Effective Management of Company Mission

On 17th August 2022, in the webinar  organized by Bija Training under their Mask Leadership series , the speaker Mr Zaved Akhtar, CEO and MD at Unilever, Bangladesh shared his experience of effectively contributing to the goals of the company while at the same time catering to the interests of the country. In the initial part of his talk, Mr Akhtar traced the history of  his 50 year old country that underwent various periods which he called (1) the lost decade (2) Military regime (3) Democracy restoration (4) Gathering momentum and finally the present times of economic progress. 

The speaker said that his company Unilever has always linked itself to the destiny of the country. The policy has been  "Whatever is good for Bangladesh, is good for Unilever". The products of the company are in the areas of home personal care, nutrition, safe drinking water, oral hygiene and sanitation. They account for 60% of the business in the country that was built over a period from 1962 (presence prior to formation of Bangaladesh). The company has always believed in "building a nation, not just a career"

Mr Akhtar said that it is important for companies to be clear about their purpose. It is brands with a purpose that grow. Unilever's purpose is "Sustainable living" with a focus on making a positive impact on society. He said that 50% of the population want to buy products from brands that are sustainable (Brands that undertake sustainable practices in the workings of their business and champion them). Unilever collects back 50% of the plastic that is generated.

The Unilever products such as Life buoy, Surf excel, Horlicks, Pepsodent, Domex etc have been associated with initiatives impacting the quality of life in society. As for example child mortality rate was reduced by the hand washing program associated with Life buoy. Similarly Horlicks has been associated with campaigns for balanced nutrition and pepsodent with oral hygiene. Glow and Lovely (GAL) is a product that is associated with enhancing the levels of women in the work force by imparting to them career skills. The company has been pitching in  "for serving people everywhere" during times of emergencies such as occurance of  floods or Covid 19 faced by the nation.  

Moving to the subject of performance and transformation, Mr Akhtar said that focus should be on purpose & service, agility and  personal mastery with an attitude of  "I can do it". At the same time, one has to be realistic and cautious about the challenges. Prioritization, by giving high priority to high impact matters, is the key. Excellence should always be aimed for rather than perfection. The speaker said that while delegating, always ensure that authority is being delegated and take care not to delegate accountability. That the approach and initiatives of the company has worked is borne out by the fact that in spite of challenges posed by Covid, in 2022, the company has recorded the best performance in 10 years.   

Mr Akhtar said while recruiting, job assigning or transfer of employees, it is necessary to ensure that they are not only in the right bus but the right seat in the bus . If there is a mismatch, take them out and put the person in another bus if necessary. On continous improvement, the speaker gave an analogy from the game of golf. Success is when you are not only been able to beat your last handicap but are able to repeat it over and over again. He said that "opportunities are lurking in every corner"; we only need to have a 'Growth mindset' in place of a 'Fixed mindset'. A coalition of the willing core transformation agents and "unleashing" their collective input can be very powerful. It is important to 'keep educating yourself' and value the key values of the company like ethics, respect, honesty, integrity, daring to dream big and making it happen. 

Finally, Mr Akhtar took questions from the participants. To a question as to what Unilever did to enhance the number of  women working in the company, he said the basic focus and challenge has been to get men to understand the need for women to work and remove the patriarchal bias. After all, 95% of the company's products are bought by women. Therefore, having more women in the workforce would be beneficial in understanding and appreciating the psyche of women customers. Another step taken to facilitate women working was to ensure sufficient women's toilets are available not only in the companies premises but those of distributors so that women managers face no difficulty while visiting them. In order to ensure female managers are feeling secure, security guards are assigned for their protection. Kindergarten and creche facilities are also provided. In short, a woman friendly environment is created by the company for encouraging more women to join its workforce.  

To another question as to what steps are taken for inculcating company values in all the employees, the speaker said that "Purpose workshops" are conducted to enable employees to see the overlap between thier own  and the companies purpose and values. It is the core business principle of the company that company 'Values" are non negotiable and are to be followed whether you are being watched by others or not. People are empowered to call out if and when there is flouting of or deviation from a value. It is a continous process of educating and reinforcing. It would involve correction, disciplinary action and coaching. 

With that, curtains came down on a very enlightening and rewarding webinar. I am so happy to capture it for my readers!