Exclusive interview with new Unilever COO Harish Manwani

Global FMCG giant Unilever on Friday appointed India-born Harish Manwani as its Chief Operating Officer, as part of global reorganisation of its business structure, to drive future growth.  He will take charge with effect from September 1, 2011.

Manwani was previously chairman and president for Asia, Africa and east and central Europe for Unilever.

He joined Hindustan Lever, now Hindustan Unilever, in 1976, becoming a member of the HLL board in1995 as director responsible for the Personal Products business.

Business Today Editor Chaitanya Kalbag spoke to Manwani a few weeks ago. Excerpts from the interview:

Q. Now how about coming to you yourself. I understand that Mr. Paul Polman is very happy with everyone's performance here. The company has given out huge bonuses. How about you yourself -with all your vast experiences across markets do you feel you should be looking at heading the global organization at some point?
A. Firstly, talking about rewards in a large company like ours there is a system. I run a region, which is Asia, Africa, Central and Eastern Europe and Middle East, which is little over 40 per cent of Unilever's business. It is the biggest growing and the most significant contributor to overall Unilever growth.

The responsibility of giving performance targets to countries and managing it is at the level of the region. But, there are key countries where performance is key. There is a methodology in place to do this -  we set targets, we manage or businesses dynamically, do resource allocation. This is a structured process and these are well laid down processes approved by the board. In the case of HUL, the remuneration both in year remuneration and long term schemes are all approved by our directors and shareholders. So there is nothing that is not transparent. It's all there in our annual report. So we are not doing anything in an adhoc manner.

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Q. Basically what I was getting at is that there has obviously been a huge improvement in the company's performance.
A. So the point is that the one thing we are definitely trying to do is bring about a sharper performance culture within the organisation. By giving sharper clarity on expected performance from people, set targets, jobs to be done. I think people are happy with this transparency and sharpness. The other thing is context of the market keeps changing sometimes. You start with something in the beginning of the year and by the end of the year the context may change.

Q. In the old days Levers was almost like joining the IAS. You went in and you were sent into the farthest villages, one learnt the ropes and then you became a manager and then stayed there for life. So are you still full of lifers.
A. We are who we are because we did exactly what you said which is our ability to send people irrespective of where they came from a local college, an MBA, Oxford, Cambridge, Harvard, IIMs or wherever they came from you always started by picking up your bags and going out there and discovering India, spending time in our markets and factories.

The reason we are the company we are today because many generations before us created this awesome understanding of the Indian business system and market which allowed the reach of our products to go even deeper than the media reach. That means our brands were growing that made the role of distribution and sales a marketing role.

The reason we were able to do this with such sharpness and smartly because we had the best minds in the company doing this. Everyone here has sold soaps. I am proud of the fact that I am a product of this system and I am proud of the fact that we still do it.

Q. But you are still not answering my question. When are you going the lead the full 100 per cent?
A. I thought I answered the question. All of us are doing our jobs and ultimately we all do the job that we can best do. If you keep thinking what you are going to do next, you cannot focus on what you are doing currently.

When I joined this company as a management trainee I wasn't thinking of the fact that I was going to be the chairman of this company. What I was thinking is how do I do my job as an area sales manager, the brand manager, the marketing manager as best as I can. I do believe that's another great thing about this organization. We all have a choice...

For full interview click here.