  |
||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
|
Home Base |
||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
|
After the lighting of the traditional lamp a shradhanjali was offered to the founders and other members of the Godrej family. Our special invitees were enthralled by the dramatic performance by some members of our workforce - our soldiers, who presented with conviction that “those who strive, will always succeed... koshish karne walon ki haar nahin hoti”! This presentation also delved into the history of Godrej and its innovative achievements. The performance also showed how the name Godrej, stands for trust, quality and is built to last. Also, it went into how Godrej not only consolidated its presence in the Indian market but also spread its wings overseas and leaped into space with rocket engines.
Our senior most members of the Godrej parivar then felicitated the Godrej family members with garlands and flower bouquets. Divisions, which scored in numbers at the Blood Donation drive, were, then felicitated by the Godrej family. To mark the arrival of young Navroze Godrej, the scion of Godrej family, into corporate life, a special theme song sung by singer Shaan was played on the occasion. It enthused and filled the entire audience with youthful vigor and zest to bring about a transformation at Godrej. A bouquet of flowers and a plaque from the Godrej & Boyce Shramik Sangh (GBSS) were presented to Navroze, which he gracefully accepted amidst resounding applause from one and all present. This was followed by speeches by Mr George M Menezes, Vice President (Commercial), and also Chairman of the Dassera-Diwali Organising Committee, Mr Vilas Bhangar, Chairman, Central Works Committee, Mr Anil G Verma, Executive Vice President (Corporate Personnel & Administration), Mr N R Singh, General Secretary, GBSS, and finally the most-awaited Mr J N Godrej, Chairman and Managing Director, G&B. Mr. Menezes, in his inspiring speech in Marathi, stressed the importance of innovation and how each one of us could make a difference by our contribution, be it on the shop floor or the office. He threw light on how each one of us needs to explore new and better ways of working and build individual competencies which will help us improve our products, services and self and help us to combat the competition.
Mr Anil Verma spoke of the values of self-reliance & patriotism that has enabled our organization to grow over the years and stated that we owe the successful century that has gone by to the hard work and dedication of our predecessors. He said that gen-now should also contribute in the same manner so they too can leave behind for gen-next a legacy of which we can be proud of. He shared his thoughts on how one could take on the competition. Giving real-life examples, he illustrated the need to benchmark against the ‘best-in-class’ not only at the national level but also against the best in the world i.e. global benchmarking. He also highlighted the need to build customer intimacy, i.e., show more ‘apnapan’ (sense of oneness with) towards the customers, which alone would enable us to become a truly leading future-oriented company for another hundred years into future.
Mr N R Singh shared the pride and joy that all the workforce were experiencing as the long-awaited moment of welcoming the young leader from the Godrej family. He spoke about the support that the Godrej workforce continues to provide in meeting new challenges. He hoped that all others at Godrej too would appropriately acknowledge this support and contribution. He welcomed the fourth generation and shared his belief that Navroze’s leadership will also be as invaluable - “amulya” to all at Godrej. Mr J N Godrej took the stage amidst great applause. He opened with the lines that we all do understand the challenges that we face today, be it octroi, productivity, safety, etc… He also recognized the fact that unlike in the past, today’s workforce is very much aware of the ground realities in the business. He stated the fact that all our divisions are on the path of progress. Though some of the divisions are still grappling with certain problems they are working on solving the same. He illustrated with the example of how today 80% production of our PED divisions goes abroad. PED, he said, can do so because of the ability to score on all parameters, viz., ‘on-time’ delivery, quality, safety and world-class technology. He was pleased with the efforts of giving gainful employability to workmen by making them multi-skilled in the changing industrial and economic scenario. He stressed that if we all work together, we can indeed march ahead. He also emphasized that it was each one’s responsibility to see to it that the company progresses. He also impressed upon all that we must pay attention to competition. He spoke about various facilities for us at Godrej. For example, the Godrej Memorial Hospital that he had envisaged, and is now a reality. He also mentioned about the prestigious visit of our President, Dr A P J Abdul Kalam to our Udayachal schools.
Whilst wishing all the Godrej parivaar members and their families a very happy Diwali, he also thanked everyone for the co-operation that was extended to him all these years. He was pleased with the way Navroze was welcomed by one and all and hoped that Navroze too would receive our whole-hearted co-operation. Mugdha with her compering did a great job of weaving all the thoughts represented by the speakers and the feelings of all those present, into one quilt of the Godrej parivaar enveloping us in its warmth and pride The evening of Diwali Celebrations ended with a vote of thanks, expressing good wishes for the prosperity and happiness to all present and their families and the National Anthem. Doreen Rosario
RETAILING DIVISION
The youngest member of the Godrej family, the Retailing Division, is soon metamorphosing into a unique retailing institution. The Division is moving away from the concept of a showroom of mere four walls meant to showcase products, to a concept of a store powered by the new wave of experiential marketing — a one-stop shop, where Godrej products are not just displayed but touched, felt and experienced by all its customers. This thinking is reflected in the warm, inviting ambience created in the showrooms with vibrant colours, contemporary products and greatly supported with friendly service.
