Building a Future Ready Organisation
Harish Manwani - 2014
Building a Future Ready Organisation was the subject of the speech, delivered by
Mr Harish Manwani, Chairman, Hindustan Unilever Limited,
at the Annual General Meeting held on 30 June 2014.
BUILDING A FUTURE READY ORGANISATION
Section One: Introduction
We live in an increasingly interconnected world that is changing
faster than ever before. In fact, change is ‘the new normal’ and if
anything the pace of change in future will be even faster than it
is today.
Take connectivity for instance. It took almost 50 years after the
invention of the telegraph before the first telephone was
invented. It was another 50 years before we saw the television.
But in less than half the time it took to move from the telegraph
to the television, we witnessed the rise of computers, the
invention of the mobile phone and the advent of the Internet.
Now we have the power of the telegraph, telephone, radio,
television, computer and Internet all in one device that can fit in
our palm.
The pace at which these technologies have been adopted in
India is unprecedented. The spread of mobile connections is a
telling example. The first mobile phone call was made in 1995.
In less than 20 years, mobile connections are now all pervasive
and have in fact far surpassed landline connections, a service
that started more than a century earlier.
Last year, I had spoken about the volatile, uncertain, complex
and ambiguous, or VUCA world, we operate in. This VUCA
environment marked by continuous and dramatic change
01
poses opportunities and challenges for businesses. It requires
companies to change the way they operate and constantly
reinvent themselves.
The list of those who failed to reinvent themselves and
succumbed to the VUCA environment is long and instructive. The
Eastman Kodak Company is just one on that list. The iconic brand
that was synonymous with photography in the era of darkrooms
and films actually invented the first digital camera, but later filed
for bankruptcy after failing to fully respond to the sweeping
changes of the digital era.
On the other hand, there have been companies that have
continuously innovated to meet the requirements of our fast-
changing times and thrived. For example, Apple and Google have
grown and cemented their leadership positions on a wave of
innovations. Innovations like Google Glass, a wearable
computing device and Google Fiber, an Internet service with a
speed of 1Gbps are already looking ahead to meet consumer
needs of the future. Apple’s latest offering of the iBeacon allows a
phone to direct a driver to the nearest open spot in a parking
garage or the shortest line at a food counter in a crowded theatre.
Section Two: India at the forefront of change
In developing countries like India, the last couple of decades have
been marked by momentous change. Over the last 20 years, GDP
per capita in India has nearly tripled from USD 517 to USD 1415.
Poverty levels have halved from 45% in 1994 to 22% in 2012. In
spite of recent economic challenges, India is poised to become
the third largest economy in the world by 2030. About 25 years
ago, only 3% of India’s 600,000 villages enjoyed telephone
services. For urgent communication, people would rely on what
was commonly known as the ‘taar’, the telegraph service. Today,
there are over 875 million mobile phone subscribers in India and
the ‘taar’ is history, with the telegraph service shuttered last year.
In fact, today the penetration of mobile phone is higher than any
traditional media in many rural areas.
This connectivity is allowing India to leapfrog. It is increasing the
productivity of our farmers by providing easy access to
agriculture-related information, eliminating intermediary non-
value adding players and opening opportunities for micro-
enterprises, thus fundamentally improving everyday life for
millions of people. It is therefore not surprising that the country’s
digital and e-commerce market is booming. In fact, in 2013, the
Indian e-commerce market grew at a staggering 88% according
to a survey by The Associated Chambers of Commerce and
Industry of India. With the growing penetration, accessibility and
affordability of smartphones, over 25% of the total Internet
transactions in India are done via mobile devices.
Companies that have tapped into this evolving class of Internet
savvy consumers experienced unprecedented growth. Case in
point: five years ago, Bengaluru based e-commerce website,
Flipkart, began as a start-up with an investment of just
INR four lakh and today, reportedly generates USD one billion in
annual sales. The success of such e-commerce portals is
spawning an online retail revolution in India.
Technology and easier access to information and knowledge
have opened up employment opportunities resulting in a new
wave of people entering the consumption cycle. We are
witnessing a significant increase in the earning power of
consumers at the bottom-of-the-pyramid as they join the
increasing middle class population in India. The traditional
socio-economic pyramid is rapidly transforming itself into a
diamond with a burgeoning middle class and a decreasing
number of low-income consumers. This is increasingly true of
India and many other developing economies and offers huge
opportunities for business.
A company that is future ready will not only be able to seize the
opportunities these changes present, but also protect itself from
the challenges of the VUCA world.
Section Three: Building a future ready organisation
Being future ready means having the vision and the capabilities to compete in the world of tomorrow, and having a larger purpose to remain relevant to society.
