Regional 'coach' allocates responsibility to local managers
The head of PepsiCo's Southeast Asia Business Unit, Manu Anand, says one of his greatest challenges is to understand the diverse needs of consumers across the region.
"You can call it a challenge or an opportunity," said the 52-year-old Indian.
Speaking to The Nation in his first media interview since taking the position at the end of 2007, Anand said his current role would emphasise coaching and assisting PepsiCo general managers in each country under his responsibility, and involved "resource allocation" rather than "resources management".
"I try to help through coaching rather than telling because I don't know the markets more than my general managers.
"When you come to foreign countries, you've got to learn more than you teach," he said.
From his Bangkok office, Anand oversees PepsiCo's food and beverage businesses in Thailand, Vietnam, Laos, Cambodia, Malaysia, Singapore and Indonesia, which altogether employ 2,500 people.
Except for a short period during the 1997-98 Asian economic crisis when Anand took part in the core PepsiCo team that successfully managed the acquisition and integration of the Smith's Snack Food Company in Australia, his current position represents his first overseas assignment and regional responsibility.
A graduate in physics from the University of Delhi, Anand later shifted his career to accounting. He joined PepsiCo in 1994 as the chief financial officer of the Indian food business, becoming the managing director of Frito-Lay India from the end of 1998 to the end of 2007. During his tenure, Frito-lay India became the largest player in India's branded salty-snack market and was one of the fastest-growing fast-moving consumer goods (FMCG) in the country for a number of years.
Anand said he found Southeast Asia's food and beverage market very interesting. One of his latest initiatives was the replacement of palm olein with rice-bran oil in Frito-Lay in the Thai market about three months ago. It is too early to tell the results from the shift in cooking oil and it will take some time to educate consumers about the benefits, he said.
Anand said shifting to rice-bran oil incurred higher costs for the company, which retained the same selling prices for Frito-Lay, but it helped reduce the saturated-fat content in the snacks by 50 per cent.
The move is part of PepsiCo's "Performance with Purpose" mission, which is founded on the three pillars of human sustainability, environmental sustainability, and talent sustainability, he said.
Performance with Purpose reflects a cultural shift introduced about five years ago by PepsiCo. The human-sustainability agenda is centred on consumers, with PepsiCo's promise to encourage people to live healthier by offering a portfolio of foods and beverages that are both enjoyable and wholesome, Anand said.
Environment sustainability concerns PepsiCo's promise to help protect the Earth's natural resources through innovation and efficient use of land, energy, water and packaging in its operations.
Talent sustainability is about PepsiCo's promise to invest in its associates to help them succeed and develop the skills needed to drive the company's growth, while creating employment opportunities in the communities it serves.
Anand said PepsiCo had worked hard to nurture its local managers, and today all but one of the firm's 600 employees in Thailand are Thai nationals, not counting himself, who is responsible for many countries. Both of its general managers - one for beverages and the other for the food businesses - here are also Thai as of a year ago.
"Before that, either one or both of them were expats," he said. Among his current focuses, Anand said, were to encourage accountability of Thai staff and empower them to make decisions and influence the outcomes of those decisions.
As part of the Performance with Purpose policy, about 70 staff of the PepsiCo's Bangkok office recently joined forces with Habitat for Humanity to organise a programme to build 10 houses along with a community water supply and sanitation system and providing education on water, sanitation and hygiene for low-income families of the Soi Kiri community in Rayong. Anand, his wife and one of his two sons take part in the activities during weekends.