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Bloomberg
After striking a pugnacious tone at Unilever’s capital markets day last year, Paul Polman extended an olive branch in his final investor presentation as chief executive officer of the consumer-goods giant.
Polman, who’s preparing to hand over to Alan Jope in January, told analysts and shareholders that he’d been texting his wife Kim about how to leave things. Her view was, “When in doubt, hug it out,†the departing chief said as he tried to mend a relationship that was tested last year when he told analysts they were squandering the possibility of higher returns by scorning Unilever’s cost-cutting efforts.
“Let’s respect each other,†Polman said at the latest investor day in Mumbai. The company’s stated mission of improving society can even result in cost cuts, he said, as when the company invested in renewable energy to avoid carbon taxes.
In handing over to personal-care chief Jope, the 62-year-old Dutchman is ending a nearly decade-long tenure during which he crisscrossed the world to meet with heads of state and form alliances with non-profit groups to promote capitalism with a feel-good twist. He directed Unilever to install toilets
in Africa through its Domestos brand and encouraged Asian schoolchildren to wash their hands — using Lifebuoy soap — to reduce disease spread.
That approach was strained by an unsolicited takeover approach last year from Kraft Heinz Co., which has a reputation for lifting earnings through cost-cutting.
Polman was criticised for failing to gauge investor sentiment over a plan to consolidate the Anglo-Dutch company’s headquarters in the Netherlands, which collapsed in October. He moved on from that setback this week with a $3.8 billion deal for GlaxoSmithKline brands like malted-milk beverage Horlicks.