'I LEARNT EARLY ON TO STAY ON THE HORSE'

LAST YEAR, AT THE HEIGHT of the pandemic, Nisaba Godrej took over as Managing Director of Godrej Consumer Products Limited (GCPL). Having steered the group flagship through the turmoil, she recently handed over the CEO’s chair to HUL veteran Sudhir Sitapati, remaining in the role of Executive Chairperson. In a candid chat with Udayan Mukherjee, she talks about the trajectory of Godrej Consumer and her own life, the mistakes and learnings along the way, and what the name Godrej means to her. Edited excerpts:

- Udayan Mukherjee

UM: Nisa, you relinquished executive charge as CEO earlier this year, but a fact which is not very well known is that apparently you had made quite a habit of frequently tendering resignations to your dad Adi Godrej earlier in your career. Of course, none of them were accepted. Can you tell us about this curious aspect?

NG: I did resign three-four times and this is going back about 15 years. I had just come back from business school and joined the group—the agri business. I was working on the turnaround there and wanted to make leadership changes and do all sorts of other things, and kept getting told that my values were wrong because, you know, at Godrej we stick with our people and I was being very negative. I pointed out that it was the bottom line that was negative, not me!

Thankfully, at that time, my father probably realised that no one else was going to employ me, so he kept his patience with me and, somewhere along the line, I learned how to influence others, not get too frustrated and figure out how to get things done. That’s why I’m still here.

UM: On hindsight, would you concede that you were impetuous and hot-headed—that you have evolved over the years and are a different person, a different manager today?