Sanjiv Mehta, Chairman & Managing Director, Hindustan Unilever Limited (HUL), was conferred the prestigious AIMA – JRD Tata Corporate Leadership Award 2020 at the All India Management Association’s (AIMA) 65th Foundation Day & 15th National Management Day virtual celebrations. Mr Azim Premji received the Lifetime Achievement Award for Management while Dr Randeep Guleria was bestowed the AIMA Public Service Excellence Award. Some dignitaries present for the event included honourable Finance Minister Smt Nirmala Sitaraman, Mr Harsh Pati Singhania, Mr Uday Kotak and Mr CK Ranganathan.
This Award, established as one of the most coveted awards in the country, has been given to Mr Mehta recognising his outstanding contribution in the corporate world and professional management. After receiving the award, Sanjiv Mehta delivered an inspirational keynote lecture on ‘Transformation for Continuity’.
In his speech, he stressed on the importance of making sustainability a business goal and said, “We need to reset our relationship with nature by valuing it as an indispensable resource. We need to apply nature-based solutions to our greatest challenges and create more robust resilience to systemic shocks.”
Mr Mehta mentioned that to stay relevant in these changing times, businesses need to build competitive advantage through speed, agility, adaptability and resilience; and progress towards being the ‘intelligent enterprise’ and concluded by saying, “We are stakeholders not only in our own companies but in the health, happiness, and prosperity of the planet, our country and those who inhabit it.”
Every year AIMA honours distinguished and eminent personalities. Some of the previous recipients of the award include Mr Aditya Puri, Former Managing Director of HDFC Bank Ltd.; Dr J. J. Irani, Director, Tata Sons; Mr Azim Premji, Chairman, Wipro Corporation; Mr N R Naryana Murthy, Co-Founder and Chairman, Infosys.; and Late Aditya V. Birla, Former Chairman, Aditya Vikram Birla Group.