At Unilever, we have a five-pronged approach to remain future ready – first, embracing technology and inclusive innovation that meets the needs of consumers across the socio-economic pyramid; second, committing to sustainable and responsible growth; third, building future ready talent and capabilities; fourth,
values-led and purpose-driven leadership; fifth, creating an agile and inclusive work culture.
India is a vast nation with widespread socio-economic diversity.
Technology and innovation allow us to anticipate and better serve
the needs of the many different Indias. There are huge
opportunities in meeting the needs of the rising middle class as
well as the aspiring low-income consumers.
The urban middle class consumers are changing the way they
shop and buy. These consumers are researching brands and
products, comparing prices across multiple locations and are
open to ordering from anywhere, anytime. These consumers are
ready to try new products and services and are willing to spend on
brands that match their aspirations.
In India, to be truly future ready, one has to leverage technology to
cater not only to the rising middle class but also to consumers at
the bottom-of-the-pyramid. As the late Prof C K Prahalad and
Dr R A Mashelkar put it, the way forward for companies is inclusive
innovation. An enlightening example would be that of Aravind Eye
Care, an organisation that has dramatically altered eye care in
India by bringing the price of intraocular lenses down to a tenth of
international prices and making cataract surgeries affordable for
low-income consumers. Today, the company markets its products
in more than 130 countries. Similarly, Arunachalam
05
Muruganantham, a social entrepreneur from a village near
Coimbatore, has invented a low cost sanitary pad making machine
which can manufacture sanitary pads for less than a third of the
cost of conventional commercial pads. Low-cost business models
are thus changing the way we serve millions of consumers.
At Unilever, the approach of developing innovations with consumer
price as the starting point is at the heart of our inclusive innovation
strategy. In Hindustan Unilever Limited (HUL), we have
institutionalised a ‘challenge cost’ mindset where the target price
for consumers drives innovation in each segment and category.
This has helped us to develop several new market segments in
Home Care, Personal Care and Foods. Pureit is a more recent
example of this approach.
Pureit addresses one of the biggest technological challenges of
the century – that of making safe water accessible and affordable
for millions. It provides one litre of ‘as safe as boiled’™ water at a
running cost of just 28 paise without the hassles of boiling, the
need for electricity or continuous tap water supply. Pureit has
emerged as the largest selling water purifier brand in India and
has now been introduced in several other countries, protecting 58
million lives globally.
Reaching up and reaching wide
We continue to leverage advancements in technology and
connectivity to strengthen our collaboration with customers in
modern trade and simultaneously expand our distribution reach in
deep rural areas. We call this reaching up and reaching wide.
06
We identified modern trade as a key growth driver over a decade
ago when the channel was still at a nascent stage in India and
invested in technology and capabilities to strengthen our
partnerships with customers.
We launched a state-of-the-art Customer Insight and Innovation
Centre that provides us with a platform to collaborate with our
customers and co-create marketplace ideas to win with
shoppers. We have improved upon our service delivery standards
by leveraging technology for demand sensing. We have deployed
a collaboration tool with most of our large modern trade
customers which has helped us achieve an all-time high on-shelf
availability in these stores. The Best Supplier of the Year award
bestowed upon us by key modern trade customers is a
recognition of our partnership and the value that these initiatives
have added to their business.
In 2013, we used technology to expand our direct distribution
reach in both urban and rural markets. By GPS tagging retail
outlets, we were able to identify and prioritise the geographies
that presented an opportunity for direct distribution expansion.
We now service over three million retail outlets directly helping to
further improve availability and access to our products.
We developed new low-cost distribution models that use
technology to leverage the increasing penetration of mobile
phones among small retailers. Taking orders through telecalling
saved time and cost, and enabled us to reach outlets
which were outside the purview of our traditional distribution
07
model. Through Project iQ, a technology-based analytics
capability, we enabled sales people to make shorter and more
effective sales calls.
Similarly, to strengthen our reach in deep rural areas, we
deployed a low-cost mobile IT solution that enables thousands
of our Shakti Ammas (rural women entrepreneurs) to take and
bill orders, and manage inventory in real time. This has made
the Shakti Ammas more productive and helped them to further
enhance their incomes.
Digital marketing
The Internet is changing the way brands engage with
consumers. There is a blurring of lines between advertising and
editorial; between ‘paid’ media in conventional channels and
‘owned’ and ’earned’ media in emerging digital channels.
Mobile, social media and big data are transforming the very
nature of marketing.
We were early in recognising this trend as a game changer. We
have not just significantly increased our investment in digital
media but are also innovating to increase our impact in this
space. Last year, we launched the ‘Media Lab’ which helps our
brands deliver engaging brand experiences in an effective
manner across Internet enabled mobile devices and platforms.
Drawing on the insight that Bollywood-related searches are
among the highest online content sought by users in India, HUL
has launched Bollywood Buzz on YouTube. Our brands are able
to effectively deliver brand messages to consumers by creatively
weaving in brand content with exclusive pre-release film content.
