Company Profile

Hindalco is a flagship subsidiary of the Aditya Birla Group. It is the leading aluminium and
copper manufacturer in Asia and amongst prominent primary aluminium producers in the world.
The company has its headquarters in Mumbai, Maharashtra. It has an annual sales of US$ 15
billion and has an employee strength of 20,000 people. It is listed in the Forbes Global 2000 at
895th rank. Mergers with Indal, Birla Copper, and Nifty and Mt. Gordon mines in Australia and
acquisition of Novelis Inc. are its prominent achievements.
Established in 1958, Hindalco's main focus was on upstream aluminium products. Upstream
products comprise of mining and refining of bauxite into aluminium. The strategy undertaken
during this period was focus on low-cost of operations. For that purpose, the company
commissioned a plant at Renukoot in eastern Uttar Pradesh, as the Rihand Dam is located just
1.5 kilometers away from Renukoot and provided power supply on a cheap rate, which is one of
the major cost deciding factors in the aluminum upstream industry.
A simple organizational structure was followed at that time, which totally focused on the
upstream operations of aluminium.

With the intention of expanding its market and moving into the sector of downstream products,
Hindalco acquired Indian Aluminium Company Limited (INDAL) in the Financial Year 2000.
The acquiring of INDAL was consistent with Hindalco's strategy of cost-effectiveness. Dealing
in downstream products gave Hindalco a hold over the entire market of aluminium.
After five decades and with the acquisition of INDAL, Hindalco's strategy became diversified.
They included aspects such as reaping benefits of economies of scale, focus on sustainable
development, focus on continuing existing low-cost operations and investment in green-field
projects to further improve cost competitiveness through lowest production cost by controlling
key resources such as bauxite mines, refineries, power plants and coal.
INDAL had captive power plants and coal mines at Alupuram Kerala, and rolled product
manufacturing facilities at Belur and Taloja. In order to manage and cater to the requirements of
all these plants, Hindalco underwent an organizational change.
UPSTREAM
OPERATIONS
EXTRACTION
DEPARTMENT
HEAD
GM
Mechanical
Senior
Manager
Deputy
Manager
Assistant
Manager
Senior
Manager
Workers/Foremen
GM Electrical
GM
Production
GM R & D
SMELTING
DEPARTMENT
HEAD
GM
Mechanical
GM Electrical
GM
Production
GM R & D

