India’s TOP 500 Companies 2020

INDIA’S TOP 500 COMPANIES 2020 125 Experts’ View impeccable regulatory track record with global authorities. What are the key differentiating factors for the company from its peers that have led to overall success of the business? Very early in our history, we started partnering with leading multinational companies. This gave us an insight into the expectations of our customers and their high standards. It also instilled a mindset where quality and compliance are paramount, and transparency and delivery are the keys to success. Data integrity happens to be one of the most serious issues faced by the Indian industry; in this respect we have zero tolerance for shortcuts and/or any deviations. This is reflected in our track record with our customers and global authorities. We ensure that we are always compliant. We have a philosophy of managing our risks proactively for long term gains, rather than exposing ourselves to compliance and other problems that might damage our reputation and ultimately our business. This approach has been embedded within our culture over the past three decades. Since we introduced distributed control systems in 1995, Hikal has been a frontrunner in India with respect to plant automation. We are using technology in manufacturing and development and our fully-automated plants are designed to minimize human error. Hikal has been among the first companies in India to embrace green manufacturing technologies, and we utilize the principles of sustainability to develop process for all our products. We are one of the first Indian life-sciences companies to receive the Responsible Care® certification, governed by the International Council of Chemical Associations (ICCA). We have successfully developed several in-house green manufacturing processes that have received awards. At Hikal, we have redefined our strategy to reinforce sustainability and ESH as key drivers to improving efficiency, creating synergies and delivering an improved customer value proposition. We want our people to think about sustainability and ESH in our decision-making processes and have incorporated it in our business model. We are confident this will ensure the long-term success of our company, create new business opportunities and differentiate us from the competitors. Hikal’s success is driven by our employees’ knowledge, passion and commitment. Our HR strategy, ‘Shashwat’, is fully aligned with our long-term business goals. It helps us progress in line with the changing industry dynamics in both our businesses. Over the years, Hikal has been recognized by leading organizations, industry experts and professionals alike. People make the difference, and at Hikal, our employees’ commitment to excellence is what differentiates us from others. How are you leveraging technology to capture new growth opportunities in your sector? Technology drives innovation and innovation is the path we at Hikal have defined as our business success. We have undertaken various technology-enabled initiatives to strengthen our journey towards driving sustainability, improving our customer experience and capitalizing on growth. All our systems are regularly evaluated and upgraded for better scalability, stability, and security. We have implemented software solutions across all business functions, right from mapping business development solutions to the entire life cycle development. We are also implementing Industry 4.0 in a phased manner. Automation, digitalization and analytics are creating opportunities for future growth. Research and Technology (R&T) is the principal growth driver at Hikal. Our investment in developing new technologies and future capabilities is constantly transformed into new products, processes, and services. These technologies drive innovation and sustainability, which give us a competitive advantage in the marketplace. At every step, our endeavor is to develop cost- effective products through sustainable processes. This not only results inoptimum utilization of resources, but also helps improving yields and reducing effluents and time-cycles. Our efforts in R&T have significantly contributed to developing new products through innovative and greener processes, thereby allowing us to expand and offer niche, complex products at a competitive cost. We also have set-up a state-of-the-art continuous manufacturing laboratory for the evaluation of processes from batch to continuous manufacturing. The lab is equipped with the latest technologies to cater to the screening of processes across parameters. This will lead to significant opportunities with new and existing customers in the future. We have the latest Enterprise Resource planning (ERP) software, which helps us manage our sales, marketing, accounting, human resources, distribution, manufacturing, and orders. Our Customer Relationship Management (CRM) software helps our sales and marketing departments understand our customers, identify new opportunities, automate marketing processes, and improve customer support. We are using both systems, which are integrated to optimize operations and enhance efficiency. We have a 360-degree view of our customers which gives us a closer view of our customers’ needs, order history, habits, and preferences ultimately enabling us to re-define our business growth strategies. It also helps to eliminate manual tasks thus boosting productivity through streamlining processes and automating our workflows. Some of the above levers of technology will help us ensure speed-to-market, ensure flexibility to manage uncertainty, simplify our supply chain and ultimately bring efficiency into our manufacturing and supply streams. Dun & Brads reet