Another example of our brands leveraging digital to effectively
engage with consumers is the ‘BeBeautiful’ initiative. HUL beauty
brands have come together to develop and launch ‘BeBeautiful’
as an online beauty expert platform. The recent vlogging (videoblogging)
campaign by ‘BeBeautiful’ has been a tremendous
success achieving 20 million video views in just six months.
Perhaps the most exciting initiative has been the launch of ‘Kan
Khajura Tesan’, a mobile marketing initiative aimed to help our
brands engage with low-income rural consumers in media dark
areas. ‘Kan Khajura Tesan’ has been globally recognised with the
prestigious Lions Gold awards at Cannes Lions International
Festival of Creativity this year.
As the less developed economies grow, demand will rise
dramatically; but we live in a world with finite resources. Large
numbers of people still remain out of the modern day economic
system — we still have one billion people going to bed hungry
every night, 2.8 billion people short of water and 2.3 billion people
living without access to basic sanitation.
We are convinced that businesses that address the needs and
aspirations of consumers as well as social and environmental
challenges will thrive in the long term. This is the foundation of
what it means to be future ready.
Unilever’s journey towards building a future ready organisation
gained momentum and direction in November 2010 when we
launched our ambitious Unilever Sustainable Living Plan
(USLP). The Plan aims to double the size of our business while
decoupling our growth from our environmental impact and
increasing our positive social impact. This thinking lies at the
heart of our business and is now being firmly embedded across
every part of the organisation.
i) Brands at the forefront of social change
We believe that every brand should serve a purpose in the life of
the person who buys it. This belief has been at the forefront of
how we build purpose-driven brands and we continue to leverage
them to create positive social impact. For instance, Lifebuoy now
runs one of the largest handwashing programmes in India.
Last year, we launched the ‘Help a Child Reach 5’ campaign in
Thesgora, a village in Madhya Pradesh, known for having one of
the highest rates of diarrhoea in India. The campaign aims to
eradicate preventable deaths from diseases like diarrhoea by
teaching lifesaving handwashing habits, one village at a time.
The results have been tremendous, with a staggering 86% drop
in the incidence of diarrhoea in Thesgora. The campaign is now
being rolled out to villages across 14 countries.
Another example is Domex, our leading toilet cleaner brand,
which launched the Domex Toilet Academy last year with an aim
to assist in eradicating open defecation by providing access to
10
improved sanitation. Our water purifier brand, Pureit in
partnership with Population Services International has been
working towards providing safe drinking water at a minimal cost
to families in rural areas.
ii) Enhancing livelihoods — sustainable agriculture
Being future ready also means caring for your environment and
investing in sustainable supply chains. We are working with
smallholder farmers to help them implement sustainable
methods while significantly improving their crop yields. We help
them adopt good agricultural practices like drip irrigation,
nutrient management, pest and disease management. In 2013,
80% of the tomatoes used in Kissan ketchup were from
sustainable sources. We already source 100% of our palm oil
from sustainable sources backed by GreenPalm certificates.
In fact, we have integrated our sustainable sourcing initiatives
into the business through our ‘Partner to Win’ programme. This
not only enables our supplier partners to ensure sustainable
sourcing across their value chain but also secures our sourcing
needs for the long term. As Unilever, we are already sourcing 48%
of our global raw materials sustainably and are committed to
make this 100% by 2020.
To address the impact of depleting water resources on food,
energy and livelihoods, we set up the Hindustan Unilever
Foundation (HUF) in 2010. HUF partners with NGOs, government
agencies and members of the local community. It currently runs
11
projects that have a cumulative and collective water conservation
potential of 100 billion litres by the end of 2015. We expect to
generate more than two lakh person days of employment in more
than 180 villages across India. Furthermore, we expect that the
increased water conservation would help lead to a 10% rise in
crop production in some of the project areas.
iii) Project Sunlight
To renew and reconnect our brands to the larger corporate
purpose of making sustainable living commonplace, we
launched Project Sunlight in November 2013 to motivate millions
of people to live sustainably. We hope to create a movement for
sustainable living among consumers and thus help to create a
brighter future for children.
India was one of the five key markets where Unilever launched
Project Sunlight on Universal Children’s Day last year. The
campaign got an overwhelming response in India with over four
million people joining the Project Sunlight movement. This year,
we will reach out to more people and inspire them to adopt
sustainable living practices in their daily life. The first campaign
launched this year aims to encourage families to conserve water.
We are hopeful that through such campaigns we can continue to
increase awareness among people and contribute to our purpose
of making sustainable living commonplace.
To create a business that addresses the needs of the future
12
through technology and sustainable models for growth, we need
to nurture a continuous learning environment that builds talent
and new organisational capabilities.