Working further on their strategy, Hindalco acquired Novelis in 2007, an American Industrial
company, who is a leading producer of rolled aluminium and global leader in beverage can
recycling.
After so many mergers and acquisitions, over the past years, Hindalco's Mission and Vision has
taken the following shape, which is a reflection of company's growth, its leadership in
Aluminium industry and its commitment towards it customers and employees:-
Mission: To relentlessly pursue the creation of superior shareholder value by exceeding
customer expectations profitably unleashing employee potential and being a responsible
corporate citizen ,adhering to our values.
Vision: To be a premium metals major, global in size and reach with the passion for excellence
Values:
Commitment
Alacrity
Respect for Individuals
Transparency
Honesty
Ethical Conduct
Customer Focus
Both their Mission and Vision are reflected in the structure of their organization. Hindalco's
continuous pursuance towards new mergers & acquisitions and joint ventures & subsidiaries
such as Utkal Alumina International Limited (UAIL), Suvas Holdings Private Limited (SHPL)
Chairman
MD
Metals
Division
COO
Aluminium
Division
Power
Division
Upstream Downstream Integrated
COO
Copper
Division
Power
Division
Upstream Downstream Integrated
Corporate
Division
and its new ventures, like entering into the copper market, defines its relentless approach towards
creating superior shareholder value.
In order to meet customer's expectations and provide them best quality products at affordable
prices, Hindalco has separate R&D department for every plant. Their R&D centers at Belgaum
and Taloja are recognized by the department of Scientific and Industrial Research (DSIR). The
Belgaum R & D center conducts studies on ores, alumina. It also carries out overseas
assignments in collaboration with Alcan. Alcan was a Canadian mining company and aluminium
manufacturer. It was acquired by world's leading aluminium manufacturing company Rio Tinto
in 2007 and in the same year, Hindalco bought 45% of the stake of Alcan in Utkal Alumina
International Limited.
The R & D lab in Hindalco has the status of Center of Excellence for predicting organic
behavior in refineries. There is also a joint technical development program with ALCAN, which
is under execution in the field of raw materials.
Both the R & D centers have attained ISO 9001 & 9002 certification, with the Belgaum R&D
center having recently adopted the revised ISO 9001:2000 standard.
Over the last few years, approximately Rs. 560 million has been spent on R &D a proof of
Hindalco's commitment towards Research & Development, bent toward sustainability and
environment and inclination to provide best to the customers.
Hindalco gives a lot of preference to improving employees potential. For this purpose, they have
set up a separate Board that consists of Risk Management Board, ESOP Compensation
Committee and Sustainability Board. Similarly, in Operational Units, the company has Health &
Safety Committee and World Class Manufacturing Committee. Hindalco also believes that for
the well being of an employee, it's important to look after her personal and family needs.
Working on this theory, the company has set-up Aditya Birla Public School, Club House,
multigenerational park, digital theater, temple, hospital & medical facilities, sports, library,
concierge services etc.
Hindalco has been a pioneer in being a responsible corporate citizen. They have a Corporate
Social Responsibility committee for this purpose.
Hindalco has also come up with solutions for various issues regarding mining, raw materials and
operations that are faced by the aluminium industry. For example, for the problem of mining
waste management, Hindalco is looking up for land acquisition. Similarly, for Regulatory
Compliance, they have R&R Plan and implementation, mining policies, systems for a forestation
and value from waste policy.
In the field of Operations, there are issues like High Energy Intensity, for which the company has
come up with Energy Conservation Initiatives, or for GHG Emission, the company has set up an
Environment Management Process.
Expanding vertically for copper- Vertical expansion means when a company starts to do or
make things that used to be done or made by companies it did business with. Hindalco, having
already been a leader in the aluminium sector, becoming the largest producer of aluminium and
aluminium products in Asia, and after consistently working on their vision and mission,
Hindalco began setting its foot in the copper sector. Thus, in pursuance to its strategy in this
field, it acquired Nifty, and Mt. Gordon mines in Australia. It also owned all seasoned jetty at
Dahej copper smelters , Gujarat for effective handling of logistics and transportations, thus
keeping the cost low.
With the entrance in the international market, Hindalco made one more addition in their
organizational structure, where they set up a corporate office in Mumbai, Maharashtra. With this
addition, Hindalco started following a complex hybrid structure. At the plant level, there was
strong horizontal linkage between plants. The Plant HR head now reported to the Strategic
Business Head, which is divided in four regions- North, East, West and South. Plant HR head
was also answerable to the corporate office towards its HR policies.
Similarly, each Regional Territory Manager reports to the Strategic Business Units Head and to
the Main Marketing Business Head at Mumbai, Maharashtra.

