The objective is to make M&M the first name that occurs to people when they think of a customer-centric company.
Accordingly, the company is devising a value proposition for itself. It is also trying to find ways to send this message of "customer-centricity" throughout the organisation.
Where did all these ideas originate? They were mooted by a group of managers aged 28 to 35 years, whom the company has assembled into 'shadow boards'.
"We have nine such shadow boards in the company. The tenure is around two years, after which we get other people on the board," says Rajeev Dubey, president (HR & Corporate Services), and member of the Group Management Board at M&M.
Members normally have four-to-six years experience in the company, and their names are suggested by the M&M talent management council. The shadow board in each business reports to the president of that business.
Godrej Industries has expanded the scope of the group HR function's activities. Today, the group HR function, for example, also looks at career planning for the whole entity.
And recently, the company embarked on a mega-retail initiative targeted at rural markets. All these ideas emerged from the company's Young
Executive Board.
Says Visty Banaji, Executive Director and President, Group Corporate affairs, Godrej Industries Ltd, "Young people who have spent a couple of years in the organisation, are less than 32 years old, and have demonstrated high potential for leadership role s are chosen to join the YEB for a period of two years."
YEB members number around 10, and are chosen from the company's varied locations. As members, they report directly to Adi Godrej, chairman of the group, who assigns projects.
Such initiatives help companies gain strategic ideas that are fresh, yet rooted in the ground realities. "As this role is in addition to their normal jobs, the ideas that these people generate has a grassroots feel of the business," says Banaji.
At Godrej, YEBs have recommended ideas by which their own team can work better, without conflicts.
"The YEBs had recommended a peer evaluation system whereby the members within this board evaluate themselves to know who is pulling their own weight on a project idea or its implementation. The details of a specific project are kept to themselves, but the aggregate feedback becomes a part of their evaluation," says Banaji.
Have these initiatives yielded concrete benefits? Modest gains there have been, but companies agree that the initiatives haven't been in place long enough for any large-scale pay-offs yet.
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