Dear Team,
The journey of the new year begins with self-reflection, and I realize that there is much more to learn in the workplace.
Our molded fibre business requires significant improvement. Nature has provided us with all the materials needed to build one of the world’s best businesses, but we must make some clear decisions to stay true to this journey:
- We have a pulp and energy system in place, which are key cost components, yet our costs are still higher than others. We must find the right technology to bring change, focus on productivity, and ensure that our costs are the lowest globally.
- We must understand the market, focus our attention accordingly, and provide the highest level of service to our customers. Every process of ours should be centred on meeting customer requirements, and the first step towards this is selecting the right customer and market. If we choose the institutional market, our product and marketing process will be different, whereas if we focus on the final consumer, the process will be completely different. There is no single ‘correct’ approach. We must make a choice and direct all our energy in that direction.
- This category will continue to grow, and we must focus on product development to provide the right solutions to our customers. We need to accelerate our R&D process and deliver the right products to customers on time. This requires strong leadership, and we must focus on building our team accordingly.
Innovation is essential for the goals and direction we have chosen, and it has also been realized that improvement in leadership is necessary. We are continuously searching for the right location for the leadership and the lab, and we hope to achieve success in this endeavour this month, enabling us to provide the right products to customers in the coming year. We have decided to separate product innovation from process innovation, with process innovation remaining alongside the plant.
There is also a lot of work in the financial services association. The entire team needs leadership and direction. The search for a new team leader for India is ongoing, and we hope that this selection will also be completed this month. Loan management is extremely important for any business, and we must make the right selection of our banking partners. Finance is an integral part of the business, and all partners should be chosen with foresight while establishing strong relationships with them. Work is progressing in this direction as well.
Last month, for Project Kawok, our teams from Guatemala and India spent time in Thailand with CTE Company (which is handling engineering work) and detailed how we can accelerate the process. Following this, Narendra Ji and I visited some pulp and paper plants in China.
Returning to the USA after six weeks, attention was drawn to business operations here. We need to introduce our molded and flexible products, and planning is underway for this. It is crucial that we accelerate this business in the coming year. Satish Ji and the team presented a plan, and discussions and developments took place on it. Now, we need to enter the market and understand the customer to provide the right products.
The upcoming month is filled with numerous activities:
- Selection of key suppliers for the Kawok Project.
- Finalizing the location for the R&D centre.
- Completing the planning for the 2025-26 financial year.
- Strengthening the supply chain for the USA business.
- Restructuring India’s banking system and finance team.
- Expanding flexible packaging and building relationships with customers.
I hope your month will be both challenging and fulfilling.
Best wishes,
Yours,
Ved