Although Nyrika Holkar is a fourth-generation member of the Mumbai-based Godrej family taking forward the reins of her family business, her approach to leadership and a hunger to learn is almost child-like. Whether it’s her seniors at office or her own daughter at home, she doesn’t shy away from taking lessons from them. “I feel I have learnt a lot from my daughter in terms of the importance of listening and how to communicate in a clear and effective manner,” she says, adding that she has learnt to reassess some of her preconceived ideas and now understands the importance of looking at things from other people’s perspective.
She began her career at legal firm AZB & Partners, where she specialised in M&A transactions and advised foreign companies seeking to invest in India before joining Godrej & Boyce (G&B). Holkar currently leads digital strategy, brand, legal and M&A for G&B, which is into multiple businesses. In her current role, she has helped reduce the group’s financial exposure by streamlining the negotiation and contract management process through an end-to-end digitised contract life cycle management platform.
Under her watch, G&B has forged many technology partnerships in recent times such as with IIT Madras-incubated start-up Tvasta for 3D printing in construction.
In FY22, sales of the privately held G&B grew 24.24 per cent to Rs 12,790.82 crore from Rs 10,295.19 crore a year ago. Its consolidated profit after tax also jumped 274.20 per cent year-on-year to Rs 336.41 crore in FY22, according to data from ProwessIQ.
Holkar believes in empowering people, especially the women in her office. The word ‘power’, for her, means the ability to carry people along and also to be influential in a meaningful way. “Women do have different priorities and at the end of the day at home, the buck does stop with them. My priority is to introduce mechanisms so that women in junior roles stay and eventually take up leadership roles,” she says.
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