There’s a moment in a video conversation between Unilever CEO Paul Polman and his son, Sebastian, when the son all but dismissively refers to his father’s early days as a milkman in the Netherlands.The father’s response is swift and firm. The job of CEO and that of the milkman are of “equal responsibility,” he admonishes. “A lot of people depend on you,” he says of his days in dairy delivery. During the same conversation Polman said this: “It’s not important to be CEO. It’s important to be a human being.”Since taking over the top job at the Anglo-Dutch food and personal care empire — Hellmann’s mayonnaise, Dove soap, Magnum ice cream, etc. — in 2009, Polman has stood out as the unconventional chief executive. His Twitter feed hews more to big picture themes — business as a force for good; creating transformational change; sustainability — than profit and loss statements. Read more:Kraft Heinz withdraws $143-billion bid to buy UnileverUnilever rejects Kraft Heinz takeover bid, talks ongoingHis directorship in Focusing Capital on the Long Term, along with Canada’s Mark Wiseman, and his refreshing directive to no longer issue quarterly earnings guidance have been the topic of this column previously. “Business,” Polman has said, “needs a new relationship with society.” His advocacy on climate change issues is perhaps unparalleled in the club of global chief executives.For all of the above reasons, the $143-billion (U.S.) takeover bid for Unilever by Kraft Heinz seemed an unlikely easy pairing. Kraft Heinz, we all recall, is controlled by 3G Capital, the Brazilian buccaneers unfavourably viewed by Leamington, Ont., when Heinz shuttered its historic ketchup operation there, putting hundreds out of work. Jorge Lemann, the Swiss-based Brazilian commonly referred to as Brazil’s richest entrepreneur, is usually seen as t ...
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