From learning to play the keyboard with senior colleagues to benefitting from the parent firm’s scale and capability, leveraging is a key word in the HUL CEO's lexicon.
Nitin Paranjpe’s family used to call him a “modern-day Aurangzeb” given the distance he kept from the finer things in life. Two summers back his brother finally agreed to drop the nickname only if he could develop an ear for music, write Shyamal Majumdar and Ruchita Saxena.
Music was something for which Paranjpe had neither the time nor inclination; but determined to live up to the challenge thrown by his brother, he started taking keyboard lessons. He can now play about a 100 Hindi film music tunes and has formed an informal team of Lever-ites who play the keyboard along with him. It helped that Hindustan Unilever Limited’s (HUL) new management committee (eight top HUL managers) are in their early 40s. His family has dropped the nickname.
The 45-year-old MD & CEO of HUL says this has given him a vital lesson in life: you need not be immensely talented to succeed in a project as long as you are determined to succeed and are willing to put in that extra effort.
We are in the terrace room at HUL’s imposing headquarters at Backbay Reclamation in Mumbai. Paranjpe asks for warm water as he is suffering from a throat infection and wants us to hear him loud and clear. The youngest ever occupant of the corner office at HUL is, by his own admission, a CEO with a difference. His CV doesn’t boast an IIT or IIM badge; he is not extra fond of management books; has remained a one-company man for 21 years; returns home by 7 pm almost every day; listens to Vedanta philosophy on Sunday mornings and enjoys teaching his children over the weekends.
As an MBA student at Jamnalal Bajaj Institute, Mumbai, he used to dream of getting into Hindustan Lever (as it was then called), India’s largest FMCG company. When he finally got the “high of his life” after Hindustan Lever gave him a job, he says he would have been delighted if he could have risen to head of sales or marketing in the company.
“Any job beyond that would be a bonus. My motto has been simple: be focused on your current job and do that well,” he says. His career graph shows the management at Lever has been quite generous in doling out ‘bonuses’.
He finally realised he is a ‘lister’ — HUL jargon for those on the superfast career track — when his boss once asked him to spell out his career ambitions. Paranjpe, then a brand manager, replied he wanted to become a regional manager. He forgot about the conversation, but his boss didn’t as two weeks later he got a double promotion and was made the south India regional head. It turned out be a tough assignment as it coincided with the company’s products being boycotted in Kerala. For the first time in his life, Paranjpe realised that he was capable of managing more than he had imagined. “Every manager must have one or two tough assignments. When you have to achieve more than what available resources permit, you grow professionally as well as mentally”, Paranjpe says.
The food is an elaborate Indian fare — roti, rice, paneer, mutton korma and grilled prawns with lots of vegetables — and tastes good. Paranjpe avoids the prawns but gives us an appreciative look as we choose not to follow him. He is health conscious and plays a game of squash often. This, of course, is becoming infrequent now that his 14-year-old son is playing better than him.
As the occupant of the corner office, what’s his new strategy going to be? Paranjpe says HUL, like some its competitors, has a great strategy in place. What will make the difference is the power of execution. The company is leveraging the capabilities and scale of its parent company and focusing on the value of execution. Cost reduction through technology is another priority.
Though HUL will continue to straddle the whole pyramid as far as price points are concerned, the company also recognises the changing market dynamics of the growing number of affluent households in India for whom price is not that big an issue. There are around eight million such households in the country, and the number is expected to double in the next three years. It’s an opportunity no company can afford to ignore. As Paranjpe puts it, “It’s amazing how people are willing to pay extra for little beauty jars”.
The other piece of good news for both Paranjpe and HUL is that inflation hasn’t compressed consumer demand and net sales growth in the June quarter was the highest in the past 10 years — and growth has averaged 19 per cent in the past three quarters. Rising cost pressures are still a problem, but Paranjpe says HUL will never focus on margins at the cost of top line.
Food is one area that has been a laggard due to intense competition, but Paranjpe says the segment is reaching a tipping point. “The platform has been built for the future, things will change. Please don’t forget packaged food sales are still just 5 per cent the value of fresh foods.” So expect launches, brand extensions and innovations steadily hitting shop shelves. It helps that Unilever has a huge food portfolio that is waiting to be unleashed in India.
He graduated from the stairs to the elevator in his career when he was made the head of the laundry category during the detergents’ price war between Procter & Gamble and HUL in 2002. For the first time in his career, he suffered from self-doubt as he was unable to meet the numbers target. The top line just refused to budge as consumers shied away from HUL products, often preferring cheaper alternatives.
But the management obviously felt otherwise as he went on to become the executive director (home & personal care) soon after. The reason was obvious: the platform he built during those days helped HUL regain its glory in subsequent years.
