Ode to a sibling: Nadir Godrej pens moving poem to Adi Godrej marking his retirement as Godrej Industries Chairman

Adi Godrej last week announced his decision to step down as the Chairman of Godrej Industries.

Veteran industrialist Adi Godrej last week announced his decision to step down as the Chairman of Godrej Industries, the holding company of the Godrej Group. He had joined the 124-year-old family business in 1963 and steered it to a much larger scale. The 79-year-old patriarch has passed on the baton to his brother Nadir Godrej, who will also continue to serve as the Managing Director of Godrej Industries.

Adi Godrej will continue to be the Chairman of the Godrej Group and Chairman Emeritus of Godrej Industries.

To mark the occasion, Nadir Godrej has penned a poem for his elder brother, which recounts Adi Godrej’s journey with the company, and credits him for taking it to greater heights. The 70-year-old Nadir Godrej is known for his fondness of mathematics and poetry and has published a book of poems called ‘The Poet’.

Early on, the poem delves into Adi Godrej’s educational qualifications and notes that he is a student par excellence. The elder Godrej had acquired a Bachelor’s and Master’s degree from Sloan School of Management when he was just 21 years old. The poem goes on to talk about his joining Godrej Soaps (now Godrej Consumer Products) in 1963, when the company only had a Rs 2 crore turnover, and relates Godrej’s initiatives to modernise it. Nadir Godrej ends the poem by saying “his shoes (Adi Godrej’s) are big and hard to fill” and that “for his service to both the group and nation, he deserves a standing ovation”.

Full text below:

Adi Farewell

By Nadir Godrej

August 13th, 2021

Adi is my elder brother,

For good advice, there was no other.

He always took the greatest care

And in all things was very fair.

At school he was extremely smart,

Excelled in all, except for art.

For fame he never seemed to hanker,

In SSC he was first ranker.

Then Xavier’s college up to Inter.

He then had to contend with winter

As his next step was MIT,

Where, when just twenty-one, you see,

He was both Bachelor and Master.

And few have ever done it faster!

Once back home he started work.

No matter what, he’d never shirk.

This was way back in ‘63.

The years have passed as you can see.

His arrival meant rising hopes

For forty-year-old Godrej Soaps.

Just two crore was then the size.

And Adi set out to modernise.

MBAs were soon recruited

And cars for managers were mooted.

The marketing was revamped,

And those who couldn’t change decamped.

He introduced cost accounting

And soon the sales started mounting.

But hair dye was his greatest coup

And over the years, it grew and grew.

The nineties then brought quite a change

The landscape now seemed very strange

With multinationals at the door

We hardly knew what was in store.

Pepsi and Coke bought all in sight.

Should we sell or should we fight?

We chose a path that’s in between.

In hindsight now it can be seen

That Indian firms that learnt to hone

Their skills easily held their own.

But then we thought that we should seek

Strong partners or we would stay weak.

And so, we formed the odd joint venture,

Which proved to be quite an adventure,

We learnt a lot and that’s for sure.

It helps us still to endure.

An acquisition that was bold

Brought HI into our fold.

And many more were unfurled

As we spread around the world.

Though Godrej Soaps began to soar

On market price we couldn’t score.

Then our advisors thought it fit

That Godrej Soaps should be split.

GCPL came into being.

And Adi, very quickly seeing,

The trend for better governance,

Put into place all at once,

With lots of help from CII,

Best practices that surely vie

With the very best in the world.

When our new stock was then unfurled,

It very soon began to fly

And to this day it still stays high.

GIL came into being

In recent days we are seeing

Our chemical business steadily rise

As we diversify and specialise.

Our new products should ensure

That the rapid growth will endure.

The shares we hold, as you can tell,

Are also doing very well.

In these companies at the start

Adi played a major part!

And so today one clearly sees

That now Godrej Properties

Which he served with fealty

Has really arrived in realty.

For Agrovet, Animal Feed,

Can be considered our core creed.

But it was not always so

And many of you may not know

The way we stumbled into feed.

For compound feed they saw no need.

Then Buhler sought out L&T

Together they had tried to see

If a market might exist

There were no takers on their list.

They chose to make a clean swipe

But were left with a prototype

A discount customer was sought

And Adi was the one who bought.

Serendipity and not a vision,

Thus, gave birth to this division.

In time the business forged ahead

Geographically we chose to spread.

And on my watch, we diversified,

New businesses were then tried.

Over the years it has grown

And now it’s listed on its own.

But it was Adi who laid the seed

That permitted us to succeed.

Is Adi’s success because of skill,

Or is it more his iron will?

For Adi was always organised

And punctuality was prized.

By dusk his desk is very neat,

His paperwork is all complete.

Not agonising is the trick,

Decisions must be very quick.

Adi can’t stand the status quo

All novel things he wants to know.

And if he thinks that it is right

He puts in all his will and might

Behind the new initiative

And with support that he can give

We quickly learn the latest ways,

Make sure the group sees better days.

But while he strove for the group

The industry was in the loop.

He’s always ready to lend a hand,

Be President or take a stand

With government on policy

And he’ll persist till industry

Gets exactly what it needs.

And once he headed CII

Ensuring that it would fly high.

And anybody that you ask

Will state this is no easy task.

Requiring traveling incessantly

And persuasive advocacy

How he survived I'll never know

In fact, he had a cheery glow.

And now of course we all see

We have a working GST,

A cause he pursued relentlessly

Almost monomaniacally.

And for this selfless contribution

He deserves his Padma Bhushan!

All who see him are inspired.

For all he does, he’s never tired

Where did he get the energy?

It shouldn’t be any mystery,

Adi of course, was very fit.

He didn’t seem to want to sit.

There’s not a sport, he hasn’t tried

For he can even paraglide.

He really loved to water-ski,

Not on a lake but on the sea.

And on a trip to Mt. Kailash,

Although conditions were quite harsh,

The mount was circled in a day.

Most folks his age would say, “No way”.

And none of us can fail to see

That he is full of energy.

He always set a rapid pace

As he led us in the race.

Though all of us most surely know

That we have many miles to go

But still we're sure it can be done.

Indeed, this race must be won.

And if we stay on the proper way

And never let our values sway,

If all of us fulfil our roles

We will surely reach our goals.

A billion Indians, we can say,

Will use our product every day

And everywhere it will be seen

That we are great, good and green.

Adi’s spell was truly great.

The years he worked were fifty-eight!

But all good things come to an end.

Let’s hope we can maintain the trend.

He’s stepping down, as you can see,

The mantle has been passed to me.

His shoes are big and hard to fill

But with your support, I think we will

Continue well in the same way

As Adi did in his own day.

He will be Chairman Emeritus

And I’m sure he’ll merit us

With his presence and advice,

Invaluable beyond any price.

Now hearing praise can be quite tough,

I’m sure by now he’s had enough.

But all the same why don’t we stand

And then give him a rousing hand?

For service to both group and nation

He deserves a standing ovation!

Adi Godrej had stepped down from Godrej Consumer Products earlier this month. He will remain the Chairman Emeritus of the company. The reins of GCPL had been handed over to his daughter Nisaba in 2017. GCPL is the consumer goods arm of Godrej Group and has a presence across real estate, appliances, agriculture etc.