After acquiring of Novelis, and after its entry into the copper sector, Hindalco had no issues in capturing
the major market share in India. However, in order to cater a broad customer base, Hindalco is required
to constantly upgrade its technology, so as to make new products and inventions. To meet this purpose
Hindalco has installed various R&D and Technology centers at following locations:
Research and Development Centre, Belgaum, India
Research and Development Centre, Taloja, India
Corporate Division
Finance
North
Division
East
Division
West
Division
South
Division
Marketing
North
Division
East
Division
West
Division
South
Division
HR
North
Division
East
Division
West
Division
South
Division
Novelis Global Technology Centre at Kingston, Ontario, Canada
Novelis Global Technology Centre at Goettingen, Germany
Novelis Global Technology Centre at Sierre, Switzerland
Novelis Global Technology Centre at Dudelange, Luxembourg
Novelis Global Technology Centre at Aurora, Illinois, USA
Some of the technological innovations that Hindalco has come up so far are:
Hindalco is one of the pioneers in specialty alumina technology that processes hydrates to get
alumina with requisite qualities and parameters. With this technology Hindalco today stands
amongst top global producers of specialty alumina
Hindalco is in the process of doubling its alumina capacity from 1.5 million tonnes to 3.0 million
tonnes over next year through commissioning of a new alumina refinery with world class Alcan
technology. With one of the best quality bauxite available and tight supply chain logistics this
refinery is expected to be one of the best globally in terms of process efficiencies and cost of
production
Hindalco's Belgaum Research centre works extensively on application based research
methodologies, with enhancing productivity, reducing energy consumption and managing
environmental impact being some of the focus areas. The research strategy involves application
of advance science, technology and engineering platforms comprising of fundamental process
analysis, computational fluid dynamics, process modelling and simulation, process control,
process development and laboratory experiments.
Hindalco is on the verge of enhancing its aluminium capacity by over 100 percent to 1.4 mln
tonnes with the commissioning two world class smelter projects. These projects use AP 36
technology; one of the most modern aluminium smelting technologies in the world supplied by
Aluminium Pechiney. With these technologies labour intensity will come down by 1 /6th, while
power consumption shall decline by over 1000 units/tonne thus improving Hindalco's cost
competitiveness further.
The research activity focus is on improving productivity by increasing amperage, current
efficiency and reducing specific energy consumption of the aluminium smelters. R&D teams at
Hindalco's Renukoot and Hirakud smelters have initiated a number of projects that have helped
the company in maintaining its low cost producer position. With expertise in pot design and
control, Hindalco is focusing on increasing productivity by advanced modelling and advanced
process control, with a long-term focus on building higher amperage pots.
In association with the aluminium business, Hindalco is involved in developing new technologies
such as drained cathode ells, inert anodes and vertical electrode cells.
One of the cornerstones of Hindalco's long term strategy has been its focus on downstream
products. Customer centricity is the essence of this strategy. The R&D efforts in this area are
focused towards new product introductions in line with customer expectations, improving the
quality and life of the existing products through constant research and bringing in developed
world products to the emerging market in a calibrated manner through adaptive innovations.

Working on their mission statement, to unleash employee potential, Hindalco every month organizes a
competition, where employees work on different Kaizen methodologies and the employee/team with
best Kaizen idea is awarded and the idea is incorporated in company's production process.
A company's environment is of utmost importance when it comes to achieving is objectives and working
efficiently on its strategies. It is the environment that ensures the successful functioning of an
organizational structure.
Hindalco functions in a stable environment, though the cost effectiveness of its products, i.e.
the process of aluminium extraction and its operations , depends upon a lot of external factors,
which needs to be stable.

It is the largest integrated primary producer of Aluminium in Asia. Though it gets competition
from companies like NALCO, Vedanta etc., but Hindalco continues to be way ahead of them in
terms of total market share. However, globally, Hindalco has a long way to come at par with
companies like United Co. Rusal, Rio Tinto Group, Alcoa Inc. etc.

The organization has adopted some of the most economical cost-cutting measures in the
procurement of raw materials, which has given them a competitive edge in the market.
Operating its own coal and bauxite mines (Talabira, Lohardaga), keeping its refineries and
power plants (Renusagar, Hirakud, Renukoot) in close geographic proximity to its mines to save
transportation costs, and maintaining control over supplies of other key raw materials are some
of the measures taken by Hindalco. It has also been able to utilize its by-products generated
from copper smelting to supplement its copper production business. This reduction in
operational costs has also allowed Hindalco to enter into new markets, grow its business and
attain economies of scale. For example, Hindalcos captive bauxite mines in Jharkhand,
Chhattisgarh, Maharashtra and Odisha, provide the raw material to its alumina refineries
located at Belgaum in Karnataka, Muri in Jharkhand and Renukoot in Uttar Pradesh, India.

