• Samir Singh as Lifebuoy’s global sales

increased by 17%p.a. and gross profit

1. How would you evaluate
Samir Singh’s first three years
as Global Brand VP for Lifebuoy
soap? How difficult was the
situation he inherited? How
effective has he been in dealing
with those challenges? Where
has he fallen short?
by 22%p.a. from the period 2009-
2012.
• The key features of his role as VP in
the first 3 years were:
• To improve the health and hygiene
of a billion people by 2015
• Unilever had an uneven
performance in the recent decades
• He managed to reverse the decline
in market share that Lifebuoy was
experiencing
• Lifebuoy had to be the standard
bearer of the goals that the top
management wanted to achieve
The challenges faced by Singh were:
Unilever had an uneven
performance in recent decades
Competitors like Dettol were into
price and promotional competition
The new CEO wanted to make
strategic and organizational changes
Lifebuoy was into continued
reinvention, repositioning and
launch
Singh dealing with the concerns:
Integrating the social mission
Defining a global strategy to reclaim
Lifebuoy’s status
How to go about implementation of
plans in India among the following
KKD Rural Outreach Campaign
MP Partnership Model
Urban Schools Liquid Initiative
2. What do you think of
Paul Polman’s USLP
strategy? How realistic is it
to overlay USLP’s bold
sustainability goals over
financial objectives? What
implications does it have
for middle managers like
Singh and frontline
managers like Sitapati?
Paul Polman’s strategy was to:
Halve the environmental footprint of
it’s products
Help 1 billion people improve their
health and well being
Source 100% of it’s agricultural raw
materials sustainably
He believed that growth at any price is
not viable
It was launched as a part of Unilever’s
Sustainable Living Plan
Rationale behind overlaying USLP: Implications on managers:

Tackling sustainability challenges provides

new opportunities for sustainable growth They set unrealistic targets

It creates preference for brands

Constantly under pressure to perform
Builds business with retail customers

Drives innovation Even Unilever did not have all the answers and
was aiming to form partnerships
Grows potential markets

Generates cost savings They had too many parameters to lay focus on,
varying from finances to sustainability to sales
to profit margin

They had a limited time period to show

whether what they were doing was translating
into results

3. As Sitapati, what decision
would you make regarding the
three handwashing behavior
change programs that have
been proposed? What risks and
benefits are associated with
each?
The KKD Rural Outreach Initiative :
Risks –
• The reach to remote villages becoming
decreasingly cost effective.
• The Lifebuoy demonstrations to
housewives is not resulting in
sustainable behavior change.
Benefits –
• Ability to reach remote rural media
dark areas.
• Prominent Product Placements in the
village shops.
The MP Partnership Initiative
Risks –
Time Consuming with a long
payback period
The training and materials could not
be branded with Lifebuoy’s name
Benefits -
Training children could influence the
family behavior.
The scope of expansion to other
Indian States.
The Urban School Liquids Initiative:
Risks -
The total size of the liquid hand wash
market -> 5% of the total soap
market.
Distraction from the organization
attention towards the behavior
change. Reach of only 1.5 million
people.
Benefits –
High growth segment – Growing at
40% annually. And is also having high
profit margins.
Less payback period – 3.5 Years