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Adi Godrej

Godrej Consumer Products reported boffo quarterly numbers last week but Adi Godrej is all over the media for different reasons- mainly his view on the current political scenario.

But that is probably the occupational hazard that captains of industries face. Just after shooting for a power lunch program for a leading Business TV channel, Godrej was his usual unflappable self when The Smart Investor accosted him in his Vikhroli office.

Ask him about what went wrong with the NDA and Godrej replies that it is the much maligned personal attacks on Sonia Gandhi that backfired on them.

Apart from that, he says that the 'India Shining' rhetoric did not wash with the aam admi. But quiz him on how reforms would progress now under the new government and Godrej is pretty confident that there wont be a major difference in the pace of reforms.

"There may be some nuances of reforms taking a backseat but look at it this way, there has not been any major labour reforms in the last five years of NDA rule. The rhetoric is different this time around- the NDA has talked more about reforms and done less while the Congress led alliance has talked less. Hopefully they will do more," he trails off.

Shifting focus on the upbeat results of Godrej Consumers, the next question was how did the company manage to increase its operating margins during the year when a lot of FMCG bellwethers were feeling the heat.

Godrej says that strong focus on cost control along with its expertise in procurement along with ERP systems played their part in improving margins.

Apart from that, the fact that the company operates on negative working capital and growth initiatives on the marketing and technology divisions were also some of the factors behind the good show.

Godrej's optimism on margins extends well into the next year. Godrej's optimism on his business stems from the fact that the last monsoons were good along with the expected emphasis on the industry by the new government backed by the company's own initiatives.

Godrej is also pretty gung ho about EVA- the economic value add principle which, he says benefited the company immensely.

Godrej says that many FMCG companies learnt it the hard way that going forward, innovation along with understanding the customer and creating value-for-money products tailored on the demand would be key to the issues.

An alumni of the hallowed Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Godrej's corporate training started in 1963 with Godrej Soaps which was a Rs 2.5 crore company at that time.

He was the first management graduate to join the Godrej group and was instrumental in implementing a lot of management techniques in the group. A man who prides himself on not taking a single sick leave in his life,

Godrej likes to get off to an early start and leaves home by 7.30 am. He is known to be punctual in all his appointments and limits his vacations to just two weeks in a year.

However, that does not come in the way of water sports which he is very fond of. So don't be surprised if you catch him jet skiing or wind surfing at Chowpatty's H2O. Apart from the aquatic variety, he also indulges in horse riding and squash and mixes it up with trekking in Uttaranchal and Tibet.