An interesting fact about Hindalco's HR Department is that it has an entirely separate HR
Department for its Belgaum Plant and another HR department for rest of the organization. As
Hindalco's work is highly unionized, one of the key and obvious features of Hindalco's HR policy
is attracting and retaining good employees and giving them opportunity for personal
development.

In the FY 2014, Hindalco's Earnings per share has been Rs. 7.1 per share, as compared to Rs. 8.9
per share in FY 2013. This is due to weak aluminium prices in the market. This decline is not
encouraging for Hindalco's mission and can lead to an alteration in Hindalco's strategies.
Decline in the share prices and weak aluminium market has led credit rating agency CRISIL to
downgrade Hindaclo's credit rating to AA/Stable.

Recession, another environmental factor that hits organizations badly, troubled Hindalco in the
FY 2009-10. The company now seems to be recovering from it. It claims that by 2018, its net
debt-to-equity ratio will come down by 0.8 times. However, the analysts believe that after
2015, it will increase.
This dwindling financial scenario currently has a lot to do with Hindalco's organizational
structure. Though, a lot of the blame goes to global recession of 2009 and other threats to the
aluminium industry, there are other factors as well. For example, in 2012, Hindalco was asked
to shut down its Hirakud power plant by the Odisha Government, because the plant did not
have a clear plan for ash disposal, a situation that could have been avoided, had the
management been more prudent about the situation.

There had been other cases when Hindalco had to shut down its plants. For example, the
closing of aluminium foil plant at Kalwa in Thane, Mumbai, in the year 2010, which was said to
be closed due to 'economic un-viability'. It was said that the plant had high power cost, which
raises a question mark on Hindalco's existing strategy of cost-cutting. The Kalwa plant had
earlier belonged to Indal group. After Hindalco acquired Indal, the plant became a unit of
Hindalco group. But Hindalco could not foresee that the plant will incur high power cost, which
would make it operationally infeasible.
Another incident of strategic and top level management failure happened when the Silvassa
plant in Dadar and Nagar Haveli was forced for a lockout due to prolonged illegal strike by
workers at the plant.

Research and development at Hindalco in India is spear headed by its two R&D centres at
Belgaum and Taloja, both recognised by the Department of Scientific & Industrial Research
(DSIR), Government of India. Both centres are ISO 9001:2000 certified, and Taloja has also been
accredited in accordance with the standard ISO/IEC 17025:2005 by the National Accreditation
Board for Testing and Calibration Laboratories (NABL).

Every manufacturing plant in turn has its own R&D labs, which work on quality assurance,
process efficiencies, environmental standards and new product development. The Belgaum
R&D centre conducts research in the field of bauxite, Bayer process and alumina, while the
Taloja R&D centre specializes in the field of oil and lube and aluminium related metallurgical
services. Developmental and analytical services over the years have earned both R&D centres
national and international recognition, including the National Award for R&D efforts.

Another, and one of the most important aspect of a company's environment lies in its activities
dealing with Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR). And Hindalco has always been a forerunner
in the same. A dedicated committee that looks after the CSR activities is headed by Mrs.
Rajashree Birla, who is the Chairperson. Other prominent members are Mr. Askaran Agarwala,
Director, Mr. N Jhaveri, Independent Director and Permanent Invitee: Dr. Pragnya Ram, Group
Executive President, Corporate Communications and CSR. They also have a separate team of
professionals at every unit of the company. In order to ensure transparency, a third party is
hired to carry out the assessment study of the impact of the work.
The seriousness towards CSR activities can be confirmed from the fact that company has a well-
structured vision that reflects in their CSR projects:-

Vision: To actively contribute to the social and economic development of the communities in
which we operate. In so doing build a better, sustainable way of life for the weaker and
marginalized sections of society and raise the countrys human development index.

