1) Learn from failures: For every successful endeavour, there are couple that would have failed. In an intense set-up like the corporate world, failures can dent confidence. I have always learnt from athletes and sports practitioners, about how to take failure in one’s stride. I am reminded of Michael Jordan’s famous quote “I have missed more than 9,000 shots in my career. I've lost almost 300 games. 26 times, I've been trusted to take the game-winning shot and missed. I've failed over and over and over again in my life. And that is why I succeed."

2) Have a burning desire to be in the thick of things: This is a basic ingredient of success, both in sports and business. Half the battle is won if we have people in the team who are itching to go out and perform. A players’ love for the game is felt not so much when he/she is playing but when they are not getting an opportunity to play. I remember reading an interview of Sachin Tendulkar, when an injury had kept him out of action for a long time. He had said, “I plead every day, every minute to God that He just let me play.”

3) Prepare well to perform and handle pressure: We often err to attribute a sportsperson’s extraordinary achievement to their talent. But what we tend to miss out on, is the hours of practice behind that success. I have seen a video of Usain Bolt, on how he prepared for the Olympics. Several times in this video he is seen vomiting, at the end of his workouts. Such was the rigour. We in the corporate world would do well to take a leaf out of an athlete’s book.

4) Visualise success: Staying with the tale of Usain Bolt, I can’t help recalling one of his interviews conducted a day prior to one of the big tournaments. To a question on his chances of winning, Bolt famously said, “In my mind I have already won the race.” This is how the winners think and visualise. On another occasion, Desmond Haynes, one of the best opening batsmen of the 80s, from the West Indies, had shared his tricks of performing at the highest stage, “I visualised that I would hit the fast bowlers in front of the wicket through the cover region. And, it happened exactly I had imagined.” I feel this is the attitude that we must inculcate to stay positive and confident of success at our workplace.

5) Have alternate plans: We have often seen in business that some of our plans do not survive the first contact with market realities. This is where we need to learn from sportspersons. The situations they face in tournaments are invariably different from what they plan and prepare for. But what helps them, is their ability to quickly shift gears and adjust to new situations. There is always a plan B or plan C.

6) Take responsibility and back your team: Sports teaches us how great leaders take responsibility especially for the failures, in team sports. Great teams are built on the edifice of courage and faith. Workplace is no different!

7) Help others succeed: Sports in all its romance is often described as a war between men. But there are stories that go much beyond personal rivalry and glory. One of the stories that I remember is of Jesse Owens in the 1936 Olympics. Having missed his first two qualifying jumps, Jesse Owens was one jump away from disqualification. Luz Long, one of his fiercest competitors, went to Owens and suggested that he jump from behind the take-off board since the qualifying distance was easily achievable.

Owens did so, qualified, and eventually beat Long into second place in the final. Jesse Owens then said: “You can melt down all the medals and cups I've won and they wouldn't be a plating on the 24 carat friendship I felt for Long at that moment".

Similarly in business, there are times when we just need to focus on helping others, rising above the selfish interests and winning at all costs.

Shri Gajendra Singh Shekhawat, Hon’ble Minister for Jal Shakti in the presence of Shri Rattan Lal Kataria, Hon’ble Minister of State for Jal Shakti, Social Justice & Empowerment handed over the award to G S Raghu, VP, Quality, Safety and Environment, HCCB and P V R Kumar, VP and Cluster Head South, Supply Chain, HCCB at Vigyan Bhawan in New Delhi.

During the on-site assessment, the jury and panel members for the award evaluated HCCB’s work in the areas of (1) water replenishment (2) efficient usage and (3) consistent reduction in water usage, in factory operations. The factory has brought about a 22% optimisation in water usage over the last 36 months.

HCCB’s ongoing efforts to augment its water management practices through installation of water treatment plant towards ensuring zero liquid discharge, back wash recovery system, bottle washer recovery schemes, and reduction in water usage through optimisations in the PET water rinses and CIP (Clean-In-Place), got it the award.

HCCB’s work in the area of water conservation through rain water storage and harvesting projects in Nidumukkala and Kantheru village; and roof water harvesting project at Regional Agricultural Research station, Guntur, were the other projects that were recognised. Along with these and other water projects, HCCB has created a rain water harvesting potential of 5 lakh kilolitres of rain water, in and around Atmakuru.

Reflecting on the significance of the award, Dinesh Jadhav, Executive Director, Supply Chain, Hindustan Coca-Cola Beverages, said, “We have consistently given ourselves targets and challenges, which are often tougher than the prevailing norms, on water management. The National Mission Award to the Atmakuru factory has only renewed our ambition to consistently be better.”

The awardees for this program were selected from a pool of 140 entries from all over the country. Based on a well-defined framework covering the five goals of the National Water Mission, the awards were segregated in 10 categories. This included a rigorous on-site assessment process by a jury of eminent panellists headed by Shri Shashi Shekhar, former Secretary, Ministry of Water Resources.

Established in 1999, HCCB’s factory in Atmakuru has 4 manufacturing lines, spread over 42 acres.

About HCCB

HCCB is one of India’s largest FMCG companies. It manufactures, packages and sells, some of India’s most loved beverages – Minute Maid, Maaza, SmartWater, Kinley, Thums Up, Sprite, Coca-Cola, Limca, Fanta, Georgia and several others. A network of 3,900 distributors, 250,000 farmers, 7,000 suppliers and over 2.5 million retail outlets, makes HCCB, an ecosystem of significant scale. It operates in 25 states in 493 districts. Through its 18 factories, HCCB manufactures and sells 60 different products in 9 different categories.