a corporate commitment platform through which companies pledge to improve their energy productivity by deploying energy efficient technologies and practices. By setting ambitious targets and integrating energy efficiency into business strategy, responsible companies are driving

clean-tech innovations for delivering on the goals of emissions reduction, thus setting examples for others to emulate.

The EP100 has a global outreach as onboarded companies are operating more than 130 geographies across the world.

The Climate Group estimates that if 100 companies double (generate twice as much economic output for every unit of energy consumed), then over 170 million metric tons of emissions could be prevented cumulatively, which is equivalent to taking 37 million cars off the road, on an ongoing basis for a year. By joining the EP100 through one of its three pathways, the companies commit to doubling energy productivity or rolling out energy management systems or having net zero carbon buildings (all within set timeframes) for reducing their energy consumption vis-a–vis their economic output, thus ensuring maximization of economic and financial gains from the energy consumed.

Initially, the companies can commit to one or more pathways under the EP100.

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Business Ambition for 1.5°C A threshold of 1.5°C is recommended by the Intergovernmental Panel for Climate Change (IPCC) for limiting global warming. To achieve this, it is essential that carbon neutrality is ensured by 2050. This target is also laid down in the Paris agreement signed by 195 countries.

The Business Ambition For 1.5°C commitment is an advocacy campaign calling for businesses to step up and do their part in limiting global temperature rise to 1.5°C in response to the global climate crisis. The call-to-action was sounded by more than 25 businesses, civil societies and the UN leaders in June 2019. It calls upon companies to commit themselves to setting verifiable science-based targets of 1.5°C and achieve net-zero emissions by 2050.

Business Ambition For 1.5°C is a collaborative effort to limit the net carbon emissions following the decarbonization pathway.

We need to multiply our efforts to mitigate the impact of the long-term damage.

Leading businesses can urge the governments to match their ambitions and nudge them to articulate their economic development plans and policies to give the businesses much needed clarity for working expeditiously towards a net-zero carbon future.

Governments must align their efforts to recover from the pandemic and set ambitious climate change actions for increasing resilience to future shocks and emerging stronger. As a result of diminished economic activity during the pandemic, last year the emission intensity was a bit subdued.

However, it should be noted that it is only temporary and is likely to rebound to the earlier levels soon. In view of this, we need to accelerate and multiply our efforts to mitigate the impact of the long-term damage that has already occurred.

In alignment with the goals set under the Paris Accord, to which India is a signatory, India has been aggressively driving the green agenda. Indian Industry’s large-scale participation is crucial for realizing the ambition of having a ‘Low Carbon Economy’. In addition to reducing emissions, the decarbonization efforts will significantly enhance Industrial efficiency.

PERSPECTIVE STORIES 46 SUCCESS

Godrej Leads The Way To Energy Efficiency And Reducing Emissions To make progress, ambition should be higher than what is comfortably achievable.

Tejashree Joshi, Rumi Engineer and Arani Roychoudhury

Widespread improvements in energy efficiency can have a huge impact on the environment.

On 12th December 2020, at the UN Climate Ambition Summit, Mr. Jamshyd Godrej, Chairman and Managing Director, Godrej & Boyce, announced that G&B aims to double its energy productivity and reduce carbon intensity to 60% by 2030. This is in accordance with G&B’s commitment to the global EP100 initiative.

He said, “Our Good & Green initiative underscores our deep and abiding belief that innovation and sustainability are essential to provide an impetus to our journey to decarbonization, energy efficiency and circular economy. We are proud to commit to yet another global cause – the EP100 initiative, and help lead the way for smarter energy usage in the private sector.”

By joining EP100 initiative, G&B has committed to two of its three recommended pathways:

Pathway 1: Energy Productivity G&B commits to double the economic output and financial gain from every unit of energy consumed in ten years i.e., by 2030, with FY 2016-‘17, as a baseline year. The energy productivity metric chosen by G&B is revenue/kWh of energy. The progress on this pathway will be reported annually.

Pathway 2: Energy Management System (EnMS) G&B within ten years or earlier, will implement a smart energy management system (EnMS) conforming to ISO 50001 in all its industrial manufacturing and office/commercial buildings belonging to the company or its businesses across the country.

Further, G&B will strive to develop and occupy the buildings that operate at net zero carbon levels in line with the recom-

mendations of World Green Building Council (WGBC), though this is not required to be committed under the EP100.

We are very proud of our commitment of ‘doing more with less energy’ and we will champion this cause to the best of our abilities not only across all businesses of G&B, but also across the industries we operate in.

Business Ambition For 1.5°C Commitment Under this, G&B commits to set science-based emissions reduction targets across all relevant scopes, in line with 1.5° C emissions scenarios. Mr. J. N Godrej committed to the ambitious goal of reducing carbon intensity by 60% by 2030. This is much beyond India’s Nationally Determined Contributions (NDCs) of 30-35% by 2030.

G&B has referenced itself to European Union’s upgraded commitment of carbon reduction.

These commitments are in congruence with the “Science-based Target Initiative

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(SBTi)” to which G&B is a signatory, to pursue reduction of its absolute carbon emissions by 50% by 2030 and 63% by 2034.

To achieve these commitments, we at G&B need to significantly increase the use of renewableenergy as compared to fossil fuel-based energy.

Once this shift is made, it will enable G&B to align with the trajectories leading to net-zero value chain emissions by 2050.

Established in 1897, G&B is one of India’s oldest (124 yrs.) business enterprises. Since its inception, G&B is known for its commitment to the environment, society and for the

Mr. J. N Godrej committed to the ambitious goal of reducing carbon intensity by 60% by 2030.

well-being of people. The principals of sustainability are deeply embedded into G&B’s core values and these come alive through unwavering and ongoing focus on innovating, designing, and producing products & solutions that create enduring value for the society as a whole and contribute positively to the health of the environment.

G&B drives its sustainability strategy through it’s ‘Good & Green’ vision which has three major pillars as below, » Skilling Indian - through Employability & Community Development. » Building a Greener India – through the Greening of our manufacturing processes. » Developing Good & Green Products - that create both societal & ecological value.

Some of the highlights of G&B’s sustainability journey so far are: » G&B was the first company to introduce CFC, HFC & HCFC free Refrigerators. » The first Company in the world to produce Air Conditioners that have a ‘Zero’ Ozone Depletion Potential (ODP) and minimal Global Warming Potential (GWP). » G&B pioneered and introduced the concept of Green Building by partnering with the CII & USAID to build the First Platinum rated Green Building in India, under the USGBC LEED Certification, named CII-Sohrabji Godrej Green Business Centre in Hyderabad. This center houses the headquarters of Indian Green Building Council (IGBC). Godrej was instrumental in securing the GreenCo rating for the CII-Sohrabji Godrej Green Business Centre.

» Godrej has eleven of its manufacturing facilities that are GreenCo rated with two of them being rated Platinum plus and seven are rated Platinum. » G&B partnered with World GBC to promote Net Zero buildings in the Pacific region. This was followed by setting up India’s first Net Zero building under the IGBC Rating system. » G&B has nearly doubled its energy productivity in the last 10 years - an increase of 96%+. » All industrial operations of G&B are Water Positive and nearly Zero Waste to Landfill. » At G&B, all businesses undertake a Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) of their major products to adapt their designs for institutionalizing sustainability.

Besides, G&B is a signatory to the following Global Sustainability Initiatives: » Global Alliance on Energy Productivity » Renewable Energy Demand Enhancement (REDE) through World Wildlife Fund (WWF) and the Confederation of Indian Industry (CII). » Science Based Target Initiatives (SBTi) through World Resources Institute (WRI) and Carbon Disclosure Project (CDP). » ‘Net Zero’ buildings through both, World, and Indian Green Building Councils.

Going forward, G&B intends to build on the momentum set and aim for stretched decarbonization targets, that are in consonance with the ambition of a Greener Planet and a better tomorrow not only for India, but also for the entire world.

48

INSIDE G&B FOCUS

Godrej Americas Inc. A pathway to fulfill our growth aspirations in the power sector.

Reginaldo D’Souza, Godrej Process Equipment

“Coming together is a beginning; Keeping together is progress; Working together is success” - Henry Ford.

Godrej Americas Inc. is a 100% subsidiary of Godrej & Boyce Mfg. Co. Ltd, and was incorporated in 2018, in the state of Texas, USA. It is meant to augment the scope and scale of Godrej Process Equipment (PED), the heavy engineering arm of G&B. PED has two main lines of business (LOBs): Oil & Gas. It contributes to about 90% of PEDs revenue and the balance is met by the Power LOB.

Over the last two decades, PED has expanded its global footprint with its exports contributing to 70-80% of the annual revenue.

The vision of PED is “To be a Leading Global Manufacturer of Critical Process Equipment Serving Everyday Needs Worldwide”. To realize this vision, it is imperative that we take leading positions in both the lines of businesses.

For years, the Power business has contributed to only about 10% of PED’s revenue. By boosting this level of revenue, about 50% of our total, is something that we have been working on for the last five years or more.

We could not make any significant progress towards the above goal as we did not have the required design capabilities for the main products required in the power sector; namely, feed water heaters and surface condensers.

To succeed in this sector, we desperately needed new capabilities for positioning ourselves as ‘end- to- end’ solution providers.

As we were looking to augment our capabilities, in 2018, we were offered a once-ina-lifetime opportunity of owning two of the world’s most renowned brands – YUBA for feed water heaters and ECOLAIRE for surface condensers. The PED team worked hard to make a strong business case for the acquisition of these brands so that it can leapfrog all the developmental efforts to become, almost immediately, a significant player in the power sector.

