OPPI's annual meet in Mumbai

rganisation of Plastics Processors on India had its 22nd Annual Meet on Friday 28 July, 2006, attended by members of Consular Corps and leading players from the Indian plastics industry. Prof. Nirmalya Kumar, who has worked with more than 50 Fortune 500 companies in 50 different countries, was the Chief Guest. The professor spoke on the "Zara Case on Innovation" during the evening. Mr. Nirmalya Kumar is Professor of Marketing, Director of 'Centre for Marketing', and Co-Director of 'Aditya Birla India Centre' at London Business School. He serves on the School's Board of Governors as the elected faculty representative and as the Program Director for three open enrollment executive programs : o Market Driving Strategies o Building the Customer Focused Organization, and o Accelerating Sales Force Performance. Mr Ashok Goel, President OPPI said, " When OPPI was founded in 1984, the founding fathers of OPPI had laid down the principle to promote healthy growth of the plastics processing industry in India. OPPI has adhered to this principle during its progression and has strived to live up to these expectations. During the initial years, the focus of OPPI had been to address regulatory issues to the government for the healthy growth of Plastics Processing Industry. As a representative leading body, OPPI presented members' views in the proper perspective and created a platform for interaction with the government for formulation of progressive policies. Till date OPPI continues with this task. In the subsequent years, OPPI broadened its vision and scope, to create a platform for promoting good practices. Further, OPPI provided appropriate inputs to the industry to enhance quality, productivity, technology and manpower skills up-gradation, thus making its members the backbone of the Indian Plastic Processing Industry. Towards this end, OPPI conducted programmes on subjects relevant to the Plastic Processors, organized industry visits, organized delegations to foreign countries to study the functioning of the processing industry and factories in those countries, held seminars / workshops, conducted special studies on subjects like WTO issues etc. Today, OPPI is a globally recognized organization of the industry and the products manufactured by its members are appreciated all over the world During the last few years, the industry world over, including Plastics Processing Industry, has been undergoing metamorphic changes. From being a protected economy, our economy has radically changed to become an integral part of the global economy. All the trade barriers are vanishing, bringing in competition, enhanced quality expectations and sophisticated technology. In this changing business environment, OPPI is in the forefront to induce awareness and knowledge among its members about the need to change the ways in which the business is approached. Moreover, in an attempt to broaden the vision and outlook of its members, OPPI organized lectures by many eminent personalities, who shared their wisdom with all of us. " On the subject of reservation in SSI sector, Mr Goel said, "I believe there is a strong need for the industry to look at this issue pragmatically. Perhaps, those amongst us who advocate SSI reservation are viewing it on a short-term basis or with a narrow vision. But, the reality is that reservation has to be done away with if our industry is to grow to its true potential. This is substantiated in the report "Competitiveness of Indian plastic processing industry" prepared by ICRA Management Consulting Services. The report also indicates that, with the diminishing import restrictions and tariffs, the imports are already challenging the SSI sector, making its survival a question mark. Once the imports take a firm root in the market, even a De-reservation at that stage will not be able to salvage the situation for Indian processing industry. Hence, I call up on the Industry Captains to review their positions and actively support De-reservation. In August 2005, Mr. Deepak Parekh, Chairman of HDFC, said in his key note address on "The Indian Economy and its Potential : Saving Today for a Better Tomorrow". Mr. Parekh expressed that a broad view of the economy clearly reflects the need for rethinking on financial sector reforms, labour laws, legal systems and various social and urban sectors. He had a few valuable suggestions to the Captains of the Plastic Industry : 1. To be globally competitive, the processors of plastics should scale up operations. This will enable the industry to upgrade technology, reduce costs and innovate on products and marketing of products. 2. Another factor to the success of the industry, is the ability to absorb new technologies that enable efficient use of better performing and more environment friendly plastics. The use of simulation tools and information technology in processing will drive the reduction of costs. 3. Clusters of processors should introduce common infrastructure facilities which will enable cost reductions. 4. Clusters of processors should make conjoint R&D investments. In December 2005, Mr. Roger Hamilton, Asia's leading wealth consultant, addressed the members. In his talk on "Wealth Dynamics and Entrepreneurship", he explained the various underlying principles with the help of real life stories and his own experiences. The talk of Mr. Hamilton was driven by the concept of 'World Wide Wealth : Empowering social enterprise and global change by increasing our collective ability to create and contribute wealth'. If one would reflect upon what these diverse personalities spoke, the objectives were to broaden our vision and to change our mindset, for the betterment of all. Thus, OPPI has taken every conceivable effort to induce change and transformation amongst its members. Sometimes the efforts were in a persuasive manner, sometimes by guiding and mentoring and sometimes in a firm manner. Friends, adversity is a part and parcel of our entrepreneurial life. And at this moment we are faced with one which has serious implications on our industry - volatile and spiraling oil prices. This has led to an increase in cost at different points in our supply chain such as raw materials, production, transportation etc. The way it stands, this situation will persist for a long time, with no immediate remedy. But, as the saying goes, "Adversity is the Mother of Invention". This is the time for us to explore, discover and invent ways to limit or offset the cascading effect of the volatile oil prices. The only alternative in front of us today is to improve the efficiency of our industry - human as well as machine. Here let me remind you the title of Mr. Deepak Parekh's talk, "Saving Today for a Better Tomorrow", and the four valuable suggestions. Now is the opportune time to act up on these suggestions for a better tomorrow.