How Nyrika Holkar is creating a smarter, more trusted Godrej Enterprises Group

I was always interested in law. There were lawyers on both sides of the family,” says Nyrika Holkar with a smile. What drew her to the field was the approach to thinking and structuring arguments. When she discussed this with her parents, they advised her to do something more broad-based. She went for an undergraduate degree in philosophy and economics from Colorado College followed by a master’s in law from University College in London. Today, she oversees a diversified set of businesses—traditional and modern—as Executive Director, Godrej Enterprises Group, which came into being this April after the Godrej family’s realignment of shareholding across group companies. To Holkar, the transformation underway is driven by a clear purpose: to stay deeply connected to customers. A core part of the strategy will be digital.

The Basics

We are seated in the verdant Godrej campus in Mumbai’s Vikhroli. Slipping into her chair, Holkar speaks of the time she interned with Godrej & Boyce Manufacturing during law school and later working with AZB & Partners for six years.

The stints led to a lot of learning around companies investing in India, putting together JV agreements and understanding negotiations between parties. “The work was gruelling, and one had to deal with a wide ambit of clients. I did a lot of M&A (work) and that helped me understand different businesses,” she says.

Joining the family business—Holkar’s mother Smita and Jamshyd Godrej are siblings—was something she always wanted. “I felt it was essential to first gain experience in another professional environment so I could bring fresh perspectives and external learnings to the business”, she says. The first stop was the struggling energy business. It gave Holkar a chance to relook at some of the commercial contracts and create a risk committee. The legal background helped. “Now, when we deal with foreign OEMs in aerospace or our process equipment business, a lot of proactive planning takes place. Law comes into everything, be it IP on creating more innovation or any kind of litigation and arbitration in markets outside India.” The largest chunk of the group’s revenue comes from Godrej & Boyce. A report put out by ICRA this September outlines how the company “enjoys exceptional financial flexibility for being a part of the Godrej Enterprises Group.” Around 70% of Godrej & Boyce’s business comes from consumer products.

Holkar knows digital well. It is a huge focus area. The group’s Golden Customer Record, she says, brings forth a unified understanding of “every customer journey, helping support 700 million Indians” with greater consistency and care. There’s more to digital. “Factory360 is reshaping how we build, using real-time intelligence to increase efficiency in the production process and to enhance quality. With Order360, our supply chain is becoming more transparent and responsive,” says Holkar. It’s a question of many parts coming together and as she put it,“together, these shifts are creating a smarter, more trusted and deeply customer-centric Godrej.”

A little over a year ago, Godrej Enterprises Group launched its new brand identity. “We were still big on trust and quality but in terms of relevance and salience, there were challenges. We needed to retain that edge, especially with our younger customers,” says Holkar. The research findings threw up a few points such as people not being aware of the group’s furniture business. “We realised that although durability has always defined us, today’s customer wants to understand the engineering, the process, and the value that makes our products durable and hence justifies the price. Clearer communication on the benefits of durability is therefore essential”. 

In a business as diversified as what the group has, nothing is more important than building on capabilities. “In the case of advanced engineering, we have strong relationships with ISRO and DRDO. Now, we must build on those capabilities,” says Holkar. By the looks of it, the next few years will be very busy for Holkar.

@krishnagopalan