CORPORATE LEADERSHIP
Geetika Mehta: PGP 2003 (Managing Director at Nivea India Pvt Ltd)
Geetika Mehta is the Managing Director at Nivea India Pvt Ltd. Her exceptional leadership and strategic vision have been instrumental in driving Nivea’s success in India. With over 21 years of proven track record in business leadership, Geetika has demonstrated exceptional skills in P&L delivery, commercial handling, and consumer marketing experience across the Foods, Home Care, and Personal Care sectors.
Before Nivea, Geetika has worked at Hershey India Private Limited, Hindustan Unilever and Unilever Laundry. She has excelled in building and nurturing small businesses, leading growth across large businesses, and driving profitability and turnaround. Her global experience of galvanising large teams towards common objectives across various markets, including South Asia, Thailand, Brazil, and South Africa, has been instrumental in her success.
Geetika has been recognised as one of the top 14 Female FMCG leaders in India by CNBC TV 18 (2024) and the BW Businessworld Most Influential Women List (2024) among others.
Geetika is active in industry forums and conferences, contributing expertise for the benefit of the industry and clients. She has also been recognised for her commitment to various social causes especially those related to women empowerment and sanitation. Geetika has also studied, taught and choreographed Kathak for 14 years.
Congratulations on receiving the Young Alumni Achiever’s Award. What does this award mean to you?
Thank you to the institute for giving this Alumni Award. I think it is really nice when you graduate from a premier institute like IIM Ahmedabad. Of course, there is a lot of privilege that comes with it, but there is also the responsibility of almost living up to all the investment that has gone behind bringing you there. So it’s been absolutely outstanding to have received this.
You had your longest stint in Hindustan, Unilever. So how was the journey of rising the ranks and then becoming the managing general manager there, and how did it shape you as a person and a leader.
So I actually joined Unilever straight out of IIMA. Even as I was joining in the placement conversations, I remember my mom telling me, “Don’t join sales. It’s not for women.” I promptly asked which companies are offering Sales. It was Unilever, and I happily joined. I look back and think that that was one of the best decisions. Sales as a stint really grounded me. I have had many interesting, scary, experiences in Sales. You know, I’ve had distributors pointing a gun at me. I have had, you know, like people beating down my door at 3 am so it’s been like, what doesn’t kill you makes you stronger. So from that, I think it was a brilliant thing to have joined Unilever as an organisation. It really taught me a lot.I think it’s instilled the basics of business, which have then come instead and in very good stead across the other stints. So I spent more than 18 years there. It’s a lifetime, right? You become an adult in 18 years. So I’ve a lot to thank to Unilever, and I must admit, also to Hershey, and now with to Nivea, because all these organisations are really embody a lot of care and employees really are happy in these organisations
Can you talk about some of the challenges that you faced as a corporate leader, and especially in this sector, which is also very volatile?
The biggest challenge, and that is true for everybody in business, is, how do you get onto the right side of the growth flywheel. How do we continue getting growth? How do you continue strengthening your brands to be able to address the consumer needs? Personally, the challenges are really how do you manage and work and your families? So I have two boys who are 12 and 9. So, yeah, you know, how do you handle that and ensure that you are really, absolutely effective in your workplace, but also when you get back home, then you’re available as a mother to them. So those would be, then, a personal challenge that I would have faced,
How did you overcome some of them? What have you learned through them?
I am actually able to compartmentalise fairly well. I am really in the moment. So when I am at work, like when I am speaking with you, I am with you 100% there is no phone around me. When I am at home, then I am with my kids 100% as well. It ensures that whenever you are in the moment, you are really contributing your best. From a work challenge it is really about also gathering more information that has helped me understand about a situation and different data points across the economy, across the sectors, that helps me shape decisions and move things faster.
What advice would you have for somebody who wants to work in this sector?
It is called fast moving consumer goods for a reason. So there is fast movement here. And I think anybody who comes to this sector must, you know, be willing to put in the hard work and go the extra mile, do the extra effort. I think there is no substitute [for hard work]. Of course, you have to work smart, but there is no substitute for dedication and perseverance. The other advice I can give is always stay curious, be willing to learn and sometimes unlearn and relearn so that you are really keeping up with this fast moving sector. Be always on the lookout for opportunities and abilities that you can build. The moment you feel you are becoming a little slack or comfortable, is a time that you need to move out, and then get on to the next new learning cycle.
You are one of the very well-known female leaders in the corporate industry and have been a champion of women empowerment. Can you tell us about some of your initiatives to increase female workforce participation?
I genuinely believe that women are slightly better or at least as equal as men. Therefore it’s a pity that women are not equally represented in the workforce. I started off in sales which has very few women; even now, it’s nowhere near an equality in the sales force. When I was at Hersheys, we had zero women in the factory. The factory was in Mandideep near Bhopal where women sometimes may not feel the safest. You just kind of first spot the issue, and then say, “How will we correct it?” Once you include the teams, then they are very proactive, and they are able to find [a solution]. In one year, we moved from zero to 100 women in the factory. This involved doing an outreach program in the nearby places, arranging a transport, arranging separate toilets for them and also kind of relearning how to handle men in the factory, so that they are comfortable with having women around. After doing this, the productivity parameters went up. Women have nimbler fingers so the packaging rates actually went up. Also they have more attention to detail. So [you have to] put them in the right parts of the business. You wouldn’t put them in maybe a loading unloading, for instance.
Similarly, when I was in sales I would sometimes not drink water for the whole day, because there were no good facilities around and it was also awkward in an all male team. So we have done tie-ups with apps which tell you where the closest bathroom is. So we pay for the app and we make that available to our employees so that they don’t need to necessarily face issues which can prevent them from wanting to join the sales force. At Nivea, I am delighted that our leadership team is 50:50 [male to female ratio] and I don’t think diversity is only gender. There is diversity in our leadership team. We come from across the country; also there is diversity of gender, but also diversity of your thinking. I think all these diversities must be really embraced and brought forward.
As a recipient of the YAA award, what are your goals for the future for yourself, personally and professionally?
So I must admit, I have never put it down as a goal. This was not a goal to get this Young Alumni Achievers award. When I got it, my kid’s reaction was, how are you young? So they keep me humble. It was never like a goal that I will do this by this time. I think for me, what is really important is, when I’m in a role, I do create some impact that I leave the place better than when I found it. For example, at the 0 to 100 journey at Hershey when I look back and I think back and think that was a moment that was important and pivotal. So I don’t have these big grandstanding goals. I have a vision and a goal for where Nivea should move to. But for me, personally, I just want to ensure I give my best every single day and I go back feeling like I had a full, rich life at the end of it.
