FMCG behemoth Hindustan Unilever on January 24 announced the appointment of Nitin Paranjpe as the non-executive chairman and non-executive director of the company, effective from March 31, 2022. Sanjiv Mehta, the CEO and MD of the company, said HUL in a stock exchange filing, will continue in his current role.
The company also announced the re-appointment of Dev Bajpai as a whole-time director for a period of five years starting from 23rd January, 2022 to 22nd January, 2027.
Nitin Paranjpe commenting on his appointment as the Non-Executive Chairman said, “It’s an honour and a privilege to be appointed as the non-executive Chairman of HUL; one of the most respected companies in the country. I look forward to working closely with Sanjiv and the Board to further strengthen the company and help navigate the challenges and opportunities in the years ahead.”
Paranjpe’s appointment comes amidst a major restructuring within the HUL’s parent company Unilever. Unilever about a month back had announced a restructuring exercise within the company and re-appointed Nitin Paranjpe, a former HUL CEO, as the chief transformation officer and chief people officer. He is currently the COO of the company.
Read: Unilever’s restructuring to generate 600 million euros of cost-saving, says management
Paranjpe, the company said, will lead the business transformation, and head the HR function now. The executive was CEO of Unilever's Indian unit HUL and served as executive vice president for the South Asia region from 2008-2013. In 2013, he was appointed president of home care business at Unilever and then president of food and refreshments in 2018. Paranjpe in 2018, also became a member of the Unilever Leadership Executive and COO of the company in 2019.
Under the new structure, Unilever will move away from its current matrix structure and will be organised around five distinct business groups – beauty and wellbeing, personal care, home care, nutrition, and ice cream.
The proposed new organisation model will result in a reduction of 15 percent in senior management roles while the junior management roles will be trimmed by 5 percent, equivalent to around 1,500 roles globally, the company had informed in a press statement.
FMCG major Unilever’s restructuring exercise, which will bring about a significant change in how the organisation has been run for the past two decades, will result in a cost-saving of 600 million euros, the company’s management said while addressing post-earning investor call on February 10.
Its CEO Alan Jope in an answer to an investor query stressed that matrix structure” had served its purpose for the company and wasn’t working anymore. “It slows down the decision-making and diffuses accountability,” he added.
The company, hence, will appoint five business leaders for each of these business groups, reporting to the top management. As part of its restructuring exercise, Unilever, said Jope, is also optimising its profit and loss statement (P&L) across categories at the country-level.
“We will now optimise the P&L within a category across countries so that we retain the strategic integrity of the agenda of each of those categories,” he added.
