Lijjat Papad—The most Value-centric company in India!

Hey there!Ladies and Gentlemen,this is one of the most incredible case studies of an Indian company which will definitely amaze you.

            7 iconic Women who started Lijjat

It is the story of 7 ordinary women who had no significant background in business and education.They had built this company from scratch with just ₹80 in capital which has now grew into a business worth more than ₹1600 crores.Started in 1959,this domestic company has a business philosophy which closely resembles to that of extraordinary companies like Apple and Starbucks.This is none other than the well-known-Shri Mahila Griha Udyog Lijjat Papad.

History:

Back in the late 1950s,when India was still in the post-independence era,literacy was very rare among people.Women were not even thought of getting education.Since,financial standards of our people was also not that great.Women were also not allowed to go out of the four walls of the house.But back then,a group of 7 women headed by Jaswantiben Jamnadas Popat.They discussed a revolutionary idea to make Papads which would enable them to work from home as well as earn.They got 80 rupees from a social worker and started Lijjat Papads.They were selling their papads at a local grocery stores but because of the superb quality,soon they were a commercial hit.They started scaling up their production and even hired women at very cheap rates.As the women were also searching for a way to earn where they could work from their homes,they immediately joined them.

                Jaswantiben Jamnadas Popat

 Business policy of Lijjat Papads:

As soon as they had their first board meeting,the women had decided that empowering women even from the smallest households of India would be their primary goal.Money wouldn't be their sole purpose of existence.

Now,whenever they are hiring anyone for the organisation,they started giving them out a small portion of the ownership of the company.They started calling these women 

Lijjat Behen.This gave them 2 benefits-

The women would feel that Lijjat was their own company and would definitely try to make everything effort to make Lijjat a better company.Moreover,all the profits as well as losses were borne by these small owners.

This is called Collective Ownership and the women irrespective of their position in the company's hierarchy.This might seem a clever business move but actually is an incredible idea.

Moreover,the surprising fact is that this was one of the business policies of Starbucks which help them get employee loyalty as well as to become one of the most famous food chains in the world.And the cooler thing is that Lijjat papad implemented this before Starbucks.Such was the business acumen of these ladies.

Supply Chain:

Their supply chain is also no less incredible than their business policies.The primary goal was to design such a supply chain which would be cost effective, quality production as well as treatable for their employees.They designed one of the most robust supply chains of all time.

They started using the houses of their employees as small centres Papad was made. At first, the flour would arrive from the mills at a  central location.The dough was made in those locations and the sisters would arrive at that location by a bus arranged by the company.The collected the dough,go home and made the Papads,dry them on the verandah,delliver them next day,take their money and collect the dough for the next cycle.

Supervisors also paid these sisters surprise visits at their houses to ensure that the Papads are of the supreme quality, hygiene is maintained and the inspecting the process of the papad-making.Now-a-days,these women had also been given aluminium Papad frames which help them to make Papads of uniform sizes.

Values of Lijjat Papads:

Most of us vision and mission statements casually, actually they are one of the fundamental pillars of every company or organisation.

There came a time when Steve jobs,the founder of Apple who was fired from the company. After he went out, soon Apple started facing losses because of the unnecessary products even making.Finally,when Steve jobs was bought back to the company, he asked all of them that what are the core values for which Apple stands.

Soon, every employee and engineer had got him and started building their core values again i.e 

Quality and Efficiency.

Surprisingly,Lijjat papad in its 62 years of existence has never deviated from its core values. The fundamentals of the company has been strengthened because of these ethics and values—Sarvodaya.They had always focused on the wellbeing of their employees. Astonishingly too, in the last 62 years, we have never fired any women just because they had automatic machines to make the papads or just because they no longer needed them. This is simply an epitome of greatness.Moreover,almost all the  profits are used to make sure that the the family members of the sisters working in the firm would be nurtured and given better opportunities.

Keep in mind that this is a company me during an era when there were no opportunities for women,no investor and no technologies.

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