As Nestle’s recall of Maggi noodles across the

country winds to a close, the task of

rebuilding the brand, regaining trust and

reintroducing the product will fall to SureshNarayanan. He’s taking over as head of Nestle

India, having been reassigned from his job as

managing director of the Philippines unit.

Narayanan, 55, cut his teeth at Hindustan

Unilever in the company of peers such as

Nitin Paranjpe (president, home care

business, Unilever), Mukul Deoras (global

chief marketing officer, Colgate Palmoive)

and D Shivakumar (chairman and CEO of

PepsiCo India). His boss Wan Ling Martello,

executive vice president at Nestlé SA and one

of the company’s directors, is in Delhi to

oversee the transition in India. In a joint

interview to Ratna Bhushan and ChaitaliChakravarty, the Nestle executives said the

worst was behind them and the company is

keen to bring one of India’s most-loved

brands back on the shelves. Edited excerpts:

You are known as a turnaround specialist.

But this is a crisis of a different kind.

What’s the strength you have that gives

you the confidence of pulling Nestle back

from the brink?

Narayanan:Nestle India is not “on the brink”

and I want to say this with all the emphasis I

can muster. Yes, we face a challenging

situation, but I am confident that we will

resolve this issue through engagement with all

stakeholders. I am a people’s person and

business is all about relationships — with the

people who buy and sell our products, with our

business partners, our employees and of

course the authorities. I will focus on ensuring

that all those relationships are as strong and

professional as they can be.

Is this the start of a new culture in Nestle?

Will we get to see the CEO more?

Narayanan: Yes. You will.

It’s been argued that Nestle allowed the

Maggi incident to snowball into a

controversy by not reacting on time. It

took the company 10 days or so to issue its

first statement. Do you think you should

have been more proactive?

Wan Ling Martello: Just like a sports game,

there’s always going to be, in hindsight, could

we have done this better? How do you learn?

You learn by five things. You learnt by going

to school, reading, listening, observing and by

self reflection. This unfortunate incident has

happened to us. And guess what? We are

going to learn individually and collectively

reflect on what happened.

I was not here. The local team was working

with the centre. We were also getting test

results. I don’t want to dwell on what could

have gone well. We should have probably

gone on TV and be seen eating a bowl of Maggi

noodles. I mean, look, I heard a lot of that

comment. And you’re right. Perception

becomes reality. Do you think media handled

it properly? There was a bit of a trial by media

as well.

Had this crisis not happened, would

Suresh Narayanan been here?

Narayanan:Well, it’s a bit like this. We are

part of the international talent pool of Nestle. I

think in the wisdom of things, depending on

the development of the market and

depending on what stage we are in, you get

called upon to take on assignments. I think

Wan Ling is better suited to answer that

question. She is my boss and she’s the one

who takes the call.

In 1998, Nestle let go of its Indian MD

Darius Ardeshir for financial

mismanagement and replaced him with an

expat to clean up the books. Now Nestle is

replacing an expat CEO with an Indian to

clean up another mess. Isn’t that ironic?

Martello: The average tenure for somebody

retiring from Nestle is 10 years. And it isn’t

going down. One of the incredible strengths

of Nestle as a group is the commitment and

loyalty. Nestle is a global company. I came in

from outside. I am Chinese American, I am a

woman. I am surrounded by colleagues who

are male. But from day one, I have never felt

an outsider.

Suresh is Indian. But he was in Singapore,

Egypt, Philippines. He has capabilities. The

last bit was the icing on the cake — that Suresh

happens to be Indian. As we look at

appointments, it very much depends on at

what stage and lifecycle the business is. We

also look at what’s good for the individual. We

say here is a high-potential, high-performing

individual. What does he or she need? He or

she needs an emerging-market experience.

We look at it from both ends — what the

business needs and what’s good for the

individual. We try to marry that together. We

have not had an Indian MD (in India) but we

have so many Indians in senior management

positions (globally). At the centre, we have 80

different nationalities. We don’t pick people

depending on nationalities... I know Suresh’s

track record. He has the ability to inspire a

team and nurture talent.

But in this particular case, nationality of the

CEO would be important because you need

to engage with various stakeholders, isn’t it?

Martello: Of course, at this stage having

somebody who understands the local

landscape helps, though I must say that in my

meetings (with stakeholders in India) I never

for a moment felt that just because I was not

Indian they did not engage with me. Even

other managers from the centre have been

well received by local stakeholders.

