A loss-making organisation for years has been converted into a high profit-making one, and all because of the efforts of a lady IFS officer. She is 1990-batch officer Prakriti Srivastava, who took over Kerala Forest Development Corporation (KDFC) as Managing Director at a time when it was a loss-making organisation for years and turned it around. Established in 1975, KDFC registered 6 crore loss last year, but as of now, it has already achieved 6.34 crore profits, an all-time high in its history.
Indian Masterminds interacted with Ms. Prakriti Srivastava, who joined KDFC in January 2021, and tried to find out from her how she managed to turnaround this loss-making corporation in a short period of time.
IMPORTANT WORK RULES
Ms. Srivastava said that four things matter for any organisation to be successful. First, honesty and integrity; second, hard work; third, fairness; and fourth, always thinking what can I do for the organisation.
“Apart from these, we must always focus on doing all work on time. We should first understand the issues, then find solutions and implement them immediately. Our USP is that we do the work in a timely manner, ensuring that we are providing quality service, that we are making the maximum profit and utilising it in a good way, and taking care of the staff at the same time.”
CONTROLLED EXPENDITURE
The officer further explained the importance of controlling expenditure in creating profits. “We controlled our expenditure in all sections. We did not do any wasteful expenditure. We also found out ways to improve our sale and to improve our connections. By doing all this, we maximized the profit and minimized the expenditure.”
She informed that after she cut down on the expenses, there is an all-time low expenditure in the organisation. “Earlier, expenditure was 14 to 16 crores and I stopped it at 9 crores.”
SALE OF CROPS
Not stopping at that, Ms. Srivastava also removed many hurdles that were creating problems in the way of selling forest produce. “One example is eucalyptus. Its sale was not happening for years as the price cap was high. So, after much deliberation, I put a limit on the price cap at the market price. And eucalyptus started selling and KDFC earned a lot. Similarly, we started selling cash crops like cardamom, pepper, and coffee.”
She also improved the packaging and the products’ sale further increased, even in retail.
TAKING CARE OF STAFF
Taking good care of staff is something the officer strongly believes in. “Before me, staff were not getting salary on time, and pension benefits had stopped since 4 or 5 years. But now, they are getting salary and pension on time. We can proudly state that the organisation has made 6.34 crores profits after incurring loss of 6 crores earlier, and in this journey, all the staff contributed a lot. The success belongs to everyone in KDFC.”
Talking about future plans, she said that the immediate one is to make 20 to 30 crores profit this year.
KDFC: THEN AND NOW
KFDC was in bad shape when the officer took over the reins. But with single minded determination and devotion to her work, she managed to turn things around.
Earlier, half salaries were being paid to staff, funds were zero and an overdraft of Rs. 3 crore was also used up. By July 2021, there was no money to pay salaries and to carry out even routine activities and statutory payments of KFDC. EPF of labour and staff was not deposited for 6 months. Festival allowance and bonus were not paid. No new planting activities and plantation maintenance activities were done in 2019 and 2020. A loss of Rs. 6.5 crore was the stark reality of KFDC in March 2021. Outstanding payments for gratuity, terminal surrender, earned leave surrender, etc., to the tune of Rs. 7 crore was pending payment.
But there has been a positive turnaround for KFDC from October 2021. Now, all staff is getting full salaries, including payment of outstanding amounts. Workers are getting their wages on time through bank transfers from August 2021. Payment of outstanding bonus and festival allowances to KFDC staff and labour force are being done. All the mandatory payments such as EPF, bonus to workers were remitted during the financial year 2021-2022. This is now remitted routinely on a monthly basis. Uniform allowances were also disbursed to the staff during the same financial year.
Revised rates for eucalyptus fixed by government as per selling price act based on market rates have been notified. It is expected that KFDC will make a profit of at least Rs. 10 crore next year from this component alone. There has been a drastic reduction in expenditure, which formerly was one of the main causes for loss in KFDC. All wasteful expenditure has since stopped.
ABOUT KDFC
Kerala Forest Development Corporation was established in the year 1975 with headquarters at Kottayam, to promote the production of raw materials for the forest-based industries in the state. The total area is 10,717 ha, out of which 807 ha are of tree plantation and 2717 ha of cash crops.
The corporation has an authorised share capital of Rs. 10 crores and total revenue in 2022 is 13 crores, where 6.34 crore is operational profit. The corporation also manages eucalyptus, albizzia and other industrial plantations for supplying raw materials. At present, there are 1044 workers and 47 officers and staff for managing these areas.
