A MAJOR reshuffle at Unilever last year has seen Nitin Paranjpe taking on a new role as chief transformation officer and chief people officer, leading business transformation, and heading the human resources function at the consumer goods giant.
Paranjpe, a Unilever veteran of 35 years, having joined Hindustan Unilever Ltd (HUL) as a management trainee in 1987, has also returned to the Indian subsidiary as the non-executive chairman in March last year, as the HUL board decided to segregate the roles of its chairman and managing director cum chief executive.
The maker of Dove soap and Magnum ice cream, which employs about 148,000 people around the world, in January 2022 has announced plans to organise its business into five new divisions – beauty and wellbeing, personal care, home care, nutrition, and ice cream – in what it termed as the Unilever Compass Organisation, which took effect later in July. As chief people and transformation officer, Paranjpe is tasked with leading both human resources and the implementation of the company’s new Compass Organisation globally.
“My purpose is to demonstrate that exceptional outcomes can be delivered with good old values of dignity, respect, and fairness; and that purposeful business is wholly compatible with profitable business,” he said, commenting on the new role.
This has been his personal purpose all along, and it has shaped the purpose and strategy of Unilever, particularly during his significant tenure as a member of Unilever’s Leadership Executive since October 2013.
His elevation once again shows the company’s trust in his abilities to deliver results. He was serving as the chief operating officer from May 2019, responsible for delivering in-year results – the all-important profit and loss column of the company’s accounts across the globe.
The once-in-a-generation transformation was momentous for Unilever, with the vast majority of Unilever employees in white collar roles recast into new structures and roles, and profit and loss accountability redistributed to the new business divisions.
Despite the challenging and difficult nature of transformation, under Paranjpe’s leadership, Unilever was able to make this change, whilst still ensuring consistently high company-wide engagement, according to reports.
Unilever’s engagement rate, tracked through the annual UniVoice survey was 81 per cent for 2022 – which means that the company has maintained consistent high engagement over the last few years – at levels well above many of its corporate peers.
Paranjpe has, in fact, been the best person at Unilever to lead this transformation, as he has seen up close a previous re-organisation two decades ago.
In 2000, he moved to Unilever London and was involved in a review of the organisation structure and served as executive assistant to the chair and Unilever Executive Committee, before returning to HUL two years later.
And, the 60-year-old is also widely hailed for his efforts in blazing a trail for diversity. He was recognised with the GG2 Hammer Award, the top prize, at the GG2 Leadership Awards in 2019.
He has played a pivotal role in promoting and supporting Unilever’s ambition to a beacon for Equity, Diversity and Inclusion.
Under his leadership as chief people and transformation officer, and other positions on Unilever’s Executive, the company has followed a progressive equity, diversity and inclusion agenda, focused on four priorities – gender, race and ethnicity, people with disabilities and LGBTQI+ communities. Unilever has achieved gender balance at management levels, with women now accounting for 52 per cent of all employees in management roles.
Paranjpe recognises that the diversity agenda is not just about women. “We have to create the right conditions and allow everyone to feel they can bring all of themselves (to their work) and that they can fulfil their fullest potential,” he told the GG2 Power List previously.
“Are we there? The answer is ‘no’, by any stretch of the imagination. Do we have the stamina and resilience to get that outcome (on diversity)? We are absolutely determined,” he added.
As part of the transformation programme, he has also reignited an important conversation within Unilever about its culture, and is driving a programme of cultural change in the company to ensure the company can deliver on its Compass strategy.
Paranjpe has also seen considerable success in his role, that of chair of HUL, which continues to be a success story for Unilever, having delivered year-on-year organic growth of 8 per cent over the last 10 years. In that time HUL has doubled its turnover, tripled its profits, quadrupled its market capitalisation and delivered a total shareholder return of nearly 500 per cent. HUL currently is the biggest in Unilever when it comes to the volume of products sold.
His exemplary leadership is helping to shape HUL as a market leader across 90 per cent of its business, a No 1 Employer of Choice and a leader in sustainability. Paranjpe can rightly claim a lot of the credit as his contribution has been pivotal in shaping this organisation, where he rose through the ranks to become chief executive, a role he served from 2008 and 2013. He was the youngest CEO in the history of HUL and was credited for turning around the fortunes of the business in a tough macro-economic environment.
In addition to his Unilever responsibilities, Paranjpe is a member of the supervisory board and sustainability and responsibility committee of the Dutch brewer Heineken. He is also a member of the Chinmaya Mission Advisory Council. Chinmaya Mission, established in 1953 by Swami Chinmayananda, encompasses a wide range of educational, and charitable activities, ennobling the lives of thousands in India and across its borders.
A good communicator, personable and very friendly, he says he never set out to be the top man – he eschews the idea even.
“I wanted to be the best I could be – but everyone kept saying you must aspire to be the best in the world – but that is not up to me. And so I had this philosophy that if I can do the best I can, then whatever level I got to – will be the best level I am destined to get to,” he told the GG2 Power List.
“Too many people are unhappy because they judge their life success based on someone else’s (idea of) success. And you can’t go through life feeling miserable and bitter about what you’ve got.
“Just be yourself,” he emphasised.
