Guntas Randhawa Exits Unilever After 17 Years
Guntas Randhawa is leaving Unilever after 17 years, most recently as India head of the vitamins, minerals and supplements division at Hindustan Unilever.
- Joined Unilever in 2009 as a business leadership trainee
- Most recent role: India head, vitamins, minerals and supplements, HUL, from January 2023
- Previously global brand director, leading innovation rollouts across South Asia, Southeast Asia and Africa
- Nearly six years as a brand manager on campaigns, activations and consumer and trade promotions
- Earlier, customer development manager for modern trade in Delhi NCR
- Announced the move in a LinkedIn post
The Route Guntas Randhawa Took
The part of this career worth reading closely is the order in which it happened. Randhawa spent time as a customer development manager for modern trade in Delhi NCR, responsible for quarterly growth plans, regional distribution and sales delivery, leading a team of more than 200 HUL and third-party staff.
That is a sales job, and marketers who have done one argue differently for the rest of their careers. Someone who has had to hit a quarterly number in modern trade knows what a promotion costs a retailer, why a listing gets pulled, and how much of a brand plan survives contact with a distributor.
What A 17-Year FMCG Career Now Means
Unilever has long been treated as India's most reliable marketing academy, and a full run through it, trainee to category head, is close to the classical training the industry says it values.
It has also become rarer. Consumer businesses are increasingly staffed by people who moved every three years and collected categories rather than depth, and direct-to-consumer brands have absorbed a great deal of mid-career FMCG talent by offering speed and ownership. Someone completing the long version and then leaving is worth noticing on both counts.
What She Said About It
Randhawa's own framing of the 17 years was that she joined fascinated by brands and leaves with a deeper appreciation for people.
That is the sort of line that reads as a pleasantry until you match it against the roles. The customer development posting, the six years in brand management, the global rollouts across three regions and a division to run: each of those is a job where the constraint is rarely the idea and almost always the number of people who have to agree to it.
Her next move has not been announced.
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