We have a holistic approach towards honing our talent pipeline
and building leadership capabilities in our people. We encourage
our people to define their individual purpose in the
organisational context and help them realise it through
meaningful actions. The Unilever Future Leaders Programme
provides us a strong foundation to groom and develop talent
from the entry level itself. Large responsibilities early on in the
career, open and honest career development discussions, cross-
functional and international exposure coupled with coaching and
mentoring helps develop a strong leadership pipeline.
We are harnessing technology to prepare our employees to
succeed in tomorrow’s world. For example, we have created
digital passports that are licenses for our marketers to operate
in the future. As a part of building awareness and knowledge of
our managers on business, managerial and professional areas,
we use online e-learning solutions. In 2013 alone our employees
completed nearly 50,000 online courses.
Our initiatives such as ‘Incite’ and ‘Food’s College’ help to build
marketing capabilities required for the business to win in the
future. These initiatives have also resulted in several successful
marketing campaigns such as the Foods experiential marketing
programme.
13
We also believe that learning must be embedded in the
organisation at all levels. We have undertaken a host of
programmes in the space of capability building on the shopfloor.
For example, our Shopfloor Skill Upgrading Programme,
‘Sparkle’, assesses training needs, skills and the performance of
our shopfloor employees. ‘Stepping into One’ is another
programme that develops technical and leadership skills among
shopfloor employees, providing them with career advancement
opportunities into supervisory roles.
Ultimately, the most important asset of any organisation is its
reputation. For future ready organisations, we need leaders who
will not only build the organisational capabilities to harness
technology and new ways of working, but also instil the values to
build sustainable and responsible models of growth. These are
the leadership principles that we have embedded in our company
and they will continue to shape our future as an organisation.
More than ever before we need leaders who are values-led and
purpose-driven. These are leaders who recognise that there are
some non-negotiables in business and that building
organisational character is essential to future success.
In Unilever, we have a common code of business principles and
leadership values of integrity, respect, pioneering and
responsibility that have to be embraced by every leader in every
part of the world.
14
In a world with easy access to information and rapid changes,
companies need to move fast to keep up. Speed is the new
currency for future ready organisations.
At Unilever, we have ingrained agility and speed in our work
culture through initiatives such as ‘Project Sunset’. This initiative
was pioneered by HUL to facilitate quick decision-making in the
organisation. It has been rolled out globally to build a more
dynamic and agile culture.
In 2013, we launched a new campaign, ‘Winning Together’, to
reduce complexity across the organisation and empower people
to maximise their potential through simplified ways of working,
cutting inefficiency and promoting a bias for action. For example,
we are driving more effective collaboration in cross-functional
teams by using project classification tools and driving
behavioural changes amongst employees. This is helping us to
increase the pace of innovation by delivering cross-functional
projects on time.
Equally, diversity and inclusion is an important aspect of our
sustainable business growth agenda and a key to building a future
ready organisation. In HUL, we refer to this as ‘Winning Balance’.
Over the last three years, we have seen a considerable shift in this
area through greater leadership involvement and engagement.
For instance, we have been able to recruit women on career
15
breaks through our ‘Career by Choice’ Programme that balances
personal and professional needs of talent on their return to the
workforce. In 2013, we established a Winning Balance Council
comprising male and female leaders across functions who
champion the diversity agenda in the business. Last year,
Unilever’s progress on diversity was recognised with the
prestigious global Catalyst Award.
We are on the path towards creating the ‘ideal’ work culture of a
simpler, agile and inclusive organisation.
Section Four: Conclusion
We live in an extremely volatile world that is changing faster than
ever. Products and services are becoming more accessible with
increasing connectivity and improved infrastructure. To succeed
in this world we have to develop a high capacity for
responsiveness. Organisations will have to adapt to rapidly
changing situations and priorities, tolerate ambiguity, and
develop new ways of working in order to succeed.
While technology and innovation will be the hardware that drives
future ready organisations, it is a values-led and purpose-driven
leadership that is the software that must drive sustainable and
responsible growth. It is this combination of hardware and
software that will shape the corporate winners of tomorrow.
16
Published by Prasad Pradhan,
Head - Corporate Communications,
Hindustan Unilever Limited,
Unilever House, B. D. Sawant Marg, Chakala,
Andheri (E), Mumbai - 400 099,
and printed by Oxford Group,
Unit no 218 / 219, Pragati Industrial Estate,
N.M. Joshi Marg, Lower Parel (East)
Mumbai - 400 011.
The speech can also be accessed at
Hindustan Unilever's website http://www.hul.co.in
Hindustan Unilever Limited, Unilever House,
B. D. Sawant Marg, Chakala, Andheri (E),
Mumbai - 400 099.