In 2018, Godrej acquired the YUBA & ECOLAIRE brands and associated design technologies from SPX Heat Transfer, a subsidiary of SPX Corporation, USA. With this acquisition, PED’s product portfolio stands considerably enlarged as now, Advanced Direct Contact Condensers (ADCC), Air Cooled Heat Exchangers (ACHE) and Hemilock design equipment are in its fold.

This strategic acquisition enables PED to offer ‘end-to-end’ solutions in the space of heat exchanger auxiliaries.

Godrej Americas has two offices in the USA, one at Bethlehem, Pennsylvania, which is a home for Ecolaire® Surface Condensers and the other in Tulsa, Oklahoma, which is the home for Yuba® Feedwater Heaters.

The Talent Edge People are at the heart of any design establishment and are crucial for success in the power sector. To have an edge, we onboarded the same individuals who have been associated for many years with these brands. These eleven persons are the team, ”Godrej Americas”.

All the team members are extremely passionate, competent, and experienced in the design and marketing of the offerings of YUBA and ECOLAIRE brands.

We intend to capitalize these new capabilities by combining them with our state-ofthe-art manufacturing and associated capabilities in India.

We are now confident of offering highly competitive and optimal solutions to our customers in the power sector, worldwide.

We also want to leverage over 15,000 installations of these brands around the world for generating new and replacement business for equipment as well as for spares.

Until 2018, Godrej had a license to manufacture Yuba design feedwater heaters.

These feedwater heaters manufactured by Godrej with YUBA design have been supplied to NPCIL, Tata Power, GSECL, NTPC, Toshiba, among others.

Feedwater heaters and surface condens-

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ers are an important equipment of thermal power plants. Well - designed feedwater heaters and condensers improve the efficiency of power plants significantly, reducing the running costs of these massive installations. It is here, where the credibilty of these two brands make a huge difference for the power plants.

As Godrej now owns these brands and the relevant technology, PED will manufacture the augmented product range in India and supply worldwide.

This acquisition enables PED to position itself as a significant, independent, global player for supplying critical equipment to thermal, geothermal, solar, and nuclear power plants.

Yuba & Ecolaire brands give us the following, distinct advantages for growing our footprints in the power sector:

» Expanded product portfolio with design and other capabilities for a larger play in the power sector. » Customized solutions for our customers to suit their existing and new plants. » Higher position in the value chain as we will be designing and manufacturing equipment for the power sector with our own technology. » A large base of 15000 installations for seeking replacement and spares business.

We are confident that this strategic initiative will help us greatly realize our aspiration of generating 50% revenue share from the power line of business. The combined strength of highly trusted brands - Yuba, Ecolaire and Godrej - will surely enable PED to script a noteworthy success story soon.

Upendra Boyina

Ken McWatters

Murgan Subbiah

Pradeep Pottumuthu

Zach Jones

Dan Ruhe

Gary Madaus

Tom Kucherich

Mike Karabinos

Shawn Tamandl

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SA F I R E F I R E R E S I STA N T SA F ES

BY GODREJ SECURITY SOLUTIONS Ideal for protecting valuable documents and belongings at homes and offices.

Increasingly, fires in residential and commercial buildings are becoming a major hazard that can destroy within minutes your valuable documents such as property titles, wills, gift deeds, insurance policies, passports, loan records and emergency cash reserves, if any. In offices, a fire can readily destroy documents like records of assets, loans, licenses, permissions, patents, drawings and documents of knowhow, contracts, deeds and others. Loss of such documents can set you back by months and incur considerable expenditure for replacing the documents lost. Sometimes, the losses could be permanent.

To safeguard your documents from unpredictable threats like fire, a range of Fireresistant safes are made available by Godrejthe pioneer and leader of fire and burglar resistant safes in India. The Safire range is an optimal solution for your needs. Safire range of fire-resistant safes have a unique ‘tongue and groove’ construction to prevent hot gases

or smoke entering inside the safes, causing irreversible damage. The snap-shut mechanism of the safe keeps flames and hot gases outside.

These are designed and manufactured to withstand intense fires for up to 60 minutes. To assure their efficacy, these are tested rigorously and certified by the Research Institute of Sweden - RISE. The Safire range is available with two types of locking systems: mechanical and digital. The safes are available in two storage capacities – 20 ltrs, having overall dimensions of 435 x 367 x 424mm and 40 ltrs, 550 x 412 x 484mm which comes with a pullable tray. An adjustable shelf is added for convenience in both the variants.

The finish is two-tone, black and white with a stainless steel face plate.

Attractively priced, Safire safes are available with after-sales service at all Godrej showrooms, dealers, modern trade outlets as well on GSS E-Commerce.

52

SUCCESS STORIES

Collection Efficiency During The Pandemic In crisis, the ships that sail to our advantage are our relationships!

Raghavendra Mirji, Sr. Vice President & Head – Power Infra & Renewable Energy

In the business of projects, correct, full and timely documentation plays as important a role in collection of payments as flawless and full in-time completion of work.

When a business builds the nation, it is destined to grow, endear and endure!

A line of business (LOB) of Godrej E&E, PIRE is deeply engaged into the above task. PIRE being the lead LOB, contributes to about 70% revenue of the business. It undertakes large turn-key electrical projects in EPC mode and is focused on transmission-centric opportunities such as extra high voltage (EHV) networks, substations and SCADA systems up to 765 kV. Given India’s huge ambition for renewable energy, PIRE has also forayed into ground solar solutions.

Our key customers are the central and the state government utilities as shown in the PIRE canvas.

Mapping of Client’s Payment Cycle PGCIL NERSS PROJECTS (FOR SUBSTATION) STEPS FOR CERTIFICATION OF RA BILLS SITE & RHQ/CORPORATE

SUPPLY

ERECTION

STEPS F

BILL LOCATION

CONCERNED AUTHORITY

NO. OF DAYS

NO. OF DAYS

SUPAUL

PGCIL Site Office

JE (Junior Engineer - Electrical/Civil) Certify the JMC/ Physical Verification of Materials

5

7

NBPDCL Site Offi

SDO (Engineer) Doing SAP Entry Activities

3

3

DGM (Substation Incharge- Electrical) Verify the Bills Along With Complete Documents

3

3

GM (Over All Responsibility of Sunstation) Finally Release the Bill to

1-2

1-2

Dispatch Dept. - Courier/Handover The Bill for HQ

2

2

Respective Site to RHQ - In Transit Time

3 to 4

3 to 4

Bill Received at Dispatch & Forward to PESM

1

1

PESM Forward the Bill to GM- Finance

1

1

GM Finance to Finance Team

1

1

Bill Checking and Forwarded to Payment Section

3-4

3-4

Payment Section (Payment Requestition Process)

1-2

1-2

Payment Credit into Account

1

1

25 to 29

27 to 31

Challenges Of The Pandemic The COVID-19 pandemic created unprecedented challenges across the world. Never have we experienced such a debilitating blow. As the world was recovering from the aftermath of a slowing economy, COVID struck forcing us into a total lockdown from March’20. The rapid spread of COVID across India left the Government with no option but to shut down most of the activities. Extended lockdowns gave rise to unemployment, job loss, pay cuts and closure of smaller businesses, making lives extremely difficult.

Liquidity was another big challenge. With mounting non-performing assets (NPAs),

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banks curtailed lending, throttling the liquidity in the system.

The Power Sector in which PIRE operates, was in a deep distress. With the deepening financial crisis, the Govt spends had to be re-prioritised which impacted the flow of tenders and revenue. One of the biggest challenges for G&B was to maintain healthy cashflows during the pandemic. It was not a simple task especially when the revenues were drying up and the fixed costs were being incurred month after month. Collection of the money owed to us became vital and rightly so. The management exhorted all of us to collect more and improve our efficiency in collections.

The Collection Conundrum ‘Our Solve’ The starting point was the ‘clarion call for collections’ coming straight from our President’s office. That was the rallying point for all in the chain, from top to bottom. All were sensitised to this superordinate goal of the moment!

At E&E, we defined our mission as ‘Our Collections Will Lead Billing, Every Month’!

This became a singular focus for all of us.

As our projects have a long gestation period of 2 to 3 years, accomplishing the mission was easier said than done. For PIRE, the working capital cycle is long.

The payment terms are based on the completion of milestones of key activities.

For example, there will be a percentage disbursal of payment for each completed activity such as supply, installation, testing and commissioning (SITC) of a power transformer. On supply of the transformer, 60% shall be paid, on successful installation another 20%, after testing & commissioning activity, another 10% and the remaining 10% will be treated as retention which shall be paid after the final completion & handing over of the project. As a result, cashflows are low over most of the duration of projects.

TION

STEPS FOR CERTIFICATION OF RA BILLS SITE NBPDCL & CIRCLE OFFICE

SUPPLY

ERECTION

OF DAYS

SUPAUL

NO. OF DAYS

NO. OF DAYS

4

The cycle typically has 24 to 28 steps, involving multiple hierarchies for approvals, which takes about 30 days.

2. Involvement of multiple stakeholders Funding agencies like Rural Electrification Corporation, Power Finance Corporation, state distribution companies, local district administration and others are also required to certify the work prior to taking over of an asset.

3. Milestone linked payments In many cases, although the work is completed, inspection, certification and handing over of the work is not completed due to the involvement of multiple agencies.

