It's the season of pink slips and break-ups - of people and portfolios.
L'Oreal is shaking up its local leadership, importing a Frenchman to be the India country manager, and pushing the incumbent to become the chairman. For the first time in history, Coca- Cola's India bottler has roped in an outsider - a former Mondelez man - to lead the business. Across the Pacific, the makers of Listerine, Band-Aid, Neutrogena, Kenvue - which itself was spun out of J&J in 2023 - also announced the exit of their CEO, as the consumer health company reviews its brands and business. Even Kraft Heinz is breaking up after 12 years of misadventure, for the same reason it got merged in the first place: financial engineering.
But none is as dramatic as the recent CEO whiplash at the Indian arm of Unilever, months after the ousting of its global CEO. Rohit Jawa's shelf life at the India office - the shortest in its local history - startled the Street, sparking yet again the debate over the suboptimality of short tenures for C-suites to ratchet up longtime laggards like Unilever or Diageo, which also saw its CEO exit this week.
The abrupt nature of such corporate announcements suggests a growing impatience within. Corporations spent years and billions bulking up. They expanded in a globalised world to leverage the strength of distribution at scale, market access, tech and talent. But, today, risks have become exogenous, as fenced borders, barriers to trade and battles have upended tried-and-tested strategies. Big is no longer better, nor is it beautiful. Even industries like FMCG, that have hewed to homegrown talent, are also being forced to experiment with external talent to reimagine their portfolio.
That is exactly what HUL must do, too - by turning to the neighbourhood and seeking inspiration from the once crusty conglomerate from Singapore - Fraser & Neave (F&N) - and its former chairman Lee Hsien Yang. In 2007, Lee surprised the region's corporate world and his father Lee Kuan Yew, with his departure from Singtel at 55, after 12 years as its CEO. In little over a decade, he had propelled Singtel into a transcontinental telecom heavyweight, grabbing stakes in mobile phone companies in the Philippines, Indonesia, Thailand, Bangladesh, and Bharti Airtel.
Lee's appointment as an outsider to lead the F&N boardroom was to shake things up in the then-125-year-old colonial vestige that was as confused as it was complex. F&N, which was set up as a soft drink company in 1883, after dabbling in printing and publishing, went on to brew beer, bottle soda, make milk, churn yogurt, and even run a chain of serviced apartments and commercial real estate.
When Lee assumed command, the F&N Group was more spread out than Singtel. Within five years, he streamlined management, sliced and diced businesses, listed some, focused on core operations, capital distribution, and then oversaw a bidding war for F&N that resulted in Southeast Asia's biggest corporate takeover. In 2013, Thai billionaire and beer baron Charoen Sirivadhanabhakdi paid $11.2 bn for F&N. Shareholders reaped the near-fivefold increase under Lee's watch. That's value creation.
Following the takeover, Lee's job was done. He pivoted to regulatory, corporate stewardship, and even political roles.
Make no mistake, institutions like HUL are not up for sale. But as it welcomes its new CEO - also an insider - it should consider appointing an outsider as chairperson with an explicit mandate to release shareholder value. Let him plan just for that. If its parent can have one, why can't the business - its second-largest market - that is screaming for a reboot, have one?
At the HQ, businessman Ian Meakins - a notorious taskmaster - was onboarded in 2023 to add vim to the makers of Lipton Tea and Dove soap as chairman, for his track record of wielding the axe at most of the close to a dozen enterprises he headed.
Unilever in India, much like elsewhere, needs stability along with a recipe to recoup lost ground, market share and sheen to combat the D2C and social media juggernaut. The structure of having lifers as both chair and CEO has made the company flounder. And that's why the outside-in perspective is essential - to bust the company's too-comfortable culture and accelerate change, including weighing up potential acquisitions and disposals.
Value creation can lie in both strategically buying and bundling off businesses. Globally, industrial conglomerates have been among the fastest to change and adapt to a fast-changing landscape - with GE, Emerson Electric, Honeywell and Siemens all having moved to separate themselves. Most of them were steered by outsiders - either as CEO or board chair. If Holcim or AkzoNobel can exit India, or Citi sell its thriving consumer business in India, spin off Mexico - unthinkable till recently - maybe the route to recovery for HUL will start by taking a bitter, bolder bite and splitting the foods franchise.
