Amit Taneja

Shaping the Future of Packaging Excellence

Amit Taneja

Chief Operating Officer,

Parksons Packaging

Unleashing a wave of transformations in the dynamic realm of operational excellence, we are introducing you to the leadership driving Parksons Packaging’s operational transformation journey. Enter the captivating world of Amit Taneja, the Chief Operating Officer (COO), whose professional journey spanning 19 years, is extremely humbling yet exciting. Hailing from a very modest background, Amit’s professional odyssey is a tapestry woven with vibrant experiences.
Amit’s trajectory defied norms in a world of constant change, propelling him from a trainee engineer in a startup to the esteemed COO position. Alongside him, he carried people, connections, laughter, and profound insights that forged unbreakable bonds with individuals. With a passion for singing and a knack for developing and nurturing relationships, Amit’s character shines all through.
An Engineering Graduate; IIM Kozhikode Alumni, and Six Sigma Black Belt professional with almost two decades of industry experience, Amit deftly leads Parksons Packaging towards operational excellence. Armed with engineering expertise, compounded with grassroots shop-floor experience, very high result orientation, strategic decision-making skills and meticulous attention to detail, he navigates complexities. He delivers simple and sustainable processes across organisations.
Let’s delve deeper into our conversation with Amit.

Can you share some insights into your professional journey and experiences?

My early professional years were with QuazarTech and GE. I gained insights into operations management, engineering best practices and data analytics.
Joining EPL (Formerly known as Essel Propack) in 2009, now a Blackstone Group company, helped me progress from a shop floor engineer to a gaining exposure to process improvement for three years. With deeper insights into processes, I got the opportunity into my first P&L management role as Plant head in 2013; which was a transforming experience in my professional pursuit.
In 2019, I led Operations for Africa, the Middle East, and South Asia, where the team created historic benchmarks in EPL. As the COO of Parksons Packaging, the effort is to shape future-ready operational strategies, explore global business opportunities, collaborate with larger teams on technologies, innovation, sustainability, and digitisation initiatives and cement a future growth blueprint.

How does Parksons Packaging contribute to sustainability activities?

Our ESG commitments include an innovative and scientific approach towards a sustainable packaging offering which addresses real-world problems.
Reduce Reuse & Recycle is our theme; all initiatives are aligned around it. Solutions based on material science and superior barrier properties research are the foundation stone of our sustainability initiatives and driven through our in-house research and innovation arm of Parksons. We are participants in CDP and EcoVadis. Our 3.2 MW solar power plants in Sricity & Chakan demonstrate our commitment to renewable energy usage. We were the first of very few organisations in the packaging space to comply with the new regulatory guidelines of PWMR and continue accelerating our sustainability initiatives.

How do you prioritise respect, collaboration, and effective communication within your organisation to create a positive work environment?

At CXO’s level, our top priority is fostering a culture of respect, collaboration, and open and effective communication. We’re proud to be certified as ‘Great Places to Work’ recently. Our ecosystem resonates with a strong cultural set-up where respect for each other is at the top. Our diverse footprint of 13 Manufacturing plants across nine states greatly reflects our collaboration with customers.
Parksons has great processes like Unit and corporate town halls, Annual days and recognition platforms to connect and engage people. Offsite and Foresight meetings are a unique culture at Parksons, ensuring transparent communication about business updates and challenges. This boosts engagement and creates a strong sense of belonging within the organisation.
While we have many programmes, “Huddle” is very close to my heart as it’s an open session platform for people to perform and show their talent. We have had great huddle sessions recently, and the periodicity of this event makes it a craze among employees.

How have your experiences shaped your approach as a COO?

P&L’s role in EPL honed my financial prudence competencies and helped develop a closed-loop, result-oriented approach towards customer and stakeholder satisfaction. Our curiosity to know customers better, followed by relentless effort to improve customercentric processes, elevated the network & and organisational credibility.
Regional Ops head role honed competencies in managing a wider and complex business base with approximately 3K people and 9 manufacturing sites in Africa, the Middle East, and South Asia. The art of aligning strategic intent, exceeding stakeholder expectations, and fostering people collaboration across the organisation for shared goals was a key learning out of this role.
The opportunities and experience helped in cementing my leadership philosophy of people connection and organisation alignment around the 3 C’s;-

What modern challenges do you face as a packaging company's COO, and how do you address them?

We thrive on challenges presented by rapid digitisation adoption and technological advancements, viewing them as opportunities for growth. We prioritise AI-driven solutions, extending their use from the shop floor to toplevel decision-making processes. We wish to be ahead of the curve in this space and lead instead of being a follower. Hence, digitisation is core to our business efficiency. Parksons view it as a threat and an opportunity equally. We’ve established a digital ecosystem that enhances collaboration, streamlines workflows and improves organisational communication. Data is the wealth today, and our efforts to invest in predictive data analysis, process automation and analytics, advanced statistical tools, cyber security firewalls and domain expert professionals onboarding have seen a significant jump in recent years. We intend to leverage data mining with SAP, Salesforce, and other advanced tools to create interactive analytical dashboards for accurate decision-making.

How do you ensure alignment with your company's vision and goals?

The organisation works on a long-term strategy plan and an annual business plan, which is sliced into SMART KRAs/KPIs through a welldefined performance management process, which is reviewed and monitored periodically.
As explained in a previous question, my alignment with my team revolves around the 3 C’s-Clarity, Commitment, and Collaboration.