Many documents are required to be submitted along with the bills which lengthens the process, causing delays.

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Circle

1. Lengthy Payment Cycle

4. Time-consuming, extensive documentation

PIRE

NBPDCL Site Office

Also, there are many other factors that adversely impact efficiency in collections.

1. SUBMIT ALL BILLS AS PER ABOVE DOCUMENTS Executive Electrical Engineer

1

1

PMA

2-3

2-3

JE

1

1

AE

1

1

Executive Electrical Engineer

1

1

Electrical Superintending Engineer

1

1

PMA - Finance

2-3

2-3

Electrical Superintending Engineer

1

1

Senior Manager Finance/ Accounts

1

1

Accountant

1-2

1-2

Senior Manager Finance/ Accounts

1

1

Note Sheet/ Accountant

1

1

PFMS

1

1

15 to 18

15 to 18

5. Multiple uncertainties GODREJ ORG

G C

LOB Head

Quarterly

Quarterly

D Si

Program Manager

Quarterly

As per Scheduled Meeting

M

As per Scheduled Meeting

M

Project Manager

» More than 10 different hierarchies involvedDaily in Visit Client Quarterly Coordinator clearing the bills Site Team

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CLIENT ORGANISATION

The rate of progress slows at projects CMD/MD/ED DIR/CE/ENGG/ due to local challenges, adverse climatic HO TEAM conditions, issues pertaining to subcontractors, shortageSix of workforce, COO Monthly Yearlyinterference of local authorities and the like.

As per Scheduled Meeting

» Normal time to process bills isQual/ between 15-30 As per BD/ Pur/ Scheduled Engg Team days from the date of Meeting submission

M

M

A S M

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SUCCESS STORIES

Well, the challenges Customer Connect - Key Accounts Management Process were many and difficult, but not insurmountable!

Key Activities/Toll Gates Key Initiatives We took a systemic » Tender Enquiry » Structured customer engagement plan at approach and went about » Tender Submission all levels analysing the key factors » Drawing/Specs Approval » Connect with top officials and regular » Finalization of Scope visits (CMD, MD, ED, & GM) which had contributed to » JMC Approval » Personal involvement of LOB in reviewing poor collections in the past. » Charging & HOTO process Projects with Client’s top off

OTI YOJANA We segregated the receivables into two

broad buckets - 1. ‘Collectable Now’ and This was a paradigm ERECTION shift from the earlier one, where the collecABOVE DOCUMENTS NO. OF DAYS tions were categorized as ‘DueNO. or OF NotDAYS Due’!

» RA Bill Approval » PV & QV Approvals » Bill Clearance & Payments

2. ‘Collectable Later’.

DCL & CIRCLE OFFICE SUPPLY

neer

neer

ounts

ounts

1

1

To sharpen the focus, we identified key levers to address the challenges mentioned earlier and to drive in collections.

2-3 efficiency 2-3 1 1 1. Managing Key Accounts 1

GODREJ ORG

1

Though this is a requirement in any business, key account 1 management 1 (KAM) plays a critical role for large projects involving gov1 1 ernment contracts.

We did KAM differently!

We systematically mapped the KAM Process 2-3 2-3 across all levels for our clients and ourselves as well. As you 1can see, we have defined the 1 schedule of engagement for every level. As head of the LOB, author1 I meet the highest 1 ities like Energy Secretary, CMDs, MDs and 1 - 2 project teams 1 - 2 down the Eds regularly. Our line also have regular engagements with 1 1 the others in the hierarchy of the clients.

Frequent meetings, constructive 1 1 discussions on the ongoing progress at project sites, 1 by our teams sharing of good1 work executed and our quick responses to their queries 15 to 18 15 to 18 have enabled us to build a strong connect with the top officials.

This proved very helpful in timely resolution of key issues and clearing of long pending payments.

Also, our site teams have developed strong relationships with site teams of the client which also helped in speeding up of approvals, clearances and certifications. Based on the relationships built, clients agreed to give approvals for digitally submitted documents. Inspections were waived, testing was witnessed through video calls and the like which generally is not possible in government contracts.

CLIENT ORGANISATION CMD/MD/ED

DIR/CE/ENGG/ HO TEAM

GM/SE/ CIRCLE TEAM

DGM/EE/ SITE TEAM

POTENTIAL CUSTOMER

COO

Six Monthly

Yearly

LOB Head

Quarterly

Quarterly

During Site Visit

During Site Visit

Quarterly

Program Manager

Quarterly

As per Scheduled Meeting

Monthly

Monthly

As per Scheduled Meeting

Monthly

Monthly

Daily Visit

Monthly

Monthly

Site Team

As per Scheduled Meeting

Monthly

Monthly

BD/ Pur/ Qual/ Engg Team

As per Scheduled Meeting

As per Scheduled Meeting

As per Scheduled Meeting

Project Manager

Client Coordinator

Quarterly

Quarterly

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2. Robust Reviews Even though our project review process was quite strong, the pandemic conditions required it to be strengthened further. We decided to have daily reviews for collections instead of weekly. These focused daily reviews gave good results. We could clearly understand the difficulties, shortcomings as well as any other issues that were hampering the collections. This helped us initiate quickly, the corrective actions. Faster decisions energised our teams, enabling them to intensify and coordinate their efforts for higher collections. It was very heartening for us to see such incredible efforts made even during very challenging times.

3. Driving Execution Achieving the required work progress at site is quite critical for submission of bills for payment. But in reality, it is not as simple as it sounds here. Many challenges come in the way such as local issues, adverse climate conditions like floods and cyclones, and absenteeism which slow down the progress.

And yet another challenge was retaining of the workforce and subcontractors as these in large numbers were migrating to their native places due to the lockdowns.

During the lockdown, to support our subcontractors, we took many initiatives like providing of rations, food, accommodation at site, medical help, wages and incentives. Our support gave them the confidence that we cared for them and assured them that our support would be forthcoming as required.

We adopted all the SOPs issued by the MHA to have a safe and healthy work environment.

We rolled out attractive incentive schemes for our subcontractors to speed up the progress. With these initiatives, we could manage a healthy workforce count across all our projects all over the country – a major achievement. Apart from addressing the contractors’ issues, we aligned the entire supply chain, be it suppliers, transporters, warehousing and others to the single theme of achieving the required progress at project sites.

These measures enabled us to maintain the progress of work as required, which in turn helped us reach completion milestones for getting payments. Appreciating our efforts, many clients extended their support to our people throughout the lockdown.

4. Policy Advocacy Apart from focusing on collections from the “Collectable” bucket, we also thought of advancing collections from the “Collectable Later” bucket. Large amounts were stuck in retention and milestone linked payments.

Further, we were not able to get payments because we were facing numerous problems in completing the documentation, inspection and so on because of the pandemic, even though the work was completed as required.

In a normal course, it would be impossible to get such payments earlier. We decided to address this challenge through the industry body, Indian Electrical & Electronics Manufacturers Association (IEEMA), where I represent our business. The National Executive Council of IEEMA is very active in taking up the industry issues at the highest levels.

We took up the issue of easing of cash flows and represented the case to the government by sharing the amounts due towards long pending payments of all the member companies.

We had detailed discussions with the Ministry of Power, Ministry of Finance, REC, PFC, and other State utilities. We even met the Union Power Minister who assured help as requested.

Apart from Industry representation, we worked vigorously for our case and approached senior officials like CMDs and MDs of the utilities to share our concerns pertaining to the cashflows. In many cases, we leveraged our cordial relationships, built over the years, to facilitate advancing of the payments. Though this was a herculean task, we succeeded in advancing payments for many projects, through our committed efforts and the way we presented our cases.

Mission Accomplished As goes the cliche ‘When the going gets tough, the tough get going’!

Team PIRE achieved the seemingly impossible feat of mopping up large amounts of collections, even in the devastating year of the pandemic. Despite the despair all around, team PIRE collected in FY 2020-’21, a staggering 130 percent of billed sales!

Friends, what we eventually achieved on the collection front was a result of the efforts on various fronts, deploying multiple levers and working with multiple stakeholders. All this with a single-minded focus. We could accomplish this humongous task only because we could demonstrate to our customers our superior value delivery and getting the entire team strongly aligned to the clarion call of ‘Collect more than what you billed’, month after month. That did it!

In conclusion, I will say that we believe in the maxim, “In every calamity, there is an opportunity”. We only needed the eyes to see and seize it!

56

INSIGHT

Chipping away at the Great wall Disruptions always create new opportunities.

Xercsis Marker, Godrej Lawkim

Taking on a challenge in a global arena always brings out the best in terms of talent, teamwork and leadership.

The Covid 19 Pandemic has posed not only health challenges globally but has also impacted economic life and growth of several industries, including the Manufacturing Industry. The ongoing cold war between the two superpowers USA and China has opened new opportunities for us in India.

This is about being able to sell high quality and competitively priced products to both these countries from India. Likewise, our aspirational initiative of making India Aatma Nirbhar is also opening a large number of new opportunities for Indian companies to cater to the markets abroad and in India.

China, a dominant player in the manufacturing sector, faced disruptions in many segments, impacting adversely, customers in India. As a result, Indian companies too began to search for alternate supply sources not located in China.

Lawkim, in its endeavour to fulfil customer requirements, was awarded an order for the ‘Vector Project’ by In Motion, USA for the supply of lamination to their counterpart, M/s Tianjin Zapi Motion Co Ltd, China, who in turn will supply the same to Carrier, China for their power generator application.

