Route to creativity

The search for a new culture that throws up breakthrough ideas has only just begun

Consumer packaged goods marketer Marico will be moving to a new office shortly. The current premises, which include three floors of a suburban hotel in Mumbai, is already proving to be too much of a tight squeeze. Owner-CEO Harsh Mariwala is eagerly waiting to choose from a shortlist - and also brief the designer. "When we moved in here, I wanted the office to reflect the open culture we hoped to create," says Mariwala. The result: a modern open office plan with a few all-glass cubicles reserved for senior managers, including the CEO himself.
This time, the eclectic CEO, who loves any new management idea, says his design brief will add one more important facet of Marico's new culture cocktail: innovation and restless creativity. So employees can, perhaps, look forward to the large open spaces facilitating interactions and allowing ideas to flow more freely.

In many ways, this transition is symbolic of Marico's search for a performance ethic that meshes well with its new culture of experimentation - a journey that hadn't quite begun on the right note.Two years ago, Mariwala and his top team took serious note of the fact that Marico had underperformed. It was dependent on just two brands, Parachute and Saffola, for a lion's share of profits. Competitors like Hindustan Lever and Dabur had put its margins under pressure. Marico reacted with a series of line extensions, most of which sank without a trace, leading to a lot of discontentment in the organisation.

It didn't take long for Mariwala's team to diagnose the problem: the lack of an experimentative culture. Managers simply weren't taking enough risks.

Mariwala had read enough about innovation - specially the work of management gurus like Gary Hamel. Could they borrow a few ideas and develop a more rigorous approach to innovation? "Our task was to first change mindsets, so that people were open to doing things differently," says Pankaj Bhargava, organisation development manager.

Identifying ideas from across the organisation was easy. But execution threw up a series of challenges. Some managers felt it cut into their regular work. Others were reluctant to work on a small brand - a new idea usually starts small - as they felt the size of a brand reflected their position in the hierarchy.

But Mariwala and his team persisted. Rakesh Pandey, CEO (HR), and his team worked closely with line managers to facilitate both the ideation process and the system of prototyping. Innovation in execution was facilitated through a series of experiments before the marketing mix was ready to be scaled up. "It was a tricky process for HR to intervene. We had to be careful that the line managers took full ownership of the projects," says Pandey. That's when Marico decided to identify big bets - which required disproportionate resources - and allow for sufficient experimentation of a new idea, by not including the results of the new project in the current year's financials.

Today, the changes are beginning to pay off. New products contribute nearly 17% to Marico's turnover, up from 12% two years ago. Mariwala says: "I realise we need to induct top notch marketing talent for better consumer understanding and insight mining. Our innovation journey has only just begun." Perhaps, a zany new office could help.