THE SUMAN SCHOOL OF MANAGEMENT

THE 21ST 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.

- Prakash lyer

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 

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!