Lawkim was preferred over the Chinese sources on account of our track record of executing projects successfully, offering innovative design solutions and being cost competitive in our exports to the US.

The project was awarded to us only after we had fully met M/s. Carrier’s stringent audit compliances.

To enable us to get cracking at the project, we were given an advance payment upfront, so that we could put in place machines, toolings and fixtures readily. A new production line had to be set up at Lawkim for the manufacture of this motor model which had several engineering criticalities such as largest frame size in our range, different production processes for the stator core and differently placed skew-angle & core-welds as well as others. Also, processes like de-greasing, vacuum impregnation, blasting and machining were completely different from the processes used by us. And finally winding also was different and highly critical.

End customers’ expectations and product requirements were carefully studied and assessed for acquiring machines, toolings and fixtures for the new production line to be set up. The specifications for all these were determined by great care so that the right equipment and toolings could be procured from competent suppliers for minimizing glitches and delays. Various special purpose toolings required for execution of the processes were designed in-house and made locally.

In addition, we designed and executed inhouse, a Stator Winding Conveyor for the Vector Model motors which is an integral part of the production line. The conveyor is ‘end-to-end’ beginning at insulation of slots to the final coil forming and ending at visual inspection. The conveyor concept and design were completed in-house, followed by the assembly of the entire production line. Some of the salient features of this conveyor are:

Modular Design It can be easily disassembled and assembled as required in a short time.

Standardised Components The conveyor is designed using standard and easily available parts which can be procured at any time in the future. In case more conveyors are to be put in place, ready availability of standard parts will greatly help in assuring quality and shortening the time for execution.

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Good manufacturing processes Special care was taken to deploy the learnings from the participation of Lawkim in the CII’s cluster initiative such as hard- chrome plating of rollers, powder coatings of the conveyor structure and the like.

The proto parts offered by us were accepted at the first instance by both, In Motion, USA and Carrier, China. They appreciated the finish, quality and workmanship of our parts and remarked that the same were better than those of the Chinese companies. Now based on the successful qualification of these

proto parts, Lawkim was asked to supply the production part approval process (PPAP) batch and once it was approved, the serial production batches were to be supplied.

Currently the PPAP batch is under production and will be ready for dispatch by early May 2021, with the balance to follow. This project has offered Lawkim an opportunity worth Rs 200 million with a healthy contribution margin. Also, this project will help us as a ‘reference project’ to win similar higher value projects, not only from this customer,

but also many others worldwide.

Lawkim has been able to successfully demonstrate its competitiveness, capability in R&D and Engineering and has laid a sound foundation for the future. This aligns well with our purpose of ‘Enriching Customer Experience Through Competent Engineering Solutions And Trustworthy Partnerships’.

The entire project was handled by Mr. Vijay S Kusale, Head of Projects under the guidance of Mr. K M Joshi, Head of Design and Mr. A M Pendse, VP - Operations.

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SUCCESS STORIES

Superachievers Interio “Never, never, never give up.”

- Winston Churchill.

Doreen Rosario, Godrej Interio

Higher achievements are never accidental, but are the outcomes of strong intent and deliberate efforts regardless of the situations.

Ajay Salaskar B2B Sales, Godrej Interio, Mumbai Branch Everyone played safe and stayed home during the lockdown last year i.e. FY 2020-21, when Ajay decided to do something about alleviating the shortage of hospital beds, an essential item, to help save many lives.

Ajay took it upon himself to ensure that Interio’s healthcare furniture was procured by the State Government and Municipal Corporation of Greater Mumbai for their hospitals.

Taking grave risks in his stride, Ajay began working diligently and completed expeditiously, all the pre-sales activities such as organising the visits of MCGM officials to the plant as well as to the display centre, technical evaluation of the health products and the like. To ensure preference for Interio’s furniture over the competition, Ajay gave several presentations to the hospitals all over Mumbai and the central purchase department (CPD) of MCGM. As an outcome of these exceptional efforts, Ajay secured a rate contract for the

supply of 1000 Nos hospital beds on the very next day of the lockdown. He also secured orders for ICU beds, both manual and motorized, from 21 different MCGM hospitals and 3 Jumbo Covid centres.

Over the next few months, the rapport built with decision makers, diligent efforts and the performance of delivering and installing the ordered beds in time enabled Ajay to secure orders for 2700 Nos hospital beds and about 920 ICU beds in FY 2021-22 to meet the COVID-19 Wave 2 requirements. The exceptional work of Ajay has been appreciated by the Deputy Municipal Commissioner, CPD, MCGM. Godrej healthcare furniture supplied on time helped the state and MCGM hospitals to have the required infrastructure to save the lives of thousands of COVID – 19 patients.

Ajay also played a pivotal role in obtaining various permissions to commence manufacturing activities in Plant 14, augmenting manpower and permissions for our supplier partners to enable them to deliver components as required.

Kudos to Ajay and the Healthcare Team for their dedication and commitment to saving lives!

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Bikash Debnath Service, Godrej Interio, Bhubaneshwar Branch Bikash led the Interio service team to an outstanding performance in the year ravaged by COVID-19 induced lockdown. In FY ‘20- ’21, the sales team bagged several large orders and notched up the sales revenue that was +74% on DS for the year and plus 2.25 times the sales of FY ’19-’20. Bikash did not add a single person to his team to service this large volume of sales. He serviced the sales with the existing team of service executives and supervisors, two each. With this achievement, the Bhubaneshwar service team was declared as the most productive in the country.

Bikash and his team excelled on all key parameters: » Service Revenue – + 172% on DS » Customer Satisfaction Index – 97% » Ageing of Open Calls – 1.25 days » Nullified Inspection Stock – Less than 15 days

Bikash and his team completed the seemingly impossible task of installing 92000 desks cum benches in over 3000 schools in merely three months. His team mobilised an army of technicians from all possible sources, to complete the installations in ‘daily milk run’ mode.

Bikash is a software nerd. Learning on his own about developing apps, he developed an App on Google Cloud platform to facilitate uploading of the proofs of deliveries (PODs), completion certificates (CCs) and geo-tagged images of installations at various locations.

These real time updates helped greatly in monitoring progress, taking corrective actions and collecting payments without delay.

CHANGE congratulates Bikash and his team!

Rajan Ganda B2B Head, Godrej Interio, Bhubaneshwar Branch COVID-19 induced lockdowns made FY 2020-‘21 a tough year for Interio. In a truncated year, Rajan led his team to a superlative performance of 98% above annual DS. The backbone of this success was the three orders, secured from Orissa Small Industries Corporation.

Mining companies are made to pay back to the local societies in each mining district.

This is done in the form of the contributions made to the district mining fund (DMF).

District magistrates (DMs) are the custodians of this fund and it is up to their discretion to spend these funds in ways that may prove most beneficial to the public in their districts. Sensing an opportunity in this, the branch team led by Rajan connected with the recipient DMs and obtained their buyin for spending these funds for promoting education.

The team sold the idea of providing deskcum-benches to primary school students who otherwise sat on the floor for studies.

The branch team gave several presentations, demonstrated product samples, assured product quality and promised supplies

in the required time frames to persuade the DMs to opt for Godrej Interio’s deskcum-benches. The DMs were convinced of Interio’s ability to deliver and install these benches at the remotest tribal hamlets.

Initially, these efforts yielded two large orders being placed directly, which were executed flawlessly.

Encouraged by this experience, a DM placed a large order on Godrej Interio fending off local competitors. Rajan then mobilised all resources at his disposal for installing these benches in over 3000 schools in only three months as opposed to the contractually granted six months.

Besides making it easy for thousands of students all over Orissa to attend classes in comfort, the branch ended the year with a great performance of exceeding the annual DS with a wide margin.

A win-win for all! CHANGE congratulates Rajan and his team!

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SUCCESS STORIES

Manjit Singh Regional Head, South II AV Solutions, Godrej Interio With most of the enterprise customers working from home, the investments for AV Solutions were postponed by them in the challenging FY 2020-‘21. In such a year, Manjit Singh, our Regional Head for South II stood out with his outstanding performance of about +185% on DS and 175 % on planned throughput.

Manjit Singh led from the front in nurturing the relationships with one of our key customers, an MNC consulting firm. By ensuring excellent support to this customer and leveraging the relationship built over the last 3 to 4 years, he increased the ‘share of our wallet’ to almost 100% for AV solutions.

In FY 2020-’21, he capped the performance by securing the largest order ever for AV solutions across India. He also inspired his team

to explore new avenues for selling more, such as through Government e-Marketplace (GeM), Defense Research Organizations and others.

His team worked hard to ensure timely collections to keep the payments outstanding much below the norms.

This helped boost cashflows that were so very critical in these times. Overall, his performance was commendable on most of the parameters. CHANGE congratulates Manjit and his team!

Partha S Chatterjee B2C, HO, Godrej Interio Agility is the criterion that everyone speaks about. We believe it will be the key factor that will enable businesses to win during the pandemic and thereafter.

Partha decided to put this into practice right from the word Go. As virtual meetings and interactions became the new normal, he quickly created separate presentations for various segments such as real estate, education and others. These presentations were used multiple times to get our sales pitch across. He felt that slashed budgets should not be a reason or an excuse for not providing the sales teams the required aids and inputs. He created an entire catalogue of the offerings without waiting for the response of the agencies.

As customers grew impatient and demanding, Partha responded by reducing his response time by over 15% for the presentations required.

