Design-led CEOs & Business Leaders in India

In the world of Design, there are very few CEOs and business leaders who truly get the power and the potential of building design capabilities with a strategic intent. In the last decade or so, that cohort of business leaders has gradually increased. But one usually hears about Apple (Steve Jobs, of course), Airbnb (Brian Chesky), Pepsico (Indra Nooyi) and other such Silicon Valley and 'global north' stories of design-led business leaders.

In India, there is now a growing tribe of such leaders (and unlike the 'global north', this phenomenon is not limited to the tech industry). Here are leaders that, I think, have been moving the needle on design-centricity in their respective businesses:

• Prasad G V from Dr. Reddy's Laboratories (Pharma / Healthcare)
• Srikanth Velamakanni from Fractal (AI / Analytics / Tech)
• Mukesh Bansal from Curefit - house of cult and previously, founder of Myntra (eCommerce, Tech)
• Shashank Mehta from The Whole Truth Foods (Foods / FMCG)
• Musthafa P. from iD Fresh Food (India) Pvt. Ltd. (Foods / FMCG)
• Sriharsha M. from Swiggy (eCommerce, Tech)

What does it actually mean to be a 'design-led business leader'?

In my experience, this could include one or more of the following attributes:

1. The business leader sees Design as a means to be truly customer-centric in their org culture, and is personally driving that intent in the organisation (e.g. Dr. Reddy's)
2. The organisation is intentionally and consistently creating products / services that delight customers (e.g. iD Foods, Cult.fit)
3. The organisation has made strategic investments (capabilities, people, projects, policies, etc) in Design in several parts of its organisation (e.g. Swiggy, The Whole Truth Foods)
4. The organisation has created design leadership positions at executive levels in the organisation. Design truly has a seat at the table. (e.g. Fractal)
5. Design leaders are empowered and included in strategic plans and priorities of the organisation, on par with other functions and capabilities. (e.g. Swiggy, The Whole Truth Foods, Fractal)

I share more details and my perspective below on each of these attributes, and my sense (some from firsthand interactions, and some from anecdotal stories) of how these are playing out in each of the above mentioned organisations.

What does it mean to be a 'design-led business leader'?

1) The business leader sees Design as a means to be truly customer-centric in their org culture, and is personally driving that intent in the organisation

Case in point: GV Prasad has been the visionary behind championing the patient-centricity culture at Dr. Reddy's. Right from realigning the organisation purpose (to 'Good Health Can't Wait') to sponsoring initiatives to translate 'Good Health Can't Wait' into several touch points across the organisation, Prasad has been instrumental in pushing the empathy and innovation centric culture in the company. This included setting up Studio 5B, an innovation lab dedicated to patient-centricity and human-centred design, back in July 2014! I was fortunate to be a part of this journey right from its inception.

2) The organisation is intentionally and consistently creating products / services that delight customers

Case in point:

• iD Foods: From the early days, iD Foods has been doing a brilliant job of thinking customer-backwards and creating packaged food (Ready-to-Cook/Eat) products that are not only solving the convenience problem, but also consistently creating delightful solutions. Below is one of my favourite examples of a category & clutter breaking innovation:

• Cult.fit: In the last few years, Cult has emerged as a dominant fitness brand in the country. They were pioneers in their unique way of getting people to become more active / fit. They did this by making the gym more accessible to the layperson who wasn't interested in the traditional and intimidating aspects of going to the regular gyms (i.e. dumbbells, treadmills, weights, etc and buffed up people flexing their muscles in front of the mirrors!). Mukesh is known to be very passionate about building delightful, simple and memorable customer experiences, and is very knowledgable about Design, Customer Experience and Customer-centricity. Here is a discussion between Mukesh Bansal and Rishabh Telang (co-founders of Cult.fit) about their journey -

3) The organisation has made strategic investments (capabilities, people, projects, policies, etc) in Design in several parts of its organisation

• Swiggy: Those who've worked at Swiggy know about the founder and CEO, Sriharsha M. and his passion for customer-centricity and simple, delightful experiences. Over the years, Swiggy has built deep expertise in Product Design (UX), and more recently, has even invested in building a specialist Behavioural Science team (led by Preeti KS ). As far as I remember, Swiggy was one of the first food delivery companies (and maybe, even among most app-startups) in India to provide immediate refund for cancelled orders, if you cancelled the order within a certain window of time after placing an order. While Uber may have pioneered this globally, in India, where there is usually skepticism and fear of misuse of this kind of feature, doing this must not have been easy. That is a sign of sharp focus on the customer experience.
• The Whole Truth Foods: Most people who follow The Whole Truth Foods (TWTF) and its founder Shashank Mehta, know how obsessive they are about being truthful to people about the food they buy & eat. With that kind of brand name and value proposition, it was only a matter of time before Design played a strong role in the success of the brand. The company had been working closely with Thought Over Design for the last few years, and with the growing success of this collaboration and its integration, Anushka Sani (founder of Thought Over Design) was formally brought onboard to TWTF as a 'Chief Creative Advisor'! This shows the belief, commitment and partnership that exists between the CEO of TWTF and their design partner (Anushka and her team at Thought Over Design).

4) The organisation has created design leadership positions at executive levels in the organisation. Design truly has a seat at the table.

Case in point:

• Fractal: Back in 2019, I was fortunate enough to be brought onboard at Fractal as its first Chief Design Officer and a member of the executive team. Since then, Fractal has been investing and building a design and behavioural science capability, to compliment its deep expertise in AI and data science. My mandate to lead and build a full-stack design thinking team was preceded by the acquisition of FinalMile Consulting (A Fractal Company) , one of the world's pioneers in behavioural science led consulting. Fractal was really putting its money where its mouth was, by doing this acquisition and giving me the strategic mandate of building an integrated Design & Behavioural Science team. In the world of AI and data science, this was (and is still) rare. All credit to Srikanth Velamakanni for being the brain (and the muscle) behind this effort.

5) Design leaders are empowered and included in strategic plans and priorities of the organisation, on par with other functions and capabilities.

Case in point:

In some of the companies cited above already (i.e. Swiggy, The Whole Truth Foods, Fractal), the design leaders in each of these organisations are part of strategic and leadership discussions and decisions. This is helping each of these brands with differentiation, being competitive and, most importantly, in staying customer-centric.

The above list of business leaders and organisations is not meant to be exhaustive; I am sure there are many more who meet (or even exceed) the above criteria. Would love for your feedback and additional anecdotes and stories from leaders and organisations in India that are leading the way in design-centricity. Please add these to the comments below!