As the recall process comes to a close, we are

looking at rebuilding. It is very much about

how we can take Nestle India to the next

phase of our journey. Suresh, for me, is

perfect for the job. When I scanned the world

for different talents who could do this, it was

Suresh’s capabilities that I thought about.

First and foremost he is very much a people’s

person. Our Nestle India colleagues have

been through a lot. It has been a Herculean

task from what the teams have been doing. I

was here for seven days and I saw up close

and personal. They worked tirelessly, the

weekends, the nights. It’s just incredible.

Narayanan: I joined Nestle India in 1999 as

head of sales. In 2003, I was sent to Indochina.

I was called back to India to fix issues in sales

channels across the region. It was an

enhanced assignment. Nestle keeps giving

you varying degrees of stretch seeing your

capability. That worked out well for me. Every

assignment was stretching me that much

more to see whether I was capable of taking it.

After that I went to Singapore as the MD for

about two and a half years. That was again

during the downturn and the business grew.

Thereafter, I went to Egypt, which was quite

a time. That was in September 2010, just

before the revolution started. That was a

humbling experience because a team that

was not particularly known for any great

performance actually blossomed. It showed

in four years some of the best growth we

have had. We also invested in Egypt what we

didn’t invest in 10 years. As Wan Ling said, I

enjoy working with people and teams. We are

not talking machines here nor are we talking

about impersonal brands. We are talking

about people. I am really energised when I

think we have 7,000 people and more than

half a million others who are associated with

us in some form or other. Deep down in my

gut, the words that come to me are, ‘we shall

overcome’. I want to tell Maggi consumers —

trust me, trust my brand. It is safe. To all

employees, colleagues and associates who

have been on the cause of Nestle for years, I

want to pass on a single message that we can

build back brick-by-brick and together. And

to all the associates, partners, distributors

and suppliers, I just want to say — you can

trust me.

You were saying there are varying

degrees of stretch. Is this your biggest

challenge?

Narayanan: Every assignment has had a

different challenge. Some assignments had

the challenge of building teams while some

had the challenge of building strategy. The

four-and-a-half years I spent in Egypt, Libya

and Sudan were the most challenging. Paul

Bulcke (Nestle SA’s global CEO) visited me and

asked, what are you looking at? He laughed

and said, what else? You couldn’t have asked

for a more potent combination of things that

were happening. Each of the assignments

have had a facet that has been energising and

stimulated me to give my best.

What’s the first message you will give

employees when you formally take over

as CEO?

Narayanan: I will tell them let’s get our

self-confidence back. We will work as a team. I

don’t have a magical wand. It will be consistent,

systematic hard work. We will step up

engagement with government. I am not

confrontational. For us quality is trust.

What’s the tangible and intangible hit that

the company has taken on Maggi. An

article in ET estimated it at about .̀ 12,000

crore.

Narayanan: We are in the silent period so we

cannot comment on this. We have already

provided the broad cost estimates to the

stock exchange and will announce the

financial results for this quarter on July 29.

Do you think India’s image in the world

outside as a safe destination for

investment has taken a hit? Does it in any

way jeopardise Prime Minister Narendra

Modi’s Make in India project?

Martello: I don’t want to speak on behalf of

others. We’ve been in India 102 years. We’ve

always been part of the solution versus part

of the problem. We have half a million people

we touch indirectly. The unfortunate thing

about this whole episode is how thousands of

people are impacted. People might say, oh,

this is another multinational taking a hit. No,

I’m sorry — we’ve got people. We buy over

90% of our ingredients locally.

Q&A SURESH NARAYANANCEO, NESTLE INDIA

We’ve been trying to engage with the government to try to get this issue resolved... thegovernment and industry can come together for the good of the Indian consumer

WAN LING MARTELLOEXECUTIVE VICE PRESIDENT, NESTLÉ SA

ON MAGGI

Our product is safe and westand by that. Reams andreams of tests show thatwhich is now public. We’vegot proof points. We’ve gotblack and white data

ON R&D

We will not stop innovating.We have built an R&D centrehere in 2012 precisely tobring innovation to the Indianmarket. We look at innova-tions differently.

‘Confident of Resolving Maggi Crisis’

For full interview, log on to www.economictimes.com

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