To capitalize on the recovery that kicked in the Q-3 of FY 2020-’21 and the government spend for some sectors, Partha overhauled and published without losing any time the entire B2C catalogue comprising 340 SKUs for the government e-marketplace (GeM).

It came as no surprise that the year ended with an achievement of 131% of DS! CHANGE congratulates Partha!

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Godrej Interio SEZ, Chennai A Team That Delivered Results.

By A I Buvaneshwar, Godrej Interio Godrej Interio SEZ (GI-SEZ) business operates from Chennai Export Promotion Zone to cater to its clients in Australia, Canada, UK, and the Caribbean Islands. The exported products are office steel storage products such as filing cabinets, lockers, cupboards, tambour door units and the like.

The lockdown imposed in March 2020 adversely impacted the global and domestic supply chains, crippling the operations of GISEZ. Having lost many working days, it was a daunting challenge to maintain the production and productivity.

The first major challenge was the non-availability of the required number of trained workmen.

The production team led by Rengarajan and Head HR, Mahendra Babu, developed, on the go, a training module for the freshers, so that they could be put to work in a few weeks. Head - Safety, Sugavaneshwaran joined the effort by ensuring strict implementation of hygiene, social distancing and safety norms. As a result, not a single case of infection or accident was reported.

Accommodation and transportation were arranged for 100 plus workmen to ensure production as planned.

In addition, the plant and the machinery were kept up and running by Head Engineering, Arthur and his team. Mohanraj, Head - Procurement and his team worked round the clock to get, in time, raw materials, bought outs and subcontracted components, even though the suppliers were severely affected by the pandemic. Freight containers were simply not available. Leveraging the relationships built over decades, Selvam, Head - Commercial and Logistics succeeded in getting the required number of containers as per schedule, without paying premiums.

The team GI-SEZ, is confident of delivering a superlative performance in FY 2021–22, notwithstanding the prevailing pandemic.

CHANGE congratulates Team GI-SEZ! From top to bottom A I Buvaneshwar- Godrej Interio Sugavaneshwaran P- Safety Selvam J- Commercial Rengarajan E- Manufacturing Mohanraj S- Procurement Mahendra Babu- HR Arthur A- Engineering

Parameter

FY 2020-21

FY 2019-20

No. of Products Exported

53,364

52,324

No. of Lock Down/ Non-working Days

57

8

No. of days operated with 25% Manpower

19

0

No. Of days operated with 50% Manpower

37

0

Net Billed Sales

93%

100%

No. of Containers Despatched

134

160

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BOOKMARK

Gratitude – A new approach to life By being grateful, we are able to channelize our energies productively.

Nariman Bacha

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On 15th March, 2020, my article “Life Lessons from a Tiny Teacher” was published in a weekly newspaper. I never imagined that destiny would put me into a totally new life situation so early, after which I would be prompted to write on life lessons from the pandemic. Indeed, it caught us by surprise and forced us to think, adjust & live with its ramifications.

Life after 25th March 2020 was never experienced before. Being a certified Master REIKI -3 Practitioner, many called to seek advice on how to handle this difficult situation which we have never faced earlier. Such inquiries compelled introspection & reality checks on how to react, respond & handle daily, complex life situations during lockdown.

Examples from life flooded my mind. This lockdown made us realize that we all need love, care and attention to pass through such testing times. It dawned upon me that one of the best ways through which we could make a difference to the world was by being GRATEFUL, transforming ourselves & removing negativity. Optimism and relating to others with positivity is possibly the best recipe for happiness!

If we are not optimistic, positive and grateful for all that we have in our lives, this itself may lead to stress for ourselves and others.

You may as well ask, what do we have to be grateful for?

Whenever anyone complains about being restricted to the house, I remind them that we have a lot to be grateful for. We have a roof over our head. We are not worried about where our next meal will come from. Think of the daily wage earners who are living handto-mouth; how do they manage? We are safe in our houses. Think about all the true warriors like the municipal workers, electricity board employees and the telephone company employees who are out there, keeping our water running, electricity uninterrupted and the internet going. Think of the Police who are on the road each day, exposing their own selves to infection. Above all, think of the doctors and healthcare professionals who are risking their lives daily to care for and protect us, even while putting their own families at risk by fulfilling their duty. Look around you, and you will find many things to be grateful for. While many things have shut down, a modicum of continuity remains. Our lives are still moving forwards. Organizations are coming together to protect the people. Through CSR, they are taking responsibility for larger, underserved sections of society. Should we not be grateful to see so much external focus and support all around? Take the example of the vaccine; the whole world is united as one, to find a cure. Traditional competitors have closed ranks and are collaborating to find a viable solution. Is this not heralding a new order? Is this not a great development to be grateful for?

Life as usual has changed fundamentally.

Now we must practice a new way of looking at situations, new learnings, new approach towards life with positivity, spirituality, meditation, compassion, helping the needy, family bonding and above all, tolerance. This is the new reality!

The attitude of Gratitude has taught me to sink petty differences, see the larger picture and relentlessly move ahead.

Many times, the challenges are so many that it is difficult to see the positive light in all this. But whether you talk of the family unit, you talk of companies or you talk of nations there is a strong spirit of fighting back to regain our past happiness. Who gives us this power? What brings us together? We are all bound together in the human condition and having a common enemy to fight has collapsed all the petty differences between us.

Today we stand united as one large family to find solutions for one another.

This change in the social order is something to be grateful for as this goes beyond religion, country and creed.

Challenges of the pandemic have taught me GRATITUDE. I realized we are dependent on so many others, who are working tirelessly to make our life peaceful by protecting us and our families. I end with a heartfelt salute to this Army of Corona fighters.

I am reminded of Albert Einstein’s famous observation, ”A hundred times every day I remind myself that my inner and outer life depend on the labors of other men and I must exert myself in order to give in the same measure as I have received and am still receiving”.

Let us all be grateful & express it openly so that we benefit, and others too. So, practice Gratitude. It not only helps you but is a life-changing positive experience for all.

Wishing all readers & families safe and healthy times, in 2021.

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INSIDE G&B

Global Cotton A Historical Perspective Sven Beckert, Laird Bell Professor of American History, Harvard University

This article is a summary of the 15th Godrej Archives Annual Lecture, delivered by Prof. Beckert on 22nd October 2019.

The early months of 1865 were not a good moment to be a cotton trader in Bombay or elsewhere: “The peace rumor caused almost a panic,” reported Barings Brothers in Liverpool to their counterparts in London in February 1865. “Panic” was also the word that came to mind when the editors of Gore’s General Advertiser announced the beginning of the end of the Confederacy.

When the Indian Daily News, in an “extraordinary” issue, reported in early March of the capture of Charleston by Union forces, it observed “Panic in Liverpool. Cotton down to one shilling,” a panic that rapidly spread to Bombay itself. Boston ice merchant Calvin W. Smith reported from that city that “I am sorry to say such long faces I never saw on any set of mortals as the English + Parsees put on here.” “It was pitiable,” remembered Liverpool cotton merchant Samuel Smith, “to see men who had bought fine mansions and costly picture galleries hanging about “the flags,” watching the chance of borrowing a guinea from an old friend.”

This global panic in cotton trading ports illuminated how closely intertwined political and economic developments all over the world had become by the mid 1860s. Battles fought in rural Virginia reverberated in small villages in Berar—a farmer’s crop choice in Brazil rested on his reading of the Liverpool market, and real estate prices collapsed in Bombay as soon as news of the Union’s destruction of Richmond reached India’s shores. A British observer was amazed at these new global links that the American Civil War had brought to the fore: “We have seen how potent and how quick,” he wrote, “the ef-

fects of ‘price’ were in the most distant parts of the globe…”

The American Civil War is one of the best-researched events in human history.

Considering all that attention, it is surprising that we have spent considerably less effort on understanding the war’s global implications, especially since those implications were far-reaching: the war can easily be seen as one of the great watersheds of nineteenth-century global history. American cotton, the central raw material for all European economies, suddenly disappeared from global markets. By the end of the war, even more consequentially, the world’s most important cotton cultivators, the enslaved workers of the American South, had attained their freedom, undermining one of the pillars on which the global economy had rested: slavery. The war thus amounted to a full-fledged crisis of global capitalism—and its resolution pointed toward fundamental changes in that global economy.

When we look at capitalism’s history, we usually look at industries, at cities, and at wage workers. It is easy for us to forget that much of the change we associate with the emergence of modern capitalism took place in agriculture and in the countryside. With the rise of modern industry, the pressures on this countryside to supply raw materials, labor and markets increased tremendously.

Since modern industry had its origins in the spinning and weaving of cotton, European

Prof. Sven Beckert delivering the lecture titled ‘Empire of Cotton’

and North American manufacturers quite suddenly needed access to vastly increased quantities of raw cotton.

Until 1861, cotton had come almost exclusively from the slave plantations of the Americas—first from the West Indies and Brazil, then from the United States of America.

When American cotton growers began to enter global markets in the 1790s they quickly came to play a dominant role.

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Already in 1800, 25 percent of cotton landed in Liverpool (the world’s most important cotton port) originated from the American South. Twenty years later that number had increased to 59 percent and in 1850 a full 72 percent of cotton imported to Britain was grown in the United States. US cotton also accounted for 90 percent of total imports into France, 60 percent of those into the German lands, and 92 percent of those shipped to Russia.

The United States dominated the production of the world’s most important raw material because it was only there that a key combination existed: plentiful land, recently taken from its native inhabitants, and plentiful slave labor, made available by the declin-

ing tobacco agriculture of the Upper South.

