QUARTERLY MAGAZINE January 2022 Vol 08
QUARTERLY MAGAZINE January 2022 Vol 08
Corporate report
The RPG Annual Conference, in its second digital edition, enabled our sharpest minds across the Group to converge and converse about the latest disruptions and developments across companies and industries.
Replicating the energy of a physical event, the conference enabled employee interaction through speaker sessions, chat tools, immersive company booths and real-time notifications. A resource centre with downloadable media presented us with the option of staying informed long after the event concluded.
RPG ’s evolved ESG framework centres on “social” and “governance”.
GROUP PERFORMANCE AND SUSTAINABILITY
Pramod Menon, Group CFO, shone the spotlight on the Group’s overall performance, highlighting the Group’s significant improvement in Net Working Capital, interest cost reduction, decline in net debt, and improved credit ratings across companies.
RPG Group companies have successfully secured investments from marquee investors such as Kotak Mahindra, Axis and Invesco, among others. The next fiscal year will see RPG leading digital transformation by easing scalability, reducing human intervention, and empowering businesses.
On the sustainability front, ESG procedures have been framed to push the Group’s agenda.
KEC is facilitating water supply for 2,00,000+ rural households under the Government’s Jal Jeevan Mission.
INFRASTRUCTURE
Vimal Kejriwal, MD & CEO, KEC, announced the company’s orbit-changing performances across domestic and international businesses, with strong financial outperformance, and easing business amidst a challenging environment. The company witnessed the best debt-to-equity ratio in the last five years, and its market cap hit an all-time high in March 2021.
Continuing its diversification journey, KEC entered into six new businesses in the last seven years, and has an EPC footprint in 70 countries, spread across six continents. The company has leveraged mechanisation, digitisation and innovation across all projects. KEC has re-entered the Water EPC segment, and is facilitating the water supply for over 2,00,000 rural households under the Government’s Jal Jeevan Mission.
With breakthrough orders in the airport vertical, KEC has marked its entry in the growing public spaces segment, as well. The company has electrified ~22% of the Indian Railway network in FY21.
CEAT is reducing carbon footprint by 50% by 2030 and foraying into renewable energy.
TYRES
Anant Goenka, MD, CEAT, took the audience through CEAT’s unique business model, and spoke about initiatives that have helped them reinforce brand recall including partnerships with Aamir Khan and the IPL franchise. Anant illustrated CEAT’s performance, through the lens of distribution, brand safety and sustainability, radical products and processes, digital agenda, and lean time reduction.
On the ESG and sustainability front, CEAT has taken up the target to reduce its carbon footprint by 50% by 2030, and has also set up a captive solar plant with Tata Power, for its Mumbai manufacturing plant.
Recognition by Great Place to Work among others, continues to act as an accelerator to HML’s growth and incredibly strong culture.
SPECIALITY
Rajat Bhargava, CEO, Speciality sector, and Head, Group Transformation, revisited the impressive performance of RPG’s Speciality sector. Moving many notches up, RPG companies in this sector have changed orbits by following operational excellence, transforming businesses, pursuing adjacencies, and making customer and digital the crux for improvements.
Harrisons Malayalam Ltd., transformed traditional practices through the intervention of drones. Recognition by Great Place to Work among others, continues to act as an accelerator to its growth and incredibly strong culture.
Raychem RPG has achieved the status of being debt-free and cash positive. The company’s three-vector strategy aims to transform market leadership and innovation, shape cost operations, and improve processes, while maintaining a lean and functional workforce.
RPG Life Sciences has seen a remarkable turnaround, and furthered their outperformance with a record profit in Q1 FY22. The company continues to focus on product portfolio rejuvenation, cost leadership, digitalisation, and strengthening its workforce.
RPG Group’s humane approach to the pandemic, from zero layoffs to no salary cuts, ensured livelihoods were insulated by the Group.
GROUP HR
S Venkatesh, President, Group HR, highlighted RPG Group’s humane approach to the pandemic, from zero layoffs to no salary cuts, ensuring livelihoods were insulated by the Group.
The launch of a Remote Working Policy, another step in the Group’s people-first agenda, boosted employee faith and loyalty to the organisation. The Happiness Framework survey further cemented its brand
promise of happiness. Emphasis on employee healthcare, digital advancement, recognition of top talent, and uncompromised learning through Organisation & Talent Development (OT&D) have been amended to
conform to the new normal. With its many-fold initiatives working towards making RPG a great place to work, the Group’s D&I agenda has witnessed phenomenal transformation in the domain.
INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY
The new brand vision of Velocity propels Zensar towards becoming a cloud-native, experience-led engineering company.
