Motto Is ‘Doing Things Better’
His motto is “Doing things better”. Jaidev Rajnikant Shroff, Group CEO of United Phosphorus Limited (UPL) and Vice Chairman of Advanta, believes in striving incessantly for “smart, affordable and profitable solutions” for the global farming community.
The UPL Group boasts of 433 patents and a global presence. It offers crop protection solutions for the farming community and is among the largest players in the agro-chemicals market. Executive Chairman and Managing Director, Rajnikant Devidas Shroff, who founded the group in 1969, says even though sustainability is not a new concept in India, it is still evolving. United Phosphorus offers world class technologies and sustainable agriculture solutions in 120 countries including India, and considers itself a global group with an Indian soul.
With Jaidev R. Shroff at the helm, UPL has been among the fastest growing agri-input companies in the world, with a strong presence in the seeds, plant nutrition, crop protection and post-harvest food preservation value chains. Shroff has driven UPL’s transformation from a primarily home-grown player in agro-chemicals to an Indian multinational. The group has a global workforce of more than 25 different nationalities and operates 28 agro-chemicals manufacturing plants in India, Asia, Europe, Latin and North America. Shroff has a deep understanding of international trade. “Environmental concerns are affecting supplies from China,” he says, “We believe that the supply, demand gap could only widen.”
Jaidev R. Shroff is known to be driven by optimism both in life and in his role at UPL. “We believe UPL is faced with some of the most attractive prospects,” he says, adding “The consolidation of several large global players is expected to accelerate our growth.” Shroff has spent 28 years in the industry and “Jai” as he is popularly known, is a familiar figure in corporate circles.
He empowers his workforce through his continuous engagement with both peers and subordinates. Shroff had a strong role to play in the corporate affairs of the group all through the turbulence of the last decade, steering it ahead through the tough times. “Jai’s” motto of “Doing things better” is about being ready to cope with challenges, rather than deal with damage control afterwards.
The group has taken a series of decisions to be on the safer side, focussing particularly on innovation, research and excellence. Speaking of the group’s performance in the last few years, Jaidev Shroff says, “I was absolutely pleased with the company’s performance. The performance was yet another instance of UPL demonstrating its sectoral outperformance across financial parameters”. United Phosphorus has seen a 26.09 per cent annual upsurge in net profits till December 2017.
“But the working philosophy remain similar from one enterprise to another,” points out Rajnikant Shroff. “It is innovation that gave us an edge when I started manufacturing red phosphorus in a small unit at Vapi (GIDC, Gujarat),” he points out.
