VGSoM recently had the privilege of hosting Mr. Sanjay Mukherjee, Head, Replenishment (Supply Chain), Britannia Industries Ltd. for a guest lecture. Having more than 15 years of work experience at various leading Indian Corporate & MNC organizations like ITC Ltd. and Godfrey Philips Group etc., Mr. Mukherjee at Britannia is responsible for Logistics Management, Distribution Network Management, Supply Network Planning, Customer Service Management, Cost Management, Budgeting etc.
Being a proud britannian, Mr. Mukherjee proclaimed Britannia’s 123 year old pioneering role in the food industry. He proudly boasted the healthy profit growth and returns. Upholding the vision of the company to be the largest food company in the country and owning the largest chunk of the Indian biscuit industry.
Commencing the FMCG way, the kingship of the customer, the post liberalization of markets in 1991 has steered the inclination of supply chain management as a domain steered towards customer needs and wants. The shift has brought in a plethora of options for customers to buy from, tightening the seat belt of every supply chain manager. Adding to this Mr. Mukherjee emphasized on the importance of ‘competitive advantage through agile supply chain’ in the fast moving consumer goods’ market.
Sharing the growth story of Britannia, he shed light on the revamped approach and new programs introduced in order to shift and match gears of new fast paced market & consumer base. Owing to programs like ‘Cost Efficiency Program’, a steep rise was clearly visible in the company’s growth charts.
Moving to the three closely assembled gears of supply chain; cost, quality, and service, the lecture progressed with a strong connect between the guest and students. Mr. Mukherjee elaborated on the closely knit cost management system and cited great leaders like Walmart’s Sam Alton and Wipro’s Azim Premji for their ideology to not waste a single penny until value extraction is possible from the same. He went on to illustrate the functional structure of building blocks of supply chain viz. Procurement, Manufacturing, Replenishment, Sales & Marketing which ensure product availability to the customer at the right time and right place.
The session ended with a Q&A round and was filled with extensive questions to which Mr. Mukherjee gladly poured insights and registered new curiosities and interests in the supply chain domain. Speaking about the growth of new talents in Britannia, he showcased various success stories and instilled a keen interest in students to be part of the FMCG giant.