European merchants’ earlier efforts to secure cotton crops from peasant producers in places such as Western Anatolia, India and Africa had failed, as local producers refused to focus on the mono-cultural production of cotton for export, and European merchants lacked the power to force them. It was for that reason that cotton mills and slave plantations expanded in lockstep, and it was for that reason that the United States became important to the global economy for the first time.

Slave plantations were fundamentally different sites of production than peasant agriculture. On plantations owners could dominate all aspects of production: once they had

taken the land from its native inhabitants, they could forcefully move enslaved AfricanAmericans in to do the backbreaking labor of sowing, pruning, and harvesting all that cotton. They could control that labor with unusual brutality, and could deploy and redeploy it without any constraints, radically lowering the costs of production.

Slavery, as a result, stood at the center of the most dynamic and far-reaching production complex in human history.

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INSIDE G&B

When war broke out in the United States in April of 1861, this crucial relationship of the global economy collapsed. At first, the Confederacy hoped to force recognition from European powers by restricting the export of cotton. Once they understood that this policy was bound to fail, the Union blockaded southern trade for nearly four years. The “cotton famine,” as it came to be known, was the equivalent of Middle Eastern oil being removed from global markets in the 1970s. It was capitalism’s first global raw materials crisis.

The effects were dramatic: In Europe, hundreds of thousands of workers lost employment. In Alsace, posters went up proclaiming: “Du pain ou la mort.” Since very little cotton had entered world markets from non-enslaved producers in the first 80 years after the Industrial Revolution, many observers were all but certain that the crisis of slavery would lead to a fundamental and long-lasting crisis of industrial capitalism.

Yet to the surprise of many, the war did not result in a permanent crisis of industrial capitalism, but instead in the emergence of a fundamentally new relationship between industry and the global countryside.

Determined European manufacturers and imperial statesmen opened up new sources for raw cotton in India, Brazil, Egypt and

elsewhere. They pushed new infrastructures, new laws, new capital and new administrative capacities into the global countryside.

Combined with rapidly rising prices for raw cotton, these changes resulted in a world where, for the first time ever, peasant producers sold vast quantities of raw cotton into world markets, preventing the total collapse of the European industry.

India provides a good example for these transformations. The British imperial government built railroads into the cotton growing hinterland. It changed Indian contract law to enable merchants to advance capital to cultivators on the security of their crop and land.

European merchants, who had until then played a minor role in trading Indian cotton, now moved into cotton growing regions, advanced capital to growers, and built steam powered cotton gins and cotton presses.

They increasingly marginalized the big Indian trading firms in Bombay.

Top right - Prof. Sven Beckert explaining various factors that contributed to the growth and prosperity of the ‘Empire of Cotton’ Bottom left -Prof. Sven Beckert interacting with audience members before the lecture.

Bottom right - Members of the audience came forth with intriguing questions that were ably answered by Prof. Sven Beckert.

The newly invented telegraph enabled price information to travel quickly, and by the 1870s European manufacturers could order cotton from hinterland

towns in India and have it delivered to their factories in just six weeks.

Indian cultivators, as a result, increasingly specialized in the production of cotton for export, moving away from their old domestic industry of cloth production, and replacing food crops with cotton. Many of them turned into sharecroppers, highly indebted to local merchants. This model of mobilizing labor for cotton production also travelled to the American South in the wake of the Civil War, when freedpeople’s efforts to gain access to land failed just as much as the efforts of landowners to hire them as wage workers.

As a result, in Alabama and Georgia, South Carolina and Mississippi, formerly enslaved cotton growers became sharecroppers and tenant farmers. The strength of European capital and state power had increased to such a degree that the global countryside could now be transformed in new ways.

So successful was this transition that cotton production expanded dramatically. By 1870, American cotton farmers surpassed their previous high, set in 1860. By 1877 they regained their pre-war market share in Great Britain. By 1880 they exported more cotton than they had in 1860.

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By 1891, sharecroppers, family farmers, and plantation owners in the United States grew twice as much cotton as in 1861.

At its core, the reason for the cotton empire’s successful transition away from slavery was the new capacity of North Atlantic states and capital owners to transform the global countryside. It was their infrastructural, administrative, military and scientific power that enabled the mobilization of cotton growers without slavery.

As nation states became more central to the global cotton industry, and as the cotton industry remained important to European economies, European states increasingly also tried to capture and politically control their own cotton-growing territories. Pushed by manufacturers concerned with the security of their cotton supply, European colonial powers pushed new cotton growing projects.

No one did so more successfully than Russia, who secured a significant

Top - Group photo of the Godrej Archives team with the speaker at the end of the day Bottom right -Engaging discussion ensued during the Q & A session

share of its cotton needs from its colonial territories in Central Asia.

The Germans followed suit in their western African colony of Togo; the British in India and throughout Africa; and the French, Belgians and Portuguese in their respective African colonies. Even the Japanese built a small cotton growing complex in their colony, Korea. This reconstruction of the global cotton growing countryside provided ever increasing quantities of ever cheaper cotton to the industry, but at the same time created huge new risks for rural cultivators, as extreme poverty and political repression descended upon them. In India, in the late nineteenth century, millions of cotton growers starved to death because the crops they grew could not pay for the food they needed.

The British medical journal The Lancet estimated that 19 million Indians died in the famines of the late 1890s, most of them cotton growers.

The American Civil War thus marked one of the most important turning points in the history of global capitalism. The last politically powerful group of cotton growers—the planters of the American South—were now politically marginalized in the global economy, a global economy newly dominated by its industrial actors. More importantly, slavery, which had been so central to the first eighty years of the expansion of a mechanized cotton growing industry—and thus to global capitalism—had ended. New ways of mobilizing the labor of rural cotton growing cultivators had emerged, a fundamentally new moment in capitalism’s long history.

As this episode from the endlessly fascinating global history of cotton shows, the significance of the American Civil War went well beyond the borders of the United States, and indeed, can only be fully understood from a global vantage point. And the same applies to the history of capitalism. Only a global perspective allows us to understand how this vastly productive and often violent new system of economic activity came into being—and only a global perspective allows us to understand the origins of the modern world we live in.

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SUCCESS STORIES

Superachievers Godrej Electronics & Electricals Effective execution is the key to succeed in the business of projects.

Meher Guard

In the field to get things done, leading from the front and inspiring teams to put in that ‘extra’ are the key ingredients of success.

S. Gowdhaman Regional Head, Business Development, South Zone, MEP The first lockdown was one of its kind for everyone, which led to loss of working days.

To make up for the lost time, it was essential to book additional billable orders to meet the annual DS. Notwithstanding the trials and tribulations of working in the virtual mode, Gowdhaman and his team could remain in close contact with customers and were able to fulfill all their requirements to win orders of substantial value.

Gowdhaman and his team worked hard and diligently to make strong inroads into e-commerce and the warehousing sector, a completely new sector for the MEP line of business. The team, leveraging the strong support of the senior management of the business, was able to secure a large order of about Rs 50 crores for Flipkart’s Harringatta Project.

This order was a great contributor to the bill sales of the business in FY 2020-‘21.

Puneet Haldankar Regional Head, Business Development , West Zone, MEP The year of the pandemic, 2020-‘21 brought along with it an array of challenges like the loss of an operating quarter and shrinkage of overall market size. As most of the office workforce was working from home, commercial office spaces, our major contributing segment, took a hit of almost 30% over the previous year. The market sentiment was also negative, resulting in a tough adverse year for business development.

In such a difficult year, Puneet and his team, along with the estimation team and encouraged by the senior management, rose to overcome the challenges and secured an order worth Rs 100 cr from Oberoi Realty.

The team continued with the momentum and closed the year with orders booked worth Rs 121cr.

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Sudip Banerjee Regional Head, MEP Last year, the post lockdown situation was equally challenging as the lockdowns earlier. Social distancing was simply not heard of at project sites where density of workers deployed is high. To maintain 100% safety, quality and speed at sites was difficult, considering the demands of the customers.

The team proved their mettle on ground.

Sudip led from the front and the team secured an order for providing MEP services to

one of the largest in the country - a one million sq. ft. warehouse of Flipkart. The entire project had a delivery period of nine months!

This project marked an entry of MEP into a new segment of business.

Sudip, along with his project manager Sachin Sakpal took this huge challenge and converted it into a great success story. Sudip displayed sharp leadership qualities and a strong ability to manage all stakeholders.

Usman Shaikh Regional Head, Execution, MEP The year 2020 was the most difficult for the people at project sites responsible for delivery. Social distancing was a phenomenon never heard of in the construction industry. A unique out of the box approach was the need of the hour.

Usman, with his project manager Lijo Joy & others, took charge of delivering one of

the most prestigious data centre projects, Sify, Noida. The pandemic made this task extremely challenging. Usman led from the front, and inspired his team by ensuring a safe work environment for all at site.

He ensured that planned levels of resources were deployed at site to execute the project as required and emerge successful.

A noteworthy contribution to MEP.

Sandip Bhakta and Debapriya Garai Projects, Power Infrastructure & Renewable Energy (PIRE) Bringing reliable electricity to North Eastern states of India is a project of national importance. We were committed to deliver this project in time, notwithstanding the pandemic prevailing across the country. The project involved constructing 220kV & 132kV GIS substations at Haflong in Assam and Jiribam in Manipur for Power Grid Corporation of India Limited.