Chew on that.
L'Oreal is shaking up its local leadership, importing a Frenchman to be the India country manager, and pushing the incumbent to become the chairman. For the first time in history, Coca- Cola's India bottler has roped in an outsider - a former Mondelez man - to lead the business. Across the Pacific, the makers of Listerine, Band-Aid, Neutrogena, Kenvue - which itself was spun out of J&J in 2023 - also announced the exit of their CEO, as the consumer health company reviews its brands and business. Even Kraft Heinz is breaking up after 12 years of misadventure, for the same reason it got merged in the first place: financial engineering.
But none is as dramatic as the recent CEO whiplash at the Indian arm of Unilever, months after the ousting of its global CEO. Rohit Jawa's shelf life at the India office - the shortest in its local history - startled the Street, sparking yet again the debate over the suboptimality of short tenures for C-suites to ratchet up longtime laggards like Unilever or Diageo, which also saw its CEO exit this week.
The abrupt nature of such corporate announcements suggests a growing impatience within. Corporations spent years and billions bulking up. They expanded in a globalised world to leverage the strength of distribution at scale, market access, tech and talent. But, today, risks have become exogenous, as fenced borders, barriers to trade and battles have upended tried-and-tested strategies. Big is no longer better, nor is it beautiful. Even industries like FMCG, that have hewed to homegrown talent, are also being forced to experiment with external talent to reimagine their portfolio.
That is exactly what HUL must do, too - by turning to the neighbourhood and seeking inspiration from the once crusty conglomerate from Singapore - Fraser & Neave (F&N) - and its former chairman Lee Hsien Yang. In 2007, Lee surprised the region's corporate world and his father Lee Kuan Yew, with his departure from Singtel at 55, after 12 years as its CEO. In little over a decade, he had propelled Singtel into a transcontinental telecom heavyweight, grabbing stakes in mobile phone companies in the Philippines, Indonesia, Thailand, Bangladesh, and Bharti Airtel.
Lee's appointment as an outsider to lead the F&N boardroom was to shake things up in the then-125-year-old colonial vestige that was as confused as it was complex. F&N, which was set up as a soft drink company in 1883, after dabbling in printing and publishing, went on to brew beer, bottle soda, make milk, churn yogurt, and even run a chain of serviced apartments and commercial real estate.
When Lee assumed command, the F&N Group was more spread out than Singtel. Within five years, he streamlined management, sliced and diced businesses, listed some, focused on core operations, capital distribution, and then oversaw a bidding war for F&N that resulted in Southeast Asia's biggest corporate takeover. In 2013, Thai billionaire and beer baron Charoen Sirivadhanabhakdi paid $11.2 bn for F&N. Shareholders reaped the near-fivefold increase under Lee's watch. That's value creation.
Following the takeover, Lee's job was done. He pivoted to regulatory, corporate stewardship, and even political roles.
Make no mistake, institutions like HUL are not up for sale. But as it welcomes its new CEO - also an insider - it should consider appointing an outsider as chairperson with an explicit mandate to release shareholder value. Let him plan just for that. If its parent can have one, why can't the business - its second-largest market - that is screaming for a reboot, have one?
At the HQ, businessman Ian Meakins - a notorious taskmaster - was onboarded in 2023 to add vim to the makers of Lipton Tea and Dove soap as chairman, for his track record of wielding the axe at most of the close to a dozen enterprises he headed.
Unilever in India, much like elsewhere, needs stability along with a recipe to recoup lost ground, market share and sheen to combat the D2C and social media juggernaut. The structure of having lifers as both chair and CEO has made the company flounder. And that's why the outside-in perspective is essential - to bust the company's too-comfortable culture and accelerate change, including weighing up potential acquisitions and disposals.
Value creation can lie in both strategically buying and bundling off businesses. Globally, industrial conglomerates have been among the fastest to change and adapt to a fast-changing landscape - with GE, Emerson Electric, Honeywell and Siemens all having moved to separate themselves. Most of them were steered by outsiders - either as CEO or board chair. If Holcim or AkzoNobel can exit India, or Citi sell its thriving consumer business in India, spin off Mexico - unthinkable till recently - maybe the route to recovery for HUL will start by taking a bitter, bolder bite and splitting the foods franchise.
Chew on that.
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