However, a need was felt to have a name which brought out the vibrancy and friendliness of our showrooms. The name “Godrej Lifespace” was born where the showrooms were not only four walls, but reflected the entire lifespace of a customer, be it an individual or an institution. Here, in Godrej Lifespace, one will find contemporary furniture, home appliances, security systems and other interior solutions, everything that will enrich one’s life into a lifespace oozing with positive energy. The Godrej showrooms are now being named Godrej Lifespace and the change in the look of the showroom is striking. The change is getting an encouraging response, with an increase in customers walking in immediately after the signage has been changed. Take, for instance, the newly renovated showroom at Abids Roads, Hyderabad. The Godrej building on Abids Road in Hyderabad was a typical office building, with a showroom on the ground floor. The adjectives that would easily justify its past appearance would be staid, dowdy and demure. The showroom looked straight out of the seventies, way too old for the young glamorous showrooms of the present. In its on-going renovation initiative, the Retailing Division challenged itself under the expert, meticulous guidance of Architect Hanoze Mistry who worked on the exteriors and Visual Merchandiser Manu Mansheet who transformed the interiors into a vibrant and colourful Lifespace. The Retailing Division, along with the untiring support from the Construction Department, the Hyderabad Branch, the contractors and the advertising agency turned dullness to delight. And when the change happened, it resulted in dramatic results. The one-floor Godrej showroom turned into a grand three-storey Godrej Lifespace, totally renovated and totally unrecognizable! This new Godrej Lifespace showroom was inaugurated on 13 September, 2005 by T. Subbirami Reddy, Member of Parliament and Chairman of the Tirumala Tirupati Devasthanam. The event was further lit up by the presence of our Executive Director and President P.D. Lam and other important luminaries such as B.N. Doongaji, Vice President and Business Head, Retailing Division, George Menezes, Vice President (Commercial) and Vinod Kumar, General Manager (South). The showroom that looked dull and empty was then thronged by people from all walks of life, feasting on the display and finding it hard to believe that there could be such a huge, impressive offering. This slowly got translated into numbers and more than welcome figures. Accolades were showered on the choice of décor and its huge range. Colours and hues were both pleasing to the utilitarian and the connoisseur. And, with this change, the philosophy of the Godrej showrooms is now complete; that we are in the business of creating spaces that enrich life.
Rajiv Patkar
Contribution and Care: A
Paradigm of Success
Here is a brief report on both the conferences: The Sales conference (4th-6th August) was aptly called “C Drive”, the letter C standing for Contribution. This was an extension of last year’s theme of Creation of Value. Mr. P D Lam, our President and Executive Director, outlined the business challenges facing the team of Appliance Division and stated in definite clear terms what needs to be done. He demanded strong, focused and time bound actions for the success of the business. He also gave the participants practical guidelines to follow and plenty of encouragement. Mr. P D Lam’s address was followed by presentations of the heads of the relevant functions The Sales conference saw Mr. Kamal Nandi (VP, Sales,) taking stock of the performance so far and setting the agenda for the coming year. Mr Shyam Motwani (VP, Marketing) gave an overview of the different marketing initiatives over the last year. The washing machine campaign was also unveiled before the branches. Mr. A. G. Keswani’s (VP, Manufacturing) candid presentation to sensitize the branches about the constraints and practical roadmap to overcome these was much appreciated. Mr Anil Verma’s (EVP, HR) presentation on “Flying High” had the participant’s morale soaring.
