THE INTERNATIONAL - International Indian

[ COVER STORY ]
Bangladesh,” Mehta fast forwards a little
to his experience as Chairman of Unilever
Bangladesh, “our strategy was clear – to make
it grow at twice the rate happening in the
country. Our mission was to make Unilever
Bangladesh the most admired corporation in
the country. You jell a team together when
you show them the path to the realization
of that vision. The team has to be aligned
to that vision. How you do it depends
on many things... How do you convert
strategies into actions; what is the culture of
your organization; what’s the performance
management systems in place; how do you
ensure that you link rewards with efforts;
how do you instill creativity in your team;
how do you foster risk taking; how do you
bring in rigour, depth, analysis… that’s what
goes into the making of a great operation.”
So, was the mission accomplished in
Bangladesh? “This is a fascinating story,
and today there are case studies in Harvard
Business School on Unilever Bangladesh,”
he points out. “The company was in negative
growth and was a loss making unit.
In the first year we broke even. Today it
has reached a stage, when the Chairman of
Unilever refers to it as a jewel in the crown
of Unilever. One of my proudest moments
was when British American Tabacoo did
an independent public survey amongst all
stakeholders of corporate reputation and
Unilever Bangladesh came out clearly as
the most admired corporation.
“I have great fondness for my time in
Bangladesh. First we had to instill pride in
the Bangladeshis themselves for what they
could achieve. We had to show them that
we were building an institution not just a
company. That a company while making
huge profits, can also enrich society at large.
We changed the context. Our Bangladesh
company pays taxes that are close to 1%
of the country’s federal budget. It runs
hospitals, schools, women’s foundations etc.
Many of these things were path breaking.
Today if you were to go to Bangladesh and
talk about Corporate Social Responsibility
(CSR), the iconic things that they would
refer to would be things done by Unilever.
Was it the most challenging job
undertaken? “I would say it was the most
satisfying. Making an ordinary team into
an extraordinary one made the difference.”
What was the method used? “Intuition,”
says Mehta surprisingly. He clarifies, “Real
intuition, paradoxically, comes with a huge
amount of knowledge, skill and experience.
I’m an avid reader, and when you come
across a couple of good ideas, you tuck
them in your head somewhere, and sooner
or later you get into the habit of linking
various things and putting the pieces of the
puzzle together. Whether from Carbide or
from Unilever Arabia days, when you piece
all your experiences together, you will find
answers to what is required at a particular
time, in this case it was for Bangladesh.
“Bengalis love flaying themselves and they
are highly critical people. Often I had to point
out to them about the positives that exist in
their country. People say it is one of the most
corrupt countries in the world, but if you were
to really ask me, the level of corruption in the
Philippines (his next post as Chairman) was no
different. It’s also about branding. Bangladesh
unfortunately has done a very poor job of
branding. Today when you talk about the
country what comes to mind is corruption,
political chaos, floods, poverty, hurricanes,
… but this is also a place where you have
Muhammad Yunus and Grameen Bank, this
is also a place which for the last 10 years has
been growing consistently at 4-5%, this was a
place which the US had written off as a basket
case in 1971, but has survived. And this country
has never been close to bankruptcy, though in
the late 90s Russia was close to bankruptcy.
Pakistan has defaulted but Bangladesh never
has. There are so many things that people don’t
portray. One thing that this country needs is a
good marketing manager,” says Mehta.
An Indian Hindu became one of Islamic
Bangladesh’s loudest supporters. So much
so that whenever there was a person to
whom the government of Bangladesh had
to sell Bangladesh to, they would send
him to Mehta’s office. Whether it was a
UN agency or a multilateral agency doing
a survey, or if ‘foreign people’ wanted to
find out the truth about Bangladesh, Mehta
was the spokesperson. “Our impact was
phenomenal, especially through CSR;
people accepted us completely and we
made some great friends there.”
Sanjiv Mehta with his twin daughters Naina and
Roshni, wife Mona and the sarod maestro Ustad
Amjad Ali Khan
(Below) ... his parents, Anita and Soshil Prakash Mehta
THE INTERNATIONAL INDIAN 51