Amir R. Paracha

Early life and background

Paracha grew up in Karachi, where he also attended school. He attended a Parsi school. He says that at his school it was not apparent which socio-economic class a student came from, and everyone was equal. [1]

Education

Paracha completed pre-engineering at a science college. He then studied engineering at NED University. He tried to enter IBA through its aptitude test and did not pass. He completed a private Bachelors in Commerce alongside his NED studies, and he says the private Bachelors took him two years. He left his NED degree after roughly a year or 18 months and moved to IBA. [1]

He says he was an average student and never a topper. He graduated in 1996. [1]

Shell

Paracha landed a job at Shell and says he had one of the lowest GPAs in his class. He joined Shell as a Retail Analyst. He spent two years in analytics and two years in sales at Shell. He says a person older than him but lower in rank taught him, and that he was once told his next mistake would cost him his job. [1]

He says he left Shell because his job offered too little variety. He also says he wanted to do marketing, and that the industry was 100% regulated at the time. [1]

Unilever

Paracha says that because he had no brand experience, he took a career dip when he moved from Shell to Unilever. He joined Unilever in 2001. He says Unilever promoted him, having brought him in as an assistant brand manager. He says that a year later he was given the Surf Excel brand. [1]

He worked on Surf Excel for roughly three to four years and did a lot of marketing work on it. He says he fell in love with the brand and the marketing work. [1]

Dubai

Paracha moved to Dubai to look after the North Africa and Middle East cluster. His role in Dubai was Marketing Director. He says his team in Dubai had about nine nationalities. He says working abroad taught him respect for other cultures and preferences. [1]

Return to Pakistan and sales

Paracha returned to Pakistan as Vice President for Marketing, Home and Personal Care. He later became Vice President for Sales and spent about six years in sales. He says he was offered a board position at Unilever at age 36. He says the sales team is about five to six thousand people. [1]

He says sales work taught him humility and made him a more human person. Asked whether he missed marketing, he said not a single day. [1]

Unilever Pakistan

He says the company has about 18,000 to 20,000 people, and about 300 distributors with a force of about 5,000 people behind them. He describes a campaign whose message was to wash hands with any soap at all. He says the Lifebuoy campaign was the first brand-agnostic campaign in Unilever's history. He also says the company ran a very large campaign with the Ministry of Human Rights, together with Lifebuoy. [1]

Views on purpose and sustainability

Paracha says every Unilever brand must have a purpose. He says Unilever's first brand, Sunlight, launched in 1884. He says two brands were born out of a purpose, not out of profit, and that strong value systems give organisations longevity. He says that when children are sent outside to play they come back dirty, and that this is how they develop. [1]

He says the aim is to take people toward a fair living where they can lead a dignified life. He says better livelihood means improving existing jobs. [1]

Paracha says climate change is here and now and is no longer a poster child issue. He says the target is to cut projected emissions by 50% and to convert energy from fossil fuel to 60% renewable by 2030. He says the company collected plastic equal to about 20% of the products it made in the country last year. He says all the resin that comes into Pakistan is virgin resin, and that multi-layer should be avoided because multi-layer cannot be recycled. [1]

He says the company aims to make Rahim Yar Khan a plastic-waste-free city within three years. He says about 98% of the energy used at the Rahim Yar Khan factory is renewable, and that the factory buys only about 2% of its energy from the grid. He says there was, and still is, a good concessionary incentive for companies to set up solar farms. [1]

Views on Pakistan

Paracha says one of the biggest problems has been that there are two economies. He says that 3% have made a Dubai inside Pakistan. He says Pakistan has an inverted market, where the most expensive shampoo sells the most, and that about 70% of shampoo in Pakistan is sold in bottles. [1]

He says saving gives people a buffer for bad days, and that without a buffer, people turn to loan sharks. He says the country needs to move from a consumption-driven economy to an export-driven one. [1]

Paracha says Pakistan has talent that can be trained, and that its product-making talent is second to none. He says the cost of business is uncompetitive in the global market and that energy cost and taxes are problems. He says that if he imports, the import duty is so high that he could not be competitive locally. He says the shampoo he produces is world class, that Interloop is one of the biggest makers of socks for global brands, and that unit economics need to be improved. [1]

He calls Pakistan a land of opportunity and a virgin market. He says law and order has become much better, that there was a big electricity crisis that is nearly over, and that CPEC should start to bear fruit after 2025. He describes Pakistan as a very resilient nation, though he also says he believes it has lost character as a nation. He says things have changed very rapidly since 2000, and especially since 2010. [1]

Personal life

Paracha says his father was very supportive and told him to do what his heart wanted. He says his mother instilled patriotism in him from childhood. He describes himself as an optimist and a patriot, and says he wanted to be with his parents as a moral obligation. [1]

He describes himself as persistent rather than smart, and as generally a loud person. [1]

Timeline

1996

Graduated.[1]

2001

Joined Unilever.[1]

2020

Took over leadership of Unilever Pakistan on 1 February.[1]

Appearances

Frequently asked questions

References

1. The CEO who took a demotion to join Unilever . Thought Behind Things , 2022-02-21.