Marico is one of India’s leading consumer products companies in the global beauty and wellness space that operates in more than 25 countries. Vietnam is the primary South-East Asian market for Marico and functions as the headquarter for the South-East Asian operations. In Vietnam, Marico is the leading player in male grooming category represented by the iconic brand X-Men, while also provide a portfolio of traditional Vietnamese food seasoning products under Thuan Phat brand. Especially, 2022 also marked the footprint for Marico SEA when making its entry into Female Personal Care category through three significant brands Lashe Superfood, Purite De Provence and Ôliv.
In 2020 Marico SEA has undergone a major revamp to turn around the lacking business performance. Taking on the mission as the new custodian of the South-East Asia business, Vaibhav was faced with a minefield of challenges: inconsistent and declining business performance, stagnant market share, and even low workforce morale. He had to navigate a huge crisis and minimize the damage to the business, at the same time seize new opportunities to implement his strategy successfully. To be able to achieve that, his most urgent priority was to inspire and energize Marico SEA’s people.
Hit the ground running, Vaibhav had a bold vision for his new team in July 2021 to become the fastest-growing company in South-East Asia, resting on three growth pillars: Strengthening the core, expanding the portfolio, and achieving commercial excellence.
However, the new strategy had met with strong disbelief as a result of inconsistent performance and failure to innovate over the years. To boost morale and allow teams to feel invested in the success of the strategy, Vaibhav has led his new crew to introduce several practices to align the organization and build a strong culture within Marico SEA. These include engagement exercises that were designed to work through channels such as quarterly leadership connects, 1-on-1 skip meetings, function-wise communications, leadership localization and diversity to generate positive response from members towards career growth opportunities and help to leverage local business insights to drive success.
A revised framework called GOWIN was also created to fit in with the business need. This culture framework was implemented in daily operation and kept alive through leaders who also doubled up as promoters of the culture across forums.
After 2 years, the efforts to make bold vision comes true have begun to pay off smartly.
Strengthening the core Portfolio: Project ‘Fund the Growth’ was launched to unlock and reallocate trapped resources while working simultaneously on a revamped go-to-market strategy to drive superior execution with optimized resources. The flagship brand X-Men has gained market leadership in the male deodorant category for the first time, beating Nivea thanks to a relaunch that centred around younger target audience via new positioning, new packaging, and a new functional range.
Food Portfolio also saw strong growth and substantial gain in market share of Fish Sauce, made possible by Above-the-Line (ATL) investments & improvements in sales execution enhancing both quality of execution and field force productivity.
Portfolio Expansion – Marico enter the female grooming category for the first time. 'Lashe Superfood', a new shampoo and body wash brand for women, made entry in the female grooming category. This brand offers a unique product with natural ingredients and has received positive feedback from customers. Purité de Prôvence and Ôliv were also acquired as part of this strategy.
Commercial Excellence – this third growth pillar has seen incredible execution and achievements across channels. In General Trade, Marico SEA reached distribution targets with a leaner field force, boosting productivity. In Modern Trade, Marico SEA increased share by improving visibility, variety and trade-spend efficiency. In e-commerce, Marico SEA enhanced profitability and drove category growth.
All of this would not have been possible without the creation of a strong work culture that rewards merit and recognizes achievements. Marico’s GOWIN culture has emerged from Vaibhav’s vision as a place where people feel valued for their skills, recognized for their achievements, and encouraged to share innovative ideas. The adoption of GOWIN as the organizational culture code helped to align the workforce with the vision of the company and instilled belief in the success of the broader strategy. While crafting the right culture is - and will always be - an ongoing process, it brings us immense pride to see the results of that labor.
"Since Mr. Vaibhav joined the company, I have been inspired by his clear business strategy, the long-term goals & visions and admired his endless efforts to drive for the fully engaged company culture - Gowin" - A member of Marico SEA.
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