If We Knew How Good This was Going to Be

At last count, India's largest fast moving consumer goods company has given over 500 CEOs to corporates across the world. Hindustan Unilever also repeatedly features amongst the most respected and most innovative companies, nationally and internationally.
HUL believes in 'starting early' with its flagship global management trainee program, Unilever Future Leadership Program (UFLP). A majority of the company's senior leaders emerge from this program centered on the 'Leaders Build Leaders' philosophy. It is a 15-month program that blends the formal learning component with functional rotational schemes, coaching, on-the-job development followed by assessment. It is no surprise then, that HUL is often called the 'best school for CEOs'.
Another philosophy adding to their compelling employer brand is that 'sustainable, equitable growth is the only acceptable business model'. This strategy, embodied in the Unilever Sustainable Living Plan (USLP) aspires for HUL's brands and services to reach and inspire people across the world, helping it double the size of its business whilst reducing its environmental footprint and increasing its positive social impact.
BP Bidappa, Director, HR, says "We want people to bring their individual dimension into their jobs, sync people's motivations with what they are doing." And that's what has kept them amongst the Top Companies for Leaders through the years.

"Our business revolves around great brand and great people. And great brands are built by great people."
- Sanjiv Mehta, CEO, HUL

India's largest private bank has made empowering talent at an early age a cornerstone of its leadership development philosophy. Their leaders attribute the bank's success to its appetite for risk-taking - "Identifying people with leadership potential early and entrusting them with challenging jobs ahead of time" says Chanda Kochhar, MD, ICICI Bank. "The biggest contributor to my development was that the organization always gave me new opportunities, and I used each of them to learn."
The bank has invested in a culture of grooming and nurturing talent across every level through various signature development initiatives like the Leadership Mentoring Program and the Young Leaders Program. The former has elements of 'group mentoring' where the seniors as well as the peer group comes together to mentor the individual. The latter gives select employees the opportunity to procure an MBA degree in collaboration with Narsee Monjee Institute of Management Studies.
Offering a large spectrum of experiences across the bank as well as other ICICI entities is another strong pillar of ICICI's leadership strategy. It believes in creating leaders with cross-functional experience and exposure to diverse perspectives as against only domain expertise. And what would be a better example of this than Ms. Kochhar herself who began as a management trainee and has moved through project finance, corporate banking and retail banking in the span of her career.

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