Pankaj Poddar- the Group CEO of Cosmo Films Limited, Cosmo Ferrites, Cosmo Specialty Chemicals and Zigly affiances a brand and its sub ventures that are whole-heartedly dedicated to fulfill the expansive yet intricate demands of films, chemicals and pet care businesses. Established in 1981, Cosmo Films has now stoned its name as one of the world’s largest specialty film business bringing a plethora of services like flexible packaging, labeling, laminations and synthetic paper. With manufacturing units in India & Korea, Cosmo films customer base is spread across more than 100 countries making them the largest BOPP films exporter from India and the world’s largest manufacturer of thermal lamination films.
Let’s see what Pankaj Poddar has to say about Cosmo Films, its sub-brands and its trajectory of success.
When Indomitable Vision meets Purposefulness
Talking about leadership and his vision for growth, Pankaj Poddar starts speaking about his consistent spirit of enthusiasm to helm a platform out of his passion and learning from his rich experiences. As a leader, he resiliently believes in the power of a cosmic leadership to make calculative business oriented decisions and march with focus towards accomplishing the target.
C-Suites Confronting the Modernistic Obstacles
To become an example and lead, there is no way one can play formulaic. Challenges are an indispensable part of any entrepreneurial journey and facing them with valor continues to count, says Poddar. As the Group CEO, the responsibility of ensuring sustainable business growth encompassing all the stakeholders is what motivates him. In the past two years of the pandemic every business model irrespective of the industry they’re in now has an insatiable hunger for guidance, efforts, time and energy.
During the times when many companies witnessed a drastic decline, maintaining the sales numbers was profoundly a cumbersome task for Cosmo Films as well. But addressing such impediments, Pankaj Poddar continues to say that, the pandemic time paved a way for them to curate innovative ways to connect with their employees and customer base while maintaining yearly growth. “We first took care of our employees ensuring they are safe and sound and then we took care of the business and how to grow despite challenges.”
PANKAJ PODDAR | THE GROUP CEO OF | COSMO FILMS LIMITED
Pertinent Qualities of a Mettlesome CEO
Being the CEO of a firm brings oodles of accountability and responsibility for a prolonged sustenance of the company. Many things have seen major reformations amidst the forthcoming volatility across the global market. So making qualitative and diligent calculations powered by data analytics to assist the current performance and set ambitious goals becomes a very strategic approach to implement in today’s corporate world. So a CEO must have the courage to guarantee an environment that cultivates the aforesaid.
Furthermore he/she should always be open to conducive advice and concerns of the fellow colleagues to stay abreast of daily business targets. At the same time a CEO must motivate the team despite the prevailing circumstances to invest their enthusiasm in the company to drive the business forward, says Pankaj Poddar.
Assimilating the Contemporary Business Inclinations
Packaging has now a wide demand in certain segments like packaged food items, hygiene essentials amongst many others. Due to this increase in requirements of different packaging the company’s speciality films have seen high demand.
Amidst the pandemic, Cosmo Films has worked deeply on their digital approach. Adhering to the guidelines issued by the Indian Government, they are prodigiously revamping their workflow. They have now helmed a customer friendly online system to place orders in humongous quantities without getting into touch with the salesperson. Mr. Poddar continues to tell us about the tech advancements like WhatsappChatbot among others that his brand has incorporated for delivering services to the best of their abilities in order to increase their potential customer base.
Research and Development Proselyting Company’s Opulence
Pankaj Poddar stresses upon how Research and Development is a boon for every business in today’s times. So R&D has a significant importance in Cosmo Films. The brand has recently laid the foundation of a research facility in Waluj equipped with the avant-garde equipment which are unsurpassable in their performance and are used in testing the innovative products manufactured by them. Their R&D team consists of eminent doctoral scholars from the US, Korea, Japan, Germany, India and Netherlands with a collective experience of more than 250 years in the fields of chemical and polymer engineering. This speaks a lot about the investment of energy and focus the brand has put in their research wing to formulate products that are environment-friendly as well.
Their R&D team works in diversified areas like manufacturing of direct thermal Printable Films, Textile, and Adhesives which keeps them ahead in the loop of competition.
Donning a Firm Stand against the Uncertainties of 2022’s Corporate World
Quoting John Allen – “Uncertainty is the only certainty there is”, Mr. Poddar says that developing a problem solving attitude perpetuates the outcomes one desires. In the pandemic, the brand was also hit with uncertainties all around. They shut down their manufacturing units to ensure the safety of their employees. But patience and focus became their key mantras and that exhibited in their sales number rising by 20% in the financial year 2020-21. Moreover, they also extended their horizons to strengthen their feet in new areas that responded quite well in the recent times.
