Head – Design, Godrej Consumer Products Limited
Darshan joined Godrej & Boyce’s Interio division in 2006 after her post-graduation from the National Institute of Design, Ahmedabad. Darshan was a catalyst in bringing in design thinking, by creating and showcasing a diverse range of products under one platform, with a unique design philosophy. This led her to work for Godrej Industries in 2008, where she was assigned to design SPACE, a prototype office to create a young work culture that inspired the exchange of ideas, innovation and change at Godrej. This led to the institutionalisation and beginning of design driven thinking at GCPL.
Post this, GCPLDesignLab was formed in 2009, where Darshan was instrumental in applying design led thinking. This step aimed at transforming brands with delightful product offerings (in a Godrej way) for a rapidly evolving Indian market. This created a great impact and value for consumers across GCPL’s personal care, hair care and home care categories, with reinvigorated brands such as Expert, aer, Cinthol, Goodknight and BBLUNT in India. All this by using design tools such as need based user-centric segmentation, prototyping and product mapping, thus developing a unique approach route in line with the organisation’s overall objectives.
Darshan is a Harvard Business School alumnus, where she pursued her executive education in the General Management Programme in 2013. This influenced her to reimagine the role of design in Godrej with a very integrated approach; truly nurturing the design culture by constantly fostering new skills alongside the business objectives. Today, Darshan and her team of highly skilled graphic and product designers are taking this approach forward to GCPL’s global brands and categories across Africa and
Indonesia.
She is a believer of Inclusive Design Principles, which ascribes to the fact that all good design should be accessible. GCPLDesignLab has won India’s Best Design Studio award 2017.
