In an interview with Storyboard18’s Delshad Irani, Sudhir Sitapati, managing director and CEO of Godrej Consumer Products Ltd, shared the key traits of great leaders, a business lesson from a classic book and his career advice for the young.
Inspirational books and business lessons gathered from them
I read a lot but I’m not a heavy business books reader. A few months ago I read Moby-Dick by Herman Melville and I really enjoyed reading it. So Ahab, who’s the captain of the ship, he’s a great guy, a charismatic leader and he loves his people, but he’s driven by personal ambition to take revenge on the whale. And he basically sinks the ship. I found that analogy quite apposite for a lot of business leaders They are very good people, they’re not necessarily evil or villains, but they’re running a personal agenda and that personal agenda may not be personal aggrandizement, it’s just revenge in the case of Ahab, and they take the whole company with them and often it sinks. So I thought that to be a good business lesson from a classic.
Top skills or traits to look for in young marketers and leaders today
The first thing is that marketers need to go out and spend time in the market or with consumers. You cannot do it on an excel sheet. That doesn’t quite work. Go out there and meet people and let it be a non-agenda meeting. Go have a cup of tea with your consumer pretty frequently.
The second most important thing in both marketing and leadership is that it is a left and right brain activity together. You have to be analytical and you have to be intuitive.
In terms of leadership, you need to genuinely care for the people working with you. I think people don’t mind if you are rude or get irritated as long as they feel that you are genuinely invested in their development they will generally fall in with you.
A key piece of career advice for the young
Don’t be a rolling stone. You won’t gather moss if you keep changing jobs. Figure out what you like and then run the course. Stick with it.