Working in Assam and Manipur is tough, even in normal times, because of heavy rains, difficult terrains, lack of infrastructure, local

issues and so on. This became even tougher in the pandemic times.

Sandip and Debapriya led from the front, motivated their team and worked relentlessly during the last one year to achieve the desired outcome. They worked long hours continuously for months, sacrificed their leaves to complete the project in time, to the satisfaction of all stakeholders.

More importantly, this was achieved with zero accidents and zero COVID-19 cases at the sites. Indeed, a remarkable achievement!

U LA

N

CH

D A P

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AURELIA DINING SET

BY GODREJ INTERIO An elegant setting to enjoy meals, talk to each other and bond.

The dining room is a multi-functional space in every home where people eat, entertain, and work these days. It is where everyone comes together to share meals, have conversations, and create memories. Today, the dining sets have become an integral part of homes, large or small, and are the means for personal expression, sharing of views and bonding.

Aurelia, a 6-seater dining set with a contemporary, bold, and eclectic look and design is ideal for both, everyday and formal dining.

Thoughtful, versatile, luxurious and low maintenance are just some of the words that describe Aurelia. With clean, curvilinear lines, statement golden legs and a rich botanical print on the table as well as on the chairs, Aurelia has an extravagant feel at every turn. The technique of screen printing ensures continuity of patterns on the toughened glass tabletop and the leatherette upholstery on chairs. The pattern on the table is placed in a way to give the effect of a table runner, eliminating the need for any additional cover or accessories

to enhance the table. The pattern play on the chair and table in inverse colours gives Aurelia its distinct character.

Aurelia comfortably fits in the available space, when living and dining share a space, giving it a chic, yet homely feel. The combination of die cast and metal welded components take care of stability and durability of the table whereas the toughened glass and leatherette upholstery make the dining set easy to clean and maintain.

The high temperature-withstanding toughened glass table top is durable and less prone to breakage than conventional glass tops, adding to the safety and longevity of the set.

The metal structure is coated with bonded metallic paint which results in a smoother, cleaner, and consistent finish. Aurelia is designed as a combination of knockdown components, which leads to optimized packaging, helping ship more sets per full or part upload or a container, thus minimizing the set’s carbon footprint.

To know more about the product or purchase it, visit www.godrejinterio.com.

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BOOKMARK

Constant Change – The Normal New A review of ‘Hit Refresh’, a non-fiction book by Satya Nadella, CEO, Microsoft.

Khushman Bhathena

It highlights the need for change in our lives as well as in business in the context of the new normal.

It’s about Mr. Nadella’s quest to rediscover the soul of one of the world’s biggest companies and envision a better future with the use of emotional intelligence-led technology like Artificial Intelligence (AI), Mixed Reality and Quantum Computing, among others.

According to the Bhagavad Geeta - Change is the law of nature. Every person, organization, society reaches a point at which they owe it to themselves to ‘Hit Refresh’ – to re-energize, renew, reframe, and rethink their purpose. It is when people & cultures co-create and refresh that a renaissance begins.

In the book Mr. Nadella also shares his personal experiences where he too had to Hit Refresh in his quest for a balanced and meaningful life.

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Empathy is the source of any change or any meaningful innovation.

Mr. Nadella – The Empathetic Leader Mr. Nadella has a strong belief in the power of empathy and technology. He believes that the key to everything is empathy. The source of any innovation or change is empathy.

He believes, to succeed one needs to empower everyone and curate an open culture and an encouraging leadership that listens.

There have been strong influences in his life, be it his parents, the game of cricket, teachings of Lord Buddha and himself being a father to differently abled children. These have taught him about change, humility, compassion, empathy, acceptance, and mindfulness. Mr. Nadella’s search to understand people’s thoughts, feelings and ideas drove his desire to discover what is at the core, which makes him a better leader.

His analysis of the interplay between empathy in innovating technology goes far into deciding to work on many life-changing projects that were bound to benefit many segments of our society today.

Our Future: Human-AI world Artificial Intelligence (AI) is going to be the next technology and the biggest challenge is to develop AI with human sensitivities.

As we encounter more and more AI, there will be scarcity of real ‘Intelligence, Empathy and Common Sense’. Technology can increasingly see, speak, and analyze, but it is yet to learn to feel. Let us not forget there is a human behind every machine – one who creates it, second who operates/maintains it and third, the ultimate user who enjoys the benefits of the first two.

Empathy will be an invaluable ingredient to harness technology to serve human needs as well as reduce strife and pain.

Millennials, especially, need a digital friend who is a companion in loneliness, with whom conversations are going to be non-judgmental and anonymous. AI will fail if it can’t complement its IQ with human EQ. The future holds the possibility where humans and machines can work together to solve complex societal challenges viz., education and healthcare. Let us not think of the intelligence as being artificial, but one that

enhances human capabilities and capacities.

Everyone, and not just those in the corporate world, must read this book as it is an inspiration, showcasing a never-say-die attitude. Mr. Nadella had many personal tragedies, but he chose to see the brighter side. Life is about passion, dedication, and the intensity with which we decide to pursue our goals. Are we willing to go that extra mile, jump over any barriers, set our differentiators and be able to shine out?

‘Hit Refresh’ showcases corporate strategies, technological achievements, and formulas to increase the pace of innovation and succeed as a leader and a human. And most importantly, it shows Mr. Nadella’s pursuit to re-invent Microsoft by placing self-awareness and empathy at the core of his leadership style. This book encourages us to hit the refresh button and gives many guide quotes to help us create a business and a life we love.

The book is well worth buying as a valuable addition to your collection.

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BOOKMARK

Life Hacks For Children “Do not handicap your children by making their lives easy.” – Robert A. HeinLeint.

Gillian Dennett, Corporate Personnel & Administration

Excellence is attained by learning to do small things exceedingly well, always. So starting early can be a big advantage.

As a working mother, every morning, I follow a rushed routine. Getting to work myself, getting the children ready and taking them to school takes a major chunk of my mornings. Last year, the morning routine was less rushed, but there were a host of new challenges to be resolved daily. Additional helping hands for chores around the house are always welcome.

So, what if our children helped us with these daily chores? A great idea!

An ideal routine for children should include waking up early, making their beds, brushing their teeth, hanging their towels after a bath, setting the table for meals, helping to clear up after meals, and dusting, sweeping, and swabbing for older kids.

Children helping by carrying out these chores would not only make life easier, but also help them learn life skills that will go a long way in making them confident with the challenges of independent living later in life.

The pros of children helping at home with chores are many:

Respect Our parents put in a lot of hard work around the house, but sadly, we learnt to appreciate it only when we grew up. Our

children are no different from us. Assigning chores to them at a young age helps them realize, early in life, the value of hard work put in for years by our parents. They will develop a sense of respect for their parents only when they perform household chores routinely, daily.

Managing Time There are a million things to do to get by daily. As children learn to juggle schoolwork, playtime, and do chores in the hours at hand, they become better at managing their time – a skill they will find very useful as they move on in life.

Work Ethic This trait is highly valued by our teachers and eventually by our bosses as well. Why not instill a healthy work ethic in our children from a young age? Chores can be tied to rewards in kind, such as food treats, screen time, play time and the like. To teach children the value of money, it would be ideal for them to take up small jobs for which they are paid during weekends or holidays. Such experiences can ignite an entrepreneurial spark in them.

Becoming Self Reliant Lea Waters, Professor of positive psychology at University of Melbourne, states that ‘self-efficacy’ is crucial for mental health.

Without the sense of self-efficacy developed early in life or later, adults tend to lose confidence and the drive to push forward. We thrive when we know we have both, a sense

of control and the capabilities required.

Being able to take care of the household chores helps children become independent and confident. Being productive boosts their self-esteem as well.

Teamwork Learning to be a productive member of a team can be modelled through housework.

Learning teamwork lessons at home, where mistakes are easily forgiven, can help children become responsible team workers.

Bonding Often, we crib about not spending enough time with our children. Doing chores together can create special moments of bonding between children and adults alike. Younger ones feel important as contributing members of the family, thus receiving a boost in their self-esteem. Older ones learn to overcome their moods as their engagement with the family grows deeper.

Life skills Our children will not be children forever.

Mastering experiences does not have to be a grand accomplishment. Waters points to things that help build mastery, and it could be as small as completing a Lego build that was a little bit hard, packing their own backpacks or walking the dog by themselves.

Laundry, cooking and keeping track of expenses are the skills that will prove beneficial in the future.

“Parents are really depleted,” Waters

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acknowledged, but a positive, proactive approach is “kind of a win-win. It’s good for your kids,” and seeing children thrive is “good for us as parents as well,” she said.

And her research has found that using a strengths-building approach — finding areas where your children can take on more responsibility — is also correlated with an increase in ‘parental self-efficacy’, a sense that “you are doing the right thing as a parent.”

As a student of Udayachal Schools, I am ever so grateful to my teachers for all that they taught me as a child.

A clean, well-cared for home creates a feeling of well-being for the family in these pandemic times.

Dear Parents, as you know, our children are our future. Let us entrust them with chores around the house, starting today.

Please start small, be supportive and patient. Encourage them through a series of small tasks carried out well to difficult

tasks, building confidence in the process.

Acknowledge their contributions.

Praise selectively and honestly – no easy and over praising as well as comparisons. In a recent study, scientists found that engaging in household chores improved cognitive fitness, i.e., brain health in adults.

Why not put our children on the right path early in their lives so that they can have a brighter future with improved brain health.

