Company Outsider: HUL's rare outsider hire signals potential strategic shift

Subscribe to enjoy similar stories. Hindustan Unilever Ltd (HUL) has drafted in Rajneet Kohli, former chief executive officer (CEO) of Britannia Industries Ltd, as executive director, foods, a move that marks a sharp departure for the FMCG major which has mostly preferred elevating in-house talent to its leadership positions. Kohli, a veteran of the FMCG sector, worked with companies like Jubilant Foodworks, Coca-Cola and Asian Paints before joining Britannia as CEO.

HUL’s current leadership team comprises people like CEO Rohit Jawa who started his career with the company; chief financial officer (CFO) Ritesh Tiwari who joined as a management trainee; and chief people, transformation and sustainability officer B.P. Bidappa who has been with the Unilever group for over three decades. Even Shiva Krishnamurthy, a member of the company’s executive committee and the man who Kohli is replacing, was with HUL for the last 25 years.

Both moves, Kohli’s to HUL and Krishnamurthy’s away from it, have an air of mystery about them. Krishnamurthy was named head of HUL’s foods and refreshment business, the second largest for the company, just last year. At 49, he’s likely to join the ranks of HUL alumni like Sudhir Sithapati, Lina Nair, Gopal Vittal, Ignatius Navil Noronha, Anand Kripalu, and Suresh Narayanan, who have gone on to head other firms.

Kohli’s exit from Britannia is more puzzling since he was just two years into his role as CEO of the ₹16,186 crore company, whose growth momentum has slowed over the last two years. Still, Britannia remains an iconic company and to settle for a non-CEO role heading an HUL division with slightly lower sales, seems surprising. But given his age, just around 50, and his successful stints at