Harish Manwani - 2014
Building a Future Ready Organisation was the subject of the speech, delivered by
Mr Harish Manwani, Chairman, Hindustan Unilever Limited,
at the Annual General Meeting held on 30 June 2014.
BUILDING A FUTURE READY ORGANISATION
Section One: Introduction
We live in an increasingly interconnected world that is changing
faster than ever before. In fact, change is ‘the new normal’ and if
anything the pace of change in future will be even faster than it
is today.
Take connectivity for instance. It took almost 50 years after the
invention of the telegraph before the first telephone was
invented. It was another 50 years before we saw the television.
But in less than half the time it took to move from the telegraph
to the television, we witnessed the rise of computers, the
invention of the mobile phone and the advent of the Internet.
Now we have the power of the telegraph, telephone, radio,
television, computer and Internet all in one device that can fit in
our palm.
The pace at which these technologies have been adopted in
India is unprecedented. The spread of mobile connections is a
telling example. The first mobile phone call was made in 1995.
In less than 20 years, mobile connections are now all pervasive
and have in fact far surpassed landline connections, a service
that started more than a century earlier.
Last year, I had spoken about the volatile, uncertain, complex
and ambiguous, or VUCA world, we operate in. This VUCA
environment marked by continuous and dramatic change
01
poses opportunities and challenges for businesses. It requires
companies to change the way they operate and constantly
reinvent themselves.
The list of those who failed to reinvent themselves and
succumbed to the VUCA environment is long and instructive. The
Eastman Kodak Company is just one on that list. The iconic brand
that was synonymous with photography in the era of darkrooms
and films actually invented the first digital camera, but later filed
for bankruptcy after failing to fully respond to the sweeping
changes of the digital era.
On the other hand, there have been companies that have
continuously innovated to meet the requirements of our fast-
changing times and thrived. For example, Apple and Google have
grown and cemented their leadership positions on a wave of
innovations. Innovations like Google Glass, a wearable
computing device and Google Fiber, an Internet service with a
speed of 1Gbps are already looking ahead to meet consumer
needs of the future. Apple’s latest offering of the iBeacon allows a
phone to direct a driver to the nearest open spot in a parking
garage or the shortest line at a food counter in a crowded theatre.
Section Two: India at the forefront of change
In developing countries like India, the last couple of decades have
been marked by momentous change. Over the last 20 years, GDP
per capita in India has nearly tripled from USD 517 to USD 1415.
Poverty levels have halved from 45% in 1994 to 22% in 2012. In
spite of recent economic challenges, India is poised to become
the third largest economy in the world by 2030. About 25 years
ago, only 3% of India’s 600,000 villages enjoyed telephone
services. For urgent communication, people would rely on what
was commonly known as the ‘taar’, the telegraph service. Today,
there are over 875 million mobile phone subscribers in India and
the ‘taar’ is history, with the telegraph service shuttered last year.
In fact, today the penetration of mobile phone is higher than any
traditional media in many rural areas.
This connectivity is allowing India to leapfrog. It is increasing the
productivity of our farmers by providing easy access to
agriculture-related information, eliminating intermediary non-
value adding players and opening opportunities for micro-
enterprises, thus fundamentally improving everyday life for
millions of people. It is therefore not surprising that the country’s
digital and e-commerce market is booming. In fact, in 2013, the
Indian e-commerce market grew at a staggering 88% according
to a survey by The Associated Chambers of Commerce and
Industry of India. With the growing penetration, accessibility and
affordability of smartphones, over 25% of the total Internet
transactions in India are done via mobile devices.
Companies that have tapped into this evolving class of Internet
savvy consumers experienced unprecedented growth. Case in
point: five years ago, Bengaluru based e-commerce website,
Flipkart, began as a start-up with an investment of just
INR four lakh and today, reportedly generates USD one billion in
annual sales. The success of such e-commerce portals is
spawning an online retail revolution in India.
Technology and easier access to information and knowledge
have opened up employment opportunities resulting in a new
wave of people entering the consumption cycle. We are
witnessing a significant increase in the earning power of
consumers at the bottom-of-the-pyramid as they join the
increasing middle class population in India. The traditional
socio-economic pyramid is rapidly transforming itself into a
diamond with a burgeoning middle class and a decreasing
number of low-income consumers. This is increasingly true of
India and many other developing economies and offers huge
opportunities for business.
A company that is future ready will not only be able to seize the
opportunities these changes present, but also protect itself from
the challenges of the VUCA world.
Section Three: Building a future ready organisation
Being future ready means having the vision and the capabilities to compete in the world of tomorrow, and having a larger purpose to remain relevant to society.
At Unilever, we have a five-pronged approach to remain future ready – first, embracing technology and inclusive innovation that meets the needs of consumers across the socio-economic pyramid; second, committing to sustainable and responsible growth; third, building future ready talent and capabilities; fourth,
values-led and purpose-driven leadership; fifth, creating an agile and inclusive work culture.
a) Technology and inclusive innovation
India is a vast nation with widespread socio-economic diversity.
