Pandeymonium

by Piyush Pandey

There are two great stories that I will always remember about Unilever managers. The first was when my father passed away suddenly, in Jaipur in February 1985. I was in Delhi, on a market visit for Unilever. As soon as I received the news, the Unilever colleagues accompanying me organized a car and a driver to take me to Jaipur. Halfway to Jaipur, the driver stopped at a restaurant, stating that he had been instructed to ensure that I ate something on the way. The driver was insistent even though I was in no mood to eat. He succeeded. When we reached my house in Jaipur, I was greeted outside the house by a gentleman dressed in a safari suit. He told me that he was from Hindustan Lever and handed over an envelope containing Rs 10,000. He said that, under the circumstances, I might not have the time to arrange cash from the bank. I didn’t take the money, but the generosity of the gesture stayed with me forever. The second incident happened

I do not know if this practice still exists, but in my younger days, all fresh marketing executives of Hindustan Lever had to spend eight weeks in a village called Etah in Uttar Pradesh in the home of a rural consumer to understand their needs, behaviour, consumption habits and aspirations. These lower-middle-class homes were very different from the urban homes that the new recruits came from; they just had bare essentials and were devoid of most comforts.