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DIGITAL SPRINT -A- THON 2020 More ideas are good but more exchanges of ideas are better.

Sujata Sanke & Richa Verma, Innovation & Design Center

In the times of crisis, it pays handsomely to focus on business process innovations as they have the maximum potential for yielding gains.

A total of 15 ideas reached the third and final round of assessment. In this round, we facilitated a presentation by the teams to the relevant decision makers in each business.

The choices available to the jury were to take the idea forward in whole or part or drop the idea altogether for reasons such as lack of merit or its existence within the business.

After an evaluation by the jury, seven ideas were moved forward to the BUs. The SPRINT-A-THON team facilitated each of these ideas to be pitched to the relevant stakeholders within the BUs to handover these ideas for the next stages of design and execution.

UV Light Sanitization Box A product at home to disinfect all types of electronic items, medical equipments, vegetables and ready-made food by using Ultraviolet C type ray.

SPRINT-A-THON Teams: Kumar Karunendra and Rajesh Patil, Godrej Appliances

Project driven by: The idea was brought to life by not one but two businesses - Godrej UV Case by Godrej Security Solutions and Viroshield 4.0. by Godrej Appliances.

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Anti-Bacterial/ Disposable/ A Common Platform Customized seating covers For Visibility Of Sales Seating protection in offices and training and Payments centers post Covid-19.

SPRINT-A-THON Team: Rohit Devgan, Neeraj Kaushik and Yazdi Damania, Godrej Interio.

Project driven by: This idea was pitched and immediately given a go-ahead by the Business Head for building prototypes and samples. Within 20 days, the team was ready with prototypes and covers for 30 SKUs . The Interio service team called it Kavach and sold around 2000 covers in 3 months. This inspired another new product offering of a medical-grade fabric chair, currently under evaluation.

Providing user friendly, easy to access information for relevant stakeholders

SPRINT-A-THON Participant: G Satyanarayan, Godrej Material Handling .

Project driven by: A cross functional team of Corporate finance and GITL is currently working on this project. This was initiated for building on an idea of digitizing Dealer Statement of Accounts (DSA) and solving the problem of linking invoices brought to notice by G Satyanarayan. This portal is going to be a big step towards digitization and will also help eliminate redundancies in the business processes involved.

Godrej Interactive Digital Solutions Enhancing customer, trade partners’ and technicians’ interaction through WhatsApp Business with a chatbot facilitating the sales / service /product queries.

SPRINT-A-THON Team: Gunjan Bhargava, Ashay Patil and Atish Gharat , Godrej Material Handling

Project driven by: Godrej Appliances has successfully implemented WhatsApp Business Solution to enrich customer experience and enhance engagement. All services are available to customers at their fingertips, making it a one-stop, convenient and accessible solution. Simply scan a QR code or WhatsApp ‘Hi’ to 9321 66 5511 to avail all services.

The solution is designed to provide a hassle-free onboarding experience to the other G&B B2C businesses. The overall customer waiting time has dipped from the existing average of 3 minutes to an incredible average of 45 seconds!

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24*7 Remote Assistance Service Providing online service assistance through a digital service information portal

SPRINT-A-THON Team: Dhananjay Kundlik, Manish Singh, Abhijit Sinha and Sunetra Bhalerao, Godrej Material Handling.

Project driven by: The Service Delivery team, using salesforce.com, a CRM platform, completed its service cloud configuration and ran pilots at three branches. Based on the learnings, IoT-based solutions are being developed to enhance predictive maintenance.

Smart, Safe And Contactless Vending Machines SPRINT-A-THON Team: Atul Singh, Shardul M, Rahul K, Ankit B, Kiran G , Godrej Prima

Project driven by:

The Prima business came up with a pocket and user-friendly solution. They mobilized all the necessary resources to build a workable prototype using two approaches. In the first one, a Mobile Application based solution was prototyped for scaling up, with a quick, 20 day development. The team implemented three different applications - ‘Vendekin’, for digital payments, a no payment option for Godrej Vending and a Godrej Service App for machine settings.

In the second approach, a weblink based solution was developed to ensure independence of the operating system. The new user interface is being field tested.

24/7

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Smart Waste Management at G&B using IoT SPRINT-A-THON Team:

Shweta Bhoyar, Tejashree Joshi and Sanjiv Pednekar, Godrej Construction.

Project driven by:

Environmental Engineering Services Team at Godrej Construction. The intent is to ensure continuous delivery of services to G&B while protecting the highly vulnerable workers handling waste. The detailed analysis, action plan and research on suitable technologies is complete. Post a pilot at Pirojshanagar, it will be scaled up on the basis of outcomes.

Thank you, all the SPRINTERS, for participating wholeheartedly. We at Godrej never hesitate to take challenges head on. SPRINTA-THON indicates that the bigger the challenge, the better the response.

Note: All images are of Sprint prototypes

We at Godrej never hesitate to take challenges head on.

SPRINT-A-THON indicates that the bigger the challenge, the better the response.

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An Oasis of Wilderness Biodiversity starts in the distant past and it points towards the future - Frans Lanting Laxmikant Deshpande, Wetland Management Services

Biodiversity is our most valuable but least appreciated resource - Edward O Wilson

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G&B’s Pirojshanagar Township is host to several types and species of algae, mosses, grasses, orchids, creepers, climbers, cacti, cycas, herbs, shrubs, and trees. Some are native, some are naturalised while many have been cultivated over the decades. More than 1100+ species of these plants on our campus nurture complex food chains and create interdependence of plants and animals on each other. Let’s glance at a few magnificent members of Pirojshanagar’s biodiversity.

Spotted Scat (Scatophagus argus) The fish, distributed across the Indo-Pacific region to Japan, New Guinea, Philippines, Australia is found in seas, creeks, estuaries, mangroves, and lower rivers that empty into the creeks. Though coastal, they can survive in fresh water as well, and therefore make for a popular aquarium fish. In Maharashtra, they are called Waraa or Chaandi (silver colored fish) and are a common delicacy in the fisherfolk community. The fish found in red or green morphs, is often seen on the creek surface when a boat passes through Thane creek on the eastern boundary of Pirojshanagar.

Common Kukri (Oligodon arnensis) A common snake of the Indian peninsula, Common Kukri is a small snake that grows up to 50-70 cm. Conspicuous with black bands on its body and a V-shaped pattern on its head, the snake gets the name from its Kukri-shaped (Nepalese knife) tooth. It loves to dig soil and feast upon the soft yolk of eggs of other snakes. Shy and inoffensive, on provocation it throws its body into a loose coil by folding its tails and making loops of its forebody at a bit of height from the ground.

The non-venomous reptile is nocturnal and generally spotted in loose soil, under rocks or in leaf-litter.

Wire-tailed Swallow (Hirundo smithii) A very distinctive swallow with two long, thin feathers on its outer tail from which it gets its name. Its scientific name honors Professor Chetien Smith, a Norwegian botanist, who discovered the species. It is found in grasslands, wetlands, open scrublands, cultivated areas and near water. A fast flyer, it feeds on insects during flight and its presence indicates good insect diversity. Unlike many other swallow species which nest in colonies - the Wire-tailed Swallows are solitary and territorial nesters.

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Orange Mangrove (Bruguiera cylindrica) Orange mangrove is generally found in patches in the mangrove ecosystem, especially in low to medium saline areas. It is a medium sized tree growing up to 20 meters but often seen as a thick bush. The knee-shaped bent breathing roots are a distinguished characteristic of the species. The tree is used for charcoal and firewood while in many SE Asian countries, its leaves, bark and roots are ingredients of the local cuisines. With high regeneration rate, Orange Mangrove is an easy-to-grow species in plantation projects.

This series is our humble effort to help the Change readers understand and appreciate the biodiversity of the Pirojshanagar Township. In a mega metropolitan city like Mumbai that is constantly under stress from habitat loss and pollution, Pirojshanagar Township provides several ecosystem services to G&B, local fisherfolk and in some cases, the entire Mumbai Metropolitan Region.

Share your feedback and suggestions on the series to mangroves@godrej.com

Images Hemant Karkhanis Laxmikant Deshpande WMS Department, G&B

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Don’t QUIT!

By John Whittier “Stay Strong, Stay Positive and Never Give up.”

Contributed by Gillian Dennett, Corporate P&A

When things go wrong, as they sometimes will, When the road you’re trudging seems all uphill, When the funds are low and the debts are high, And you want to smile, but you have to sigh, When care is pressing you down a bit, Rest, if you must, but don’t you quit.

Life is queer with its twists and turns, As every one of us sometimes learns, And many a failure turns about, When he might have won’t had he stuck it out; Don’t give up though the pace seems slowYou may succeed with another blow.

Often the goal is nearer than, It seems to a faint and faltering man, Often the struggler has given up, When he might have captured the victor’s cup, And he learned too late when the night slipped down, How close he was to the golden crown.

Success is failure turned inside out – The silver tint of the clouds of doubt, And you never can tell how close you are, It may be near when it seems so far, So, stick to the fight when you’re the hardest hit – It’s when things seem worst that you must not quit.

For all the sad words of tongue or pen The saddest are these; “It might have been.”

‘Business as usual’ has been obliterated from our midst by the Covid-19 pandemic in about 16 months.

The disruptions and the hardships unleashed have forced us to think afresh and adapt quickly to the emerging scenarios to survive. To grow and prosper, we need to proactively change and become better at managing the challenges of ‘Business, not as usual’.