Ajay Bhutoria, CEO & MD, Zensar, outlined the new brand vision of Velocity, and showcased Zensar’s vision to becoming a cloud-native, experience-led engineering organisation. He also spoke about the strategic growth opportunities through which the company will provide service propositions and solutions targeted towards specific market opportunities and customer needs. Doubling down on their key verticals – Hi-tech & Manufacturing, BFSI, and consumer services, Zensar has redefined its focus and goals. Successful case-studies in experience & services include re-engineering customer experience for a leading media conglomerate as well as creating the first visual, global auction experience of its kind. Success stories in advanced engineering services include department store supply chain transformation, and experience-led digital transformation at scale. Zensar has also made strides in experience-design and engineering by reimagining the web service for a leading South African bank and designing an immersive world of gaming experience. The M3bi acquisition last year further accelerated the company’s thrust by strengthening its capabilities. Zensar’s business continues to thrive in US, UK, EU, and South Africa.
RPG FOUNDATION
Fast-tracking some of its crucial projects, Go-To for O2, the online portal designed by Zensar to help employees and families access oxygen cylinders, eased the otherwise complex procedures.
Radha Goenka, Director, RPG Foundation, shed light on the Group’s efforts to build social equity. Pivoting its existing initiatives to suit the new normal, it supported the Government throughout Covid-19, and set up fever clinics in rural and semi-urban Maharashtra, emergency quarantine centres, vaccination drives, food distribution camps and ration supplies. Under Swayam, the Foundation's employment vertical, along with upskilling women, the initiative also launched a digital portal that connects trainers, beneficiaries and employers. Pehlay Akshar Foundation digitised training methods for BMC teachers and partnered with Doordarshan Sahyadri to educate children. RPG Foundation's newest initiative – The Heritage Project – focuses on reviving heritage sites to educate communities on India’s rich culture.
Stressing on the need for adaptability during turbulence, James encouraged CEOs to empower their heroes to compete as ‘scale-insurgents’ to rediscover speed and business-building.
THE CEO AGENDA IN THE ERA OF SCALE INSURGENCY
James Allen, Partner, Bain & Company, remarked on how the pandemic proved to be a “dress-rehearsal” that exposed organisations to what they could achieve amidst chaotic headwinds, and shared insights on how to become “the firm of the future”.
Stressing on the need for adaptability during turbulence, he encouraged CEOs to empower their workforce to compete as ‘scale-insurgents’ to rediscover speed and business-building.
He explained the ‘The Founder’s Mentality’, advocating his theory with real-world examples from Lego, Nike, Starbucks, Walmart, Amazon, and Deep Work. According to him, the firm of the
future sits on the bedrock of a series of design principles including:
1) asking the ‘why’ of everything from existence of self, to one’s purpose at work, etc., as opposed to checking boxes on a task list
2) being able to run the business as well as change it
3) learning from ‘digital natives’
ESG: RAISING THE BAR
Anirban Ghosh, Chief Sustainability Officer, Mahindra Group, showcased how their approach of ‘Raising the Bar’ stemmed from identifying opportunities between people, planet and profit in the Mahindra Sustainability Framework.
According to him, championing sustainability runs on the wheels of ‘greening’ the industry, and starting or funding new green businesses. Focusing on the quantifiable benefits of driving sustainability, he delineated the outcome of lower costs, greater value addition, new revenue streams, better brand equity, higher market capitalisation, greater license to operate in local communities, and being future-ready. Mahindra Group’s science-backed targets include becoming carbon neutral by 2040.
Culture is the strongest muscle of an organisation.
FIRESIDE CHAT WITH ANANT GOENKA
Rishad Premji, Chairman, Wipro, kickstarted the session by observing how Covid-19 changed the future of work with an ever-evolving hybrid structure. On the everyday workplace in general, he believes culture is the strongest muscle of any organisation, and outlined its five big buckets – being respectful, being responsive, always communicating, demonstrating stewardship, and building trust.
Moving to business and social equity, Rishad spoke on managing younger companies and leveraging their capabilities, and on Wipro furthering their premise of a philanthropic foundation, respectively.
BUILDING FOR SCALE
Sumant Sinha, Chairman & CEO, ReNew Power, in a session moderated by Rajat Bhargava, recounted his professional journey, and shared that his newfound enthusiasm after every milestone achieved couldn’t be alluded to the triumph alone, but also to the emergence of new opportunities and a fresh charter with goals set for the next breakthrough.
Possessing a learning-mindset, he supported the value of immersing oneself in a sea of information, backing it with scientific, evidence-based findings on the importance of having a structured rollout in the said domain.
