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