My first proper weekend of 2026 was spent dusting off the bookshelf. And as timing would have it, I landed on a book about a company that seems to manufacture executives who become CEOs—at companies ranging from Godrej Consumer to Chanel. 

For those who couldn’t guess, the book is Sudhir Sitapati’s CEO Factory. And the company, Hindustan Unilever. 

Incidentally, it offered new lessons for me that explain the changes afoot at India’s largest, but currently wounded, value retailer, Dmart. 

This weekend, on 10 January, Dmart published its financials. But along with the numbers, the company also snuck in an announcement of a change in management—one expected, and one not. 

Last year, we covered how Navil Noronha was going to step down, leaving behind a sterling legacy. And now, exactly a year later, the CEO-designate Anshul Asawa is taking his place, with 1 February as his start date. He comes after having spent three decades at Unilever—the same place Noronha came from in 2004, before becoming Dmart’s CEO in 2007.

While this was expected, the surprise lies in the changes Asawa is bringing to the senior management. A press release said that new positions have been created under “key managerial personnel”, essentially the company’s top leadership that reports directly to the CEO:

Source: Dmart press release

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Sachin Jaolekar, now the VP of FMCG, comes in from his earlier designation of VP of buying and merchandising. 

His role within the retailer would now become wider, and he would now be taking ownership of the entire “P&L of the FMCG vertical”, explained Akshay D’Souza, an independent FMCG consultant with over 24 years of experience. 

From staples to shampoos, fruits and vegetables to detergents, Jaolekar, in the new role, will be responsible for handling the sourcing, product pricing, and even how they are displayed at over 440 Dmart stores.

So from an organisational standpoint, the role would not just be about looking at sales but the entire category, with the goal of driving profitability, D’Souza added.

Similarly, Dastgir Shaikh, who was earlier the category head of general merchandising, will now be promoted to vice president of this category.

This structure is different from that of a typical retailer in India, where you have C-level executives like CEO, CFO, and COO on top, followed by Chief Business Officers (CBO) for different categories like FMCG, apparel, and general merchandising (the top three core categories for a typical retailer).