Hawkins Cookers Limited
Annual General Meeting
July 31, 2009
Speech of the Chairman
My dear shareholders, ladies and
gentlemen: I am very pleased to extend a
warm welcome to each of you to the forty-ninth Annual General Meeting of our
company. I trust all of you are pleased
with the results for the year ended March 2009 and our recommendation for a
dividend at the rate of Rs.20 per share – which will be the highest dividend
ever declared in the fifty-year life of our company.
In
my speech to you today, I shall not speak about our company’s financial
performance. The Annual Report has been
with you for some time and, in any case, as the lawyers say, res ipsa loquitur – “the thing speaks for itself”. Instead, having just completed our Golden
Jubilee Year, I would like to talk to you about the DNA of our company, about
our nature and our character, about what makes the Team Hawkins tick. I prefer to do so because I believe a Jubilee
should be not only a time for celebration but also for reflection – reflection on who and what we
are, a time to look back on history, before we look forward to what will be in
the future.
To
begin this quick survey of our company over the last fifty years, I can do no
better than to quote to you one paragraph from the Directors’ Report in our
Annual Report 2008-09:
“In the year of our Golden Jubilee,
it is fitting to thankfully remember our founding directors, Mr. and Mrs. H. D.
Vasudeva, who started your Company in 1959 with an
equity capital of Rs.20,000. More important than the money that they
brought to the business was the vision of the need of crores
of Indian homes for the convenience and economy of the pressure cooker – at
that time an unknown product in
So what were those values of our
founding directors that have taken root in our company and govern its actions
today? I would like to present to you
what I may call the operating values
that have emerged in the actual conduct of our company over the last fifty
years. As I look back on the last forty
years that I have been privileged to work in and for Hawkins Cookers, I see
seven strands in our DNA. These seven
strands are not from any hallowed mission statements – in fact, they have been
put together in writing for the first time specifically for the purpose of my
speech to you today. These are principles deduced inductively after studying
the behaviour of our company over its first fifty
years.
Principle No. One: Follow the Golden Rule: “Do unto
others as you would that they do unto you”.
Since we want to be treated fairly and reasonably by all who deal with
us, this rule obliges us to deal equally fairly and reasonably with all who
come into contact with us. This includes
employees at all levels, vendors of goods and services, dealers and
consumers. We do it because we believe
it is the right thing to do. It also
tends to build positive relationships and trust in all who deal with our
company and with our brands.
Principle No. Two: Ends and Means. We are not so results-orientated that we will
use any means to achieve them. All our
people are instructed time and again that the results have to be achieved and
the means have to be right. It is not a
question of doing one or the other – we have to do both. Each manager, each worker is made aware of
his or her responsibility to ensure that the results are achieved only through
using acceptable processes that meet our professional and our ethical standards
and the country’s legal requirements.
Principle No. Three: Seek
the Best. The pursuit of excellence
informs all that we do – from the choice of materials and machines to the
selection and promotion of our people, we choose to work with the best we can
get or create. For example, in the
nineteen seventies, when imports were severely restricted and we needed a
special purpose flow-forming machine to make a heavy base pressure cooker, we
collaborated with the Central Machine Tools Institute in
Principle No. Four: Hot
Focus. We are a stay-close-to-the-knitting
kind of company. It was not always
so. Before he started Hawkins in 1959,
my father, who was 54 years of age at that time, was already a serial
entrepreneur: he had started a general
insurance company, a pan-Indian distribution business for imported radios and
refrigerators and a company that aimed to manufacture cold storage units. By 1959, he had disposed off his other
businesses and was uncharacteristically concentrating solely on pressure
cookers. By the time I joined in 1968,
there was within our company a division trying to manufacture optical-medical
instruments – which we closed down after a few years. Nevertheless, we produced and marketed Four Seasons, a quarterly magazine in
four languages, four types of spices specially formulated for pressure cooking
and two types of electrical kitchen appliances, the Inframatic
and the Simmermatic.
All these products were not commercially viable and were closed down
almost 25 years ago. Since then, we have
diversified only into cookware which is an area where the technology and
distribution channels are closely allied to our original business of pressure
cookers. I am glad to say that the
cookware diversification is successful. Today, we know as much or more than any
other manufacturer in the world about pressure cookers and cookware. Our products compare favourably
with pressure cookers and cookware manufactured anywhere in the world. Our policy of Hot Focus applies not only to our choice of diversification – it
applies to the way we work in the company.
For example, we have the practice of gathering relevant managers along
with top management in groups ranging from 15 to 30 people for a week at a time
on various topics such as technical development, marketing and advertising,
once or twice a year. There have been
over 50 marketing seminars. Such
seminars are held in residential locations outside Mumbai and permit
undisturbed concentration for 10 to 12 hours a day on pre-prepared agendas and
presentations. They result in greater
clarity on policy issues and better operational decisions.
Principle No. Five: Be
Prudent. This principle applies to
our financial operations as well as general expectations. We are conservative
to the point of being stodgy. We do not
issue ‘detailed guidance’ to investors.
We do not seek out analysts or journalists. We don’t “Bet the Company” on anything, no
matter how exciting the prospect is.
We believe in vigorous preparation and planning and we never forget the
importance of the unforeseen and the contingent.
Principle No. Six: Where
an Important Principle is Involved, Be Bold, Brave and Resolute. There have been a few occasions when we have
faced situations fraught with consequences.
It may be a hugely important customer or a state government or even the
Government of India who has in some matter treated us unjustly to the extent
that it hurts us in a major way or involves important principles which would
prejudice us in the future. In such
cases, we have never shied away from representing our case directly to the
party concerned or, if all else fails, taking the matter to the appropriate
court. I am pleased to report that,
in such cases, the authorities have eventually seen reason and have not acted vindictively. I am pleased to say that our principled stand
on various issues with various authorities has always benefited us in the long
term.
Principle No. Seven: Do
Your Best and Leave the Rest to God.
This most important principle prevents us from developing an exaggerated
view of our own importance and allows us to sleep soundly at night. It also enables us to enjoy our work without
undue anxiety. Nothing more is expected
of any of us than we work sincerely and to the best of our God-given
abilities. It enables our employees and
our associates to work in an open and collaborative atmosphere, free from
fear. It enables people at all levels
to freely contribute to decision making and implementation without being unduly
anxious about how they will be perceived or the final outcome. It enables all to give of their best.
Based
on an historical analysis, those are the seven strands of DNA that I see in our
company. As to the future, based on all
that I know, I feel optimistic and confident.
I feel the first fifty years have laid a good foundation and created
good work habits in the Team Hawkins. I
know the future will call for the best efforts of all Hawkins employees and
associates and the continuing grace of God.
You, dear shareholders, will draw your own conclusions – based more on
what we deliver than on what we say.
The financial results of the June
quarter of 2009-10 are excellent. Net
Sales are Rs.54 crores, up 22.5% over the June
quarter of the previous year. Net Profit
After Tax in June quarter 2009-10 is Rs.7.12 crores,
up 68% over the June quarter of the previous year.
Finally,
I must express my profound gratitude to all of you, dear shareholders, for the
steadfast confidence you have reposed in our company and the Team Hawkins
through thick and thin. And thank you
for the patient hearing that you have given to my rambling thoughts today.
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