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    Hindustan Unilever Case Study - Pdf.downloadasset

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    Kushagri Mangal
    Hindustan Unilever launched Project Shakti to provide economic opportunities for women in rural India by training them to become micro-entrepreneurs selling Unilever products in their villages. Over 120,000 women, called Shakti Ammas, have been financially empowered through the program. The finance team helped ensure the commercial viability of Project Shakti and implemented payment and reporting systems that boosted the success and scalability of the initiative.

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    Hindustan Unilever Case Study - Pdf.downloadasset

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    Hindustan Unilever launched Project Shakti to provide economic opportunities for women in rural India by training them to become micro-entrepreneurs selling Unilever products in their villages. Over 120,000 women, called Shakti Ammas, have been financially empowered through the program. The finance team helped ensure the commercial viability of Project Shakti and implemented payment and reporting systems that boosted the success and scalability of the initiative.

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    Hindustan Unilever launched Project Shakti to provide economic opportunities for women in rural India by training them to become micro-entrepreneurs selling Unilever products in their villages. Over 120,000 women, called Shakti Ammas, have been financially empowered through the program. The finance team helped ensure the commercial viability of Project Shakti and implemented payment and reporting systems that boosted the success and scalability of the initiative.

    Copyright:

    © All Rights Reserved
    Download as PDF, TXT or read online from Scribd
    Download as pdf or txt
    85 views4 pages

    Hindustan Unilever Case Study - Pdf.downloadasset

    Uploaded by

    Kushagri Mangal
    Hindustan Unilever launched Project Shakti to provide economic opportunities for women in rural India by training them to become micro-entrepreneurs selling Unilever products in their villages. Over 120,000 women, called Shakti Ammas, have been financially empowered through the program. The finance team helped ensure the commercial viability of Project Shakti and implemented payment and reporting systems that boosted the success and scalability of the initiative.

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    of 4

    In partnership with

    Hindustan Unilever: Developing a rural


    sales network that enhances livelihoods
    Highly Commended: Innovative project award

    What Hindustan Unilever (HUL) is one of the largest companies in India. Its “Project Shakti” aims to
    provide a livelihood enhancing opportunity to women micro-entrepreneurs in rural India. In an
    attempt to provide regular income, these women entrepreneurs (called Shakti Ammas, ‘Shakti’
    means ‘power’ and ‘Amma’ means ‘mother’), are trained on basic principles of distribution
    management and familiarisation with the company’s products. Shakti Ammas receive training
    and support to become micro-entrepreneurs, selling Unilever products in low-income rural
    communities. The programme has three goals for Shakti Ammas: economic empowerment;
    improved social standing within the family; and improved social standing within the village.

    The finance team has been critical to the success of this programme. They have demonstrated
    the programme’s commercial viability; applied financial analysis to identify cost savings and
    efficiencies; and built robust reporting frameworks.

    ‘You need to believe by doing the right things and by doing


    good you will grow business. And I think that’s when finance
    really needs to think about different models.’
    Mr Srinivas Phatak,
    CFO, Hindustan Unilever

    FINANCE FOR THE FUTURE www.financeforthefuture.org


    Why HUL’s sustainable living plan is based on three pillars: improving health and well-being, reducing
    environmental impact and enhancing livelihoods. Project Shakti is aligned with the sustainable
    living plan. It aims to boost financial independence for women and, in doing so, contribute
    to the economic well-being of her household and community. By engaging Shakti Ammas to
    distribute Unilever products in their villages, it provides access to quality products.

    ‘The Shakti programme is an impressive initiative that, to date,


    has financially empowered more than 1,20,000 women in rural
    India. By teaching them various aspects of how to run a retail
    business, from inventory to distribution management, it has
    increased the average income of a Shakti household and enhanced
    the lives and status of the women within their communities.’
    Finance for the Future Awards judges

    FINANCE FOR THE FUTURE www.financeforthefuture.org


    How The company started the programme in 2001 and has been refining the model since then:

    > The programme started as a controlled pilot, focused on getting the mechanics right. After
    the pilot, HUL scaled up in round one. It has then incrementally introduced new elements to
    the programme to scale up and expand its reach.