CSR activities at Hindalco are mainly focused at following areas:-
Health Care: Arranging for mobile medical units and ambulance facility in remote parts
of the country; setting up well-equipped health centers at different locations; and
organizing specialized heath check-up camps, where treatment for Cataract, Malaria,
TB, prevention from HIV-AIDS etc. is given apart from other consulting services like
family planning, mother & neonatal care etc.
Education: Under the 'Balwadi' scheme, providing education to underprivileged
children; supporting government's mission to improve rural literacy levels by conducting
classes for adults; providing scholarship to female students and; providing education
support by providing education related paraphernalia such as school uniforms,
textbooks, classroom equipment etc.
Women's Empowerment: Assisting in the formation of Self Help Groups (SHGs),
involving women from rural communities; providing micro-finance for entrepreneurship
building, mushroom cultivation, vermi compost production, horticulture and nutrition
gardens etc.
Agricultural Support: Hindalco has helped in several irrigation schemes and watershed
development plans for helping farmers in achieving better crop yield and multi-cropping
methods.
Skill training/Capacity building: The Aditya Birla Rural Technology Park at Muirpur, Uttar
Pradesh runs over 70 programs in knitting, tailoring and other agricultural projects.
Another center called Yashogami Skills Training Center, Radhanagiri, Maharashtra trains
women in skills such as jewellery design, pottery, food processing, 'zardozi' etc.

Organizational culture is the set of values, norms, guiding beliefs, and understandings which is
shared and inculcated by members of an organization. Organizational culture exists at two levels-
observable symbols and underlying values. The underlying values which define Hindalcos
culture are :-
1. I ntegrity-honesty in every action.
Ethical, transparent, truthful, upright, principled, respectful
2. Commitment Deliver on the promise
Accountability, discipline, responsibility, results orientation , self confidence, reliability
3. Passion Energized action
Intensity, innovation, transformational, fire in the belly, inspirational, deep sense of
purpose
4. Seamlessness Boundary less in letter and spirit
Team work, integration, involvement, openness, global, learning from the best,
empowering
5. Speed One step ahead always
Response time, agile, accelerated, timelines, nimble, prompt, pro-active, decisive.

These values are strongly believed by the Chairman Mr. Kumar Mangalam Birla and every
employee is also expected to follow it. Separate workshops are given on these values where the
the real meaning and gravity of these values are imparted to the employees. That everyone works
seamlessly in a team it is very well understood by the observable traits, like as same uniform is
worn by both the management and the non-management cadres . Every occasion is celebrated by
each and every employee together with their families. A special competition called Living
through Values is conducted across the group where each employee(management and non-
management) participate and write articles on how they incorporate these five values in
workplace and in their personal lives. The entries are judged and the best three articles are
published and awarded.
Hindalco follows a Mission Culture, as it serves specific customers in the external environment
but without following a rapid change. The organization is multinational and multiethnic
operating in 11 countries having 51 Units with a workforce comprising comprising of over 15
nationalities. As a company it believes that its employees are its core assets and accordingly it
aligns the Key Responsibility Areas of the employees keeping in mind its strategic goals.
Hindalco not only maintains employee morale of the management cadre , but also develops a
strong relation with the non-management staff by formulating long term wage board settlements.
In most of the manufacturing units, the labour unions define what and which would be the
number of holidays in a year. Through all this people feel a strong sense of belonging and
attachment with the company and they contribute towards the organizations success by enabling
continuous expansion of capacity and successful imbibing new technology in the Standard
Operating Procedures. Hindalco has HR Alignment & Integration at the Business Level. HR
Vision, Mission, Objectives and
Strategy have been formulated in accordance with the Business Vision and Mission. Strategic
HR decisions are discussed by means of a charter of demands from unions and management.
Even though operations in Kalwa Plant were closed down , all the management cadre employees
were relocated to other units. Due to some technological issues and labour unrest situations,
operations were suspended in the Alupuram plant ,but these issues were solved and within one
year full fledged production started. Open door policy is followed for effective communication.
Structured communication meets at the unit,department and functional levels are held and HR
awareness sessions are conducted across the locations during roll outs of new policies whereas
the Regional Heads come and brief the all the employees. This shows the level of transparency
which is maintained across the organization.
In the Group HR Portal Poornata, all the HR practices are well defined and every employee can
have a glance at all the available positions across the Aditya Birla Group and apply for the
same.There are other forms of communication viz; Notice boards,Display boards, Newsletters at
the Unit and department level like asE-metal and Full Circle a marketing newsletter, Al
Track to share not only the business related information but also other information regarding life
at colonies , celebration of festivals etc.Seniors interact with the junior level employees to
discuss daily performance issues, success stories ,and other business challenges. There are two
kinds of reviews- midyear review and annual performance reviews whereas 360 degree feedback
is shared. There is a well defined learning and development programme by which it is ensured
that all the employees are given the necessary training and skillset to perform their job
responsibilities:-
Core competency mapping about what the employee needs and what is actually wanted.
Training Need Identification as the employee feels in which areas he needs more
training.
Plan for Training of Employees as approved by the employees reporting manager
Training programmes are conducted and sometimes even external faculties are invited to
conduct the sessions.
Effectiveness of the training provided is measured by necessary evaluation.
Updation of competency matrix based on evaluation and employees are certified on that
basis.
There is also a formation of talent pool from the various units who are given special training and
opportunities so that they can contribute to the organization in a significant manner.
Aditya Birla Group has a separate Training Centre , Gyanodaya where not only in-house experts
but also external facilitators come and conduct training sessions for the employees. Special
knowledge sessions are also imparted to shop-floor personnel by management cadre so that they
can leverage their experience and technical expertise. They also have other facilities such as:-

