Polman as Maverick

You can't pigeon-hole Paul Polman. In a far-ranging interview with Margareta Barchan of Business School Lausaunne, the Unilever CEO reiterated his stance on limiting earnings guidance to analysts, Unilever's environmental efforts and the importance of investing in people. It's all part of taking a long-term view in order to create a business model that is equitable, shared and sustainable.


“I'm not just working for them (shareholders),” Polman told Barchan. “Slavery was abolished a long time ago.”


So who does Polman answer to? A higher authority, of sorts. After all, not long after becoming CEO in 2009, Polman spearheaded the 10-year Unilever Sustainable Living Plan, which seeks to decouple the company’s growth from its environmental footprint. The ambitious goals include doubling Unilever’s revenue while slashing the footprint by 50%; sourcing 100% of its raw materials sustainably (meaning that the supply chain is managed according to environmental, social, and ethical principles); and helping more than a billion people improve their health and well-being.


The goals are so ambitious, in fact, that the CEO said they won't be met any time soon.


“We won’t. And I knew that,” he told Barchan, stating that his main intention has been to help bring about a “shift in people mindsets.”


Still, Unilever has made plenty of progress. Polman noted that the company was 10% sustainably sourced in 2009, in 2015, that percentage has reached 60%. Footprints, whether environmental or financial, can't be changed overnight. Polman noted in order to solve issues like food security or climate change, you need to have longer-term solutions. It’s the same for companies.


“A lot of companies are driven by the short-termism of the markets. [They] make short-term decisions that often go against the long-term viability of the company. Before I came, we were making a lot of short-term decisions to make the quarterly numbers, [and these decisions were] actually driving the company, over time, downwards.”


According to Polman, that attitude was born, in part, in the 1980s and 1990s when the developed world became a very self-serving society, especially the financial sector. This self-centric outlook ended badly with the financial crisis of 2008-9.


“We need to work for people who cannot help themselves as much or who are in situations you don’t want to find yourself in,” he told Barchan. “So it’s always good to invest in education and good governance and rule of law, which are all long-term things, to make societies function.”