Ravi Saligram faces toughest CEO challenge at Newell Brands

Schools in the U.S. are expected to return to normal operations in the 2021-22 school year which begins in August-September. “We believe most students will be back in school…and that is a big (positive) factor for us,” Ravi Saligram, chief executive of Newell Brands, told CNBC today.

The Atlanta based company sells Paper Mate writing and coloring pens, Sharpie highlighters and markers, Parker fountain and ballpoint pens, Elmer’s glue and other school supplies as well as consumer products including Sunbeam toasters, Mr. Coffee filters, Rubbermaid food storage containers and Calphalon cookware.  

Newell says its focus is to enhance “the lives of consumers around the world with planet friendly, innovative and attractive products that create moments of joy and provide peace of mind.” While its products are sold globally, the U.S. is its largest market.

Last year, the company earned $760 million in net profits on $9.4 billion in sales; both figures were lower than those in 2019. Listed on the New York Stock Exchange, Newell has a market value of $12 billion.

In 2019, Saligram was brought in as CEO of Newell to grow revenues and lift profits, after the company suffered a $6.9 billion loss in the previous year. Last year, he was paid $8.8 million in salary, bonus and equity compensation. His stock ownership is worth $37 million.

Four of the eight business division heads who report to Saligram are women. He began his career at the Chicago office of Leo Burnett, an advertising agency. His first boss was a woman.

Ravichandra (Ravi) K. Saligram’s father, who was in the Indian army, died at an early age. He was raised in India by his mother, a homemaker who did not know how to write a check. He grew up with five aunts. “A female point of view, and especially when a lot of your consumers are women, creates a different way to look at things,” he told MarketWatch.

For 13 years, Saligram has served on the board of Church & Dwight Co., a supplier of baking powder and other consumer products. He is on the Governing Board of the Woodruff Arts Center in Atlanta.

In June last year, after the killings of several unarmed blacks, including Ahmaud Arbery, 25, in Atlanta, Saligram wrote a letter to his employees, posted on LinkedIn, which got media attention. “When will mothers and fathers stop fearing day and night whether their black sons and daughters will come home safely?” he wrote. Americans, he continued, should be guided by the principle, “Do unto others as you would have them do unto you.”

From 2014 to 2019, Saligram was CEO of Ritchie Bros, the world’s largest onsite/online auctioneer of trucks and heavy equipment. He transformed the 60-year-old business by expanding use of technology and data-driven tools.

Earlier he was CEO of OfficeMax, an office supplies retailer. In 2013, he oversaw the merger of OfficeMax and Office Depot.

From 2003 to 2010, Saligram held senior managerial roles, including as president of international operations at Aramark, a U.S. food service contractor. From 1994 to 2002, he worked at the InterContinental Hotels Group, including as president of brands and franchise for North America. Earlier he was at S.C. Johnson and Son, a supplier of consumer and commercial products.

Saligram earned an electrical engineering degree from Bangalore University, India. At age 20, he was able to attend the business school at the University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, only because an aunt in India took on a bank loan to pay the fees.

During the second half of this year, with students back in school in the U.S., Saligram forecasts a rise in sales and profit margins at Newell, compared to 2020. However, many schools and students will likely continue using online tools which they adopted during the year-long COVID-19 lockdown. This could impact demand for Newell’s pens, markers and other school supplies.  

Also, its toasters, ovens, cookware and other consumer products face stiff competition from reputed rivals including Stanley, Black & Decker, which has a $34 billion market value, nearly triple that of Newell.   

In addition to reviving sales and lifting profits, Saligram has to reduce Newell’s $5.7 billion debt. So it remains to be seen if he can boost Newell’s financial performance as he did as CEO of Ritchie Bros. and OfficeMax.

A CEO has to create an environment where every employee, “no matter your race, your sexual preference, your religion…should be able to rise to your full potential,” Saligram told MarketWatch. “I don’t know that I can change America, but I can definitely change (the culture at) Newell.”

Editorial Comment: Are Indian Professionals in the U.S. proud of a minority label

Employers in America, including government agencies, colleges, hospitals, technology companies and large corporations, hire Indians to show their commitment towards meeting minority and diversity goals, including for senior management roles.

The term “minority” in this context is not a statistical measure. It is applied to various groups in the U.S. who hold few or no positions of power.

But the employers ignore that, unlike Blacks and Hispanics, Indians do not qualify as minorities. Indian professionals in the U.S. are almost all from middle-or-upper class families, who were educated at good schools and colleges in India and the U.S. Also, except for descendants of Sikh farmers who migrated to the U.S. in the early 20th century, none of them suffered any historical discrimination and economic hardships in America.

The original goal for including Asians among minorities was to help uplift the historically disadvantaged people from Hawaii, Guam, Samoa and other U.S. jurisdictions in Asia and the Pacific, descendants of nineteenth century Chinese railroad workers and Japanese Americans in internment camps during World War Two.

Indian professionals face rising criticism for taking jobs, from some minorities, White Americans as well as conservative and right-wing politicians.

In this environment, Indian professionals should tell their boards of directors and employers to exclude them from lists they compile to show their commitment to diversity hiring. This will ensure that the employers hire Blacks, Hispanics, Native Americans and other minorities, who legitimately qualify.  

 Also, it is in the self-interest of Indian professionals to clearly establish that their hiring was based on merit. Otherwise, their professional achievements will be doubted for the rest of their career, even as they are burdened with the label of being hired to fill minority quotas. This experience would be similar to that of minorities who meet the intent of diversity hiring. There is an underlying and often unfounded assumption among some of the other employees that such minority hires do not possess the requisite qualifications and skills.  

Most Indian professionals in America – from chief executives Sundar Pichai at Google, Satya Nadella at Microsoft, Anjali Sud at Vimeo and Sonia Syngal at Gap; Ajit Jain, vice chairman at Berkshire Hathaway; Srikant Datar, dean of the Harvard Business School; Vanita Gupta, Associate U.S. Attorney General; and on down – deserve their success given their educational credentials, training and skills. So, it should be unsettling for them to be counted and represented as evidence of ethnically diverse “minority” hiring.

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