Art of leading the shift

Unilever first came to India in 1888 and this marked the era of branded fast-moving consumer goods. Today, HUL is the 4th most valuable company in India and reaches nine out of ten households with one or more of its brands. It is working to create a better future every day, with brands and services that help people feel good, look good, and get more out of life. HUL has not only survived the test of time but has thrived following a simple mantra of ‘Doing well by Doing Good’.

CIMA, Sri Lanka recently celebrated its centenary year and invited me to share my thoughts on what has enabled HUL to lead the shift for over the last 100 years. I must admit that the experience was incredibly exciting and a bit scary. Exciting for there is not better story or an experience that you can narrate and scary because it is difficult to do justice to everything that has gone behind in building this incredible edifice. Therefore, what I share here are entirely my personal views and at best capture what I have seen and heard in the last 2 decades of association with this organization. 

Story of HUL is the story of India. It is all about millions of Indians, their hopes, dreams aspirations and successes. It is as much about our brands and as it is about our committed people (employees and partners) and it is also about wonderful values and a great culture. I will share 6 aspects or key ingredients of the recipe and it will be evident that these apply to every business and are key to art of leading the shift.

Ingredient 1: Primacy of Consumers

Consumers have always been at the heart of our strategy. We are obsessed with meeting current and future needs of our consumers through quality products, great value and a superior experience. Be it circa 1950, when we launched Dalda as option for ghee or today as we expand Surf with affordable packaging across the length and breadth of the country, consumers need has always been upfront and centre. Our brands cover all benefit segments and price points (starting at Re 1)

Ingredient 2: Our purpose: Making sustainable living a commonplace.

Our founder, Lord Leverhulme’s while setting up Unilever in the 19th century said, “I believe that nothing can be greater than a business, however small it may be, that is governed by conscience; and that nothing can be meaner or more petty than a business, however large, governed without honesty and without brotherhood”. This statement continues to be our north star and manifests itself in the form of our three strongly held beliefs: Brands with purpose grow, Companies with purpose last and People with purpose thrive. We have made a conscious choice to create value for our stakeholders through this model of sustainability. We will demonstrate that purpose = profit. 

Ingredient 3: Simple and an effective strategy to win

 Our 5 key pillars namely (a) portfolio (b) rigor and discipline (c) structure (d) culture and (e) capability encompass all aspects of our business. We are quite excited with the way we have built our categories and now poised to leverage inorganic growth i.e. Horlicks being a great addition. Our supply chain teams have in the last 4 years improved by our service OTIF by 1000bps even as they down 30% inventory; a great example of speed and agility. Our Customer development teams are transforming all aspects of demand capture, fulfilment and generation. We are proud of our diversity and inclusion agenda.  

Ingredient 4: Biggest assets, our people: Dreamers who want to make a real difference

Strong performance culture, supported by an agile, resilient and diverse organisation is at the core of HUL. We empower our people to dream, to make high-stake decisions, to experiment and learn from their mistakes by providing a fail-safe environment. This enables us to keep pace with the current and future needs of the consumers. HUL thus, continues to be the employer of choice in the industry for 10 years in a row and the CXO factory of corporate India. 

Ingredient No. 5- A multi stakeholder value creation model:

Our Corporate Purpose states that to succeed requires "the highest standards of corporate behaviour towards everyone we work with, the communities we touch, and the environment on which we have an impact." Our values define how we do business and interact with our colleagues, partners, customers and consumers. Our four core values are integrity, responsibility, respect and pioneering. This is our road to sustainable and profitable growth, creating long term value for our shareholders, our people and our business partners. 

Ingredient 6: We choose to disrupt rather than be disrupted!

India has evolved rapidly in the last 100 years and continues to do so as we speak. Whether it was liberalisation of Indian economy in 1991 or the transformation to “one nation one tax” regime or the more recent and larger impact of the fourth industrial revolution, each of these changes has meant different things at different points of time. Riding these waves of change have demanded us to be the thought leaders and constantly re-invent ourselves to stay ahead in our games. As we continue this journey, we are well poised to write our next chapter by leveraging data and technology with more than 85 projects across all aspects of our business.  

My heartfelt thank you to the dreamers and mavericks who built this incredible company; we cherish your accomplishments. We are also blessed to have this opportunity and responsibility to take forward your legacy and have HUL on the podium for the next 100 years.