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well good morning everybody or good
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evening wherever you may be I'm Mike you
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see in my monthly hero the Wharton
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School welcome to our series on the
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impact of the epidemic and all that else
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is going on on leadership especially in
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the private sector but not limited to it
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we have a special guest today we're
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going to be speaking with the chief
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executive of Amway Melin Pat and we're
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going to engage in a dialogue maybe for
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50 minutes on my part with them and then
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we'll open it up to your questions the
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agenda here is to think about leadership
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when it really matters and we have a
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person who has been leading a company
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when it really does matter as chief
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executive of Amway Melin pant has been
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responsible for an enterprise that
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brings them between eight and nine
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billion dollars a year or selling all
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over the worlds in more than a hundred
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countries some 16,000 employees and
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about a million people who work with the
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company in selling its many products so
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with that little mu welcome you to the
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program thank you Mike it's a it's a
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pleasure and a privilege to be with you
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and having this discussion well great to
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have you here and I'm going to begin a
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little bit more personally and then
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we'll bring it into the the current
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challenges that you have been facing
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with the the shutdown the the events in
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the wake of the well several movements
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including black lives that matter but
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let me begin the line' with a more
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personal question just to get us going
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on your own career i know you grew up in
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the foothills of the himalayas in india
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you work for Unilever the great consumer
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products a company that sells all over
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the world you worked as a chief
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executive president for pizza hut at Yum
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Brands and just a question to get us
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going what brought you in thinking very
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personally here to an interest in
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managing a private sector company
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whether it's Unilever or Amway now
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well Mike um no thanks thanks for that
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question and as I as I reflect on all
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the journey frankly this was this was
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not part of any plan you know as you
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said I grew up in the foothills of the
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Himalayas and as we were going up on
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hindsight we didn't feel it at that time
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or on hindsight we had modest material
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means we didn't have a conditioning at
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home I remember we got a television when
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I was in my early teens my parents you
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know namaste
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they encouraged us to do the right thing
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you know study hard work hard and and
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life felt kind of figured itself out and
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that was the approach in I went through
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my my schooling and my education in
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India I was quite fortunate to be able
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to join Unilever in India which was
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almost like my second MBA because I
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joined unity when I went through his
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training program Mike which you are well
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familiar with across functions and
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categories including spending eight
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weeks living in a village in India as a
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part of the training program without
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water running water electricity just
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gonna understand the heart and soul of
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India after you all that I thought I'll
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get a role in in in perhaps strategy or
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marketing or one of the brands like you
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know dodgeball or or fun silk or or axe
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or or one of the you know consumer
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brands but you know I I moved to a
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business unit that made leather shoes or
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exports now don't ask me why you really
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were India anglo-dutch multinational big
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shoes for exports but I went to that
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business unit I said okay no problem you
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know I've never been outside of India
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perhaps I'll get a chance to go and meet
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customers in London or New York City and
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I still remember my journal my just said
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no young man you've got to start with a
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cold face which is processing and buying
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of leather I spent the first two years
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of my career after my
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graduate might even graduate studies in
