Galaxy Surfactants Ltd. held a virtual event, 'Galaxy of Sustenance,' on Nov. 3, 2020, to mark its 10th anniversary of commitment toward sustainable growth and to underline the business benefits of sustainability as a strategy.
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Several personalities from the industry and academia discussed issues relating to the role of sustainability inside and outside of the corporate world. Speakers also discussed creating a sustainable workforce to build business longevity, reduce risk to business and generate value.
U. Shekhar, managing director, Galaxy Surfactants Ltd., said, “Environmental consciousness, responsibly conducting business and forging sustainable long term partnerships with all stakeholders is at [the] heart of [sustainability]. This matches with our belief of growing sustainably with one and all. We are committed to developing an ecosystem that supports disruptive thoughts to create new products and processes and add value through innovation.”
Anju Singh, Ph.D., professor, National Institute of Industrial Engineering, said, “Sustainable value creation is [of utmost importance] and the main drivers for creating the same are vision and growth, return on investment and de-risking the business. Any company who [is] working on these drivers [is] creating value for the company."
'Environmental consciousness, responsibly conducting business and forging sustainable long term partnerships with all stakeholders is at [the] heart of [sustainability].'
Singh continued, "When [a] company says [sustainability is] a cost on the company, it’s actually an investment—be it working toward internal stakeholders by grooming employees, or looking after their well-being or external community, stakeholder, supplier, etc. Any investment in sustainability helps in creating value for the company and improve[s the] company’s competitive context.”
Abhishek, COO, Eli Lilly Services India Pvt., Ltd., said, “On the occasion of Galaxy Surfactants completing 40 years, and for celebrating a decade-long sustainability journey, we need to understand that there are seven key areas (pillars) ... for creating a right platform for people to perform and lead: creating diversity; trust of the organization with the individual; mak[ing] them empowered by providing realistic challenges to explore themselves; having long term vision for [the] organization and its people; associat[ing] and syncing them with [the] common focus of the organization; mak[ing] them part of the shared vision and growth journey; and the most important part: ... having care and empathy for them."
Abhishek summarized that from a COO’s lens and business perspective, the talent to outlast is a great construct, which is the objective of the organization—and both parties should have shared accountability toward it, in good as well as tough times.
