• In Conversation

Adi Godrej, the third Chairman of the Godrej Group, has spent his time at the company restructuring the Godrej empire and putting new processes and systems in place. Now, he has passed on the spirit of innovation that has become synonymous with the Godrej name to his oldest daughter,
Tanya Dubash.

Dubash, a Harvard Business School graduate, joined the family business in 1993 and took charge of marketing and product development in 2004. For over 15 years, Dubash has worked toward revamping brand Godrej so
as to connect with a younger India. Here, she tells us about the group’s succession strategy.

Shereen bhan (SB): It has been almost 15 years since you joined the Godrej group. How different is the company now as compared to 1993?
Tanya Dubash (TD): Radically different. Physically, the place is the same green Vikhroli [office] that it used to be. Culturally, too, we still hold many of our old values such as integrity and trust, which we strongly believe in. However, I think we have clearly moved with—if not ahead of—the times. So in those terms, I think we have radically changed.

SB: Your father, Adi Godrej, says you’ve brought a certain emotional intelligence to Godrej. When the company had done a 360 degree evaluation, he realized he wasn’t a very good listener. He thinks that’s how you are different: you are more open to feedback and a better listener.
TD: I think that is correct, but [my father] has completely changed since then. He is leading the change in the company. He is an extremely good listener now; he’s always open to new ideas and opportunities. I think that’s how we are now, as an organization. I think we are very open, we are very consumer-centric, we want to innovate and deliver on our promise of brighter living to all our stakeholders today.

Perhaps I would count listening as one of my strong skills. I do feel that we have brought a little more emotional quotient into the organization.

SB: There have been three group chairmen in the 110 years of Godrej’s history, your father being one of them. The CEOs continue to be non-family members. So how is your role expected to change post the succession plan?
TD: I think time evolves us. We are very proud of the fact that we are very professionally run. All our companies have industry veterans as CEOs, and we want to continue operating like that. So, we have a strong succession planning system in place.

When you talk about family, I think succession planning comes within the broader family business governance fold—and it is just one element of that.
We are working with many people and we are working as a family to set up structures and plans as to how our family should be governed in the future. And succession planning is one important part of that.

SB: So when will we actually see this succession plan in operation? There is you, your sister, your brother and your cousin—all part of your generation.
TD: We are a cousin consortium. We are going to work very effectively together. We don’t really need to choose one [successor]. We think pooling our minds together in an innovative system would be the best way forward.

SB: Your brother is involved with Godrej Properties. Your sister works pretty much across the group, as do you. But for the first couple of years, you were by yourself. So what’s it like to have them around you at work?
TD: It’s great to have them here. It is just that much a bigger pool of ideas. We all work together very well, and there is a lot of space for everyone to contribute and to do a lot.

SB: I believe that there are family council meetings held, too.
TD: Yes. Our family council meetings include all family members above a certain age. We discuss all sorts of issues that are important to family governance.

SB: How do you manage your day between what you do here and your family commitments?
TD: It’s quite a juggle, but a lot of fun. I cannot wait to run back to my boys. It has changed me—it has softened me.

SB: Let me talk to you about the re-branding exercise—your baby, in a sense. According to the brand evaluation you had done, a brand like even Cinthol had a gap of about Rs. 1,300 crore between where it stood and where it potentially could be. How has that panned out for you now?
TD: It has panned out beautifully. We have to sort of step back, though. Our re-branding exercise is one of the broader ambitions we have. We are aiming for a 25-30 percent sustainable profit going forward, and we have several strategic levers for achieving that—managing the brand more effectively is clearly one of them. We have this huge asset, as you have pointed out, in the Godrej brand; other brands like Cinthol and Good Night have perhaps have been under-utilized. The Godrej brand has not been strategically managed before.

SB: So, what is phase II for Godrej?
TD: I think one important aspect is the company’s umbrella idea, which is to become more relevant, more contemporary and to appeal to a younger mindset. We need to have a more consumer-focused culture. What we have set out to do, essentially, is to create a younger, more aspirational lifestyle brand. We are repositioning our brand around the promise of brighter living.

In a narrow sense, this is a brand promise; but in a broader, corporate sense, it is a Godrej promise that we make to all our stakeholders—consumers, employees and society. Going forward, that is what we want to do. We have to have a better understanding of our consumers. We have proprietary research techniques that will help us achieve this. and put the consumer at the center of our business planning.

SB: You have already made some acquisitions in personal grooming. Will the next few acquisitions also be in this space?
TD: Yes, we have made a few acquisitions in this space already. But clearly, there are more opportunities there, which we are looking at.

SHEREEN BHAN  is the Executive Editor, CNBC-TV18.

©Entrepreneur January 2010

Tags:
Adi Godrej, CNBC-TV18, Godrej, Shereen Bhan, Tanya Dubash