Vinita Bali, who recently stepped down as the MD of Britannia Industries, now wants to focus on the creative lateral part of solving social problems
In a career spanning nearly four decades, Vinita Bali has held leadership roles with global brands like Cadbury and Coca-Cola. In her last assignment as the managing director of the Rs 6,829 crore Britannia Industries, she engineered the turnaround of the struggling company into a fast-growing brand: Britannia’s revenue quadrupled during her nine-year tenure. In an interview with Forbes India, Bali says she would now like to divide her time between the development sector, largely focusing on nutrition, and corporates through her advisory and board roles.
Q. After 37 years in the corporate sector, what are your plans now?
To lead a more eclectic life by moving from one full-time operational role to full time, multiple roles. The closest analogy is one of switching to a wide-angle lens from a zoom lens. It was driven by my desire for freedom and flexibility to do different things in the next few decades and make a more varied contribution, rather than be driven by operational responsibility. The 37 years I spent in the corporate world, living in six cities and five continents and travelling to at least another 65 countries (at last count), were fabulous and I now want to harness that experience and seriously spend part of my time in spaces that interest me in the development sector and classical arts. Simultaneously, I will continue my engagement with the corporate sector through boards and advisory roles that also provide a diverse mix across industries and sectors.
Q. What will be your focus in the development sector?
My focus is largely on nutrition. I have spent some time in understating the multiple dimensions of the challenge and figuring out how to be part of the solution. Nutrition has to do with access to food and proper drinking water, access to primary health care, hygiene, sanitation, and education. I have said several times that nutrition sits on the cusp of many other sectors, but is not the centre of any. Therefore, it doesn’t get the attention it deserves, even though in India it is a silent emergency that requires aligned action from the government, corporate, civil society and development agencies. Our reality, when it comes to nutrition, is one of the poorest in the world with one out of every three children born under-weight largely because of a malnourished mother. I am part of the lead group of the Scaling Up Nutrition (SUN) initiative of the United Nations, on the board of Global Alliance for Improved Nutrition (GAIN), a Geneva-based global NGO, and on the advisory board of Cornell University’s division of nutrition science. I also set up the Britannia Nutrition Foundation (BNF) in 2009 with the objective of raising awareness and saliency of the problem, sharing success stories from around the world and fostering public-private partnerships to address the malnutrition challenge. This portfolio helps me understand nutrition in its various dimensions. My involvement in these areas is the creative lateral part that I was missing during my full-time corporate roles.
Q. At present, what are your corporate engagements?
I’m on the global board of Syngenta, a Swiss agrochemical company based in Basel with global operations that focus on seeds and plant health. I have been fascinated by how much science there is to plants and seeds. It connects nicely with my interest in food, nutrition and health. I am also a member of their CSR committee. I’m on the board of Crisil Ltd, which I joined recently, and continue to be on the boards of Titan, the Wadia Group companies and Piramal Glass, which is a B2B business. I also joined the advisory board of The World Gold Council earlier this year. Being an experiential learner, it is great to be associated with these different businesses. When you are working for a company, whether you like it or not, you are put into a box. I want to spend my future in many boxes and not in any one box.
Q. You have said earlier that ‘the greater the challenge, the greater is the joy’. You joined Britannia when it was going through tough times. How did you transform the old biscuit company into a leading food brand?
Q. Are you satisfied with the Britannia you left?
(This story appears in the 08 August, 2014 issue of Forbes India. To visit our Archives, click here.)