Women Entrepreneurship - The success story of Lijjat Papad

Shri Mahila Gram Udyog ( Lijjat Papad) is one of the best examples of women empowerment in India. 

It was all started by 7 Gujrati Housewives of south Mumbai on 15th March 1959 with the aim to make their own small venture by using their cooking skills. 

To start their business they took a loan of Rs. 80 from  Chhaganlal Karamsi Parekh. that was their operating expense and on the first day of their sale of 1kg papad, they earned a profit of 50 paise. The next day they sold 2 kg and earned the profit of Rs. 1.

This is how they started and their main motto was to Empowering Women by giving them employment opportunities. 

 

One by one the women started joining the Team of Lijjat. 

The business movement of Lijjat Papad was Cooperative. all the women who are working are the owner no single person got the ownership all are sailing on the same boat. in the case, if the venture gains Profit so it will be for all, and in case of loss, it will be for every member of the business venture. 

the organization deals with the manufacturing of Pappad, Appalam, Gehu atta, Masalas, Detergent powders, liquid detergent, and detergent cakes.

The meaning of the word "Lijjat" in Gujarati is Tasty.

It is one of the most Unique business Models of "women Empowerment". the woman who started this is not even educated. she doesn't have knowledge of Managerial skill, technical skill, people skills which is required for an entrepreneur. but besides the odds, she started this by her " Cooking Skills".

The central office is located at Mumbai so 7 Gujarati women live in Mumbai who started this venture it has 81 branches and 27 divisions in all over India now.

Now lets put a light on the functioning of " Lijjat Papad"-

Basically, the Dough Kneading is done at the branch that is called the " Dough Kneading center" and those women who work at home take away the dough from the center and do the rolling of Papad at home. 

For making the product standardized policies were made to assure the product quality and control quality of products. 

After taking the dough from a center there is a pick and drop opportunity for women the bus took the workers from their home and drop them at the center where they have to go through a three-window process that is the -

 Deposit Window- where the Lijjat sisters submit the rolled papad where the papad goes through the standardized process of the quality check after that they get an approved token to collect their payment from the payment window on an average a single worker earn rs. 650 a day. 

After that, they go to the Collection Window from there they collect the dough for the day and get back to the bus and then the bus drops them to their home. this was the route plan which was made for each branch of Lijjat.

The branch head of Lizzat Center provides the " Aluminium Rolling Board " to Lizzat sisters and they also get training for the rolling of Papad.

The Rolling board was made to keep in consideration the standardization of size, weight, thickness, and shape of the papad.

 

 Around 4.8 billion papads were made around in India around 2.5 crores which were made by around 45,000 lijjat sisters and the best part the taste has uniformity because of the process of standardization.

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The business which has started from a Roof of a small building has expanded in 17 states and 82 branches in India and now they have an export market of around 80 crores.  as they have entered into a variety of items like Masala, spices, Soaps, SASA detergent, readymade Chapati. they expanded their product basket as per the consumer's needs and demand, preferences.

The reason behind the export in 25 countries is the stringent sourcing policies that they have made to ensure the standardization and to ensure the quality by importing Asafeotida from Afganistan. to increase the scalability the prefer to give more employment to the women instead of having machines for it with the aim to share the profit among all the Lizzat Sisters. 
 

Mostly the owner prefers to get the profit in his pocket but this business has a "Profit Sharing Business Model". the company has a Moto of " working as a Team" in unity as " Together everyone achieves More".

The Organisational Belief of "Lijjat Papad" was the company belong to me and I belong to a company".

That has made the workers work hard and earn more and become independent and feel Empowered.

The company has strong foundational policies like 0% Gossip and 100% Transparency that has reduced the chances of conflicts and gossips in an organization. they can put their points in front of everyone instead of doing the whispering so there will be no chances of politics in an organization.  

The organization is for everyone it has a common purpose and common vision Jawantiben Popat who is the co-founder of a Lizzat has a mentality of working in a team she always wanted to empower women by providing them employment opportunities so they can fulfill their dreams, send their children's to school, colleges.

From the very start, the Business Model of Lizzat is Business Oriented instead of NGO oriented.

so a strong foundation on Marketing and Finance, sales, Branding, Promotion plus Lizzat papad sourcing, and Lizzat papad standardization makes it a Business Oriented Model.

The organization got various offers of Donation but they did not accept any of them instead they gave donations to the relief funds, crises in Gujrat, and many other.

They wanted to make their Cash Flow statement positive so they made Finance and Account so strong -

They have made no credit payment so they always pay the suppliers on time and they haven't provided Credit to the Distributor. so there was no chance of Negative Cash flow.

They provide daily wages to "Lijjat sisters" they do daily cash payment to them so there will be no chaos at the end of the Month.

The women who joins the Lijjat Team after getting through various processes can reach the level of Branch Head as well. After earning a profit they provide gold coins to their workers as a form of bonus.  

Equal Ownership Irrespective of position - "Making Labour an Owner of a Business. "

But if you look at the Upcoming Future Trends that have Innovation, Automation, Process Orientation, and Blue Ocean. anyone with good money or a  big businessman can purchase a Machine with the help of fewer workers. less labor and more capital intensive approach.

45,000 thousand women works can be done by 450 women only by more capital expenditure. 

So, by increasing their Operating Expenses a lot of profit can be done due to Digitalisation there can be disruption to this Business Model, and any Businessmen with good knowledge can apply and make a good profit. a strong Brand building can be done through Advertising, Promotion that will lead to creating Push and Pull of audience.