The Suman School Of Management
The 21 December 2022 marked the end of an era. Suman Sinha, the former Chairman of PepsiCo India, former Director of Hindustan Lever, and the man credited with building Pepsi in India and grooming an army of business leaders, passed away on that day. I had the privilege of working closely with Suman at both Hindustan Lever and PepsiCo. More than that though, I had the privilege of learning and training at a very special school. The Suman School of Management. And this is my humble tribute. To the man. The legend. The institution.
I still recall my first meeting with Suman. His reputation preceded him. We had heard stories of how tough a boss he was, demanding, a hard task master, prone to bouts of anger, not afraid to show his displeasure. But it’s amazing. All it took was one meeting with Suman. And at the end of it I was convinced that all those stories I had heard about Suman were, well, true.
Suman was a salesman at heart. He enjoyed his market visits – meeting salespeople, retailers and customers. And he would be upset if he saw any sloppiness in execution, or anything less than perfection. And after every Suman market visit, regional managers would privately exchange messages to check on the number of casualties. In fact, there was a strong correlation in those days between airline punctuality and manager attrition in PepsiCo. Every time a flight was delayed, Suman would want to do a surprise market visit. And bang!
Just as war veterans show off the bullet marks on their body, most sales people who worked with Suman will have a few bruises to show. Mine from Mehsana still hurts. But here’s the deal. Suman genuinely believed that our execution in the market place was key to our winning the war. He believed the team had what it takes to win. And he believed that his job was to stretch the team, push them harder, empower them, help them discover their own capabilities. Traits that many of us went on to use to great effect. At PepsiCo. And beyond.
He taught us to lead from the front. To respect the frontline and to care for the foot soldiers. He showed us the magic that can be worked by a group of passionate people. Kotler may have taught us all the power of the 4 P’s of marketing. Suman gave us a fifth P - one that trumped the other four. Passion.
He demonstrated how a person’s achievements are only limited by his or her ability to dream big. He was a living example of that old adage “the speed of the leader determines the speed of the pack”. He taught us to constantly raise the bar, and ask for more. I often think that the iconic Pepsi campaign “Ye dil maangemore” wasn’t just an encapsulation of the aspirations and ambitions of the youth of the country. It was a mirror to the mindset of the leader of Pepsi. A manwhosedilalways wanted more. A man who could be happy. But not satisfied.
And he re-constructed for us all the anatomy of a leader, so we’d all know what it took to be a good leader. You needed to have an eye for detail, passion in the veins, fire in the belly, guts of steel, hands forever willing to get dirty, feet that never tire, and a huge heart full of concern for people. And a head held high. Always high.
Suman taught us all the virtue of integrity. Never do anything you need to be ashamed of was his refrain. And that has got to be the mantra for building a truly great organisation. I remember how we had a situation where a team member had been found to have made a false expense claim – for Rs 85. Which even in those days was a small sum of money. The colleague was a star performer, so when the incident came to light, I thought we should issue a stern warning. When Suman heard about it, he was furious, and disappointed. He would have none of it. ‘He must go, we have to show zero tolerance when integrity is compromised’ was his message. And then, with a little rap on my knuckles, he said ‘How can you – the leader - be seen to be condoning such acts?’ It’s a rap I haven’t forgotten.
And then there was this lesson I learnt from a slide in a presentation Suman was making. It was a slide of the org structure – the familiar pyramid with the boss on top, the VPs below him, the GMs below that, and the rest of us at the bottom. But damn – the slide was upside down in Suman’s presentation. So what we saw was a slide with the frontline salesmen on top, the managers below them, the VPs below them and the CEO at the bottom. And just when I thought some young Management Trainee will lose his job for getting the slide wrong, Suman explained it wasn’t a mistake. It was indeed the organization he was trying to build. An organization where the salesmen – the people closest to the customer would call the shots and decide what the business would do. And everyone else in the business would be focused on helping the frontline do whatever it takes to delight the customer. Instead of people looking up to see what the boss wants, people would be focused on doing what the customer wants. It was Suman’s way of showing he wanted to create an empowered, outward-looking organization. Suddenly, it wasn’t just a slide. It was a leadership philosophy. And it became a leadership mantra for me and a host of other people who had the privilege of working with him.
I remember the several phone calls from Suman. Every time we’d get a call from him, the pulse would race a bit more. Now what, you’d instantly begin to think. Was there a quality issue? Competition up to new tricks? Did someone complain about Pepsi not being available in his neigbourhood? And I remember one particular call. I was out on a market visit in Kolkata. And Suman called. He had a request to make that day that I found rather strange. He wanted me to go buy a saree for someone.
Taken aback, I said something about not being very good at these things. I said I’d get my wife to pick something up. And then in that tone which clearly suggested just-do-what-I-tell-you, he said “I want you to pick up a saree. For eight - ten thousand rupees. Right now. And I want you to go home, give it to your wife and tell her that her husband has just got promoted.”
A-ha! Behind that tough exterior of a demanding task master was a man with a heart of gold. A man willing you to succeed. Pushing you because he believed in you. Sometimes in our lives, all we need is one person who believes in us. And then the magic begins.
We are all proud of our schools, our alma maters and what we have learned there. And while each school has its share of distinguished alumni around the world, there is a select band of professionals who have had the honour and privilege of having got trained in the Suman School of Management. A school that taught you lessons in life and leadership. Where you learnt how passion can help forge a winning team. A school that taught you to respect your frontline. To see leadership as a responsibility, not a position. To aim for excellence. Be ruthlessly focused on execution. Ask for more. Care for your people. And a school that taught you that integrity was non-negotiable. That integrity was about doing the right thing even when nobody was looking.
With the passing away of Suman, a leader and mentor who meant so much to so many, is gone. An institution has vanished from the face of the earth. It feels like the end of an era. A legend is no more. But his legacy will live on.
Somewhere in a dusty marketplace tomorrow, a leader will be demanding more from his or her sales team, pushing them to strive for perfection, exhorting them to stretch and discover strengths they didn’t know they possessed. Because that’s what they learnt from Suman.
Somewhere in the corridors of power, a leader will resist the temptation to grease a palm or do something marginally wrong to gain a huge business advantage. Because of a lesson in integrity learnt from Suman.
And somewhere in a corner of the country, a leader will be spending a night out with a sales guy, recounting stories of a legend, and sharing the lessons he learnt at the feet of his master. A man they called Suman.
Leaders will pass on to their teams the lessons learnt from Suman, lessons in striving harder, aiming higher, never settling for the ordinary. And always doing the right thing. Future generations of leaders will demonstrate behaviours that can be traced back to the magic of Suman. Indeed, to the Suman School of Management.
Thank you Suman. For the memories. And the lessons. You will be missed.
Proud to be an alumnus of the Suman School of management.
The writer is an author, speaker and leadership coach and former MD of Kimberly Clark