C-Suites Immaculately Soaking in CSR Activities
The corporate social responsibility for Cosmo Films goes way beyond legal and compliance notions associated with it. It is the utmost important task for the company to be able to flawlessly give back to the society in every way possible. Under his leadership, Cosmo Foundation has been working relentlessly to bring a difference in the lives of less fortunate people by strengthening their roots with education and introducing them to more skill-based courses.
In the past, the brand has brought a change in the lives of more than 3.5 lakh people and influenced philanthropic areas like education, public health and spreading awareness about social issues.
The Bridge of Balance between Failures and Success
Failures are intimidating but the zeal of success comes only after enduring the challenges. Losing enthusiasm after a failure is an archetypal element of determining the ladder of prosperity. Pankaj Poddar comprehends to the fact that, the kind of morals one absorbs from failures polishes us in so many different ways and defines a new aspect of our personalities.
The company has a terrific strategy to keep up the morale of their team. They lay emphasis on traversing the knowledge about the brand’s mission, morals and goals in the minds of their employees. Giving first preference to a team’s growth and creating an exclusive individual development plan to help them face obstacles keeps their employees motivated
Visualizing Client’s Contentment as a Commendable Success Model
Client satisfaction is Cosmo’s definition of success, says Mr. Poddar. When their customers are in a position to confidently spread words of refinement about their services, they feel the jinx of creating values. So a constant exercise of doing surveys and customer interaction makes a way to let the brand see the opportunities of modifications in their services. On a personal level, if our inner consciousness is satisfied with the achievements one has made till date, then success is defined at the moment. One should absolutely not pay any attention to what their success means in someone else’s opinion. However when it comes to the professional culture, a healthy pressure and relevant competition is necessary to carve out the niche.
Exemplary Achievements of Cosmo Films
For Cosmo Films the scenario of share- holders and partners taking pride in the company’s employee centric approach for sustainable growth is their biggest achievement. The company holds nine patents for their products out of which six are in India and three are in the US. Mr. Poddar says that the brand has always exceeded their cutting-edge services backed with unparalleled research and magnificent manufacturing equipment at the heart.
The brand has also ventured into a digital Omni-channel B2C pet care business a few months back and the response they’ve got from their customers is worth to admire with more than one lakh customers already being served. Although the brand has won numerous industry-leading accolades, what matters to the brand is to be able to hold the company values and do every bit of justice to all their stakeholders and employees.
PANKAJ PODDAR | THE GROUP CEO OF | COSMO FILMS LIMITED
Constructing the Futuristic Aisle of Prosperity
The brand is walking towards an unstoppable journey for preparing a way for them to unveil the chapters of growth. Cosmo Films has incorporated a BOPET film line and a CPP films line which will be a game changer for elaborating the company’s bandwidth into exclusive BOPET and CPP films as well. Cosmo Films has also announced commissioning the world’s largest BOPP film production line in Aurangabad, India with an annual rated capacity of over 67,000 metric tons.
As India is a reputed trader of textiles across the globe, the rise in the demands of textile chemicals has also seen a sharp rise and has created a potential space of growth. The company has ventured into a speciality chemicals business – Cosmo Specialty Chemicals, a 100% subsidiary, which currently makes master batches, textile chemicals and will soon start with an adhesive business. This let them rub shoulders with the global companies to provide a 360 degree holistic solution Mr. Pankaj has a fundamental vision for witnessing their progress not just in their field but also in other sectors they’re working in.
As far as their financial growth is concerned, the brand’s PE multiple is improving from a scale of 4 to 10 in a few years. The Crisil rating has also seen a precipitous increase and reached to (AA-) which depicts the stability of their products in the market. By 2025 it is projected that Cosmo film’s company evaluation will touch the 4500 crores mark.
In the B2C space, Cosmo Films has ventured into the pet-care business under the brand ‘Zigly’ which is a one-stop destination for your pet and pet parenting necessities. The brand is planning to open approximately 150 pet stores for Zigly in the next five years. Indeed with these goals aligned for the future, the brand will join the list of India’s biggest conglomerates.
A Wholesome Prospectus of Wisdom for Prime Insight Readers
Finishing the column on a pragmatic note, Mr. Pankaj Poddar has some words of wisdom for the Prime Insight readers and all the ambitious entrepreneurs. He says that being transparent to your capabilities and habituating to a courageous spirit to face the difficulties are the traits of an unflinching fighter. As the world is revolutionizing, it becomes the need of the hour to update ourselves with the latest technologies and keep learning new skills. The forth-coming leaders must understand that the same goes for changing business environments and they must not waver from their focalized paths.