The Service Conference (6th-8th September) focused on “Care, Dil Se” or how the heart must win over the mind to enhance the customer experience with the brand and products. The Service Conference had its share of several insightful presentations too. Mr.Anil Verma, EVP and Head - Personnel and Administration bowled the audience over with his opening words, “ What does one say to a bunch of winners?” Mr. Verma presented facts and figures which sent a message of reassurance and established a positive outlook through defining the HR agenda of Caring, Enabling, and eventually transforming the Organization. This was followed by a powerful presentation by Mr.A.G.Keswani, who touched upon the “Das Bahane” to win the customers’ hearts through customer service, in his inimitable style. He showed how the Service team had mastered the science of service, and was now well on it’s way to “going beyond science”. Mr.U.A.Abbasi, GM Service, next presented the different facets of Service that bespoke its strength, highlighted the achievements during the last year and presented the map of the road ahead. Mr.D.V.Vora, GM Service, gave a crisp presentation on the supply chain management, and outlined the new initiatives for the coming year. Mr. Diptendu Bhattacharya, GM Sales (North), and Mr. Himanshu Jain shared the sales and marketing initiatives and future action plans which provided a perspective and a backdrop to the efforts of the Service team. Mr. A.G.Keswani then introduced Mr. Hussain Plumber, GM (Quality) who discussed the process and quality improvement projects at manufacturing, which was well received by the audience. Besides there were presentations by industry practitioners and academicians to bring in alternate perspectives on the business challenges facing the team. All present highly appreciated insightful and interesting presentations made by the business leaders and the guest speakers. The conference was more than the business presentations. In fact it celebrated achievements of the sales and service teams in the year gone by. The Conferences celebrated the individual and branch achievements by way of scintillating Awards ceremonies. Hyderabad walked away with the Best Branch Awards in Sales and also won the coveted award of ” Best Performance as per SQI Improvement (Service Quality Index).” The Chandigarh Branch won the Overall business Growth award at the service conference. The war had other battlefronts too, though of a different nature. There were fiercely spirited contests in the inter zonal cricket matches which ended up demonstrating the innate camaraderie amidst the mock rivalry. The dance floors were set ablaze well into the late night. The Taj was looking indeed magnificent with a few rain clouds building up on the horizon and the participants got a dramatic view of one of the wonders of the world. The cameras kept clicking to capture the special moments.. Special moments, indeed, these were. With a clear agenda arising out of the conferences, with teamwork and the beacon of our values guiding us, the Appliance team is on well on a C Drive, through individual and team contribution that come right from... “Dil se”.
Contributed by:
Pune branch achieves its
The PUNE Branch of the Appliances division billed a record sale of Refrigerators in the month of October 2005, making it the highest ever billed sale for refrigerators in a month for Pune Branch, beating the figure achieved in October 2002 by a decent margin. To commemorate this event, the branch had a small get-together at GolConda – a small joint in Koregaon Park, Pune on Saturday, 19th November 2005.
Mr. Kuldeep Verma, GM Sales (West) had taken time off to be a part of this small celebration. Mr. Kuldeep Verma congratulated the entire Sales, Service & Commercial teams for their excellent support given to achieve this figure inspite of all the odds. Mr Verma also appreciated their team spirit. Mr. Verma also gave a brief about the new products to be launched in the coming months in order to enable the team to gear up to combat competition in the right way. A token of appreciation was given in the form of a memento to the entire team. Mr. Rakesh Sial - Asst Gen. Manager - Appliances Division, Pune also appreciated the hard work put in by the sales team at Pune, Goa and Nagpur and the excellent back-up support given by the Commercial team. Mr Rohinton Gandhi, Br Commercial Manager in his speech, very modestly congratulated that the Sales team and assured that the commercial team would always be there to give the required support. Mr. Verma and Mr. Sial also gave all concerned Sales People a letter of appreciation. It has been rightly said, "RECOGNITION IS THE BEST FORM OF MOTIVATION" Specific comments made for the sales team:
Contributed by:
Voting to make a difference! A unique expression of Corporate Social Responsibility. Our Corporate Personnel and Administration has instituted awards for the divisions/departments for their performance in the area of Social Responsibility. For the year 2004-’05, the award winners are Locks Division, Precision Engineering Division and Corporate Personnel & Administration Department.
The plaques were received on behalf of their team members by Ms Jessie, Ms Nalini and Mr Dasan. Locks division’s creative idea of playing Shankar Mahadevan’s popular song “vote do, vote do” in the canteen to create awareness was well received. The division also embarked on a poster & email campaign exhorting people to vote. Ms Jessie Corderio and her team under the guidance of Mr. B K Rajkumar, Divisional Head-Locks, excelled in spreading awareness among employees to exercise their franchise. A team comprising Ms Nalini Kala, Mr Manish Vyas and others took a leading role in propagating among the employees of PES division the need to vote during elections. The message was given a wide publicity during the division’s Annual functions and meetings and by attractive posters. Mr A B Chhichhia, Ms Deepa David and Mr Shivaji Suryavanshi of the housing section had put in huge efforts to register eligible residents of the Godrej Colonies in the voter’s list, co-ordinate with the electoral office and mobilize voters to exercise their duty. The Godrej & Boyce Shramik Sangh actively supported this initiative to make it a resounding success. Congratulations to All! Jui Karandikar, HR
Retailer Meet at Abu
The three days programme at Hotel Hillock comprised of two days for business related presentations and discussions and one day for a sight seeing trip in and around Mt.Abu for relaxation. Mr. Yogesh Patel (ASM), Kaushal Patkar(ISM), Dipankar Guha-Associate Manager and Vardhaman Kataria-(SSO-Cartini) made interesting presentations on the topics of sales analysis, product growth statistics for last three years, new products introduced and new marketing initiatives undertaken in retail and institutional sales as well as marketing strategy.
