ABOUT FIVE TO six years ago, Sailesh C. Mehta, Chairman & Managing Director of Deepak Fertilisers and Petrochemicals Corporation Ltd (DFPCL), sat down with his strategic team with a simple yet loaded question. “What should we do over the next decade with our businesses?” he asked. The reason, in Mehta’s view, was simple. There was too much talk about price, but it was important to make the shift to value.
In a simple conference room at his Pune office, the 62-year-old, who is a winner in the Natural Resources (Chemicals and MetalsPwC India’s Best CEOs ranking this year, elaborates on the thought process. “I saw the invaluable knowledge we possessed in areas like fertilisers, industrial chemicals, and mining chemicals picked up over 40 years. It was very clear that we needed to build on it,” says Mehta.