About the Client
The client is a Fortune 500 global consumer goods leader headquartered in the United States. With a 130+ year legacy, it has shaped some of the world’s most recognisable brands which are present in over 200 countries.
The Challenge
The client sought to expand their large-scale India operations, and chose Gujarat as the site for a brand-new greenfield manufacturing facility. This investment represented not only geographical expansion but also a strategic push to build a lean, technologically advanced, industry plant aligned with global capabilities.
Thus, they required a Manufacturing head and a middle-leadership team to run these operations, and had a unique set of requirements:
- A Leadership Team Rooted in Gujarat: The client wanted a leadership team that was ideally native to Gujarat, in order to enable cultural integration, trust, and rapport with shop-floor employees. A locally rooted team also helped them comply with India’s Production Linked Incentive (PLI) scheme, which encourages local hiring to boost domestic manufacturing.
- High-Quality Talent: The client was looking for a team with high pedigree in operations and supply chain—talent from a similar multinational FMCG manufacturing background, with strong academic credentials and a proven ability to run high-performance, lean manufacturing systems at a global standard.
- Gender Diversity in a Smart Manufacturing Setting: The plant’s leadership team needed to reflect the client’s global values by integrating adequate gender representation, specifically women leaders in both technical and managerial roles—something notoriously difficult to find in manufacturing-heavy roles.
Additionally, many potential candidates were working deep within mature manufacturing ecosystems, and thus not visible on digital channels and accessible only through a localized network.
The Solution: How Michael Page Helped
- On-Ground Understanding: As the exclusive hiring partner for the entire greenfield build-out, we travelled to Gujarat to understand the facility and operating model, and deep-dive into the leadership competencies required. This helped us build trust with the client and shape our search strategy.
- Market Mapping: We conducted a market mapping exercise to identify talent from C-suite to senior manager level, and identified potential candidates including:
- Gujarati talent working in leadership roles across India
- Leaders from overseas or other states with Gujarati roots looking to return
- Professionals from both global MNCs and top Indian organisations with strong management programmes
- Relationship-Driven Sourcing: Besides traditional channels to reach potential candidates, we used our longstanding network within Gujarat’s manufacturing cluster and strong word of mouth to understand organisation organograms and generate references, uncovering talent that was not visible to the broader market.
The Result
Through a combination of strategic mapping and relationship driven sourcing, 7 hires were made, forming the leadership and mid-management layer of the new plant facility. Key hires included:
- Sr Director – Site Head
- Director – Manufacturing
- Director – Plant Engineering
- Multiple women leaders across technical and managerial roles
- Returning Indian candidates who wanted to move back to Gujarat and build long-term careers
