MPW 2022: Here's why HUL's Priya Nair thinks taking risks has become important in a fast-changing world

Since the time Priya Nair joined Hindustan Lever Limited (HLL) in 1995, the world has undergone a sea change. The FMCG major has been renamed to Hindustan Unilever (HUL), its business has jumped manifold, and unlike in the 1990s, India has grown into a major branded consumer goods market. For Nair, the changes have been even starker. From a management trainee fresh out of the Symbiosis Institute of Business Management in Pune, Nair has risen through the ranks to take charge of HUL’s global parent Unilever’s marketing operations for its Beauty and Wellbeing division in 2022, as Global Chief Marketing Officer (CMO).

But what has remained constant through all of this is her appetite for risks and her refusal to rest on her laurels. And, over the years, these traits have become key to her success. “I like to take risks because the world that we live in today requires you to take risks. It is changing fast, and one needs to leapfrog to stay afloat,” says Nair, who joins the Business Today Most Powerful Women in Business’s Hall of Fame this year.

Thus, it comes as no surprise that Nair, whose efforts steered HUL out of the pandemic-induced blues with flying colours, was rewarded with a global role by HUL’s Anglo-Dutch parent, Unilever. In spite of the lockdown-related disruptions in consumption patterns among Indians, who mostly stayed indoors, HUL’s Beauty and Personal Care (BPC) division remained the top performer for the company and boosted its financials. Sample this: In FY22, the BPC division—then headed by Nair as its executive director—raked in 39 per cent (or Rs 19,460 crore) of the company’s sales and around half of its earnings before interest and tax (EBIT).

Nair credits HUL’s culture of “agile and speedy decision-making” for her success, as much as her own abilities. “It is the company culture that makes you what you are. Having spent around 28 years, I am also an HUL product,” is how she puts it.

After successfully driving the largest and the most profitable division at the India unit, Nair is now tasked with growing Unilever’s $11-billion global business, which is much more diversified and complex than running the BPC business in India. But her love for travelling the world and learning different cultures, fits naturally with her role as the global CMO.

And as a mother, Nair is now juggling between her two roles, one of a globe-trotting executive and another, of mothering her 19-year-old university-going daughter. And her love for British crime shows eggs her on to squeeze in a few episodes between her travels—from Thailand and the Philippines in the East to Brazil and the US in the West.

@arndutt