RIP Suman

A tribute to PM (Suman) Sinha written by my friend and colleague, Shashi Kalathil, who knew him well at Levers and Pepsi

Suman(PM) Sinha was a man’s man. His physicality permeated corporate space. As Sales Director of Hindustan Lever in the early 80’s he systematically downed barriers that differentiated ‘burra saheb’ HQ and senior management from field salesmen. Amongst several initiatives, this he manifestly did through aggressive touring, including into the hinterland, unmindful of the rigours of climate, travel and stay. If his frontline “boys” faced this day in day out, so could he every once in a while and so would the hitherto cosseted senior managers !

At Pepsi India, helmed by him for a decade where he created an organisation that decisively won the ‘cola wars’ of the 90’s, Suman took his passion for the frontline several notches up. He championed the ‘bottom up’ organisation, an inverted pyramid fronted by customer facing sales and production personnel with all other functions supporting, anchored by top management, but at the very bottom. Suman also enjoyed nothing more than a few drinks with the sales guys at the end of a hard day’s field work – so bottoms-up was just right !

Mr. Sinha however made his first mark within the corridors of ‘babudom’ as the quaintly titled Resident Manager based at New Delhi. Representing a multinational Hindustan Lever in the 70’s and 80’s and nudging policy away from the hostility of those times within a framework of ethics quite alien to the prevailing politico-business ethos must have been excruciatingly difficult, yet he pulled it off with persistent doggedness. That his next assignment was with Pepsi which was the first post liberalisation big multinational entry into India was karmic indeed !

That this nephew of Jayaprakash Narayan should have had a vaunted career in multinationals selling soaps and colas is a dichotomy that can perhaps be best resolved by Suman Sinha’s proudest moment – that Capt. Vikram Batra (PVC) should report that first of the Kargil peaks captured with the legendary Pepsi ad tagline “yeh dil maange more” !

Go well Sir, they don’t make ‘em like you no more !

Shashi Kalathil is an ex Hindustan Lever and Pepsi India veteran

Friends

Most of us in the upper middle class come from small families. On my father's side, we had a total of 7 first cousins and I had only one sister. On my mother's side there were a total of 10 first cousins. I suspect that these numbers will shrink further as I see that our children's generation are happy with one or two children and sometimes not even that. The other thing is distance. Though the world has shrunk and it's so much easier to travel and communicate, Covid has shown us how this can be an illusion. Family who live in different places have found it difficult to meet in the last two years even though Whats App and Zoom have bridged the gap to some extent,

It is a platitude to say that friends are the new family. The need for emotional and social connections is a universal human condition. In the old days this need was often met by large extended joint families. Social mobility was much lower and often people spent their lives in the same town as they were born. This is becoming increasingly rare. Careers and business opportunities will dictate where you live and often you could be moving frequently between jobs and locations. This does tend to create a sort of a nomadic lifestyle where friendships are built based on where you are that time. I suppose in the broader scheme of things you need to differentiate between this almost opportunistic process and real friendship. Obviously, real friendships may also come about based on propinquity and often do. But the difference is palpable. 

In my experience, real friendship is an instinctive process. It is not about a deliberate choice. Once such a chord has been struck, it will probably remain with you through your lives. Frequency of interaction and proximity are important, of course, but real friendships are not dependent on them for succor. In many ways, such friendships would represent the best that you can get in a close family relationship without the baggage that sometimes goes with them. Very often, in the latter, there could be issues of monetary misunderstandings, festering family matters and other things that preclude a more meaningful relationship. In real friendships, these have a lesser probability of happening. One because there are unlikely to be any financial transactions that could create misunderstandings and two because by their very nature, friendships are less judgmental than family relationships.

I would hasten to add that I have the very best of close family relationships and support as indeed do most of us. This is not a this vs that discussion. Rather, it is in favour of developing and maintaining those friendships and family interactions that add meaning and savour to life. Often it takes a major effort or event to break through a casual friendship and transform it into something deeply meaningful. With luck or given the right circumstances you may achieve a few such breakthroughs. Believe me a small handful of them are worth a 100 casual acquaintances.

bravo à l'amitié, the real flavour of life.