HOORAY FOR CHANGE!

It’s funny. Way back in 1994, I had sent E.J. Kalwachia, Executive Director, a concept note suggesting that the name of the Godrej house magazine be changed to CHANGE. Very recently, when I called on Kalwachia, he gifted me a copy of a booklet intriguingly entitled, WHO MOVED MY CHEESE? by Dr. Spencer Johnson, which claims--with good reason as I’ve discovered--to propound an amazing way to deal with change in one’s work and one’s life.

But the emphasis is different. The magazine’s name is inspired by the fact that Godrej since their inception more than a century ago have consciously and consistently been agents for change. The pioneer-founder, Ardeshir Godrej, changed from law to surgical instruments to locks and safes and, in a startling departure, vegetable oil soaps. His younger brother and master consolidator, Pirojsha, expanded the original confined factory in a Lalbaug back lane into the vast industrial garden township at Vikhroli named Pirojshanagar after him.

Pirojsha’s youngest son Naval branched out into brave new enterprises like typewriters (for the first time in Asia), refrigerators and machine tools. Elder brother Burjor, a Diploma Ingenieur (Dipl- Ing) and the prestigious doctorate in technical chemistry (Dr. Ing) from the Technical University of Berlin, changed the process of soap-making from an art into a science. The eldest, Sohrab, with his vast contacts at home and all over the world, strove to give the brand name Godrej, already a household name in India, known in households in different parts of the world.

Times change - even for the change-makers. In Dr. Johnson’s booklet, “change” is a metaphor “for what we want to have in life, whether it is a job, a relationship, money, a big house, freedom, health, recognition, spiritual peace, or even an activity like jogging or golf.” So Godrej too changed with the times. Marketing became as, if not more, important than manufacturing. Loyalty remained, but flexibility became its inevitable adjunct. The agents for change had to motivate an acceptance of change in their staff and workers. It fell to the third and fourth generations of the family--Jamshyd and brother-in-law Vijay Crishna in Godrej & Boyce and Adi, younger brother Nadir and Adi’s daughters Tanya and Nisaba in Godrej Industries, to spread the message of change in the shortest possible time.

Divisionalisation in G & B, diversification in Godrej Soaps (now, Godrej Industries), the TQM movement and the Kaizen system were means adopted to specific ends. Guidelines about quality coming first, customers being the focus of everything, continuous improvement as essential to success, total employee involvement, dealers and suppliers to be considered as partners and never, ever, compromising integrity are part of the Godrej philosophy. But ANAAR, as consultants, facilitated the scientific application of these values.

The "cheese" keeps moving. Partnership 2000 is a further step, a fresh initiative to meet the diverse needs of the wide variety of businesses across the Godrej organisation in terms of attracting, motivating, and retaining talent while remaining focused on performance. It is one more bold step on the long journey of forging partnership with people who are our biggest asset.

At Partnership 2000 inauguration, Jamshyd Godrej laid stress on two words--entrust and empower. This too marks a new beginning for Godrej, a moving away from a too close supervisionary attitude to a more open-minded, trusting one. And because trust cannot be betrayed, the empowered too have to rise to the occasion.

We live in a time of change. To change is to grow, develop, explore and expand. You handle change, and it changes you. And then change becomes a celebration.