IIPM: “Challenge in business is continuous and is accompanied by continuous innovation and rejuvenation”

After completing his Management degree from the Motilal Institute of Business Management, Allahabad, Sethi started his corporate journey with Reckitt & Colman of India in 1984 as a Branch Manager for the eastern region. His outstanding performance at the company soon

Chander Mohan Sethi, Managing Director, Reckitt Benckiser (India) Limited

saw him being promoted to the post of National Sales Manager in 1987. He was later transferred overseas and worked in West Africa and Nigeria. In his two decade stint, he has seen the company both through the good and bad times – when the company became a subsidiary of the global FMCG giant Benckiser in 1999 and was renamed Reckitt Benckiser (India) Limited and also when the company’s four-year-old JV with Nicholas Piramal ended in 2001.

However, the dissolution of the JV did not hurt Reckitt Benckiser much, as they got their hands on the prized 65-year-old brand Dettol and Disprin. Keenly understanding the Indian market, Sethi took no time to extend the company’s flagship brand Dettol, which is the leader in the antiseptic market with an 85% market share. The market was soon flooded with Dettol Liquid Hand Wash & Dettol Soap that have managed to find a prominent place in people’s bathrooms. The brand extension strategy was a runaway success as Dettol Liquid Hand Wash created an altogether new segment. It now commands 60% of the market in this new category. In the health soap division too, Dettol Soap accounts for 18% of the market. Explaining the core philosophy that drove his business, “media shy” Chander Mohan Sethi (as he likes to call himself) told B&E, “Challenge in business is continuous and is accompanied by continuous innovation and rejuvenation.”

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Source: IIPM Editorial, 2008
An IIPM and Management Guru Prof. Arindam Chaudhuri's Initiative