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tanneries and this is tanneries in India
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good ears back that fall smell is still
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in my in my nostrils but you know I have
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a great great career in Unilever and and
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then I was fortunate to to have a chance
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to join young the last 1012 years my
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family arrived you've lived in over
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three continents and five countries if
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you were living in German South Africa
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and in 2007-2008 we moved to Delhi from
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Delhi we moved to Bangkok from Bangkok
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to Shanghai a fish and I to Dallas and
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now we live in Grand Rapids Michigan so
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it's been quite a journey and not
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something that I would have imagined
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that I would have a chance to live
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through now learn the question about
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that journey you began as you said
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living in a village it's a very famous
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feature of being part of the Unilever
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where you spend time with your ultimate
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customers village India in the case of
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what was then called Hindustan lever in
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India as you went from that person young
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at the time as you began the
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responsibilities you now bear for
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everything from finance and accounting
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and operations and human resources and
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working with your owners what worthy or
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what was I'll make it singular the most
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formative experience along the way that
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gave you the capacity to serve is what
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we sometimes in a kind of boring phrase
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referred to as a general manager where
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you really have to think about
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everything woman well I don't think
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there was one particular moment I think
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I would I would point out a couple of
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learnings Mike if that's okay well I
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think just oh just a training in
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Unilever India and the way the career
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was was kind of planned and and the
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opportunities opened up was by its
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nature very broad it was across
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functions and then of course there were
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opportunities to work both in customer
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management and and and and and general
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management sales general management on
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one side and and brand marketing on the
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other cetera
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took me in good stead in my initial
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foundationally us but they were then
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other other instances where one learnt
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it I guess all the job my first role as
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managing director of a country was with
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yum in Thailand and I I moved there it
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was a reasonable-sized business we had
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10,000 employees in Thailand and and the
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business had been it been struggling and
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I went there of course with this there's
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a determination to turn around the
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business and and to put all the
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strategies in place and and and and you
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to build something that would last
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beyond me but my biggest learning from
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my my time in Thailand and and my time
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as the managing director my first role
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was not so much on on strategy on an
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intellect was actually on leading with
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heart and and that's one stand
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especially working in Thailand
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everything is about the heart the Thais
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have a word for it or joy and it's all
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joy and and my unity were training
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though it was fantastic having fully
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prepared me for this aspect of leading a
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large business with a lot set of
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employees and and since then I've
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personally been on journey to lead with
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love and humility
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instead of pride and fear which is which
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is so human to do thank you in times of
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Olinda
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a famous book in my field is leading
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from the heart same point we got a lead
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with the head of course but we don't
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forget the heart I've got a question
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then about your transition from serving
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as president of Pizza Hut over to Amway
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and again a private enterprise or
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private company a business enterprise
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but in some respects the two could not
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be more different in how they operated
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what was your biggest learning
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terrain as you came into my something
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you didn't know about that you really
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had to master and she became chief
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executive a fam way which is not so long
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ago at this point bike you know quite
