As the son of a diplomat, it's fair to say Seokhee Won, Unilever's newly-appointed global vice-president for Clear, understands better than most the nuances of relationships, an attribute which has undoubtedly served him well in his meteoric rise to the pinnacle of the personal care giant.
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From shrewdly ensuring the brand gets the most out of its agency relationships to understanding the connection between the brand and consumers, and, most importantly, he notes, nurturing his staff, Won has managed to fit the pieces of the puzzle together with impressive results.
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After graduating from the University of Notre Dame, Won joined the Unilever Korea operation in 1992 as a marketing trainee. After five years, he took a posting in Vietnam, a market which quickly became his proving ground, and his home for a further eight years.
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In March 2005, he stepped up to his first regional job based in Bangkok, as regional vice-president for Unilever's Clear/Family Health brand, only to be bumped up the ladder again to his new global role after just 12 months.
And with fierce competition between Unilever's Clear — based predominantly in Thailand, Vietnam, India and Indonesia — and arch-rival Procter & Gamble's Head & Shoulders, Rejoice and Pantene brands frequently sparking comparisons to the David and Goliath showdown, Won agrees he is hardly facing a shortage of challenges. "Yes, we are going up against a giant, and that's a challenge that I love. It gets me going and that's why I get up in the morning," he says. "The only way as a marketer that you can beat them is creativity, imagination and lateral thinking, and having the energy and the passion to drive it."
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But according to Won, the obstacles he has overcome throughout his career will stand him in good stead for the fight ahead. "I chose to go to Vietnam at the right time, with the challenge of setting up a business, and I successfully did that," he notes.
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"I grew the business almost seven-fold in oral care, and in personal care, Unilever Vietnam grew five-fold. My resume isn't very fancy in the sense that I've held big jobs in good locations, but I chose to go to a country where I could deliver growth for Unilever, and over the years, every brand I have managed, I have managed to grow in terms of market share and business turnover."
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Key to Unilever's success in Vietnam was Won's ability to strike the right balance between a global brand with local touch points, a challenge that exists in every market, he says. "In the end, what matters the most is that the equity grows and the business grows with it," he explains. "If you're working abroad as an expatriate for any multinational, you have to spend sufficient time learning how to manage the equity of the brand, and every year is about sustaining and growing."
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Born in Korea, the 36-year-old was schooled in Japan and Europe in primary and secondary schools respectively, before finally undertaking his undergraduate degree in the United States. Although unsure of which direction he wanted to head at the time, Won reasoned that marketing was broad enough in scope to keep him interested.
Since then, he's not looked back, developing a two-pronged approach, which he terms "scratching with the chickens and flying with the eagles".
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"What I mean by that, is I always remind myself that I have to do the job I need to do as a brand manager, but at the same time, I have to be able to sit in a boardroom and talk about global and regional strategies," he says.
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"I have always believed the time you spend with your team is just as important as the brand strategy and company vision, because in the end, the people executing those strategies are the marketers on the ground."
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And, like other senior executives in the marketing communications industry, he's finding it a tough job to attract and retain quality staff, but he maintains it is possible. "If you have a winning culture in your team and you instill a vision that they can see, then they will stay with you," he says.
