WCRCINT+Leaders of the Year: Pralhad Bhutada

CEO & Director, Elica PB India

What are the breakthrough ideas that you suggest to India in your industry?

Currently in our industry of kitchen appliances ; where penetration of  built  in appliances like  hob , hood , oven etc is very low the industry has  to play the role of expanding the market through  communication ;  as to how space saving and cleanliness in kitchen can improve speed to  cook and create healthy lifestyle for the family. As domestic help is getting difficult to get ,it is imperative that nuclear families have efficient modular kitchens to lead a better quality of life
Further the industry must work for creating products which meet the Indian cooking needs and address affordable price point

What innovations are you getting in your industry for a better Indian economy?

We are continuously striving to do the following :

• We are constantly exploring western product concepts as to how they can tweaked to meet Indian consumer needs , and then locally produce to reduce costs and have an efficient supply chain.
  We have been recently awarded the CII design award in the Hob category as the best design in 2017 in India
• We are constantly working in partnership with our vendors to
  import substitute components and thereby improve their capability to make them world class. This would help supply chain eco system for ‘ Make in India ‘ to succeed.
• We are constantly improving consumer experiences – at the time buying through our Signature Studio’s and investing in better consumer service since our product requires regular maintenance for optimum performance.

Define your leadership style and role.

Our purpose of existence is to satisfy our trade partner and end consumer;

I therefore spend 80% of my time listening to them . I travel extensively across the country meeting and listening to my customers

I have an empowered team to take care of daily operations ; I believe in delegating responsibility along with authority to get the job done
Most of my leadership team have been with the company for more 10 years or more

Breakthrough ideas from you.

Indian economy is at the cusp of a rapid growth specially with huge government thrust on infrastructure and housing. This will create robust demand for our industry; this opportunity must be used to creating production facilities which are world class in cost and quality , which could open opportunities in the international market