Leadership is where you seek to serve, rather than be served: Suresh Narayanan

exchange4media TechManch, held in Mumbai on July 19, saw an enviable line-up of speakers and thought leaders speak during the day. However, the highlight of the conference was the fireside chat between Suresh Narayanan, Chairman & MD, Nestlé India, and Dr. Annurag Batra, Chairman & Editor-in-Chief, exchange4media Group and BW Businessworld, around ‘The Power of Purpose: Values-Driven Marketing in the Digital Age’.

Dr Batra began the e4m TechManch conversation by firstly acknowledging and appreciating Suresh Narayanan’s role as Jury Chair for the e4m IDMA awards that were held later in the evening, before they got on to the main topic of conversation. Dr Batra spoke about how Mr Narayanan took on the helm of Nestle India in 2015, during what was a challenging time for the company (the infamous Maggi recall) which he surmounted.

“I checked in the morning and Nestle India was valued at more than Rs 2.5 lakh crore market cap; it's a company that is growing, there has been consistent leadership, what helped you do that? I know our session is about purpose, but I want to find a segue into purpose, and that's why I am asking, nine years and counting what made you do what you did?” Dr Batra asked Suresh Narayanan.

Sharing an interesting response the Nestlé India boss said, “I was just reminiscing as I was listening to some of the speakers and in an age of bullshit jobs and technology, I think purpose takes on even more meaning and I think one of them, and pardon my being very non-tech because I am not a very tech guy, I still believe that come hail, come sunshine, there has to be something that drives you as a human being and that something is called a purpose, a value, a behaviour, something that you put as your north star, and you will not allow to be violated under any circumstances.”

“What I faced at that time, people attributed a lot to my leadership. I think it's an exaggeration, I would say that what was important was the ethos and purpose of the team and the team fundamentally belonged to an organisation where respect was at the centre, because respect was so important to us, respect for ourselves, respect for each other, respect for diversity, respect for the future and an overall value system where decency, humility, honesty and ethics matter.”

Dr Batra then asked the Bengaluru-born, Delhi-educated Mr Narayanan how, after a career of almost four decades, he defined the purpose of his own life.

“I defined for myself my own purpose when I first took a job and worked under very difficult circumstances that I had to actually shut down a factory. My first assignment was shutting down a plant and when you are 21-22 years old, if that's your assignment, it's a pretty grim start. It wasn't a bullshit job, it was very much a job that had to be done. But I said to myself if I can come out of this and create a positive impact on people, that should be my life mission, something that I would like to do. And always trying to make an impact positively on people by being on their side and not being in front of them: that has always been the way I've looked at leadership.”

“It's called in modern-day parlance, servant leadership, which is where you seek to serve rather than be served. I think I found this to be hugely satisfying and enriching. And as I today face the evening of my career, I realized that the good wishes and goodwill and the gratitude of hundreds and thousands of people whom I've had the privilege of interacting with is probably far more than the value that I've created for organizations or that 2,60,000 crores that you talked about,” he added.

“This is where I appeal to the young people, in this age where technology is becoming a threat; guys, human beings cannot be a threat to themselves. And I think that's something that I would like you to reflect upon. If you allow yourself to become a threat to yourself and to others, then I think you have a bigger crisis on your hands rather than AI trying to eat up a couple of jobs or a couple of professions.”

 Dr Batra then asked Mr. Narayanan how he defined purpose, and how did you measure whether one was doing well in the purpose that they had set out on.

Mr. Narayanan said, “I've had numerous crises to deal with. And one of the core realizations that dawned on me after many years is that managing yourself is more than half the problem in dealing with a crisis. I think as leaders, we fail to deal with ourselves. When the Maggie crisis happened or when COVID happened, for example, I was cut off from my team for extended periods of time. It was very difficult because you were expected to lead an organization of 8-9 thousand people with no idea whether you will be alive tomorrow or not. The disease was so virulent, it could have killed anyone. And yet you have to provide hope, support and a future prospect for people who are themselves distressed. You see that distress and yet you have to remain calm because that's what leadership is all about. If you start shaking and falling apart, people around you are going to fall apart too.”

Mr. Narayanan said this is when three things become important. “One, the focus is not about you. In any difficult moment, if you take the focus on you, the person, and the impact it will have on your career or your reputation, I think you're on a very slippery path because you start doing all the wrong things because the right things that influence your career will be the wrong things that could get the organization or the group of people out of difficulty.”

“The second is managing your emotions. Some of us are born the way we are born, and we are calm by nature. I am usually pretty calm by nature because one of the characteristics that I picked up from my mother very early in my life was never take yourself too seriously. She never took herself too seriously and she always used to laugh and joke. Even when she had cancer, she was the only woman I know who used to actually laugh about saying that God has given this kind of gift to me. So that kind of feeling got into me as well.”

“Third, focus on the consequential impact on people. I quote my maternal grandmother, when I came back and went to seek her blessings during the Maggi. And she was a middle school-educated woman of the old days, fiercely independent, but also fiercely committed to various causes. And she told me, 'my only lesson to you in management, take care of your people and they'll take care of everything'.”

Adding that these were simple lessons, but when we become so obsessed with who we are, what people think, Mr. Narayanan said, “I think I'm making a big mistake. You can see me through in two minutes saying, ‘This guy is already fake. He's coming and telling us all about this, these things, but actually what he does in life is something that's totally different.’ So, I think authenticity, transparency, and mooring on a cause are all important.”

Dr Batra and Mr. Narayanan went on to have a fascinating conversation about the mores of Nestle as a company, and house of brands, as well as the legacy it has both left behind and continued to foster.”

Watch the video for the entire conversation.