How HUL Is Leveraging Novel Ideas For New Realities

If the biggest has to grow bigger, business as usual barely suffices, it calls for fresh thinking and the gumption to try new things, under Sanjiv Mehta's leadership, Hindustan Unilever is showing just that.

- Arnika Thakur And Aveek Datta

What’s the one common link between daily household activities like making tea and coffee, brushing your teeth, taking a bath, and washing clothes? They all need water, a commodity that is growing increasingly scarce globally, as also in many parts of India.

Think harder and another common link will emerge. One fast-moving consumer goods (FMCG) company, Hindustan Unilever Ltd (HUL), makes products catering to all these categories. So, when the Indian arm of the €51-billion Unilever Plc spends ₹500 crore towards water conservation in the country, it is not only being a responsible corporate citizen but also working towards future-proofing its business. If there is no water left, what good would the Dove soaps, Surf Excel detergent, and Lipton tea be for?

Being Indian and innovating for India— through the products it makes and the processes it adopts—is how HUL, India’s largest FMCG company, wants to retain and grow its turf in the country. The ₹37,660-crore company’s chairman and managing director Sanjiv Mehta, 58, says India can well become Unilever’s largest market in the world (it is already the second largest) soon. “The biggest impact we can make is through our purpose-driven brands. We have a simple but profound policy that what is good for India is good for HUL,” says Mehta while meeting Fortune India at HUL’s sprawling campus in Mumbai’s western suburbs.