The retailers had a great time learning, getting recognized and sight seeing amongst the picturesque hills in and around Mt. Abu.
Yogesh Patel(Ahemedabad Branch)
Sangam in Kolkata
The main objective of the meet was to recognize and reward the channel partners who contributed significantly in achieving the business objectives of the last year in a noteworthy manner.
The four day meet began with dinner and cruise on the river Hubli. The following morning the group was addressed by our President and Executive Director, Mr. P D Lam and Business Head-Mr. B K Rajkumar. They appreciated the contribution of the channel partners and urged them to do better, fight competition harder and push the business to greater heights in the coming years. These inspiring sessions were followed by in-depth interactive sessions led by Mr Kartik Modi-GM sales and marketing. His session included the review of business, plans for the next year and presentations on the new initiatives being undertaken for making the business competitive and growing in the coming years.
To take the deliberations of the meet beyond the context of business performance, well known professor Chakroborty-IIM Kolkata was invited as a guest speaker to speak on the topic of ethics and moralities in today’s business context. His talk was thought provoking. It gave the participants the idea that it is possible to enlarge the envelope of ethical behavior in business significantly and continuously. The eagerly awaited award ceremony offered perfect icing on the cake. The evening saw a troupe from Assam and Punjab give traditional dance performance and gave the pleasant day a just end. A new initiative of giving gift coupons worth Rs 5000 was started to recognize the top performers in each zone in the Locks and Cartini Business. This idea was also to recognize the support given by the distributors family and to help him spend quality time with them at any of the Taj Hotels.
In the remaining two days, a programme was organized to allow the participants to immerse themselves deeply into the heritage of Kolkata. A tour of all the interesting places was organized which ended with a special Bangla Meal at The Park Hotel. The team members of Lock Division had put in immense efforts to make Sangam at Kolkata a great success.
Vishal Mathur
|
|||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
he
Godrej gathering on the evening of October 29, 2005 at the Godrej
Udayachal High School grounds was witness to Diwali celebrations with a
difference this year as the young scions of the Godrej family, Navroze and
Raika, were present along with their parents, Jamshyd and Pheroza besides
their uncle, Nadir. They all joined the celebrations which commenced with
a ‘song & dance’ recital by the students from the Godrej Udayachal Schools
who touched the hearts of all present even as they sang and danced to the
tune, “Diwali aayi re, khushiya laayi re,”…
ndia
is fast becoming an economic power house with rising aspirations and
increasing purchase power. This unique situation is resulting in a
retailing revolution that is happening not only all over the country, but
here under our very own roof.
ur
Appliance Division has been making a steady progress in pursuing their
goals set for the year. To recognize the achievers of the last year and
focus their energies on the key issues facing the business, the division
decided to have their Sales and Service conferences at Agra. And what
better locale than Agra, the city of valor, courage and of love and
respect, the very values that we all cherish.
ndustry
after industry has seen foreign competition killing Indian players. But
the Appliances division of Godrej & Boyce has proved to be an exception to
this trend.
Chairman
and Managing Director Jamshyd N. Godrej (second from right), along
with son Navroze (seen behind him), visited the Thiruvananthapuram
Showroom and Sales Office in September 2005. The Onam festival being
in September, the Showroom was decorated with flowers to greet
customers. The CMD enquired about festival sales and our special
offers to customers. The Showroom, which was renovated in August
2004, did a record business for Home Storage during the Onam season
of 2005.
hemedabad branch of Locks division
organized a meet of selected Gujarat retailers at Mt.Abu from 11th to 13th
of September 2005. These retailers were selected to attend the meet on the
basis of their performance for the secondary sales scheme launched and
operated during the fourth quarter of 2004-05.
ocks
division hosted Annual Meet for nation wide top distributors at Hotel Taj
Begal-Kolkata from 19th to 22nd September 2005. The meet had more than a
hundred participants comprising of the distributors, their spouses,
business partners and the members of the locks team. The theme of the meet
was aptly decided as Sangam-The confluence of Old, Present and New.
