The five-decade-long journey of 76-year-old Adi Godrej who currently heads the Godrej group of companies was recognized with a Lifetime Achievement Award by The Economic Times (ET) at a function on September 7, 2018. Highlighting his achievements, an ET report on the same day called Godrej a "man of integrity who follows the best practices in corporate governance.” The report added that while at the Group, Godrej "brought in management thinking, cut costs and introduced practices such as cost accounting and human resources management…He hired management graduates and restructured the organization to make it more efficient and marketing oriented.” Godrej said he was "honored” by the news.
While the Padma Bhushan awardee mentors his children (Tanya, Nisaba and Pirojsha) and other senior executives in the Group, the report noted that "he has made it clear that if family members were not competent to handle the business, they should remain shareholders and let professionals run it.” Godrej had announced in 2017 that he would stay away from "day-to-day operations of the group companies and take up a more mentoring role.”
The Group enjoys "the patronage of 1.1 billion consumers globally across consumer goods, real estate, appliances, agriculture and many other businesses... In fact, our geographical footprint extends beyond Earth, with our engines now powering many of India’s space missions,” notes the Group website. With revenues of over USD 4.1 billion (Rs 29.7 thousand crores) "we are growing fast, and have exciting, ambitious aspirations... Our vision for 2020 is to be 10 times the size we were in 2010,” adds the website. The conglomerate is on track to meet its vision to become a USD 10 billion entity, noted the ET report. Approximately 23% of the promoter holding in the Godrej Group is held in trusts that invest in environment, health and education.
The ET report said that "traditionally, award winners are not just those who have done well in one year but those who have been at it for a long time and have got the recognition they deserve.”