    > Project Shakti now operates with three models: door-to-door selling within the Shakti Amma’s
    village, assisted model for distribution in same and nearby villages; and operating from a small
    retail outlet.

    > Team of Rural Sales Promoters (RSPs) coach these women Shakti entrepreneurs by familiarising
    them with HUL products in order to manage their businesses better. This includes basic
    accounting and sales and troubleshooting, as well as enhancing their soft skills of negotiation
    and communication. Rural sales promoters in the field provide regular guidance. They meet
    monthly with each Shakti Amma and provide remote support on a weekly basis.

    > Shakti Ammas earn a regular income basis their monthly sales value. Such indirect
    compensation from HUL supplements their income thereby boosting their motivation
    to continue the business.

    > The programme’s success has led to the model being adapted and evolving in other countries.

    The role of finance


    The finance team has been engaged with Project Shakti from the beginning and continues to champion the
    programme and support its success. Finance has brought their expertise in financial modelling, cost management
    and control, payment mechanisms and reporting into the cross-functional programme team.

    Financial modelling, cost management and controls


    The finance team has been instrumental in cost modelling and ensuring that the cost of this sales channel is
    in line with other channels, despite the challenges involved in distributing to rural areas with poor infrastructure.
    They benchmarked costs for rural sales promoters and introduced efficiency improvements. These savings
    enabled the programme to expand into new villages over time. Multiple governance checks were put in place
    by the finance team to ensure smooth data flow and identification of any outliers periodically. Timely action on
    the outliers has made this unique channel robust and scalable.

    Payment mechanisms
    Following the recent changes in Indian banking system, the finance team envisioned an opportunity of
    introducing direct bank transfer (DBT) payments to Shakti Ammas. Finance staff played a pivotal role in
    negotiating with the banks, setting up the end to end infrastructure and enabling DBT payment to be made
    to offer convenience and transparency at a massive scale. This change eliminated the reliance on intermediaries
    for making payments and helped plug the leakages. This enabled timely confirmation of receipt of payments
    directly into the bank accounts of Shakti Ammas.

    Reporting
    HUL reports externally on its sustainable living plan, including individual programmes such as Project Shakti.
    Finance has built robustness and scrutiny to the reporting process.

    FINANCE FOR THE FUTURE www.financeforthefuture.org


    The impact of the programme
    HUL has capitalised government’s vision of financial households can afford better education for their
    inclusion to bring transparency into its operations. children, improved access to sanitation products
    Over 95% of the Shakti Ammas receive their and more household goods.
    monthly earnings in their bank account and every
    new Shakti is onboarded into HUL’s ecosystem only The latest third-party research from Kantar Public showed
    after confirmation of her bank account details. The a 24% increase in household income, with 89% of Shakti
    once financial excluded Shakti Amma has now been Ammas feeling that they had more respect within the
    integrated into the formal banking framework in India. family and 83% of Shakti Ammas feeling that they had
    Shakti Ammas’ earnings bring some extra income into more respect within the community.
    the household which makes a significant difference
    to their quality of life. HUL found that Project Shakti www.hul.co.in

    DISCL AIMER
    This case study presents Hindustan Unilever entry for the Finance for the Future Awards 2019. The case study
    only includes information that was part of the organisation’s 2019 entry. Some of this information may now
    be out of date. For a current view of the organisation’s work, please visit their website at the link given above.

    The Finance for the Future Awards recognise the


    role of finance in driving sustainable economies.

    Click here to see more inspiring case studies or go to www.financeforthefuture.org/previous-winners

    To register interest for the next awards go to www.financeforthefuture.org/entering

    FINANCE FOR THE FUTURE www.financeforthefuture.org

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