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quite frankly till two years back or so
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I I I didn't even know I could even you
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know point out to Grand Rapids and on
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the map where we now live with a family
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so yes this was this was a very this was
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already new for us how they as I came
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into Amway I was very very clear that my
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first hundred days were all about listen
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and long ninety percent of our revenues
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are outside of United States in Japan
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Korea China which is a largest market
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Taiwan Thailand Malaysia India Europe
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Russia Latin American of course here in
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the US I spend an immense amount of time
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being out in the Lord and meeting our
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entrepreneurs who are really the soul
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and the heart of a business and my my
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main learning while I learned from
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everyone I even came to a program that
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you and Peter had organized
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just before I formally took over the CNO
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CEO again at the part of my listen and
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learn but my biggest learnings and the
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most valuable earnings were from the
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entrepreneurs or my business owners and
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I still remember this was within my
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first hundred days in March last year
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and I was in Tokyo and one of our
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entrepreneurs makiko's on he insisted
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she wanted to meet me and and and you
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know the kind of the carriage she gave
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me as she said we'd all cook together it
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will cook and cook and you know Indian
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meal with basmati rice and Thunder eat
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chicken and choke you I said alright
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let's do it and she then shared with me
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how she is building a business going
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forward around the cooking a healthy
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cooking community on Instagram and she
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had hit 30,000 followers on Instagram
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and I
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looked at I said oh my god this is the
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future an entrepreneurial spirit which
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is the core of Amway along with us being
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a social idea around relationships not
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put together in the online world this is
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the future and this is social commerce
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that's where we put together our what is
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now our ten-year plan which we can do an
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apparently health family owned company
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which is our journey to unleash
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entrepreneurship with social commerce
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but that idea
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Amen listening to an entrepreneur until
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kill that's great bill in about two
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minutes we're going to open it up but
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like people viewing this to send their
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questions than now we'll go through a
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few of those as they come in here's my
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final question to you the last now
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almost three months have been quite
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extraordinary in everybody's lives
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whether it's Thailand or China or the US
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of A with Corona via the corona virus
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the black lives matter movement v2 is in
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the background as well and just a final
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question to you as you have managed
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through the last couple of months what
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has been different from the way you
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would have led the company prior to
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about March 15th well I guess in some
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ways everything has been different but
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here's what we realized early on January
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23rd to be to be to be exact because
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that's when you know from a China team
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we knew you know there was a pandemic
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and the long terms were coming we we
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prioritized the safety of or colleagues
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or anything else if you've got 16,000
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police across the world
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we've got organic farms you know
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thousands of acres 6,000 acres of
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organic farms in three countries have
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you got manufacturing locations in
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Guangzhou Madurai Buena Park near La and
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here in in Ada Michigan
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and we said the most important thing is
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you're going to do everything to keep
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each other safe once we have that in
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place every other challenge that came
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out really it you know supply chain or
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figuring out how to work from home and
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and all the other stuff you know it kind
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of started itself out my biggest
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learning through the last now almost
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five months and all three months working
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from home has been that during this
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pandemic the best of em way has been
