Driving Enrichment & Knowledge Enhancement

Greif is one of the best-kept secrets in corporate America. It is a 145-year-old Fortune 500 company with a global footprint of 45 countries. It is one of the leading industrial packaging companies with a vision to be the best-performing customer service company in the world. Greif produces industrial packaging solutions including but not limited to steel, fibre, and plastic drums, packaging accessories, corrugated sheets, tubes, and more. But what drew Bala Sathyanarayanan, Executive Vice President & Chief Human Resources Officer, to the organization was the deep, caring commitment to his core philosophy, servant leadership. He related very much to the leaders at Greif, as they are driven by a bigger purpose than purely running and managing a business.

“Take care of your colleagues and they’ll take care of Customers”

Bala has drawn inspiration from his parents to become the pioneering leader he is today. But he looks up to his mother remarkably as she overcame numerous adversaries in her life to educate Bala and his siblings and establish herself as a woman with an appetite for learning. “From her, I learned adaptability – how to adapt to any situation, agility – absorb new information quickly, and resilience– how to not only grow but thrive in adversity,” he says. “I based my leadership approach on the same principles: listening, analyzing, crowdsourcing, comprehending, and then deciding.”

For Bala, the activities he engages in outside of work contribute to his development as a leader, including enriching his knowledge of the outside world beyond what he already knows. “It helps me gain knowledge on fields outside my expertise and enables me to bring those learnings into my day job,” Bala explains. “This results in my team becoming far more knowledgeable and educated, collectively becoming stronger, valuable team members. It is a constant learning process. I take my knowledge, which I have gathered over my years of experience, to the external world and learn so much more through this sharing. Then, I am able to bring those learnings back to my organization.”

Being a steadfast leader, Bala is always participating in not only knowledge sharing but also guiding and inspiring employees. “What I anticipate from the employees is a high level of engagement, so that they are visible and appreciated by the customers. When employees are engaged, they will care deeply about our customers,” he states. “When customers feel taken care of, they will reciprocate and care for the business by providing us with an opportunity to serve them again and again.” Greif uses a business strategy called Build-to-Last. Greif is a 145-year-old company, and they are laying the groundwork for the next 145 years. The company’s business strategy has four foundational pillars, and the first pillar is Creating Thriving Communities. “We ensure this at Greif by committing to each other to achieve zero harm, maintaining top-tier colleague engagement, and enriching our culture through diversity, equity, and inclusion,” he says.

“As stated earlier, when we put our people first, and create a culture where all colleagues feel safe, valued, and respected, they will take care of our customers. When our customers are well taken care of, our business will then be taken care of as well.”

The mission of the human resources organization is to deliver a world-class, diverse, and engaged workforce. Bala and his team need to provide a dynamic team within the human resources organization to deliver on this mission. “Today, if I look at my global HR team over a period of the last couple of years, we have transformed the HR function to be one of the most engaged HR organization, not just inside Greif, but compared to any global HR organization in the manufacturing industry. That is the pride I have for the HR team; every team member can relate to it and feel the same,” he elucidates. “The most exciting initiative I have planned for the near future is to find a way to build a core DNA of growth inside Greif, which will help set up Greif for the most success in the future.” It could be described as organic growth, inorganic growth, or geographic expansion. Still, more importantly, it is in developing a champion mindset that, irrespective of what happens in the global economy, here is an organization that will continue to serve our customers and thrive across the four continents in which they operate. IE