Technology and innovation allow us to anticipate and better serve
the needs of the many different Indias. There are huge
opportunities in meeting the needs of the rising middle class as
well as the aspiring low-income consumers.
The urban middle class consumers are changing the way they
shop and buy. These consumers are researching brands and
products, comparing prices across multiple locations and are
open to ordering from anywhere, anytime. These consumers are
ready to try new products and services and are willing to spend on
brands that match their aspirations.
In India, to be truly future ready, one has to leverage technology to
cater not only to the rising middle class but also to consumers at
the bottom-of-the-pyramid. As the late Prof C K Prahalad and
Dr R A Mashelkar put it, the way forward for companies is inclusive
innovation. An enlightening example would be that of Aravind Eye
Care, an organisation that has dramatically altered eye care in
India by bringing the price of intraocular lenses down to a tenth of
international prices and making cataract surgeries affordable for
low-income consumers. Today, the company markets its products
in more than 130 countries. Similarly, Arunachalam
05
Muruganantham, a social entrepreneur from a village near
Coimbatore, has invented a low cost sanitary pad making machine
which can manufacture sanitary pads for less than a third of the
cost of conventional commercial pads. Low-cost business models
are thus changing the way we serve millions of consumers.
At Unilever, the approach of developing innovations with consumer
price as the starting point is at the heart of our inclusive innovation
strategy. In Hindustan Unilever Limited (HUL), we have
institutionalised a ‘challenge cost’ mindset where the target price
for consumers drives innovation in each segment and category.
This has helped us to develop several new market segments in
Home Care, Personal Care and Foods. Pureit is a more recent
example of this approach.
Pureit addresses one of the biggest technological challenges of
the century – that of making safe water accessible and affordable
for millions. It provides one litre of ‘as safe as boiled’™ water at a
running cost of just 28 paise without the hassles of boiling, the
need for electricity or continuous tap water supply. Pureit has
emerged as the largest selling water purifier brand in India and
has now been introduced in several other countries, protecting 58
million lives globally.
Reaching up and reaching wide
We continue to leverage advancements in technology and
connectivity to strengthen our collaboration with customers in
modern trade and simultaneously expand our distribution reach in
deep rural areas. We call this reaching up and reaching wide.
06
We identified modern trade as a key growth driver over a decade
ago when the channel was still at a nascent stage in India and
invested in technology and capabilities to strengthen our
partnerships with customers.
We launched a state-of-the-art Customer Insight and Innovation
Centre that provides us with a platform to collaborate with our
customers and co-create marketplace ideas to win with
shoppers. We have improved upon our service delivery standards
by leveraging technology for demand sensing. We have deployed
a collaboration tool with most of our large modern trade
customers which has helped us achieve an all-time high on-shelf
availability in these stores. The Best Supplier of the Year award
bestowed upon us by key modern trade customers is a
recognition of our partnership and the value that these initiatives
have added to their business.
In 2013, we used technology to expand our direct distribution
reach in both urban and rural markets. By GPS tagging retail
outlets, we were able to identify and prioritise the geographies
that presented an opportunity for direct distribution expansion.
We now service over three million retail outlets directly helping to
further improve availability and access to our products.
We developed new low-cost distribution models that use
technology to leverage the increasing penetration of mobile
phones among small retailers. Taking orders through telecalling
saved time and cost, and enabled us to reach outlets
which were outside the purview of our traditional distribution
07
model. Through Project iQ, a technology-based analytics
capability, we enabled sales people to make shorter and more
effective sales calls.
Similarly, to strengthen our reach in deep rural areas, we
deployed a low-cost mobile IT solution that enables thousands
of our Shakti Ammas (rural women entrepreneurs) to take and
bill orders, and manage inventory in real time. This has made
the Shakti Ammas more productive and helped them to further
enhance their incomes.
Digital marketing
The Internet is changing the way brands engage with
consumers. There is a blurring of lines between advertising and
editorial; between ‘paid’ media in conventional channels and
‘owned’ and ’earned’ media in emerging digital channels.
Mobile, social media and big data are transforming the very
nature of marketing.
We were early in recognising this trend as a game changer. We
have not just significantly increased our investment in digital
media but are also innovating to increase our impact in this
space. Last year, we launched the ‘Media Lab’ which helps our
brands deliver engaging brand experiences in an effective
manner across Internet enabled mobile devices and platforms.
Drawing on the insight that Bollywood-related searches are
among the highest online content sought by users in India, HUL
has launched Bollywood Buzz on YouTube. Our brands are able
to effectively deliver brand messages to consumers by creatively
weaving in brand content with exclusive pre-release film content.