AdityaGyan Path An initiative for workmen of non core areas to acquire skillset for
core areas
ITI Level training 8 weeks rigorous training session for unskilled workers.
ITI To Diploma Engineering 4 months technical training for experienced ITI workmen.
BS process /power Engineering from BITS Pilani to become engineering graduates for
those who either have a technical diploma or a BSc. Degree holder.
MBA from IMT/Symbiosis and Universitas of Singapore Management education for
managers having a work experience of atleast 33 months.
Workers Development Programme- 7 days rigorous training for workmen in different
functional areas such as Operations, Marketing, Finance, Environment, HR, CSR, Yoga
etc.

To encourage and motivate the employees at different levels there are different programmes such
as P&L Leadership Programme, Step-up and Training Point.

Employee engagement and satisfaction is measured by a survey called Vibes previously
known as Organisation Health Survey for the management cadre and by unit/location specific
survey findings for the supervisory/operative cadre. The findings of the survey are discussed
across all the units by the Regional HR Heads. Based on the observations of the surveys, all the
Unit HR heads form cross functional teams and take necessary steps to increase employee
satisfaction levels so that finally employees are retained in the organization.

All the employees are engaged to maintain a proper work-life balance. The townships are well
maintained and all the festivals are celebrated by everyone in the colony. Health camps, blood
donation camps are organized. Medical check-ups of employees are conducted to identify
occupational and life style diseases. Occupational health centers circulate emails through which
they impart information on managing health. Some of the other benefits which are given to the
employees are:-
Same canteen facilities for both management and operative cadres
Mediclaim insurance for self and family
Nischint medical policies and Group Personal Accident Insurance
Medical reimbursement and housing loan
Scholarship for higher education, schools, health clubs, multi generation parks, digital
theatres etc.
To safeguard the safety of women employees a committee comprising of executives of the
company and an external member has been formed which is called the Sexual Harassment
committee and it is in line with the Sexual Harassment at Workplace Act (Prevention,
Prohibition and Redressal Act 2013).


References:

http://www.hindalco.com/
http://www.centreformanagement.com/hindalco
http://hindalcoindustrieslimited.blogspot.in/2010/12/management-style-and-culture-at.html
http://www.slideshare.net/satyabits2010/organisational-culture-with-examples
http://www.hindalco.com/portals/0/documents/investors/downloads/hindalco_sustainability_repo
rt2013.pdf