Mumbai, Mar 12: Hindustan Lever vice-chairman R Gopalakrishnan is likely to sever ties with the Unilver Plc subsidiary shortly. Gopalakrishnan, who lost out in the HLL chairmanship's sweepstakes to Keki Dadiseth in 1996, is tipped to take over as Reliance Telecom chief executive officer (CEO).Insiders say Reliance Telecom has already made a formal offer to Gopalakrishnan, and a positive reply is expected in a few days time. Gopalakrishnan, who was involved in a day-long board meeting, was not available for comment.
Gopalakrishnan's decision is not the only top-level changes at the Mumbai's Lever House. Pranab Barua, president of the Kissan range of products, has already put in his papers. He is likely to step into Reckitt and Colman CEO A Pradhan's shoes, who has since retired. Barua was a Brooke Bond-Lipton India Ltd (BBLIL) director. He was later re-designated president once the company merged into Hindustan Lever. Hindustan Lever personnel director Aniruddha Lahiri is also moving on. Lahiri, 49, is joining Unilever's global network. He becomes the second Hindustan Lever director to shift to international operations, this year. Last month, Uday Khanna joined Unilever's operations in New York as its finance head. Khanna's post in Hindustan Lever as director exports has been taken over by former Pond's managing director V Balaraman. While Lahiri and Khanna's shift to international operations is a part of Unilever's strategy of creating a global talent pool, Gopalakrishnan's move comes as a major surprise, though notentirely unexpected.
Gopalakrishnan, who joined the company in 1971, is Dadiseth's contemporary. He came back to head Brooke Bond Lipton in 1990 after a stint as Lever Arabia chairman. With Dadiseth piping him to the chairman's post after Sushim Mukul Datta, corporate circles were rife with rumours of a possible split at the top, a possibility completely rubbished by the company always. However, in the past one year the foods' business, contrary to expectations, has not been able to achieve the growth rates it had projected. In fact, while Unilever Plc chairman Niall Fitzerald and Unilever NV chairman Morris Tabaksblat harped on creating a 50:50 business ratio between foods and Hindustan Lever's consumer-products businesses, the ratio is stuck at 40:60. Globally, foods contribute 60 per cent of Unilever's turnover.
Insiders say the tension between the two top managers heightened with the company's decision to place the Kissan Annapurna brand of atta, salt and staples business directly under MS (Vindi) Banga, director in charge of the soaps and detergents' business. Lever watchers feel that Gopalakrishnan might have taken exception to the move, even though the company's decision was spurred by the fact that both the Kissan Annapurna range and soaps and detergents products have the same distribution set-up. However, the issue is that the staple range is seen as the driving force along with the beverages for HLL's foods' business. "Staples fit the HLL philosophy. Low margin, high volumes, things we are good at and hence is a natural engine for growth of the foods business," sources said.
Copyright © 1998 Indian Express Newspapers (Bombay) Ltd.
