Leadership Development: The HUL Way

Leadership Development: The HUL Way

Expected Learning Outcomes

• • HUL’s leadership development program and the core elements that have been the integral part of the program in creating the requisite leadership talent for HUL
• • Basic premises of HUL’s leadership development program

I. Core Elements of HUL’s Leadership Development Program

1. Sanjiv Mehta, CEO, HUL, has been quoted in the base article that, “Our business revolves around great brand and great people. And great brands are built by great people.” What is the nature of HUL’s business? What is its organizational structure? What kind of leadership is required at HUL?
2. The base article states that, “Like the famed Spartan military training, HUL believes in starting early”. What is Spartan military training? What is its  significance to HUL’s leadership training?
3. It has been stated in the base article that, “Every year dozens of management trainees join the Unilever Future Leadership Program (UFLP) and for 15 months they are coached and assessed. Over half of HUL senior leadership has come from this program and it hinges on a central belief – that leaders build leaders.” What kind of organizational culture and organizational systems are required to let leaders create leaders?
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II. Basic Premise of HUL’s Leadership Development Program

1. Geeta Royyuru states in the base article, “To get that kind of visibility so early in my career is overwhelming”. What are the pros and cons for young  executives working with the top management/CEO, very early in his/her career or vice versa?
2. How does this dynamic (CEO working with a relatively young and less experienced executive) pan out in the organizational rubric of a company like HUL, for instance?
3. Would placing young executives through a battery of programs, interactions with senior executives and feedback from senior executives not stress them out early in their careers?
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Leadership Development: The HUL Way

Synopsis

This Case Flyer throws light on HUL’s unique leadership development program. It helps in understanding the Unilever Future Leaders Program that helps HUL churn out leaders at a constant pace. It also explains the leadership program’s central belief that leaders build leaders. After enabling an in-depth analysis of the program, the Case Flyer also debates on the down-sides of nurturing youngsters as future leaders – stressing out the youngsters, making them over ambitious, impact on those who
could not make it to the leadership development program, etc.

Prerequisite Conceptual Understanding

• • Stephen P. Robbins, et al., “Leadership”, Organizational Behavior, 15th Edition, Dorling Kindersley (India) Pvt. Ltd., 2013

Before the Classroom Discussion

• • The students/participants should be encouraged to understand the nature of HUL’s business – including the categories that it operates in, the brands that it has across the product lines and the Critical Success Factors (CSFs) of such a business

Suggested Reading for the Faculty

• • Paul J H Schoemaker, et al., “Strategic Leadership: The Essential Skills”, Harvard Business Review, January-February 2013 – To understand the skills that one can develop to transform into a strategic leader

Case Positioning and Setting

This Case Flyer can be used

• • In MBA Program for Organizational Behavior course to explain the concept of leadership in general and mentoring in particular

Preamble to this Case Flyer Analysis

This Case Flyer discussion focusses on Unilever Future Leadership Program (UFLP). While the base article gives glimpses of the program, the questions of the Case Flyer enable a debate on various elements of the program. It helps understand the concepts of coaching and mentoring in the backdrop of HUL’s leadership development program. The Case Flyer discussion was orchestrated accordingly [Exhibit (TN)-I]................

Case Analysis/Case Flyer Discussion

I. Core Elements of HUL’s Leadership Development Program

The discussion in this section focuses on HUL’s leadership development program. However, to be able to understand the core elements of the program, the students/participants first need to be sensitized to HUL’s nature of business and its organizational structure. This will help understand the kind of leadership required for the FMCG behemoth.

• Nature of HUL’s Business and its Organizational Structure

The four main features of HUL’s business can be summed up as:

a. B2C – Although HUL’s business can be described as a B2C business, the company does not directly deal with the customers. Its products reach customers through retailers [Exhibit (TN)-II].

b. Brand driven – It is the retailers who uphold the legacy of the brand. Therefore, it can be guessed that HUL manages a good relationship with its retailers

c. Access driven – The company and its products are good only as long as the customers are able to get them easily. Access includes availability of the products, online as well as offline. The products are made available to the customers not only through brick and mortar stores but also through online stores such as bigbasket.com, naturesbasket.co.in, etc.

d. Distribution driven – The products are to be made available to the customers up to the last mile. Hence, a strong distribution network is one of most significant features of its business

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Exhibits

Exhibit (TN)-I: Preamble to Case Flyer Analysis

Exhibit (TN)-II: HUL’s B2C Business

Exhibit (TN)-III: Leadership Required at HUL

Exhibit (TN)-IV: Comparison between Spartan Military Training and HUL’s Leadership Training

Exhibit (TN)-V: Organizational Culture and Organizational Systems

Exhibit (TN)-VI: The Skill-Will Matrix

Exhibit (TN)-VII: Leadership Development Pyramid

Exhibit (TN)-VIII: Differences between Management Trainees

Exhibit (TN)-IX: Impact on Organizational Rubric

Exhibit (TN)-X: Positive and Negative Ambitiousness

Exhibit (TN)-XI: Assessing the Skills needed to Develop a Strategic Leader

Exhibit (TN)-XII: Benefits of Job Rotation