‘Unless We Change Direction…’
On the 17th of October students and faculty of Moscow universities met Paul Polman, the Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of the Unilever group of companies.
Mr. Polman has 30 years' experience of managing such high level companies as Procter & Gamble and Nestle. On January 1, 2009 Paul Polman took over as Chief Executive Officer of the Unilever group of companies, and since 2010 he has headed a working group on food security at the World Economic Forum in Davos. In addition, Paul Polman is the head of the Kilimanjaro Blind Trust (a charity working with blind children in East Africa) and the Advisory Board of the Perkins Fund International, a member of the Swiss-American Chamber of Commerce and the International Council for Sustainable Development. He is also a member of the Liverhalma Charity Board (a foundation which provides scholarships for research and education) and, since 2010 he has been a Board member of the Dow Chemical Company in the U.S.A.
"On any given day, two billion people use Unilever products to look good, feel good and get more out of life.” This statement of Mr. Polman seems almost unbelievable unless you know the range of products the company produces. Unilever’s portfolio of products includes such well known brands of food as Calve, Crème Bonjour, Knorr, Rama, Brooke Bond and Lipton tea, as well as popular brands of personal care products like Axe, Dove, Clear vita ABE, Rexona, Sunsilk, Timotei and household cleaning products including Domestos, Cif and Glorix.
“We realize, - Paul Polman said, -that innovation is the key to our progress, and through cutting-edge science we’re constantly enhancing our brands, improving their nutritional properties, taste, fragrance or functionality. We invest nearly €1 billion every year in research and development, and have established laboratories around the world where our scientists explore new thinking and techniques, applying their expertise to our products. Consumer research plays a vital role in this process. Our unrivalled global reach allows us to get closer to consumers in local markets, ensuring we understand their diverse needs and priorities”.
Since Unilever was established in the 1890s, brands with a social mission have been at the core of its business, and now corporate responsibility underpins their strategy. In 2010 the company launched the Unilever Sustainable Living Plan – a set of targets designed to help them to deliver their objective of growing the business while minimising its negative impact on the environment.
To embed sustainability into every stage of the life cycle of Unilever products, they work with suppliers to support responsible approaches to agriculture as well as learning from NGOs and other organizations on how to develop standards of personal hygiene, nutrition and environmental education. Unilever’s management team recognizes that building a truly sustainable business is not something they can do without expert advice.
According to Paul Polman, the company strategy and policy are currently determined by the three major trends of contemporary life: the global shift of business activity from west to east; the huge influence of social networks on all spheres of human activity; the end of the "era of abundance" and the beginning of an era of increasing scarcity of resources.
"If you do not take into account the objective conditions of modern economic development - Paul Polman said, - you can’t expect to succeed. The world is becoming increasingly unstable and unpredictable. I like the Chinese proverb, - he added - "Unless we change direction, we’re likely to end up where we’re going." So, in my opinion, the most important thing is to understand exactly where we are heading and whether it’s worth heading there or not at all. "
Valentina Gruzintseva, HSE News Service
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