My new journey begins with Unilever Consumer Care Limited

The acquisition of GSK Bangladesh by Unilever is now making headlines. The shares exchanged hands last Sunday with a staggering amount exceeding BDT 2,000 crores. This is one of the largest deals in the stock market in recent years.

A new Board has been formed with Unilever nominees. Alhamdulillah, Unilever has chosen me as the Chairman of the reorganized company that is soon to be named as “Unilever Consumer Care Ltd”.

Today, when I reached home, I found some gifts from Unilever along with a handwritten note from Kedar Lele, CEO and MD of Unilever Bangladesh thanking me for my leadership in GSK over the past years and welcoming me to this role.

In Sales and marketing parlance, we are well aware of how gratifying it is to find a satisfied customer. However, it gives us greater pleasure to far exceed his expectations so that he is a “delighted” customer. After receiving this note, I can state unequivocally that I am one of the latter.

We talk of “customer centric” organizations where each employee is focused towards the end customer. This philosophy must be imbibed and internalized by all in any and every service, be it Production, Finance, HR or Logistics. However, what is important is the tone of the organization that has to come from the leader. He should lead by example and “walk the talk” otherwise the followers will soon discover that all this is empty talk.

I am sure Unilever Bangladesh is fortunate to have a leader like Kedar who walks the talk. His handwritten letter is testimony to this fact. This is exemplary relationship building and I am sure he is setting so many examples and best practices that Unilever is now benefiting from. He has honed the skills of an amazing set of highly talented employees and I consider myself fortunate to have the opportunity to work with him.

It is no wonder that Unilever Bangladesh is the category leader in almost all the brands that they deal and is an employer of choice for many years running. The new company will leverage this expertise to rise to dizzying heights in the years ahead.