Another example of our brands leveraging digital to effectively
engage with consumers is the ‘BeBeautiful’ initiative. HUL beauty
brands have come together to develop and launch ‘BeBeautiful’
as an online beauty expert platform. The recent vlogging (videoblogging)
campaign by ‘BeBeautiful’ has been a tremendous
success achieving 20 million video views in just six months.
Perhaps the most exciting initiative has been the launch of ‘Kan
Khajura Tesan’, a mobile marketing initiative aimed to help our
brands engage with low-income rural consumers in media dark
areas. ‘Kan Khajura Tesan’ has been globally recognised with the
prestigious Lions Gold awards at Cannes Lions International
Festival of Creativity this year.
b) Sustainable and responsible growth
As the less developed economies grow, demand will rise
dramatically; but we live in a world with finite resources. Large
numbers of people still remain out of the modern day economic
system — we still have one billion people going to bed hungry
every night, 2.8 billion people short of water and 2.3 billion people
living without access to basic sanitation.
We are convinced that businesses that address the needs and
aspirations of consumers as well as social and environmental
challenges will thrive in the long term. This is the foundation of
what it means to be future ready.
Unilever’s journey towards building a future ready organisation
gained momentum and direction in November 2010 when we
launched our ambitious Unilever Sustainable Living Plan
(USLP). The Plan aims to double the size of our business while
decoupling our growth from our environmental impact and
increasing our positive social impact. This thinking lies at the
heart of our business and is now being firmly embedded across
every part of the organisation.
i) Brands at the forefront of social change
We believe that every brand should serve a purpose in the life of
the person who buys it. This belief has been at the forefront of
how we build purpose-driven brands and we continue to leverage
them to create positive social impact. For instance, Lifebuoy now
runs one of the largest handwashing programmes in India.
Last year, we launched the ‘Help a Child Reach 5’ campaign in
Thesgora, a village in Madhya Pradesh, known for having one of
the highest rates of diarrhoea in India. The campaign aims to
eradicate preventable deaths from diseases like diarrhoea by
teaching lifesaving handwashing habits, one village at a time.
The results have been tremendous, with a staggering 86% drop
in the incidence of diarrhoea in Thesgora. The campaign is now
being rolled out to villages across 14 countries.
Another example is Domex, our leading toilet cleaner brand,
which launched the Domex Toilet Academy last year with an aim
to assist in eradicating open defecation by providing access to
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improved sanitation. Our water purifier brand, Pureit in
partnership with Population Services International has been
working towards providing safe drinking water at a minimal cost
to families in rural areas.
ii) Enhancing livelihoods — sustainable agriculture
Being future ready also means caring for your environment and
investing in sustainable supply chains. We are working with
smallholder farmers to help them implement sustainable
methods while significantly improving their crop yields. We help
them adopt good agricultural practices like drip irrigation,
nutrient management, pest and disease management. In 2013,
80% of the tomatoes used in Kissan ketchup were from
sustainable sources. We already source 100% of our palm oil
from sustainable sources backed by GreenPalm certificates.
In fact, we have integrated our sustainable sourcing initiatives
into the business through our ‘Partner to Win’ programme. This
not only enables our supplier partners to ensure sustainable
sourcing across their value chain but also secures our sourcing
needs for the long term. As Unilever, we are already sourcing 48%
of our global raw materials sustainably and are committed to
make this 100% by 2020.
To address the impact of depleting water resources on food,
energy and livelihoods, we set up the Hindustan Unilever
Foundation (HUF) in 2010. HUF partners with NGOs, government
agencies and members of the local community. It currently runs
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projects that have a cumulative and collective water conservation
potential of 100 billion litres by the end of 2015. We expect to
generate more than two lakh person days of employment in more
than 180 villages across India. Furthermore, we expect that the
increased water conservation would help lead to a 10% rise in
crop production in some of the project areas.
iii) Project Sunlight
To renew and reconnect our brands to the larger corporate
purpose of making sustainable living commonplace, we
launched Project Sunlight in November 2013 to motivate millions
of people to live sustainably. We hope to create a movement for
sustainable living among consumers and thus help to create a
brighter future for children.
India was one of the five key markets where Unilever launched
Project Sunlight on Universal Children’s Day last year. The
campaign got an overwhelming response in India with over four
million people joining the Project Sunlight movement. This year,
we will reach out to more people and inspire them to adopt
sustainable living practices in their daily life. The first campaign
launched this year aims to encourage families to conserve water.
We are hopeful that through such campaigns we can continue to
increase awareness among people and contribute to our purpose
of making sustainable living commonplace.
c) Future ready talent and capabilities
To create a business that addresses the needs of the future
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through technology and sustainable models for growth, we need
to nurture a continuous learning environment that builds talent
and new organisational capabilities.
