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Vismay Sharma: Keeping trust as a core value in participative management
Courtesy of LâOreal IndonesiaWith over two decades of experience in the beauty industry under his belt, Vismay Sharma continues empowering his staff with trust as a strong foundation to maintain a solid team
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Courtesy of L'Oreal Indonesia
With over two decades of experience in the beauty industry under his belt, Vismay Sharma continues empowering his staff with trust as a strong foundation to maintain a solid team.
PT L'Oréal Indonesia president director Vismay Sharma believes that most successful businesses recognize a synergy of sound business practice and great leadership in building a successful management team.
'Sound business practice incorporates the value of integrity. We regard integrity as the honesty of our actions. And integrity builds a foundation of trust. In a business, especially that of consumer goods, winning the trust from customers is very important. In order to achieve that, you also have to trust your employees to do their job,' he asserted.
L'Oréal is a global cosmetics and beauty giant based in Clichy, France.
'To build the trust from your customers you have to understand the complexity of the market and the level of consumer awareness. In other words, you have to develop products that meet market demand. And it takes a solid team to build a business producing good products or delivering good services,' he said.
His assertion reflects his view of the importance of having a strong management team. In his book, the bedrock of having a solid team is to have a pool of talented people where everybody contributes to the advancement of any particular organization. Next is to trust them when delegating their assigned jobs.
'I have for a long time adopted this participative management style where I believe that a leader should have the capability of making all members of the team give their best,' he added.
Maintaining a strong brand
Young scientist Eugène Schueller founded L'Oréal in 1909, and the group has managed to stay at the forefront of the cosmetics and beauty industry, with a current global presence in more than 130 countries.
L'Oréal established a presence in Indonesia in 1979 with its business activities focused on marketing and distribution. In 2012, it officially opened a 66 thousand square meter factory in Cikarang.
Sharma has been with L'Oréal for over 21 years, and started leading the Indonesia office at the beginning of 2012.
'Most people think that we are a mega corporation whose business is all about marketing. But that's not true. The company was founded by a scientist, and in fact, the company's biggest strength is its long commitment to science. Our research and innovation division has played a role as significant as our daily function.
'I've seen a lot of beauty companies base their business on fashion and trends. For us, fashion and trends are short term. Science has long-term value,' Sharma said in a one-on-one interview with The Jakarta Post at the recent 14th annual scientific meeting of the Indonesian Association of Dermatology & Venerology (Perdoski) in Balikpapan, East Kalimantan.
He added that the company had allocated considerable funds to research to realize its commitment to science.
'This is deemed necessary, as research and science can lead to the maintenance and improvement of products. And my management strategy is to capitalize on this to keep the trust of customers in the brand.'
As the president director of the Indonesia office, Sharma supervises a total of approximately 2,300 employees ' comprising 800 permanent employees from both business and manufacturing, as well as another 1,500 that includes beauty advisors and distributors and sales representatives.
'It's not an easy task to lead these many people. As much as you have to build trust with your customers, it is crucial that you trust your subordinates. Back to my aforementioned management style, my first priority is to allow people to get motivated, committed, feel empowered and have the ownership. This way they can give the best of their contributions.'
In his daily routine, Sharma is well aware of the importance of human resources as the company's greatest asset. At the same time, he also sees it as a challenge.
'We always want to have great quality people to come and work for us. Getting the top talent comparable to the best in the world is probably the biggest challenge that we face today. But I notice the improvement of Indonesian human resources.'
His leadership know-how, the strong brand and Indonesia's economic climate are what have strengthened Sharma's vision to take the company he's helming to the next level.
'Our objective is to be on the top list in the market. It's the largest economy in Southeast Asia with a diverse population. Along with the country's emergence of middle class comes more awareness of what the cosmetics and beauty products have to offer. And given the strong brand value of L'Oréal, I don't see why I shouldn't be optimistic about the outlook of the brand's presence in Indonesia,' said the Indian.
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Birth
Mumbai, May 23, 1971.
Career highlights
President director of L'Oreal Indonesia (January 2012-present); director of consumer products division, L'Oreal India (April 2007 ' December 2011); international project manager at L'Oreal Paris, France (2006-2007); director of professional products division, L'Oreal Mumbai, India (2000-2006); brand manager of L'Oreal Professionnel, London, UK (1999-2000); sales and marketing positions at L'Oreal India (1994-1999).
Education
Bachelor of science in engineering from the University of Pune, India (1992); Master of business administration in marketing from Symbiosis Institute of Business Management, India (1994).
At Ease
Family time
Weekends are where I usually have quality time with my wife, Richa, and our two children, a 13-year-old son and 10-year-old daughter. We love cycling together in our neighborhood in Pondok Indah. When we are at home, watching movies or playing video games is what we like to engage in the most.
Food & whisky
I like trying different types of foods from all over the world. Whenever I visit a new place, its local dish is something that I often don't want to miss. I can eat any cuisine the world has to offer; Indonesian, Indian, Japanese, French, you name it. I also like drinking whisky. My favorite is single malt whisky from the brand Lagavulin. I also like Japanese whisky.
Traveling the world
I find Lombok and Bali very interesting because each time my family and I go there, we see different personalities and there are so many things to see and experience.
We've been to Bromo and the panorama is indeed very beautiful. Outside Indonesia, I have to say that southern France is really nice. I like Rajistan in India because of its old palaces, food and its nice weather.
Recently, my family and I went to Japan and we were very impressed by the country's ability to preserve its history and culture. We went to Tokyo, Nara, Nikko, Kyoto, Kobe and Osaka.
