Diversey India’s Technologies Have Saved 1.8 Billion Litres Of Water In The Country: Dr. Illham Kadri
Diversey Inc., in an interview with BW BusinessWorld discusses their recent activities and goals they are focusing on in order to bring robust methods in cleanliness and hygiene. Dr. Illham Kadri, CEO & President, Diversey who is also a social activist for encouraging women diversity and empowerment across all industries discussed their operations in India. She said, “In 2017, our products and technologies and solutions have helped conserve 1.8 Billion litres of water in the country and we are the only company who is striving to create a sustainable and cost-efficient environment globally.”
What is your purpose of coming to India? Are you planning to execute strategies for your base in India?
We are mainly into the hygiene and cleaning industry and globally by far No. 1 in India both in sectors like hospitality, food service, laundry services and mainly in the F&B space. We are here in India because it smells like growth over here and you have the people, infrastructure with the reforms that are being built successfully for a healthy economy, the I.Q. and talent of young aspiring individuals and the education. We have a heritage and years of presence in India along with many offices and we are doing really great in the past years and yes we are looking for ways to accelerate this growth.
What is Diversey planning to accomplish in 2018?
We have been independent since 5 years and so we moved from Bain publicly trading company to our own now. We had been independent in 1924 when our company started in Chicago and now to see another change in the company’s history makes us even more enthusiastic in discovering growth opportunities on our own strength. We are focusing on our scope and our field of play that is hygiene and cleaning. We are building our own infrastructure wherever we need to and we are known as market makers especially when we bring in new technologies and digital innovations such as ‘Internet of Clean’. We would like to continue to reimagine and bring in new technologies and digitalization into the market.
How have you contributed over the years in driving a social cause such as women empowerment?
Woman empowerment has been the battle of my life and I’m a pure product of diversity and inclusion, so wherever I go I do my best in celebrating it. I am blessed in hygiene and cleaning because 70% of our workforce has been dominated by women globally but also at the same time they are faced with lack of pride in the industry because a cleaner’s job is perceived as the entry-level job and people leave as and when they get a better offer. Hence, when I came into the industry, I wanted to probably lead my legacy there and we created an association amongst the prophets known as ‘Hygieia Network’ and it is a book that was published in 2017 and the title of the book also is the name of the Greek Goddess of hygiene, cleaning, and good health. This book talks about all the hardworking women who have uplifted the industry. We are explaining why this industry is very unique and how it combats the levels of illiteracy by providing mentoring and education to the women. We want to encourage them to have a career in this industry. This particular cause about women diversity & inclusion and empowerment is as broad as any other problems witnessed in every industry and I wish to send a message that diversity does matter. If you have a diverse workforce then you can gain more profitability in any kind of sectors. Also, at the same time, we want to spread more awareness about cleaning because in certain cases like food poisoning, most of the restaurants and hospitals face these issues because of lack of cleaning. It is not just about cleaning and keeping everything hygienic but it’s about saving lives and providing the satisfaction to our customers. In India again, we have seen many cases of unhygienic environments and eventually, I uploaded a national program like ‘Clean India Program’ which is about following the same principles you follow at home to keep it clean. Diversey India has trained 6800 cleaners and certified them along with employment and it is immediately inclined towards our program which is known as ‘Garima’.
What are the kinds of innovative cleaning technologies that Diversey has been focusing on to drive businesses?
Globally we have been spending most of our investments in research and development to innovate and by understanding customer needs we have contributed to India’s demands as well. We started the CLAX Technology in the Maharashtra region which is a low-temperature laundry type of machine where you don’t have to heat the clothes. Water is scarce over here and energy costs a lot, so the teams started thinking they had actually developed a laundry type of solutions at low temperature creating energy and water savings. Another type of technology is which is a waterless urinal and also consumes urine and converts it into a much more harmless solution so when you enter the washrooms you will find an enzyme type of bacteria-based cleaners that are a perfect substitute to flushing. On the basis of this technology in 2017, we have saved half a billion litres of water only in India through waterless urinals and if I combine all the technologies we have provided in the food engineering space, Clax etc. our savings of water had gone up to 1.8 billion litres of water with our customers. Today, due to business continuity issues and in order to provide a sustainable solution, our customers are grabbing the products we provide to them and 80 of them in India are running the new advanced CLAX Technology that gives them water savings of 40%. As a market leader we get the best of our technologies to the market space and over the last 3 years we are converting most of our products from average cherry cane of 5,10 and 20 litres to super concentrates of 1½ to 2 litre pouches and avoiding the water shipment to drive sustainability which is engraved in everything we do and at every stage.
What was the ideology behind ‘The Internet of Clean’ and what are you trying to achieve with this movement?
It is a beautiful word for the internet of things applied to the cleaning and the hygiene industry and we were innovative to train the markets quickly so that we could have a trademark. The Internet of Clean is about connecting the customer’s operations with the minds of our people so we look at what our customers do remotely and this makes our people smarter with digital data that is connected with us in order to make important decisions like preventive maintenance rather than pro-active or reactive methods. It is a kind of structure that makes our customers visible so we can calculate how much water or energy they are consuming and how can we do our best to help them save cost, provide better technology, the kind of services required to maintain the hygiene levels and grow a sustainable environment at the same time. Here it is about managing smart operations and monitoring the dispenser on the wall to the machines and inspecting everything around cleaning. By doing this, we make the processes more robust and we can manage waste by making our customers more productive along with our machines and smart tools. Hence, the Internet of Clean is about really making cleaning operations more productive.
Is Diversey planning to make any investments to expand business operations in India or globally?
In the past 5 months, we did a lot of announcements regarding our investments where we acquired a company called Twister in Scandinavia which makes chemical-free based cleaning pads which focuses on creating sustainable products with respect to hygiene and cleaning. We are in the process of closing an acquisition with Zenith Hygiene Group in the United Kingdom and we are investing continuously in research and development globally. Our lab in Mumbai became a global lab in 2012 and India is now one of our international exporters in technologies to the rest of the world. We have also made an investment in Thailand which is about coaching and training our talents on a huge scale to provide more efficient cleaners that our customers demand for.
Where do you see your company in the next 5 years?
We have just become independent 5 months ago and it is a journey to become the leading company in providing the lowest cost of ownership because it is not about selling litres of chemicals and machines but more concentrates which means less volumes of chemicals. We are helping in facilitating activities such as prevent food poisoning in restaurants. We are helping hoteliers to improve the customer experience and build loyalty amongst these clients. All of this shows that we are aiming towards prosperity for ourselves, our employees and our shareholders by re-imagining the industry. We wish to become the market makers in bringing sustainable and ahead of time technologies and help our customers to win.
