HLL banking on Unilever name for global play
Hindustan Lever board on Tuesday proposed that the company be called Hindustan Unilever. It will be the only subsidiary in the entire Unilever world to retain its local connection.
By TNN |
MUMBAI: Hindustan Lever board on Tuesday proposed that the company be called Hindustan Unilever. It will be the only subsidiary in the entire Unilever world to retain its local connection.
Tuesday’s move created a roaring debate among the large universe of former Leverites, especially those who had grown up in an era where the Indian subsidiary enjoyed a lot more autonomy. Like former Leverite D Shivkumar, who is now managing director of Nokia India, one of the marque MNC brands in the country.
“Unilever is probably exercising its right over the Indian subsidiary now. HLL has its unique Indian identity and therefore to be known as HUL is merely a cosmetic change,” said Mr Shivkumar. Naveen Kshatriya, CEO, BP Lubricants, Africa, Middle East, Turkey & S Asia, echoed similar sentiments.
“I do not see any upside or any commercial value in changing the name to Hindustan Unilever. The affix and suffix, Lever is synonymous with the company’s Indian operations and the trade and the consumer knows HLL as ‘Lever’ more than anything else.”
However, AS Ganguly, former HLL chairman and the second Indian to make it to the Unilever board after T Thomas, believes that it is time to junk the emotional baggage of the past. “I have no nostalgia for old names or old happenings. As part of a global group, the name change would be in keeping up with the times in a shrinking world. One name change in a 50 years makes no difference.”
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Even as the debate among generations of Leverites about whether the name change was at all warranted rages on, the top brass under Mr Manwani is banking on a few benefits. At a time when global management consultants and investment banks are eyeing India as the next hothouse for talent, the Lever top brass is hoping that the Unilever connection will reinforce their promise of a global career — something that young executives of today seem to crave for. Sometime next year, the company plans to shift to a new campus in Andheri. But for the many thousands of managers who passed through the portals of 165/166 Backbay Reclamation, it may be very hard to erase the memories of Lever House all at one go.
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