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unleashed Mike you know this may this
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may be this was surprised it surely
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surprised me we did an employee
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engagement survey bang in the middle of
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the pandemic almost 10,000 of our
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employees responded a you know we
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usually never get a response that high
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from an employee engagement survey and
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ninety-one percent of our colleagues
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across the world said they were highly
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engaged for that way and ninety four
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percent said they were proud of working
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in our way your numbers that we've never
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had in the past so this pandemic has
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been an opportunity you go through the
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decades of culture that's been built in
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our way you know decades of nurturing of
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our purpose helping people live better
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healthier life all that has come to the
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fore during these times and and that's
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been my most fascinating learning and
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you know our challenge and my personal
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challenge is how does one now kind of
00:15:00
sustain this as we move to beyond
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pandemic which which we will do it cross
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the wall and the number of markets have
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already moved on to the new normal yeah
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well then this has been great I'm gonna
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bring in now Steve googly me who is the
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editor for knowledge of work through the
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platform we are on here and Steve
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Melinda is going to offer a couple
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questions from those who are alive with
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us right now so deep get us going I'm a
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Lind we have a number of good questions
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from our audience and we'll try to get
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through as many of them as we can
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well the first one is a follow-up from
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what you were just talking
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thing about you talk about the
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tremendous opportunity that that the
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crisis has given giving you and the
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company what would you say is the
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biggest challenge you face during this
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crisis and sort of how do you work to
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overcome that your the biggest challenge
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we face in addition to keeping our all
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our colleagues things as being was
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essentially a supply chain challenge of
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of making sure that you know you are our
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core portfolio Steve is he doing
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nutrition and health and hygiene you
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know long-term immunity long-term
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products and these the demand for some
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of these products is fight and to ensure
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that you know I cross the world you know
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managing supply disruptions city
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lockdowns changing regulations you know
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obviously keeping our manufacturing
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locations open that was that was the
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other big challenge and I think the
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third challenge for all of us was just a
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personal challenge how do we sustain our
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our our mental stamina two weeks of
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uncertainty around friends and families
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and communities
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you know what personal habits do each of
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us inculcate so that we can we can get
00:17:05
through this in a way in which you know
00:17:08
it gives us an opportunity to be better
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and is able to support our our own
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families and our own friends and our own
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communities you know one of the things
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we realized very early in the in the in
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the pandemic here in West Michigan is I
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got a call from the CEO of one of the
00:17:24
largest hospital networks here thank Mel
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and do you all make hand sanitizers this
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was middle of March I said no we don't
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and then I checked with my team and they
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said yeah we don't but you know what
00:17:37
maybe we can figure it out and in five
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days from that call we had made and
00:17:44
sanitizers got all the approvals and
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then shipped it to to hospital networks
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across ER
00:17:52
across the West Michigan and you know
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it's not something that we may or may
00:17:55
not do it for commercial but it's it's
00:17:57
instances like that of our teams coming
00:18:00
together to solve problems
00:18:03
during this crisis which is being a true
00:18:06
blessing okay what changes a little more
00:18:11
nuts and bolts what changes in business
00:18:14
approach are your reps in the field
00:18:16
asking for from Amway as a result of the
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pandemic are there are they asking for
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different ways to engage with customers
00:18:22
for example that's correct
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our one million entrepreneurs across the
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world they've committed to two new ways
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of doing business essentially their
00:18:32
mantra is that online is the new offline
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so they're building their business on
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social we have partnerships with social
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networks we have a partnership with
00:18:42
