“Cohesion at top is a unique feature of IFFCO and is the most important factor for its continued progress” said its Managing Director US Awasthi while talking to Indian Cooperative.com on Tuesday in Delhi.
Cohesion at top percolates down to every member in our family of more than 40 thousand societies. What I mean by this is the Chairman, Vice-Chairman, Board members and other top officials work as a unified team here. Nobody talks ills of others thereby releasing huge energy for the growth of the Organization, Mr Awasthi added.
Dialogue is the key to our success. We have board meeting every month. We communicate freely and our each member is as much involved in the process of decision-making as the person at the top, he added.
Readers may recall that IFFCO again notched up a profit of more than a thousand crore in the financial year 2011-12 despite depressing local and global scenario. It has also increased its turn over from Rs 22000 crore to nearly Rs 26000 crore.
The Chief Executive of any organization has to be like Neelkanth– an avatar of Shiva who is capable of holding poison in his throat. He has to take poison but not pass it onto lower rung. One who is able to do so should only aspire to become the head of any organization. The MD said this while referring to a hit of Rs 300 crore Iffco tolarated due to fluctuation of Rupee vis a vis dollar. For insulating our farmers from the vagaries of price-rise, Iffco board decided to take the hit on itself rather than pass it onto our farmers.
Farmers of the country also stood by us through thick and thin and we promise to stand by them even in future, Mr Awasthi said emotionally.
Cooperatives still follow business model of 19th century which needs to be pushed to dust-bean. There were varieties of challenges before us- rupee fluctuation, bank’s credit policy, fluctuating commodity prices, strategic buying and how to buy innovative products for farmers. But through dynamic hedging and strategic planning we overcame all barriers to maintain our profit ratio, Mr Awasthi concluded.