Brands
Bajaj Electricals on boards Ravindra Singh Negi and Rajesh Naik; aims for aggressive growth
Mumbai:
Negi will join Bajaj Electricals in July 2022 from Havells India, where he was president of the electrical consumer durables segment. Prior to that, he spent nearly two decades in Bharti Airtel in various roles, with his final role being CEO of the Delhi and NCR telecom circle.
Additionally, the company has also announced the formation of a unified lighting business segment by combining its consumer lighting business and its professional lighting business, which will be led by Rajesh Naik. He joined Bajaj Electricals in December 2019 and in this period has led a turnaround of the illumination business taking it to the leadership position in the industry. Naik has over two decades of experience in the sector.
The reorganisation and strengthening of the company’s leadership are on the back of the ongoing and significant transformation journey. Over the last three years, Bajaj Electricals has undertaken multiple initiatives including the acquisition of further stakes in Nirlep Appliances, Starlite Lighting and the planned scheme of arrangement for a split of the entity into two independent publicly listed companies (upon a demerger of its power infrastructure business). The planned split is likely to come into effect later this fiscal. Further, the company achieved a key strategic milestone of becoming net-debt-free as of 31 March 2022. Having achieved these milestones, Bajaj Electricals is preparing for aggressive growth across its businesses in a focused manner.
Making these announcements, Bajaj Electricals executive director Anuj Poddar said, “Over the past three years, we have embarked upon a significant transformation journey at Bajaj Electricals with a clear agenda of driving growth and value creation for all stakeholders. During this period, we have consistently demonstrated our ability to deliver on the agenda with agile decisions and focused execution even amidst a tough environment. As we look forward to our next phase of this transformation, we are committed to even more aggressive growth and to driving operational excellence across our businesses. The reorganisation and strengthening of our leadership are designed to enable this. I am pleased to welcome aboard Ravindra, who comes with a stellar professional track record and strong leadership skills. I am confident that he will be able to drive the strong performance of our consumer products business. Further, in Rajesh, we already have a very strong leader who has successfully driven our lighting business to a leadership position. With his widened responsibility as head of the unified lighting business, I am sure that he will bring to fore his deep experience and a sharper focus on this overall business to re-assert Bajaj Electricals’ leadership in the Indian marketplace.”
Newly appointed Bajaj Electricals COO of consumer products business Ravindra Singh Negi added, “Bajaj Electricals is an established leader in consumer appliances with deeply entrenched brand and distribution strengths. As an industry player, I have closely watched the changes over the recent past with several new initiatives that are strengthening its competitive position as well as transforming it into a best-in-class organisation. I am excited to be joining the organisation at this juncture and to build on this momentum of transforming a strong brand legacy into a future ready consumer centric and innovative organisation. I look forward to working with the team and leaders to deliver on superior growth & competitive performance.”
Commenting on his new responsibility, Bajaj Electricals head of lighting business Rajesh Naik said “The last 2.5 years at Bajaj Electricals have been immensely challenging yet gratifying as we have successfully turned around our Illumination (professional lighting) business, driving its growth in an extremely tough market environment. We are now well poised in both the professional lighting business as well as in our consumer lighting business with several new product launches and innovations. I am confident that with this new unified Lighting Business segment we will be able to drive a much stronger go-to-market thrust, better synergies and cohesive operations. I look forward to working with our teams and channel partners to drive rapid growth for our business.”
Brands
Hardik Jhaveri named senior director marketing at Colgate-Palmolive Asean hub
Former Hill’s Pet Nutrition general manager returns to the company to steer marketing for South Asean from Kuala Lumpur
KUALA LUMPUR: Hardik Jhaveri has been appointed senior director marketing for the South Asean hub at Colgate-Palmolive, marking a return to the consumer goods major after a three year stint with Hill’s Pet Nutrition. He will be based in Kuala Lumpur and will lead marketing strategy for the region.
Jhaveri joins the role after serving as general manager at Hill’s Pet Nutrition in Taipei, where he led a cross functional team and oversaw the business with full profit and loss responsibility. The role placed him at the helm of operations in Taiwan, managing growth in what he described as a start-up style environment within a global multinational.
Before that, Jhaveri spent over a decade with Colgate-Palmolive across several marketing and innovation roles in Asia. As associate director innovation for Apac excluding China, based in Hong Kong, he led new product development and launches across multiple markets.
His portfolio ranged from developing specialised oral care products such as a diabetes focused toothpaste for the Indian market to launching premium oral care experiences under the Colgate Total brand in Australia. Alongside innovation, he also worked on launch planning, brand strategy and communications for the company’s oral care portfolio.
Earlier in his Colgate-Palmolive journey, Jhaveri held roles including marketing manager innovation, senior brand manager and brand manager. His work spanned urban and rural markets in Mumbai and customer development responsibilities in the Greater Kolkata Area.
Prior to his long association with Colgate-Palmolive, Jhaveri worked as brand officer home care at Unilever, where he helped drive marketing initiatives for the Rin detergent brand, including nationwide relaunch and on ground activation campaigns.
He began his career in advertising with Bates David Enterprise, working on brands such as IDBI Bank, The Leela Hotels and The Times of India.
Jhaveri holds a post graduate programme in management from the Indian School of Business and has also completed a level 4 diploma in wine from the Wine & Spirit Education Trust.
Announcing the move, Jhaveri said he is excited to begin his new chapter at Colgate-Palmolive’s South Asean hub and thanked colleagues and mentors who supported his journey at Hill’s Pet Nutrition.
