The Empowerer
Sanjiv Mehta delegated responsibility and relied on quick market feedback and cost control in order to thrive in the marketplace

- Dec 24, 2020,
- Updated Dec 25, 2020 9:09 PM IST
On March 17, as India started reporting cases of coronavirus, Hindustan Unilever decided to ask employees to work from home. As the fear of contacting the virus loomed large, MD & Chairman Sanjiv Mehta's message to his core team was: "Look after our people and the people will look after the business." Nine months down the line, the 61-year-old head honcho of India's biggest FMCG company is proud of his employees and business. He says his employees are more agile and resilient than ever and talks about a humble factory employee who told him that he went to work every day not to make soaps but save lives of millions of Indians. "Our first priority was safety of our people across the value chain. Then, we made sure that our supply lines were running. We also kept our fingers on the pulse of consumers to understand their behaviour. We also heightened focus on cash and costs despite being a zero-debt company. Last, but not the least, was helping the community."
During the lockdown, Mehta has been walking up and down the 18 floors of his apartment complex. Just as his fitness regime continued against all odds, it has been business as usual for his 18,000-strong workforce too, with majority of them working from home. At the peak of the lockdown, the FMCG major completed the merger of GSK Consumer, which it had acquired for Rs 3,045 crore. Mehta calls it a marriage made in heaven. "The consummation of the deal happened during the lockdown on April 1. We do a people pulse survey. I am pleased that engagement scores of erstwhile GSK people are as high as that of others. We have been able to assimilate them and make them feel important." With GSK, HUL's food and refreshment business has become the largest in the country. While declaring its September quarter results, the company announced a host of innovations under the Horlicks brand, the most prominent being a variant containing zinc and multi-vitamins to boost immunity. The variant promises 8.3 mg zinc per 100 gms compared with the earlier version's 4.3 mg. "Studies show that the immune system gets a boost with zinc. The first thing we did was to hand over lakhs of packs to healthcare workers," says Mehta. He says the company plans to extend Horlicks and Boost into the food space too.
On March 17, as India started reporting cases of coronavirus, Hindustan Unilever decided to ask employees to work from home. As the fear of contacting the virus loomed large, MD & Chairman Sanjiv Mehta's message to his core team was: "Look after our people and the people will look after the business." Nine months down the line, the 61-year-old head honcho of India's biggest FMCG company is proud of his employees and business. He says his employees are more agile and resilient than ever and talks about a humble factory employee who told him that he went to work every day not to make soaps but save lives of millions of Indians. "Our first priority was safety of our people across the value chain. Then, we made sure that our supply lines were running. We also kept our fingers on the pulse of consumers to understand their behaviour. We also heightened focus on cash and costs despite being a zero-debt company. Last, but not the least, was helping the community."
During the lockdown, Mehta has been walking up and down the 18 floors of his apartment complex. Just as his fitness regime continued against all odds, it has been business as usual for his 18,000-strong workforce too, with majority of them working from home. At the peak of the lockdown, the FMCG major completed the merger of GSK Consumer, which it had acquired for Rs 3,045 crore. Mehta calls it a marriage made in heaven. "The consummation of the deal happened during the lockdown on April 1. We do a people pulse survey. I am pleased that engagement scores of erstwhile GSK people are as high as that of others. We have been able to assimilate them and make them feel important." With GSK, HUL's food and refreshment business has become the largest in the country. While declaring its September quarter results, the company announced a host of innovations under the Horlicks brand, the most prominent being a variant containing zinc and multi-vitamins to boost immunity. The variant promises 8.3 mg zinc per 100 gms compared with the earlier version's 4.3 mg. "Studies show that the immune system gets a boost with zinc. The first thing we did was to hand over lakhs of packs to healthcare workers," says Mehta. He says the company plans to extend Horlicks and Boost into the food space too.