$0.10 on the v-- chat platform in China
00:18:46
so we've activated that for our for our
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angry business owners entrepreneurs to
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reach customers and do social selling to
00:18:52
customers we've just done a similar
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partnership with Kakao KakaoTalk in in
00:18:59
Korea so we are partnering with social
00:19:02
platforms to offer our entrepreneurs the
00:19:06
ability to connect with customers and of
00:19:07
course we are investing in our own own
00:19:09
abilities to have our easy frictionless
00:19:13
shopping for abs and their customers
00:19:16
right right and speaking I mean you do
00:19:19
have a very distributed workforce how do
00:19:22
you you talk about leading from the
00:19:25
heart how does how does a company with
00:19:26
such a distributed workforce sort of
00:19:28
reinforced corporate values all the way
00:19:30
down the chain what are they what are
00:19:32
the challenges there and how do you go
00:19:33
about doing that I think that still
00:19:37
remains a challenge Steve we've I think
00:19:42
what we've jumped into is the reservoir
00:19:44
of of a culture and goodwill that has
00:19:47
been built over the years you know we
00:19:51
have a family family company and our
00:19:54
values and and in some sense of course
00:19:59
is not something that's been written by
00:20:02
you know executives of consultants and
00:20:05
put some piece of
00:20:06
it's something that's been a part of the
00:20:08
one of the business for 60 years I think
00:20:10
that's come up come in good stead for us
00:20:14
and he's kind of harness that and and
00:20:16
empowered people the other thing what's
00:20:18
happened is his management it's got
00:20:20
democratized through this process you
00:20:23
know every person on on a Microsoft team
00:20:26
the resume call has an equal voice and
00:20:29
in some sense because controlling
00:20:32
compliance is more difficult to do than
00:20:34
intellectual empowering those especially
00:20:38
what in the markets and those who are
00:20:39
closest to around their business owners
00:20:42
and to do the right thing we have three
00:20:45
cultural principles Steve lift yourself
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love to learn and lead from the heart
00:20:52
and and while these cultural principles
00:20:54
were always good on a piece of paper in
00:20:57
some sense during this pandemic you know
00:21:00
they've shown and people have got an
00:21:02
opportunity to walk the talk on it right
00:21:05
right just just to wrap things up
00:21:08
because you have time for one more
00:21:09
question what is the single most
00:21:12
important leadership quality that you
00:21:14
think is needed in this time and maybe
00:21:16
in the near future well I'm not sure if
00:21:21
there is one single quality but
00:21:26
something that I've always you know
00:21:29
Steve close to is is a you know I'm very
00:21:32
fond of reading Bill Gates you know
00:21:35
twice in her kind of recommendation of
00:21:37
books and this was maybe six or seven
00:21:39
years back he had a recommendation on
00:21:41
Carol Dweck's mindset of growth mindset
00:21:44
and and it's something that you know I
00:21:46
personally believe for me I'm a work in
00:21:49
progress I continue to learn every day
00:21:52
and I've got to remind myself to be in a
00:21:55
growth mindset and not to be in a fixed
00:21:57
mindset and that's something which you
00:22:00
know our founders and I'm very rich and
00:22:02
Jay were pioneers and and in number
00:22:04
itself you know we encourage everyone to
00:22:07
have a founders growth mindset I say
00:22:09
that perhaps is the most important
00:22:12
quality that I personally value and the
00:22:15
other one is is lead from the heart for
00:22:18
all of us you
00:22:20
times especially during kinds of stress
00:22:24
and and kind of conflict that are taking
00:22:27
place now we can't go into pride or fear
00:22:32
and I think we've got to remind
00:22:34
ourselves and take help from each other
00:22:35
to continue to be on a journey to lead
00:22:39
with love and humility ah thank you so
00:22:42
much for coming yeah Steve thank you
00:22:45
M'Lynn thank you I'm gonna remind our
00:22:48
viewers and listeners to tune in a week
00:22:50
from now we're going to have Sidney
00:22:52
Finkelstein who's on the faculty of the
00:22:54
Tuck School the business school at
00:22:56
Dartmouth he's the author listen to this
00:22:59
title everybody of why smart executives
00:23:02
fail I think we all want to learn
00:23:03
something about that
00:23:04
he's obviously thought a lot about the
00:23:06
current circumstance as well and Melinda
00:23:09
gave you the heads up before we got
00:23:10
going here that we practice a
00:23:13
after-action review here at the end I'm
00:23:16
gonna offer a couple points I've been
00:23:18
taking notes that came from our
00:23:20
discussion that I think well without
00:23:22
question transcend the discussion and I
00:23:25
hope will prove useful for people who've
00:23:27
been viewing and listening to this
00:23:28
particular cast here and then if you
00:23:32
wouldn't mind we'll close with a couple
00:23:34
of your own final takeaway points if I
00:23:37
can put it that way so here are my three
00:23:38
that will turn to you then then we'll
00:23:41
hear from you and then thank you for
00:23:43
being with us
00:23:44
number one you just said it a few
00:23:46
minutes ago but don't forget to lead
00:23:48
with the heart along with the head but
00:23:51
we're dealing with people not otama tons
00:23:53
or robots they have art and it's vital
00:23:56
for leading at any level maybe
00:23:59
especially from the very top number two
00:24:02
I like the phrase listen and learn we
00:24:05
learned so much if we're in touch with
00:24:06
the entrepreneurs or work with us from
00:24:09
the cups of customers who buy from us
00:24:11
and it's amazing if you've got a good
00:24:13
ear which you can acquire and bring in
00:24:15
number three relevant to especially the
00:24:18
last several months on employee safety
00:24:21
is everything and if we do that well
00:24:25
they will never forget that their
00:24:27
loyalty will be there for years to come
00:24:29
then what would you add a couple final
00:24:31
points and then we're gonna close my
00:24:34
youth you've summarized it so well I
00:24:38
would just just just add a couple of
00:24:41
ones I'm reminded of a one of your books
00:24:44
that I read before I took on this role
00:24:46
which is why why long-term strategy is
00:24:50
is the best short-term strategy and I
00:24:55
think during times like this if you just
00:24:57
got to remind ourselves of that of that
00:25:00
mantra Mike which you had you're very
00:25:04
well captured in a book that you wrote I
00:25:06
think the next other thing which I'll
00:25:08
just just just mention is that I I
00:25:11
personally consider myself to continue
00:25:14
to be working progress and otherwise
00:25:16
growing up in India into my teenage
00:25:19
years my father used to encourage me you
00:25:21
listen to BBC radio to learn English
00:25:23
which is not my first language or to
00:25:26
read the morning newspaper which used to
00:25:28
be the Times of India and I frankly then
00:25:30
to either of them well but that stayed
00:25:34
with me in my back of my hair and and
00:25:36
today you know I read five to seven on
00:25:39
newspapers online you know every day I I
00:25:43
can't get through to my weekend without
00:25:46
reading the the Friday's issue of The
00:25:48
Economist actually Thursday evening in
00:25:50
the US and you know I read as many books
00:25:53
as I can and you know I'm little my wife
00:25:56
believes that makes me a very boring
00:25:57
person but I just love to learn and and
00:26:01
this conversation today has been another
00:26:04
opportunity for me to do that so thank
00:26:06
you Mike and and thank you Steve all
00:26:08
right bill and thank you very much you
00:26:10
really appreciate your taking the time
00:26:11
to join us today
00:26:13
as is an increasingly widespread custom
00:26:17
even though we're not in the same room
00:26:18
together I'm going to ask everybody
00:26:21
we've got a lot of people live with this
00:26:23
and then others will look back at this
00:26:25
once we put it out there in an
00:26:28
asynchronous way I'd like everybody to
00:26:30
join me you're going to see me and not
00:26:32
everybody else but I can hear the
00:26:34
applause the Melinda thank you very much
00:26:36
for joining us and we do all right there
00:26:39
Thank You chef thank you bye
00:26:43
but join us in one week we'll be back
00:26:45
thank you very much
00:26:53
you
