Global. Godrej Group said that may not be able to meet the $10Bln turnover target by 2020.

We'll miss $10bn sales target of 2020: Godrej Namrata Singh 20 October 2017 The Times of India - Chennai Edition Adi Godrej, the 75year-old patriarch of the $5billion Godrej Group who recently stepped into the role of chairman emeritus in two group companies -Godrej Consumer Products (GCPL) and Godrej Properties -is keen to see how GCPL performs in the September quarter. This would be the first quarter with his younger daughter Nisaba (Nisa) being in full control as chairman of the company. While Nisa (39) took over as executive chairman of GCPL on May 10 this year, her brother Pirojsha (37) took over as executive chairman of Godrej Properties from April1this year. In an interview with TOI, Godrej revealed that the group may not be able to meet the $10-billion turnover target by 2020. Excerpts: The group had around seven years ago enunciated a target of achieving a turnover of $10 billion by 2020. Do you believe this will be achieved? The $10-billion goal was a broad guideline provided then. We had said our objective is to be 10 times in 10 years. But that was based on the situation then and a lot of it was to do with inflation. Now inflation has come down. I don't think we will be $10-billion by 2020. We may achieve it if we have a substantial acquisition. For many years, we were on the path of 10x10 ($10-billion in 10 years, i.e. 2020). Because of the much lower inflation for a couple of years, our growth has slowed down a bit and also because of factors such as demonetisation. However, now I think growth will pick up again with GST. So what's the new goalpost? It depends on the circumstances. You don't know what reforms would come. You don't know what measures the government is going to take. A lot will depend on organic growth. All our companies have generally grown at a faster rate than our competitors. With the 10x10 goal, our objective was both organic and inorganic growth. Inorganic growth will depend on opportunities. So we are not wedded to anything. We want to create value. We have up till now grown and created value at the same time. Would this create value in your philanthropic activities as well? Yes. For example, recently we increased our dividends because we have done well. So even our trusts get more. Even before mandatory CSR (corporate social responsibility) was introduced, our companies did undertake CSR activities under the Godrej Good & Green programme. Now, of course, since mandatory CSR has been introduced, we have increased this programme considerably . So in addition to philanthropy by promoters, we are doing considerable CSR activities through individual companies. How are Nisa and Pirojsha fairing at the helm of their respective companies? Quite well. You will best be able to judge their performance when we announce our September quarter results. This will be the first full quarter when Nisa will be totally in charge. Do you still mentor them? Now they are beyond mentoring. I have done mentoring for a long time. They are very capable. They are also very energetic. As and when required, I am there. Is there any reverse learning? I have learnt a lot not only from my children but all executives. We were the first company in India to introduce 360-degree evaluation. We learnt about it when we had a joint venture with GE. We launched it some 20 years ago. There was a lot of learning for me. Otherwise people weren't very frank to the boss. For full interview, log on to http:www.timesofindia.com