Charting the journey of the young, ambitious entrepreneur responsible for making GCPL an international giant.
By Stuti Kute
In 2018, Nisaba ‘Nisa’ Godrej broke onto the international scene when she made the Forbes Asia’s ‘Emergent 25 Asia’s Latest Star Businesswomen’ list. The young entrepreneur, who inherited a burning business zeal from her large entrepreneurial family, took over Godrej Consumer Products Limited (GCPL) as Executive Chairperson in 2017 from her father, Adi Godrej. However, even before her succession, Nisa was known in the industry as the up-and-coming star whose pragmatic aggression spelt only great things for Godrej Industries. A bright child, she spent her childhood and school years in Mumbai with her siblings, the younger Pirojsha Adi Godrej and the older Tanya Dubash, watching the family business proliferate and grow as they too grew.
She went on to study at Wharton School (University of Pennsylvania) where she got her B.Sc and then Harvard Business School for an MBA. After returning to the homeland, she joined her father at GCPL, quickly taking to the work and utilising her vast talents to grow GCPL from a domestic giant to an international behemoth.
Godrej Consumer Products Ltd has been a staple in the Indian market for decades, with products like Godrej Shikakai soap, Cinthol soaps, Hit insecticide, Goodnight mosquito repellant and many more. But after Nisa joined the board of executives, GCPL took to the international market with incomparable speed and fervour – capturing markets previously considered untouchable due to domestic monopolies and world politics. This was all credit to the young and rising Godrej’s vision to push boundaries and reinvent traditions, something which was to become her modus operandi in the coming years.
Godrej’s International Foray
In 2007, Nisa spearheaded Project Leapfrog, which aimed to accelerate domestic growth and capture new international markets to boost GCPL’s global identity and brand presence. The first and most significant of which was Africa. Being a Mumbai-based company, GCPL was no stranger to developing markets and population dynamics, important among which was the African market. Between 2010 and 2015, under Nisa’s leadership, Godrej Consumer Products Ltd pushed into the African haircare market with four important acquisitions. This included brands that sold hair colourants, hair extensions and soaps: Tura, Darling, Inecto and Renew. The haircare and skincare market in Africa is unique – the demand for which remains more or less stable even through political and economical ups and downs. Due to the singularity of African haircare – styles and textures that require a specialised market to cater to them – not a lot of international brands have been able to break even with the domestic giants. This is where GCPL and Nisa’s demand to push into the market regardless changed the game.
In 2015, when the audit was conducted, South Africa accounted for 35% of Godrej’s personal care product (Africa) sales, followed by Kenya (31%), Nigeria (27%) and Mozambique (7%). The turning point for Godrej’s African ventures came with GCPL’s expansion into hair extensions with the acquisition of the brand ‘Kinky’ in 2008 and with its massive success, went on to acquire major stakes in Darling Group Holdings in 2010-11.
Parallelly, with the same ambition in 2010, GCPL entered the Indonesian market with the acquisition of PT Megasari Makmur Group. Further expansion into Latin America assured that Nisa’s war-like business strategy succeeded, with 2012 seeing an increase in Godrej stocks by a whopping 76%.
Godrej Women & Women in Godrej
Nisa’s succession in 2017 marked significant changes in the company culture and organisational practices. She brought a certain youthful energy and robustness to the company she had spent more than 15 years building up with her father. Under her leadership, the organisation assumed a more meritocratic structure and atmosphere.
She also worked hard to ensure that the women working at GCPL found their work properly recognised and themselves uplifted when in need. With her leading the charge, the company now boasts five female board members, the most in any Indian company. She has also established programmes to help her women employees with extended maternity leave, flexible working hours and work-from-home facilities. Another significant initiative under Godrej has been to assist the transition of mid-career women on breaks as they come back to work – to make it more seamless and easy for them.
This woman-centric leadership and the humility to think ahead for all could be attributed to Nisa’s mother, the late Parmeshwar Godrej. One of Air India’s earliest hostesses and India’s legendary jetsetting hostess with the mostest, Parmeshwar was a trailblazer in her own right. With her work dabbling in art, humanitarian ventures, design and business, she raised her children, son Adi and daughters Nisaba and Tanya, to remain connected to the working-class upbringing she herself had had. Encouraging them at all times to look ahead while remaining firmly rooted in times of crises. She was also known to lend her design and aesthetic sensibilities to the family business, with her contributions to GCPL and Godrej Properties being the focus.
Sustainable Practices & Social Awareness
Nisa has also been the driving force behind Godrej’s Good and Green Initiative which aims at achieving sustainability goals set by experts that comprise energy conservation, water conservation, waste management and reduction in greenhouse gas emissions. Sustainability goes beyond just environmental practices, and Nisa, recognising that, ensured that her initiative stimulates a sustainable employment cycle: With training programmes for underprivileged youth (especially women), drives to increase employability and retention rates, and rural entrepreneurship programmes.
Likewise, her philanthropic endeavours are many, the most significant of which is her post as Executive Chairperson for Teach for India. Teach for India, launched in 2008 by Shaheen Mistri, has been responsible for singlehandedly making education more equitable around the country and Godrej’s investment in it in terms of time and resources has allowed it to become the non-profit education giant that it is today.
The lady has also been a vocal supporter of LGBTQ+ rights. She even inaugurated the 8th Kashish Pride Film Festival (2017), asserting, “Great talent is the key to our success and our individual capabilities are only determined by our attitude and hard work; not by our gender, caste or sexuality.”
Godrej Realignment: What The Future Holds
2024 has been full of changes for the 127-year-old family business. On April 30, 2024, Godrej split into two shareholders: Godrej Enterprises and Godrej Industries. Godrej Enterprises (GEG) is now headed by Jamshyd Godrej as Chairperson and Managing Director and his niece Nyrika Holkar as Executive Director. Godrej Industries (GIG) is headed by Nadir Godrej, to be helmed by Adi Godrej’s son Pirojsha Godrej in 2026.
Her hand in keeping Godrej Industries a success along with her siblings is absolutely irrefutable. The middle child energy she brings to the family business: Of innovation, novelty and constant productive reorganisation is a credit to herself. She is said to have an aggressive but pragmatic temperament she shares with none of her siblings, which has allowed for the sleepier parts of GIG to be shaken up when touched by her. None better to demonstrate this than her role in bringing up Godrej Agrovet from one of the family subsidiaries to an industry giant. Having inherited her father’s ear and her mother’s flair, she maintains the same speed and energy as the up-and-coming star fresh out of business school that rattled and shook up the industry.
Currently 46 years of age and running at full steam, she lives in Mumbai with her husband Kalpesh Mehta, founder of Tribeca Developers, and their two children Zoran and Aidan – an inspiration to powerful, working women everywhere.
An equestrian by passion, it is a pleasure to watch Nisaba Godrej ‘gallop’ into the future of Indian business with the same easy energy she brings to her commitment to family and enterprise.
