CEO SPECIAL......... Setting the Rhythm

CEO SPECIAL Setting the Rhythm 

Godrej Consumer's new CEO Vivek Gambhir on his first 100 day change plan 

                                                                 

    Vivek Gambhir, managing director, Godrej Consumer Products (GCPL) has a set of printouts that he keeps on his desk and looks at every few days. One is titled 100 Day Plan: Set the Rhythm. Gambhir, who was Chief Strategy Officer prior to his promotion, completed 100 days as CEO on October 8. He believes a 100 day plan is essential for leaders to establish what they want to do. "Every role has a certain drumbeat, and this period allows you to set the rhythm right. This rhythm is quite important in determining future success," he says. A big believer in 'plan to plan', Gambhir says that this is the kind of role where it's easy to be consumed by the issues that crop up on a daily basis. "It helps to have a compass or guidepost of sorts to know whether one is spending the right amount of time on the right areas." GCPL made ten acquisitions between 2009 and 20013, and with the M&A team reporting in to him, he was already fairly involved with the business. In an interview with CD, Gambhir shares his 100 day plan and how he's been executing it:
ARTICULATE STRATEGY
AND ROADMAP:
It's important to make sure the team is clear on the new vision, strategy and key priorities going forward Productive Paranoia
    "It's an exciting future but needs a lot of hard work to get there so it's important to create some productive paranoia. To make sure people are aligned in terms of goals, set them an internal target -double up. While double up metaphorically means to work harder, the idea is to double profits, revenues and the innovation rate over the next three years.
SET TANGIBLE GOALS AND METRICS:
    While it's all very well to set a broad theme, it won't work unless it's clearly broken down into specific goals. Goals have been defined as level 3, 4 or 5 goals, or meets expectations, exceeds expectations and significantly exceeds expectations. Using business intelligence and IT, a dashboard has been created to ensure how these goals translate into metrics is clear and that there is a proper monitoring system in place.
CREATE A SHARED VISION OF THE FUTURE:
    There is the promise of a brighter future and it's important to rally people around a collective vision. Through formal and informal discussions, create excitement around a shared vision of the future among all employees.
GO FOR EARLY WINS:
    While it's good to have a long term business plan in place, nothing sends out a message that you mean business like getting some early wins. Last month GCPL launched GoodKnight Fast Guard, a paper-based mosquito repellent. On day 100, GCPL picked up a 30% stake in premium hair salon chain B:blunt as a financial investment. The travel policy has been streamlined and there are other internal process changes lined up as well. It's important to secure some early traction and build momentum so that people can see that the results are coming in.
ALIGN SENIOR TEAM:
    Godrej got Harvard professor Bharat Anand to work with the top 40 GCPL managers on a case study on Gambhir coming on board as a new MD, touching upon the challenges and opportunities, followed by brainstorming on the execution roadmap. The top team is broken in a 10-30-300 structure: the top 10 functional heads, 30 vicepresidents and 300 managers. Gambhir is trying to meet his top 40 managers on a quarterly basis over coffee or lunch. The conversation touches upon enhancing their personal effectiveness and getting feedback on alignment around goals. He's also working to drive more cohesiveness among his top ten, planning some kind of social interactions every month where either other bosses or even high-potential employees may be invited.
START WORK IN ADVANCE:
    A large part of the people-connect initiatives got underway during the six month transition period. At an offsite event in Barcelona, where outgoing MD A Mahendran was present, Gambhir shared his vision for the future and spent time getting to know his people better. Before that, he went to all the regions and factories and held sessions with the employees where top performers were awarded and time was spent discussing the plans for the year.
COMMUNICATE WITH EMPLOYEES:
    While the factory visits are time consuming, it's important to connect with as many employees as possible at the ground level. "Cement hardens quickly. It is important to set the tone on my style-how I'd like people to behave with me and each other," says Gambhir. GCPL has just rolled out Yammer, an online platform which can best be compared to an internal Facebook. and his the senior team is active on this, posting 2-3 times a week. Gambhir ensures he spends 30 minutes every evening responding to posts on the site. There is a lot of meaningful conversation and dialogue about the business and lot of idea sharing. Even the monthly newsletters have changed from being a plain vanilla email to videos of senior management talking about different initiatives. Next up: a live webcast once logistical issues are sorted.
COMMUNICATE WITH EXTERNAL STAKEHOLDERS:
    In his first 100 days, Gambhir has clocked time with 100 investors as well as key supply chain partners. He goes on consumer visits with his senior management at least once a month where he'll spend a couple of days meeting distributors, partners and consumers.
BUILD A SUPPORT NETWORK:
    An MDs job can be rather lonely, so you need to cultivate advisors and a support network both within and outside the company. Among his peers at Godrej, Ganbhir manages to catch up with Pirojsha Godrej (Godrej Properties) and Balram Yadav (Godrej Agro) regularly, while ED Nisa Godrej is another person who he tries to meet up with on a weekly basis. Ireena Vittal is another board member who he turns to for advice. Outside the Godrej system, he frequently calls upon former Bain colleague Karan Singh and Egon Zehnder's Sonny Iqbal.
MANAGE SELF:
    Learning from Chairman Adi Godrej, Gambhir has started making weekly and daily to-do lists to ensure that he has a broad set of objectives for the week. "In this job, it's very easy to get swallowed by the crisis de jour. I have a 60-40 rule where 60% of my time is spent on what's going on in the business and the rest on discretionary issues. I'm trying to be ruthless about prioritising where I can spend my time." he says, pulling out a set of guidelines for broadly how much time he wants to allocate to different aspects of the business. Coming from a consulting background, Gambhir is candid that there are still areas to the business he needs to understand and has started putting together his personal learning plan. "I have to accept what I don't know. My skills are more about problem solving and I need to spend time on the hardcore supply chain parts of the business," he says. Finally, given the demands of the job, he's put in an elliptical machine in his apartment. "You need both mental and physical fitness to bring in sustainability to your job," says Gambhir. He tries and ensure that he doesn't miss a single day of exercising, despite his punishing travel schedule.
    "A lot of my 100 days has been spent learning and observing. The next stage will be about taking it to the next level, shaping future culture and make the organisation future ready for success," he says, offering a glimpse into what lies beyond the 100 days.

Priyanka Sangani   CDET131101