‘No matter what business you are in, you are bound to get disrupted’

a digitally driven world, the fundamental assumption is that all businesses will get disrupted, no matter what business it is. Do companies have the capabilities to survive and remain relevant? Harish Manwani, who retires as chairman of Hindustan Unilever Ltd (HUL) later this year after a 40-year career with the company, tells Mint India’s largest listed consumer goods company by sales has remained relevant. Edited excerpts from an interview:

We are seeing disruption in every field due to the advances in technology. How do you stay relevant?

What was relevant 40-years ago when I joined and even now is that you cannot under estimate the importance of people, which is leadership and talent. So, to me what’s most important is that we were the Employer of Choice then and even now. That according to me is the reason why the company has done what it has done—the market cap, the growth. The second is reputation. People often forget, that the most important asset we own as a company is our reputation. The difference now is that it can be destroyed within a second with a click of a mouse, if you don’t do the right thing. But, even 40-years ago, it was the same thing. So, managing reputation, building leadership and talent development, haven’t changed.

A lot has changed..

Today, all change is exponential. It is a highly technology, digital driven world. The fundamental assumption you have to make is that no matter what business you are in, you will get disrupted.

MUMBAI:In

Can you explain what you mean by disruption in the context of the consumer packaged goods sector?

The thing about disruption and exponential disruption is that it’s often not visible. When you are small and you double your business, you are still small and you double it from there; that’s exponential, but it’s still small. If you are a big business, you don’t notice this small change.

But before you know it, this small change will begin to impact you. So, my point is that there is a point of inflection that will happen in businesses.

In FMCG, what is fundamentally changing is where people buy and what people are watching.