AS THE boss of one of the largest producers of hygiene products in the country, businessman Laxman Narasimhan has set his sights on keeping the nation healthy throughout the coronavirus pandemic.
The CEO of Reckitt Benckiser, which deals with health, hygiene and home goods, Narasimhan has been at the helm of the FTSE 15 company as its products flew off the shelves at the height of the crisis.
During the first months of the Covid-19 outbreak, hand sanitiser and hand wash were bought in bulk by anxious consumers, keen to decrease their risk of catching the virus. It was rare to see a fully stocked hygiene shelf at the height of panic buying.
The pandemic has undoubtedly changed how we look at health. The current obsession with cleanliness has seen the sales of Reckitt’s products, including Dettol, Vanish and Lysol, soar.
According to analysis, shares in Reckitt have risen 25 per cent this year. Revenues rose almost 12 per cent in the first six months of this year and profits by 14 per cent to £1.43 billion.
With Narasimhan in control, Reckitt has made other moves to fight the virus. It has launched a £32-million ‘Fight for Access’ fund, equivalent to 1 per cent of its operating profit, to combat the pandemic and has also funded a coronavirus global facts website. A TikTok social media campaign to encourage people to wash their hands properly for 20 seconds went viral, soon after it was launched.
It is also a big employer, with more than 4,000 staff across the UK, and has manufacturing services in Derby, Hull and Nottingham.
Does Narasimhan believe the hygiene trend – and Reckitt’s outstanding growth – will last?
“We have been adopting new habits during lockdown. If you behave the same way for 60 days, some of those behaviours stick,” he says.
It has been a strange time for the world, no doubt – and maybe even more so for the Indian-American mogul.
Joining Reckitt in September 2019, the move meant he had to relocate from the States to the UK.
The pandemic broke as his family was looking to move with him – meaning his wife, Vidhya, and two children were trapped in New York.
Juggling the stress of being away from his family and looking after his elderly mother, he also began the task of running the global corporation from his two-bed home in west London.
Prior to Reckitt, Narasimhan held various roles at global food and beverage corporation PepsiCo from 2012 to 2019. He was previously global chief commercial officer, with responsibility for R&D, categories, e-commerce, design, go-to-market, global customers and strategy.
Before this, the tycoon served as the CEO of PepsiCo’s Latin America, Europe and sub-Saharan Africa operations, where he ran the company’s food and beverage businesses across more than 100 countries. He also spent time as CEO of PepsiCo Latin America and as the CFO of PepsiCo Americas Foods, which was responsible for half of the company’s profits.
Asked why he took the Reckitt job after so many successful years in PepsiCo, Narasimhan attributes it to his affinity with Dettol.
“When I was six, my brother died from an illness, aged just eight,” the industrialist recalls.
“When things got tough at home and we had to be disinfected and clean, Dettol was the brand we used. It has been in our family, so when the call came, I clearly understood the heritage of the product.”
From 1993 to 2012, Narasimhan held various key global roles, including director at management consultancy firm McKinsey & Company.
Born and educated in India, Narasimhan pursued a degree in mechanical engineering from the College of Engineering, University of Pune. He later relocated to the United States, where he studied German and international studies at the Lauder Institute in the University of Pennsylvania.
Narasimhan, who speaks six languages, also holds an MBA in finance from the Wharton School at the University of Pennsylvania.
