Innovating skills

ChotuKool, the low-cost refrigeration system from Godrej and Boyce Manufacturing Company Limited, has won for its manufacturer Business Standard’s Most Innovative Company of the Year 2011 award. "The innovation that caught the jury’s eye this year was undoubtedly ‘ChotuKool,’ a product of Godrej and Boyce which is light, portable, battery-operated, energy efficient and economical. ChotuKool has rural India firmly in its sights, also its simplicity and revolutionary design has the potential mass appeal, in a product category hitherto accessible to only a privileged few,” it was announced at the function. The award was presented to Smita Godrej Crishna by Prime Minister Manmohan Singh at the ITC Maurya Sheraton on March 25, 2011.

Responding on the occasion, Godrej and Boyce chairman and managing director (CMD) Jamshyd N. Godrej noted: "ChotuKool is the most significant development to address the cooling needs for rural homes and communities. Our vision is to develop the most energy efficient and affordable appliance that has potential to improve the quality of life.” Eminent business personalities like K.V. Kamath, chairman of ICICI Bank, Dilip Shangvi, CMD of Sun Pharma, Anu Aga of Thermax and others made up the jury this year, reports Change, the house magazine of Godrej and Boyce, March-April, 2011.

Prime Minister Manmohan Singh presenting Business Standard award to Smita Godrej Crishna (Photo courtesy: Business Standard)

"Skill is a catalyst which bonds experience and the will to work, yielding what is called a work culture,” Change quotes Burzin Wadia, executive vice president (VP), Engineering, Godrej Appliances. "At senior level we need to have the skills for identifying the real strengths of our people and putting the right people in the right places,” believes Dara Byram­jee, executive VP and business head, Godrej Security Solutions. "Every person is blessed with his/her own specific skill. Managers have to be able to recognize … and leverage these skills for the betterment of the individual and the organization…” Xercsis Marker, executive VP and business head, Lawkim Motors Group is quoted in Change in reference to management mantras at the Godrej Group. "With the tremendous intensification of the competition and numerous foreign companies with deep pockets entering India, the future will be very, very competitive. But we have forged a team which is capable of rising to the occasion and meeting these challenges,” P.D. Lam, president and executive director, Godrej and Boyce told Change.