"How are you Gentleman"

Normally, I don’t take selfie, but one can’t stop when something special happen around us or we are part of it. The same I experienced and want to share with all despite of not being habitual of writing so.

Fortunately, in the last 2 days, twice, I got opportunity to meet Mr. Sanjiv Mehta, Chairman and Managing Director, Hindustan Unilever Limited; Executive Vice President, Unilever South Asia. It was an honor to spend few hours with him.

I was amazed to know that the initial meeting venue was his company’s guest house located in Delhi and not any five-star hotel. Being always punctual, I reached before time, waited just for 5 minutes and he was there in the guest area. With few papers in hand, a smile on his glowing face, he greeted me, “How are you, Gentleman”.

Being arrived earlier, he asked me to sit and we started talking. Out of curiosity, I asked the reason of his stay in the company guest house. His impactful reply made it clear that he was very down to the earth personality. He told, staying in the guest house will keep him close to the company culture and he would like to spend time with other employees of the organization. Moreover, he likes to go for evening walk around nearby parks. He also showed interest in me and asked about my job profile, department, and the company I work for. As I always know that all head of the organizations would talk in terms of facts and figures, so did he.

While driving, on the way for our meeting, I didn’t want to miss this chance to learn from such a senior profile professional, so I kept on asking the questions and he generously replied all with smile and great energy. Not to my surprise, he is a man with clear and distinctive thoughts. We spoke about leadership, challenges on such top-positions, team building and handling it, business, Indian economy, work-life balance, hobbies, health etc. Glad to know, like other Indians, he is a big-time fan of cricket and was curious about India-England match and team players. We kept talking and he was simultaneously replying to the emails and calls on his mobile. Post meeting, he initiated handshake with warm greetings.

Today, again when I met him at the same guest house, he greeted me with that same unforgettable smile, glow on face, and of course the same phrase, “How are you Gentleman”. While travelling today, we spoke about his stay, last day’s meetings, and the following meetings. For one of my question, about the name of the company, Hindustan Unilever, he revealed the philosophy of his company, that, Unilever likes to work in any country by keeping the values of that country; so they never take out the word “Hindustan” even in rebranding. He shared some of his experiences where he was proud to be a part of global brand being Indian. 

Meanwhile, I said to him “Sir, Normally, I don’t take selfie but I would like to take one with you.” And he replied “Why Not”.

It was very special to me to spend time with such a legend of industry. I thoroughly enjoyed and learned a lot from him. He is very simple human being, down to earth in nature, true professional, and a real mentor, that’s why he is now a proven business leader and builder of high performance teams which have delivered superior business results consistently under his inspirational leadership.

I’ll never forget those moments and especially four words, “How are you Gentleman”……!