IT IS NOT JUST ABOUT FINANCIAL GROWTH, BUT ALSO ABOUT SUSTAINABLE, INCLUSIVE GROWTH

SANJIV PURI HAD a big pair of shoes to fill when he was chosen to succeed Y.C. Deveshwar as ITC chairman. Though he was being groomed for the role, the sheer magnitude of the responsibility could have been daunting for anyone. But Puri came with a plan that addressed the complexities of the conglomerate and its aspiration to grow bigger. In an exclusive interview with THE WEEK, he explains the role of technology, the separation of the hotel business, the growth of the FMCG segment and the India First policy. Excerpts:

-  RIYAD MATHEW & K. SUNIL THOMAS

Now a lot depends on AI and digital. You can open new markets and you can expand. Can you tell us some of your thinking and your new findings in this process where AI is coming along with human intelligence and the past practices?

A/ Before we get into it, let us step back a little and take a broader perspective. While the first era of diversification was about defining the portfolio and making progress, the last five years is when we have given a lot more scale and profitability to each one of these businesses.

The aspiration has always been about leadership. Not merely by size or profitability, but also about leadership in the quality of the service or the product that we deliver. That is what we have worked on in the past few years. And, of course, that has seen us define what we call ITC Next.

In ITC Next, we defined certain important vectors that were going to get us competitiveness. We see digital and sustainability becoming a mega trend in the next decade. Therefore, in our whole philosophy of growth, anything that is aligned to the mega trends of sustainability and digital is a priority for investment. That led us to get into sustainable packaging, because the world wants to move away from single-use plastics. It led us to get into ITC MAARS, which is a digital platform in the agri sector.

We also defined different pillars of competitiveness. First, I believe that despite size, complexity and diversification, enterprises must remain agile and consumer-centric.