I’m not hanging up my boots, but changing socks, says retiring Hindustan Unilever MD & CEO Sanjiv Mehta

Sanjiv Mehta has been with Unilever for 31 years, ten as the MD and CEO of Hindustan Unilever, taking over in 2013. Mehta leaves behind a rich legacy, with turnover up by 2.3x, operating margins up by three-and-a-half times, market cap up by a factor of six to ₹6.38-lakh crore. Mehta retires at the AGM on June 26, handing over the baton to Rohit Jawa. Mehta says when people ask him what he’s going to do post-retirement, he laughs and says he’s changing socks, not hanging up his boots. He’s taken up two board appointments — Air-India, where he says there’s much to do to regain lost glory, and on the board of global dairy major, Danone, to keep in tune with global trends. “Right now, I’m in the process of listening to people who come up with various offers,” he says. In this conversation, he talks about the big changes he brought into HUL’s functioning and also about the big picture on the consumption story. --- Send in a voice message: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/business-line/message