Turning Challenges Into Opportunities Mohit Malhotra, CEO, Dabur India believes that every crisis teaches us a life lesson

Mohit Malhotra, CEO, Dabur India spent most of his career outside India in a very different environment, which was more entrepreneurial. Over the last two to three years in India, a challenge he faced was that the pace of change in the company was very slow. "The organization was like a big elephant, and I had to make it dance," he told Entrepreneur India.

However, this black swan event of COVID-19 was an inflection point to bring about changes and transformation in the organization. "COVID-19, in fact, has acted as a catalyst for change. We have become much more agile, nimble-footed and quick in our execution than earlier – something we were struggling with," he said.

The organization also improved its risk-taking ability, moving from a fearful to a fearless attitude. The organization, he claims, has also become much less hierarchical – layers have been cut out and red-tapism has reduced. "We now interact directly with employees at all levels and they too can reach out to us. People are encouraged to speak up, and others can learn from it. To support this attitude, trusting people and accepting failures is also important – which is what we are doing. COVID has indeed brought in a culture change at Dabur," he said.

Malhotra joined Dabur in 1994, took over as the business head of the European Union in 2001, moved into Dabur's International business in 2004 as head of marketing based in Dubai and took over the reins as CEO of Dabur International in 2008. He then went on to take charge as the CEO-India Business and subsequently as the Global CEO of the company in April 2019.

Under his leadership, the company could mitigate the global headwinds of the pandemic to achieve profitable sustainable growth while strengthening its position across all key categories where it operates with strong market share gains. "The year saw phenomenal confidence from the shareholders and investors, which was reflected in our market capitalization crossing an all-time high of 100,000 Crore in April 2021," he said.

Despite facing multiple headwinds, Dabur India Ltd saw 10% growth in 2020-21 with consolidated revenue from operations touching INR 9,562 Crore. Consolidated net profit for FY 2020-21 stood at INR 1,693 Crore, a 17.2% jump over the previous year. Even in a grim COVID year, Dabur crossed several milestones such as gross sales topping INR 10,000 Crore for the first time, operating profit exceeding INR 2,000 crore and one of the company's youngest and flagship power brands Dabur Red Paste touching the INR 1,000-crore mark, among others, Malhotra shares proudly.

These recent achievements, he feels, have been the most defining moment in his professional journey. "The year 2020 has been a great teacher and equally a great leveler. To say that life has changed dramatically in 2020 because of COVID-19 would be an understatement. COVID-19 has completely transformed the way we live and work," said Malhotra.

He firmly believes that every crisis teaches us a life lesson and is also an opportunity that should not be wasted. While it did come as a big shock initially, he was also quick in responding to the emerging situation. "Our top-most priority was ensuring the health and well-being of our employees, vendors and business associates; this is a core value for us," he said.

COVID-19 taught the team the need to remain fluid and agile because of which they were able to launch over 50 new products and undertake extensive media campaigns during the lockdown period. "It was a Blitzkrieg of sorts by the company. We established an extended management committee team that covered functions like operations, sales, marketing and R&D. We sat together online and created, conceptualized and executed strategies which included rethinking the portfolio approach, rethinking our go-to-market approach, rethinking our entire organizational transformation," he shared.

Technology was a big enabler for the company during these difficult times. During the COVID-induced lockdown period when physical order-booking had become difficult, the company, under his leadership, leveraged technology to make the process simpler and seamless for its partners. "Necessity is the mother of invention, as they say," he said. The company rolled out a mobile app for retailers, commenced order-booking on WhatsApp and activated its call center to take orders from retail outlets across the country.