BOTTOMLINE The new-generation Godrej brings in bottom-up feedback

Nisa Learns To Walk The Talk

Posted: Saturday, Jan 11, 2003 at 0000 hrs IST
Updated: Saturday, Jan 11, 2003 at 0000 hrs IST

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: She might have been born with a silver spoon in her mouth, have distinguished parents and a Wharton degree, but at 24, Nisa Godrej, executive assistant to Godrej Tea managing director Pranab Barua, is the Godrej with a view from the bottom.

Nisa Godrej

Ambition seems to define Nisa, who was once threatened by a Wharton professor that he would fail her if she was ever found working for a bureaucratic organisation. And that ambition has her seeing the 105-year “young” Rs 4,000-crore Godrej group coming alive.

Says the younger daughter of group chairman Adi Godrej: “Sometimes we aren’t hungry enough — and sometimes we aren’t focussed enough, but I see all that changing. After 105 years, we tend to stand on the side and say ‘look we’ve survived’. But as a young person, you tend to want to take more risks, and inexperience allows you to express that.”

Nisa believes that the Godrej brand exercise will make the group more focussed in the future. “People will definitely see Godrej become more vibrant,” she says.

After two years and various stints across the group, including marketing at Godrej Sara Lee, assisting the group chairman, working in corporate human resources, projects in Indonesia and now Godrej Tea, she is idealistic in her belief that the group needs change. Invited to Godrej’s management committee meetings among others, Nisa talks the talk and is slowly learning the walk. “When you have been around for 105 years, have been successful, don’t have financial troubles — you just get comfortable. But now, we are making a lot of right moves — for example, EVA (economic value added) is becoming a chant in Godrej — we are focussed on what is important....

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