TURNING POINT TUESDAY By Emma Kimani Lessons from Unilever Engineering Open Day In partnership with ATB, Unilever held a two day engineering open day at their site on 2nd and 3rd October 2014. One of the advantages of being an ATB brand ambassador is that you easily get access to such opportunities but like in all other areas of life, you must earn your stripes. I learnt so much in the two days and I might not be able to share everything here. However, I’ll share with you some lessons from one of the speakers. I was particularly inspired by what Siddharth Ramaswamy, the General Manager, Supply Chain Unilever Kenya, had to say, “Unilever has always been like a blank sheet of canvas that says, look, here is the canvas, paint whatever you want.” He then said that the way Unilever builds people is by throwing them into the deep sea and giving them freedom to do whatever they want while at the same time giving them someone to work with. He gave us the following principles that have guided him in his life journey: 1.There is no substitute to hard work We have 24 hours at our disposal, yet limit ourselves to 9am to 5pm in order to deliver. Hard work demands completion independent of the amount of time it might take. Does the lion get fed because he is the king of the jungle? He too has to play his part in the jungle. 2.Always go into details We all have enough brain capacity. Do not settle for what is mediocre, find out as much as you can about something. Everything is in the details. Have someone to guide you, create a learning atmosphere and practice what you learn. Athletes take days to practice for a race that will take seconds. 3.There is no substitute to doing it with your hands. You can only know the skill if you do it with your hands. When you are a general in an army, despite having a whole army to command, you better know how to fire when the opposition starts firing. 4.There is no substitute to honesty and integrity. This is how he put it, “If someone steals Ksh 10, then I would use $500,000 to find that person” At the heart of success is a real value system; honesty and integrity are at its core. 5.There is no dignity for labour. In leadership, you are the servant. Only two people matter: the producer and the consumer. Everyone else in the hierarchy is there to help in the process. 6.Enjoy what you are doing Life is a long journey and there is no rush. Everything in life is an experience, be it good or bad. Both count in making the experience. I recently used this illustration to explain this concept to a friend. In the number 20, the zero by itself has no value but the two in front of it has real value. If you look at the two as success and the zero as failure then they make a more powerful combination than the two by itself. Life is a sum total of all experiences: enjoy them all. 7.Do not build wrong habits that you will need to get out of. Do not live an unhealthy lifestyle that you will struggle to get out of when the weight is too much or when it becomes life threatening. Let your habits keep you within what you consider ideal. 8.There is no African standard, just a global standard Sometimes, we want to do something less perfectly because that is how it is locally done. We get let because it is African timing anyway. There is no standard that is any lower, the whole world is measured at the same standard, the global standard. So, in summary, I’d say that the thing about Unilever that makes it tick is that it gives you this thrill that makes you want to work with them and at the same time gives you so much inspiration, that makes you want to start your own venture. It was a good two days spent. Look out for more of these opportunities on this page.
Posted on: Tue, 07 Oct 2014 09:30:00 +0000
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