International Business Division Of ITC

With S. Sivakumar at its helm, this organization challenged the business model for commodity trading and has come through with a radical e-strategy, in which the farmers in villages use the Internet to trade with the company. What IBD did was move from the concept of ‘physical trading’ to ‘virtual trading’, by setting up the e-chaupal. What they achieved, however, is far greater than merely a virtual trading platform.

IBD has successfully created a distribution highway that has the potential to make it the largest FMCG player in India and one of the largest commodity traders globally. IBD expects that its turnover will exceed that of the rest of the ITC Group within the next five years.

The key differentiator is the ability of the IBD team to think beyond the traditional growth paradigms in the industry and create a hugely successful business model of lasting value. Also, Sivakumar’s ability to co-evolve a new venture with the rest of the IBD team hold a great lesson in ‘building value positive teams in organizations’.