We have a holistic approach towards honing our talent pipeline
and building leadership capabilities in our people. We encourage
our people to define their individual purpose in the
organisational context and help them realise it through
meaningful actions. The Unilever Future Leaders Programme
provides us a strong foundation to groom and develop talent
from the entry level itself. Large responsibilities early on in the
career, open and honest career development discussions, cross-
functional and international exposure coupled with coaching and
mentoring helps develop a strong leadership pipeline.
We are harnessing technology to prepare our employees to
succeed in tomorrow’s world. For example, we have created
digital passports that are licenses for our marketers to operate
in the future. As a part of building awareness and knowledge of
our managers on business, managerial and professional areas,
we use online e-learning solutions. In 2013 alone our employees
completed nearly 50,000 online courses.
Our initiatives such as ‘Incite’ and ‘Food’s College’ help to build
marketing capabilities required for the business to win in the
future. These initiatives have also resulted in several successful
marketing campaigns such as the Foods experiential marketing
programme.
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We also believe that learning must be embedded in the
organisation at all levels. We have undertaken a host of
programmes in the space of capability building on the shopfloor.
For example, our Shopfloor Skill Upgrading Programme,
‘Sparkle’, assesses training needs, skills and the performance of
our shopfloor employees. ‘Stepping into One’ is another
programme that develops technical and leadership skills among
shopfloor employees, providing them with career advancement
opportunities into supervisory roles.
d) Values-led and purpose-driven leadership
Ultimately, the most important asset of any organisation is its
reputation. For future ready organisations, we need leaders who
will not only build the organisational capabilities to harness
technology and new ways of working, but also instil the values to
build sustainable and responsible models of growth. These are
the leadership principles that we have embedded in our company
and they will continue to shape our future as an organisation.
More than ever before we need leaders who are values-led and
purpose-driven. These are leaders who recognise that there are
some non-negotiables in business and that building
organisational character is essential to future success.
In Unilever, we have a common code of business principles and
leadership values of integrity, respect, pioneering and
responsibility that have to be embraced by every leader in every
part of the world.
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e) Agile and inclusive work culture
In a world with easy access to information and rapid changes,
companies need to move fast to keep up. Speed is the new
currency for future ready organisations.
At Unilever, we have ingrained agility and speed in our work
culture through initiatives such as ‘Project Sunset’. This initiative
was pioneered by HUL to facilitate quick decision-making in the
organisation. It has been rolled out globally to build a more
dynamic and agile culture.
In 2013, we launched a new campaign, ‘Winning Together’, to
reduce complexity across the organisation and empower people
to maximise their potential through simplified ways of working,
cutting inefficiency and promoting a bias for action. For example,
we are driving more effective collaboration in cross-functional
teams by using project classification tools and driving
behavioural changes amongst employees. This is helping us to
increase the pace of innovation by delivering cross-functional
projects on time.
Equally, diversity and inclusion is an important aspect of our
sustainable business growth agenda and a key to building a future
ready organisation. In HUL, we refer to this as ‘Winning Balance’.
Over the last three years, we have seen a considerable shift in this
area through greater leadership involvement and engagement.
For instance, we have been able to recruit women on career
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breaks through our ‘Career by Choice’ Programme that balances
personal and professional needs of talent on their return to the
workforce. In 2013, we established a Winning Balance Council
comprising male and female leaders across functions who
champion the diversity agenda in the business. Last year,
Unilever’s progress on diversity was recognised with the
prestigious global Catalyst Award.
We are on the path towards creating the ‘ideal’ work culture of a
simpler, agile and inclusive organisation.
Section Four: Conclusion
We live in an extremely volatile world that is changing faster than
ever. Products and services are becoming more accessible with
increasing connectivity and improved infrastructure. To succeed
in this world we have to develop a high capacity for
responsiveness. Organisations will have to adapt to rapidly
changing situations and priorities, tolerate ambiguity, and
develop new ways of working in order to succeed.
While technology and innovation will be the hardware that drives
future ready organisations, it is a values-led and purpose-driven
leadership that is the software that must drive sustainable and
responsible growth. It is this combination of hardware and
software that will shape the corporate winners of tomorrow.
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Published by Prasad Pradhan,
Head - Corporate Communications,
Hindustan Unilever Limited,
Unilever House, B. D. Sawant Marg, Chakala,
Andheri (E), Mumbai - 400 099,
and printed by Oxford Group,
Unit no 218 / 219, Pragati Industrial Estate,
N.M. Joshi Marg, Lower Parel (East)
Mumbai - 400 011.
The speech can also be accessed at
Hindustan Unilever's website http://www.hul.co.in
Hindustan Unilever Limited, Unilever House,
B. D. Sawant Marg, Chakala, Andheri (E),
Mumbai - 400 099.
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