Company: Grasim Industries Limited
Company Division/Group: Chemical Division
Company Description: Grasim Industries Limited is the flagship Company of ADITYA BIRLA GROUP in India. Its Chemical Division is the 2nd largest Caustic Soda manufacturer in the country with range of chlorine derivatives. The division has 820 employees. The division is recipient of number of quality certifications & awards for energy conservation & environment excellence
Nomination Category: Individual Awards Categories
Nomination Sub Category: Best Product Developer

Nomination Title: Mayank Sharma - Product Developer

Tell the story about what this nominee achieved in the past year (up to 500 words). Focus on specific accomplishments, and relate these accomplishments to past performance or industry norms. Be sure to mention obstacles overcome, innovations or discoveries made, and outcomes:

In an era where geographical boundaries are diminishing and market accessibility is no longer an issue, every organization is looking to expand operations and reach markets never explored. Intellectual property is becoming scarce and process technology & know-how is not easily available. Grasim Chemical’s 10 years old Poly Aluminium Chloride business was facing crisis where its existing products were facing threat from new product in the market.

Breaking the technology barrier, engineering the know-how to develop commercial plant and getting the new product as per customers voice was challenge.  Accepting the challenge of developing new generation of Poly Aluminium Chlorides (Liquid) “PAC”, “Mayank Shekhar Sharma” set out to design the experiments, pilot plant tests and commercial plant for new product named “ARYAPAC”. For Grasim to remain major player in the business segment it was imperative to service the customer with best product and it was Mayank’s innovative thinking and passion for excellence made this true.  

PAC’s are coagulating & flocculating agents for water treatment. Basicity of product determines the effectiveness at the customer end. New generation product has high basicity. They are high value added products and reduce cost of water treatment for the customers.

After six months of his joining Grasim, in September 2000 Mayank was entrusted with responsibility of development of PAC products by value addition in the existing products or development of new products. He had no prior experience in product development and R&D. His design of more than 100 experiments provided breakthrough in developing new product at laboratory scale in the year 2001.This was achieved by utilizing resources of our process & quality control laboratory and with very little investments.

He galvanized the existing resources in the plant and devised set up to conduct pilot plant trials, which was successfully completed by the end 2001. Around 2 TPD pilot plants were started in 2002. But attempts to produce product meeting commercial specifications of longer shelf life and stability were unsuccessful. The plant was facing threat of loosing market share to competitor who had the technology & know-how imported for this new generation PAC product.

Journey for product development was not over even after pilot plant trials as the true challenge was to identify the techniques applied for scale up and commercialization. Grasim found the opportunity to generate the revenue from the “ARYAPAC” in 2003 due to sustained efforts shown by Mayank in engineering the product development and his zeal to succeed over difficult tasks. His hard-work and dedication led to the triumph of developing a product for which technology was closely guarded by few companies in the world. Product for which technology know-how was offered for 2 million USD could be produced on in-house technology within less than 2 million of total investment.

Today Grasim is recognized as total solution provider for water treatment needs of customers not only in India but also in International market. Getting self sufficient in technology has put us to the fore front of product development in the field of water treatment chemicals.

List hyperlinks to any online news stories, press releases, or other documents that support the claims made in the section above. IMPORTANT: Begin each link with http://, and enclose each link in square brackets; for example, [http://www.youraddress.com]:

http://www.grasimchem.com:
http://www.grasim.com/products/chemicals.htm:
http://www.grasim.com/investors/financials/segmental_information.htm:
http://www.adityabirla.com/careers/gyanodaya.htm:

Provide a brief (up to 100 words) biography about this nominee:

Mr. Mayank joined Grasim Chemical Division in June 2000 and took responsibility of PAC product development since September 2000. In April 2002 he was promoted as Manager and managed development projects in the organization. Since June 2003 has additional responsibility of managing plant operations of our Chloro-Sulphonic Acid plant.

Chemical Engineer of 1995 batch from Harcourt Butler Technological Institute, Kanpur (INDIA), he joined Indo Gulf Corporation (Fertiliser Division) in June 1995. In June 1999 got selected for General Management Training program of Aditya Birla Group. Group Management Training Scheme is for high potential candidates from group companies and professional Institutes and grooms them for future leadership positions.