Vinita Bali: Businesswoman of the Year

New Delhi / IN. (et) Vinita Bali is the Economic Times Businesswoman of the Year for taking Britannia Industries Limited where it belongs – a market-leading, innovative and trusted foods company. In January 2005, she boarded a firm that was rudderless after a big management shake-up and faced with intensifying competition. Things looked bleak. But she managed to turn around the firm´s fortunes, spruce up its marketing efforts and make it fighting fit.

The completion of the share buyback from its foreign collaborator, Groupe Danone, after protracted and often acrimonious discussions, clears way for the incumbent management, fully backed by the Wadia Group, to unleash growth strategies.

She followed it up by acquiring Fonterra´s 49 percent stake in a dairy joint venture that is being integrated back into Britannia Industries for unlocking distribution synergies. Then, Britannia moved to take full control of its high-end bakery retailer Daily Bread, in which it had acquired a 50 percent stake in 2006.

Britannia has been growing at around 20 percent annually. The company´s market share in the 6’000-crore INR biscuit market (859,2 million EUR) has stabilised around 35 percent after losing some ground to new rivals, sometime ago. Today, she has been successful in creating a sense of excitement and challenge within the team. Britannia´s portfolio has been diversified with innovations in each brand keeping changing consumer needs and habits in mind. She vigorously pursued a more healthy lifestyle positioning for the brand.

In 1977, Ms Bali started her career with Voltas in their consumer products division where she launched the Rasna soft-drink concentrate. In 1980, she joined Cadbury India, and was one of the first Indians selected to work on overseas assignments.

At Coca-Cola, she was chosen as its worldwide marketing director in 1994. She had the responsibility to chalk out the worldwide strategy for brand Coca-Cola, where, together with her mentor Sergio Zyman, she helped the brand double its historical growth rate.

Ms Bali´s passions are not limited to meeting deadlines or taking on boardroom battles. She has a strong belief in creating sustainable models of corporate social responsibility. She also has been in the forefront of several initiatives in rural India, covering widespread school contact programmes in several states.

Personally passionate about women´s issues and the rights of the deprived, Ms Bali has previously served on the board of the American Foundation for the Blind in New York. Believing in giving back to the management community, Ms Bali interacts with it very often, sharing ideas and diverse experiences. In her quiet times, Ms Bali enjoys sports, theatre and Indian classical music. She has been a student of Kathak for 16 years and is now a mentor to Bangalore-based Janaagraha.

Back on home turf, Ms Bali is known by friends to be «an excellent marketing professional, great manager and intuitive». Ms Bali´s intuitions, insight and experience have today aligned her success with Britannia´s (source).