Livestream: Making responsible growth a tenet of trade

When Harish Manwani, COO of Unilever, had joined Unilever in 1976 as a management trainee, his boss asked him on the very first day of work, “Do you know why you’re here?” Manwani went on to give the tried and tested reply – to sell a lot of soap. To this, his boss replied, “You’re here to change lives.”

Manwani soon came around and realised that ordinary acts such as selling a bar of soap was could save more lives than the what the pharma industry would choose to believe. Manwani lets in on a disturbing statistic – as many as five million children do not reach the age of five owing to simple infections that could be prevented by an act of washing their hands with soap.

Manwani goes on to talk about how Unilever is now running one of the largest hand-washing programmes in the world. And it lays the foundation for his speech themed around why profits are not always the point.

He says, the entire model of capitalism and the economic model that one did business in, and, in fact, continue to do business in, was built around what Milton Friedman put succinctly. “And Adam Smith, the father of modern economics said many, many years ago, ‘If you continue to operate in your own self-interest you will do the best good for society.’”

He also calls on the listeners to move beyond this conventional wisdom of running a business – driven purely by the 3Gs of growth – consistent, competitive and profitable. He exhorts his listeners to add another element to this philosophy – that of ‘responsible growth’. It’s a notion that looks beyond mere shareholder value and aims to endow enterprises with the power to create both economic and social value. The executive also brings into focus the need for sustainable living becoming a way of life.

Whether it’s manufacturing detergents that cut down on the amount of water it takes to wash a load of clothes or even buying palm oils from sources that are completely sustainable, Manwani makes a strong case for India Inc to take a step back and reconsider the manner in which their progress is being charted.