Adopt sustainable biz models: Unilever global chief to India Inc

Rapid globalisation and the resulting inter-dependence of financial markets, technology and economic systems have made the world more complex to manage and now is the time for India Inc to embrace sustainable business models, a top official said here Wednesday.

"Never before have we seen such rapid explosions in the global population, shifts in economic power or resulting pressures on natural resources with enormous swings in currencies, raw material costs and climate becoming the norm," said Unilever Global CEO Paul Polman.

He said the digital revolution will continue to change lives and business at an increasingly fast pace and many struggle with this 'new normal' with the average tenure of a CEO now less than four years and those of politicians even shorter.

Polman was addressing the day-long Indian Society of Advertisers Global CEO Conference on Navigating VUCA (volatile, uncertain, complex and ambiguous).

He urged India Inc to embrace sustainable business models, be intuitive, explore new markets and pare unnecessary costs.

"All of us need to be net contributors to society, offer more than we take from the society. We cannot afford any more global warming, let people go hungry or allow people to work for abysmally low fees. Capitalism needs to evolve," Polman emphasised, advising how business leaders could navigate through tough economic situations.

Other top corporate heads like Tata Sons' R. Gopalakrishnan, Cadbury India's Manu Anand and Tata Motors' Ravi Kant, Hero Motocorp's Pawan Munjal, Vodafone India's Marten Pieters, Facebook India head Kirthiga Reddy, Raymond Lifestyle Business' Sanjay Behl, MCCS India's Ashok Venkatramani, ISA Chairman and HUL executive director Hemant Bakshi, Exchange4media Group's Anurag Batra and Indian Society of Advertisers' (ISA) treasurer Paulomi Dhawan were among other prominent speakers at the conference.

The ISA is the peak national body for advertisers since more than six decades and represents organisations involved in Indian advertising, marketing and media industries.

ISA members constitute more than two-thirds of India's national non-government ad spends and aims to protect consumers by ensuring that advertising and marketing communications are conducted responsibly besides safeguarding rights of its members to communicate freely with their customers.