Though HUL has changed its management strategy swiftly with changing times, Paranjpe is clear that the one practice which has and will remain constant is sending managers to rural areas early in their career. “Selling soaps to a shopkeeper in a remote village gives you invaluable lessons. You start listening to the market; you empathise with problems that a salesman faces — these are lessons no B-school can ever teach you,” he says.
Lunch is long over, but Paranjpe does not want to leave in a hurry. He says executing the new gameplan of HUL means a lot of hard work. And that often means starting work at 5 am so that he doesn’t have to compromise on the time he wants to spend with his family. He thinks his wife, who is now on a sabbatical from her job at Wipro, is better than him in multi-tasking.
The person he treats as his idol is his father, a retired IAS officer. “I didn’t have to go too far to learn the power of integrity,” Paranjpe says. His fondness for teaching his children — even his neighbours’ children at times — comes from his mother, who even at the age of 70 runs a school for under-privileged children which has over 1,000 students.
When he finally leaves HUL, Paranjpe wants management trainees feel the same excitement he did 21 years ago. “The wow factor of working for HUL must remain,” he says. His bosses would be pleased with that answer.
Nitin Paranjpe’s family used to call him a “modern-day Aurangzeb” given the distance he kept from the finer things in life. Two summers back his brother finally agreed to drop the nickname only if he could develop an ear for music, write Shyamal Majumdar and Ruchita Saxena.
Music was something for which Paranjpe had neither the time nor inclination; but determined to live up to the challenge thrown by his brother, he started taking keyboard lessons. He can now play about a 100 Hindi film music tunes and has formed an informal team of Lever-ites who play the keyboard along with him. It helped that Hindustan Unilever Limited’s (HUL) new management committee (eight top HUL managers) are in their early 40s. His family has dropped the nickname.
The 45-year-old MD & CEO of HUL says this has given him a vital lesson in life: you need not be immensely talented to succeed in a project as long as you are determined to succeed and are willing to put in that extra effort.
We are in the terrace room at HUL’s imposing headquarters at Backbay Reclamation in Mumbai. Paranjpe asks for warm water as he is suffering from a throat infection and wants us to hear him loud and clear. The youngest ever occupant of the corner office at HUL is, by his own admission, a CEO with a difference. His CV doesn’t boast an IIT or IIM badge; he is not extra fond of management books; has remained a one-company man for 21 years; returns home by 7 pm almost every day; listens to Vedanta philosophy on Sunday mornings and enjoys teaching his children over the weekends.
As an MBA student at Jamnalal Bajaj Institute, Mumbai, he used to dream of getting into Hindustan Lever (as it was then called), India’s largest FMCG company. When he finally got the “high of his life” after Hindustan Lever gave him a job, he says he would have been delighted if he could have risen to head of sales or marketing in the company.
“Any job beyond that would be a bonus. My motto has been simple: be focused on your current job and do that well,” he says. His career graph shows the management at Lever has been quite generous in doling out ‘bonuses’.
He finally realised he is a ‘lister’ — HUL jargon for those on the superfast career track — when his boss once asked him to spell out his career ambitions. Paranjpe, then a brand manager, replied he wanted to become a regional manager. He forgot about the conversation, but his boss didn’t as two weeks later he got a double promotion and was made the south India regional head. It turned out be a tough assignment as it coincided with the company’s products being boycotted in Kerala. For the first time in his life, Paranjpe realised that he was capable of managing more than he had imagined. “Every manager must have one or two tough assignments. When you have to achieve more than what available resources permit, you grow professionally as well as mentally”, Paranjpe says.
The food is an elaborate Indian fare — roti, rice, paneer, mutton korma and grilled prawns with lots of vegetables — and tastes good. Paranjpe avoids the prawns but gives us an appreciative look as we choose not to follow him. He is health conscious and plays a game of squash often. This, of course, is becoming infrequent now that his 14-year-old son is playing better than him.
As the occupant of the corner office, what’s his new strategy going to be? Paranjpe says HUL, like some its competitors, has a great strategy in place. What will make the difference is the power of execution. The company is leveraging the capabilities and scale of its parent company and focusing on the value of execution. Cost reduction through technology is another priority.
Though HUL will continue to straddle the whole pyramid as far as price points are concerned, the company also recognises the changing market dynamics of the growing number of affluent households in India for whom price is not that big an issue. There are around eight million such households in the country, and the number is expected to double in the next three years. It’s an opportunity no company can afford to ignore. As Paranjpe puts it, “It’s amazing how people are willing to pay extra for little beauty jars”.
The other piece of good news for both Paranjpe and HUL is that inflation hasn’t compressed consumer demand and net sales growth in the June quarter was the highest in the past 10 years — and growth has averaged 19 per cent in the past three quarters. Rising cost pressures are still a problem, but Paranjpe says HUL will never focus on margins at the cost of top line.
