Indian flavour in Unilever’s recast recipe

There would have been three Indians on the all-new Unilver Executive, but for former HLL chairman K B Dadiseth retiring from Unilever as director today.

Banga is the fourth HLL Chairman to be elevated to the top-most Unilever management team after K.B. Dadiseth (in 2000), A.S. Ganguly (in 1990) and T. Thomas (in 1980). ‘‘I feel very privileged at being part of the Unilever Executive,’’ he said in a statement.

There is no change in HLL’s exisiting structure. Like its parent, HLL itself is struggling with sagging margins and profits. Analysts are expecting HLL to announce a significant fall in profits on Friday.

Unilever’s new single-command structure does away with a 75-year-old two CEOs setup, which was considered unwieldy. Now, under CEO Patrick Cescau, Unilever hopes it will have the dexterity to deal with slumping margins, tough competition, and the global merger of Gillette with chief rival Procter & Gamble.

The new executive team is led by and comprises of the President — Foods, President – Home & Personal Care, Regional Presidents for Europe, the Americas, and Asia & Africa, the Chief Financial Officer and the Chief Human Resources Officer.

Antony Burgmans, who was sharing the chairmanship with Cescau, will be non-executive chairman. The executive team replaces the existing executive committee and the divisions.

HLL’s current national management, comprising of Vice Chairman, M K Sharma, D Sundaram (Director – Finance & IT), Arun Adhikari (Managing Director – HPC) and S Ravindranath (Managing Director – Foods) continues unchanged.

The national management committee has responsibility for HLL’s performance, and overall coordination of the divisional structure and corporate functions.

Banga: Rising from the ranks MUMBAI: From a management trainee in 1977 to chairman of HLL in 2000, M S Banga has come a long way in the Unilever group. In a career spanning 27 years, 50-year-old Banga has worked in sales & marketing assignments in the HPC businesses in India and abroad.

In December 1998, he moved to the Unilever head office in London as senior vice president responsible for the hair & oral care categories. In April 2004, he was appointed Business Group President of Unilever’s HPC Business in Asia.