HLL spots nine new areas to double sales

By Our Staff Correspondent

MUMBAI, APRIL 26. Hindustan Lever (HLL) has identified nine new business initiatives which, along with the present businesses, will drive the company's ambition to double its turnover every four years. The nine new growth engines comprise entry into categories new to HLL and unique business systems for specific channel or segment opportunities.

Mr. K.B. Dadiseth, who passes on the baton of chairmanship to Mr. M.S. Banga at the end of this month, unveiled the new growth blueprint in his address at the annual general meeting yesterday. Implementation of the strategy, an outcome of the year-long ``Project Millennium'' exercise, has already begun.

``Our new growth engines will become thriving businesses of significant size over the next 6 to 8 years,'' said Mr. Dadiseth. ``They will help us accelerate new demand at the lower end of the market spectrum and also capture value from shifts in the nature of demand at the upper end. Significantly, Hindustan Lever will make rapid strides in the new economy by leveraging the power of Internet technologies in the wed-enablement of its existing infrastructure and in launching several new e-businesses.''

Recalling the launch of Project Millennium, he said, ``HLL's vision is to create a self-sustaining virtuous cycle of business growth through people growth. The better we leverage the capabilities of our excellent people, the more certain we are that Hindustan Lever will grow. And the faster the company grows, the more opportunities we can create to attract and retain high calibre people. The blue-print, therefore, will sustain HLL's position as an employer of choice Equally, it ensures that HLL enables growth through consumer-focussed business structures, appropriate knowledge management and continuing focus on better management of costs.''

Among the growth engines, being incubated under the direct oversight of the Board and staffed with handpicked teams, is a specific rural business system, and Internet-based initiatives.

HLL will develop appropriate products for rural India. It will deploy communication and information technology to establish connectivity in the distribution system at a scale never attempted before. Finally, in a win-win partnership, it will join hands with rural self-help groups and the initiative will create critically needed sustainable jobs for thousands of villagers, while for the company it will translate into extending its distribution into hitherto explored territory.

HLL has developed a 3-pronged strategy to leverage the Internet. First, the company will connect. The web-enabled extended supply chain of stockists, suppliers, banks and even potentially top retailers will create the most capital-efficient supply chain optimised for handling product, cash and information flow.

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