Food is one area that has been a laggard due to intense competition, but Paranjpe says the segment is reaching a tipping point. “The platform has been built for the future, things will change. Please don’t forget packaged food sales are still just 5 per cent the value of fresh foods.” So expect launches, brand extensions and innovations steadily hitting shop shelves. It helps that Unilever has a huge food portfolio that is waiting to be unleashed in India.
He graduated from the stairs to the elevator in his career when he was made the head of the laundry category during the detergents’ price war between Procter & Gamble and HUL in 2002. For the first time in his career, he suffered from self-doubt as he was unable to meet the numbers target. The top line just refused to budge as consumers shied away from HUL products, often preferring cheaper alternatives.
But the management obviously felt otherwise as he went on to become the executive director (home & personal care) soon after. The reason was obvious: the platform he built during those days helped HUL regain its glory in subsequent years.
Though HUL has changed its management strategy swiftly with changing times, Paranjpe is clear that the one practice which has and will remain constant is sending managers to rural areas early in their career. “Selling soaps to a shopkeeper in a remote village gives you invaluable lessons. You start listening to the market; you empathise with problems that a salesman faces — these are lessons no B-school can ever teach you,” he says.
Lunch is long over, but Paranjpe does not want to leave in a hurry. He says executing the new gameplan of HUL means a lot of hard work. And that often means starting work at 5 am so that he doesn’t have to compromise on the time he wants to spend with his family. He thinks his wife, who is now on a sabbatical from her job at Wipro, is better than him in multi-tasking.
The person he treats as his idol is his father, a retired IAS officer. “I didn’t have to go too far to learn the power of integrity,” Paranjpe says. His fondness for teaching his children — even his neighbours’ children at times — comes from his mother, who even at the age of 70 runs a school for under-privileged children which has over 1,000 students.
When he finally leaves HUL, Paranjpe wants management trainees feel the same excitement he did 21 years ago. “The wow factor of working for HUL must remain,” he says. His bosses would be pleased with that answer.
We are entering the absolutely new phase of marketing in India, for the first time we are witnessing a situation of categories entering into a stage where penetration would reach near 100% or even exceed it. Till now we have been working on marketing strategies to increase penetration , getting the first time users to try out offerings versus a situation where you have to either increase the usage of the product or a service in a well established market. This is where, we will see the true meaning of the statement "Customer is the King".Taking the example of what is happening in the mobile phone market, in most of the metro markets the penetration levels are reaching 80% and in some markets like Chennai the figure has exceeded 100%. So what does it mean for new operators like Aircel , and virgin mobile when it enters a market where the category penetration is so high. There would be two ways of gaining market share , first and more difficult option would be to try and attract users from established players or second way is to encourage users to go for another mobile.To push consumers to switch their operators would involve a different set of marketing strategies versus the ones which are used to increase the penetration in a particular category. I suppose, this is what we can see from the approach that both virgin and aircel are using , by focusing on value added services and non-typical offerings like paying for incoming calls. But this is just the beginning and we will see the manifestation of this change in the coming few years.......
The change in the positioning is also due to the increasing competition from Horlicks and other GSK products in the segment.Complan have also launched Complan: Family , a variant aiming at all members of family as a part of expanding the target market. Another interesting strategy was the launch of Complan sachet priced at Rs5 for 15gm complan .They have implemented this strategy to capture the lower level of pyramid, may be heinz have kept its eyes stable and read the nerves of rural Indians their desire to go for a health drink at the lowest cost possible or may be the sample users, may go for it. 
Complan has been an established brand in the Indian health drinks market.The brand was carefully positioned and nurtured by its owners. With the competition getting hot all the time the brand is reinventing itself .
Hidesign is India's premier leather goods company that makes leather bags, briefcases and wallets. This 90 crore brand is the Indian brand that features in the premium international stores worldwide. The Indian leather market is expected to be around Rs 1000 crore and the branded market is around 120 crore.Hidesign is a brand that was built overtime through careful brand building . The brand which was launched as an export brand came to India and surprised to find the reception it had, despite astronomical prices. The brand came to India at the right time when the Indian consumers are splurging on lifestyle products.
Hidesign is targeting the upwardly mobile educated internationally minded executive. The brand is known for its craftsmanship and the quality of its products. All these years this brand has never compromised on quality. The main USP of this brand is its craftsmanship. The brand still uses the traditional craftsmanship and 70% of the work is by hand. The brand depends heavily on the craftsmanship. The core value of the brand is its attitude, tradition and its commitment to environment. Instead of using the much polluting dyes, the brand uses vegetable dyes .The brand is positioned along the core values and the craftsmanship. The campaigns are trendy and the media is mainly magazines. Earlier in 2000 the brand initially was projecting quality as its major focal point. Now they have realised that despite the positive feelings, the brand lacks the attitude and emotional attachment . Hence the brand is on a campaign to connect to the customer emotionally.
