Nestle India’s Suresh Narayanan says hard work, compassion and teamwork matter more than qualification

Nestle India's CMD Suresh Narayanan, speaks during an interview with Reuters in September 2015. (Image: Reuters/Danish Siddiqui)

Nestle India’s Chairman and Managing Director Suresh Narayanan believes hard work, commitment, compassion and teamwork, among other traits, matter more than any qualification.

In a LinkedIn post on June 8, marking 40 years since he joined the workforce, Narayanan said: “happiness matters more than success, contentment more than acquisition, giving more than taking and leaving behind a legacy of leaders better than yourself, rather than being a hero!”

“I bow my head in gratitude for the many giants who allowed me to stand on their shoulders and see afar, the gurus who mentored, coached, nudged and encouraged me to do my best,” Narayanan said.

He also expressed gratitude towards the hundreds of colleagues he had the privilege to work with, who him their “unconditional respect, trust and affection even if I did not fully deserve this”.

Narayanan studied Master of Arts (MA) Economics from the Delhi School of Economics between 1979 and 1981 before joining Hindustan Unilever (then Hindustan Lever) as a Management Trainee. “I was neither an accountant nor an IIT engineer nor an IIM grad, just an economist who seemed to have strayed into a fantastic company more by accident, from an original ambition to be an IAS officer,” Narayanan wrote about him joining HUL.

He left the consumer goods giant in 1998 to join Colgate Palmolive as the Associate Director. Subsequently, he had multiple stints with Nestle companies in Singapore, Egypt and the Philippines, before taking over his current position as the CMD of Nestle India in August 2015, around the time the Swiss food and drink processing giant's Indian subsidiary was facing the Maggi crisis.

In June 2020, the company received shareholders’ approval to extend Narayanan's tenure of its CMD by another five years.