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Innovating with a purpose

By Niranjan Mudholkar,

Added 16 September 2015

Jamshyd Godrej, CMD, Godrej & Boyce Manufacturing Company Limited, explains how his company is redefining innovation with a purpose.

Imagine a small box like device which weighs less than 9 kg, consumes only 55W electricity, has no compressor, can be operated with a car battery or an inverter but works almost like a normal refrigerator.

Well, you don't really have to imagine it because it already exists! It is called ‘ChotuKool', the low cost (not cheap!) refrigerator invented by Godrej Appliances. And by the way, you can have the design on ChotuKool's exteriors customised directly from the factory as per your choice!

Rurbanisation or transformation of India's rural landscape is creating a new breed of customer who is economically still evolving and yet is aspirational. Godrej & Boyce Manufacturing Company Limited realised this long time back and ChotuKool is an excellent example of what the Company is doing to meet the aspirational requirements for the ‘rurban' customers.

"We are not producing cheap products, instead producing low cost products that use the best in class technology, produced in highly efficient sophisticated plants and serve the markets using non-traditional channels with a purpose of providing great experience as a fraction of cost and in a manner that touches and changes lives along the way. ChotuKool is our first product under this initiative. There will be more coming," says Jamshyd Godrej, Chairman & Managing Director, Godrej & Boyce Manufacturing Company Ltd.

Jamshyd Godrej's ‘there will be more coming' is reflective of the journey of disruptive innovation that Godrej & Boyce has undertaken. And it is happening across all the different businesses where it has presence like material handling, aerospace & defence, appliances, tooling and precision engineering.

For example, Godrej's Interio division is promoting a disruptive furniture manufacturing model called U&US that integrates carpenters with great design ideas and standard components. "We are in several exciting businesses and doing well in all of them with dominant market leadership and share. We have maintained this leadership position because we have been constantly improving and innovating our products and processes.

"The businesses are at different stages of life cycle, so some may appear to have greater opportunities for innovations. But the DNA of the company is the same and runs across all divisions. Given the respective business context, all of the businesses are focusing on maintaining or becoming leaders in their field," explains the Company's CMD.

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