Nithal Soni Ramjee is Nestlé East and Southern Region’s (ESAR) Business Executive Officer: Food. It’s a big role considering that Nestlé is the world’s largest food and beverage company, with more than 2,000 brands, serving 190 countries worldwide.
Nithal’s first passion is people, starting with her family – her sister in Cape Town, her brother in Johannesburg and her parents who live in Dundee, KwaZulu-Natal. She says, “I come from a very humble background. I grew up in Dundee and I’m the first female in my family who has a formal tertiary education. I’m deeply proud of working in corporate at this level. Dundee is also a coal mining and farming town, so I love to know that part of what I do helps to support farmers.”
Her humility is likely a result of her parents constantly reminding her and her siblings that they are fortunate to be given the opportunity to be educated, coupled with their belief in equal opportunities regardless of gender. Nithal fondly recalls knowing that she made her parents very proud from a young age and retrospectively acknowledges that having equal opportunities is a privilege that many don’t experience.
She loves interacting with people and making a positive impact. It’s one of the reasons for her corporate success – she is passionate about winning in teams and loves managing her direct reports and extending her natural leaning towards coaching cross functionally, with a view not only to achieving common business goals, but also to developing the people involved personally.
She lights up when speaking about her role as Business Executive Officer: Food, explaining, “Food really is all about connection and people. This role ignites my passion because it involves what I do best: bringing people together around food and something that we all have in common, eating!”
Nithal’s is a naturally curious person and loves that there’s always something new to learn in her role, especially given the rapidly changing nature of consumer behaviour. She loves collaborating with others to gain different perspectives which she uses to refine her strategies. But it’s not all strategies and theory. Nithal candidly says, “I have big ideas and so does everyone else but execution beats innovation and I do execution. I’m here to add value so the bigger the challenge, the more passion and perseverance I have to take it on.”
This year, Nithal has a three-pronged approach, explaining that adding value in the current dynamic, high inflationary environment when it comes to food involves making the products within the food portfolio viable options for consumers. There are some exciting innovation projects in the pipeline at Nestlé to tackle this challenge. Secondly, Nithal has her sights set on adding value for the people she works with by uplifting talent. Lastly, her job involves adding value for Africa by attracting investment into the East and Southern Africa (ESAR) region.
“My job, and my passion, is to help sell Africa as a good investment by delivering business results and building and showcasing African talent. That’s where I’m focused this year. It involves developing suppliers, developing our farmers and agriculture sector and also considering how we make our products more viable options for consumers. It’s taking the business needs and the economic needs and merging them. We’re also looking at how we empower more people with food and not just consumption.”
A conversation with Nithal leaves you knowing that if anyone has the ability to bring people together with passion and enthusiasm to achieve a common goal, it’s her. Her deep humility, self-assuredness, experience, business acumen and passion for young, talented Africans and their advancement, makes her the perfect person to be at the helm of an important portfolio at the world’s largest food and beverage company: Food.
