Had Shunu been alive, I’d have made him read this

Reproducing Shunu (Sidhartha) Sen’s resume, though stunningly impressive, would be a bit like describing an iconic brand like Coke as it “comes in a bottle, coloured, sweet, aerated, consistent formula, drunk by millions the world over, been around for a hundred years and still going strong’’. However, let me do it for the record. Shunu’s marketing and sales and business experience spanned 35 years, almost 30 of which were with Hindustan Lever and the Unilever group. He became Marketing Director on the board of Hindustan Lever in 1984 and was then appointed Vice Chairman of Lipton in 1990. (He said at that time, tongue firmly in cheek, ‘‘I hate the thought of having to sell something that doesn’t even foam’’!).

When television finally happened as an advertising medium in the mid 1970s, Lux and Surf were the first spots to be aired. The birth of television audience research was something he played midwife to. And during his tenure at Levers, he provided active leadership to many industry associations, creating the foundation and the framework for many of the forums that enable marketers to work together in areas of common interest.

A health setback confined him to a wheelchair soon after. Had I been writing this for an ordinary mortal, I would have finished the sentence with ‘‘and unfortunately cut short a brilliant career’’. But it is Shunu I am writing about. He came back to work, after a year in hospital in Bombay and in the UK, joking about the machismo of the black leather gloves he had to wear to help him manipulate the wheels of his chair. He was Marketing Advisor to the Unilever group till his retirement in 1995.

But hang on, the story doesn’t finish there. This is Shunu, remember? He once said in a speech somewhere that the test of success of a brand is its ability to generate and regenerate itself. And so in 1998, his new venture, a marketing consulting firm called Quadra Advisory, was born. He painted on an even wider canvas than he had before, going well beyond fast moving consumer goods to telecom and durables, paints and financial services, lubricants and the ‘Made in India’ brand, and lots of other things that are not on this list. He spoke extensively sharing his knowledge and experience, solved marketing problems via a web ite column and wrote a lot on the subject in his usual colourful way.

Here’s an excerpt from a case analysis that he once did for a business magazine: ‘‘The marketing manager is falling into the trap like most marketing managers and marketing directors. First, they set an objective (that’s good). Second, they meet it (that’s great). Then they screw it up (happens quite often). Mita (the marketing manager in the case) is a good marketing person, but going the way of those guys who would not, could not and just did not leave the good work he did, alone.’’

The things that made Shunu really special were his grit and determination and his incorrigible, wicked sense of humour. Wheelchair bound, he travelled more than many of us, to remote Indian locations on market visits and meetings, and also extensively internationally. We worked together on an assignment a few years ago, and he had fractured his collarbone. Yet he came with me for the daylong workshop, driving 40 kms on a pothole-filled Bombay road. No whinging, no cribbing, no self indulgent pity about ‘‘why has fate dealt me this hand’’. Positivity amazing.

But after that long drive in what must have been excruciating pain, he said he would do the introductions for both of us at the kick-off session of the work shop. He began with: ‘‘I have known Rama for a long time, ever she was in short frocks which regrettably…’’ Appalled, I hissed to him that this was a formal meeting. He said ‘‘Yes, I know. I’ll come to the informal part later’’!

The first time I met him, he was the all important Lever client, and I, the starry-eyed 20-year-old account executive in Lintas, his advertising agency. An IIM graduate, I had rather exaggerated notions of what my job ought to be. He brought me down to terra firma by explaining that the most important thing I should be doing was checking language translations of advertising copy, because ‘‘sometimes, instead of saying ‘soap dish free’, they end up saying ‘son of a one-eyed gambler’’’!

A colleague of Shunu’s referred to him as the Renaissance Man. The dictionary says renaissance is all about rebirth. And defines a Renaissance Man as a person with many talents or pursuits. That about sums up Shunu. Farewell, friend, may we continue to be inspired by you. We will miss you, but I doubt if we will ever forget you.

(The writer is a Mumbai-based strategic marketing consultant)