In a bid to combat the problem of the current global economic crises, the fast moving consumer goods major, Unilever Group has decided to step up its cost cutting drive at the global level where it will concentrate more on protecting the cash flows.

Speaking with the media persons here on Friday, Paul Polman, Unilever’s CEO said that the company has appointed a Global Procurement Officer to handle this task. A common global procurement platform has also been drawn to meet the requirements of the FMCG major across the globe.

Apart from this, the company has also made it clear that it would cut its travel expenditure by 30 per cent and make more use of video conferencing. Moreover, the company has also decided to hire its employees on a selective basis.

“I am a realistic optimist. We have not yet seen the bottom of the recession and I think recessionary trends will continue for the next 24 months or more. I hope I am wrong, but it is better to be prepared. ” said Polman.

Polman feels that there is great upside to develop itself in India. He expects to see bigger and better innovations from the developing and emerging markets like India, which could then be moved across the world. He cited the instance of Pureit, the water purifier brand from HUL, which could be imitated in other markets to make it a bigger global brand.

At present, Polman is on a two-day visit in India.

In October 2008, Polman took over as a CEO of Unilever. Earlier he was working as the Chief Financial Officer at Nestle S.A.  

While the fixed component of employees’ salary has been frozen, the MNC is more liberal on the variable side.

However, later an official working for the Hindustan Unilever made it clear that there would be no salary freeze in India. He also said that there was no freeze on recruitments too. The consumer goods major would continue to recruit from B-Schools in line with business needs.