The Hindu Business Line : Foster & enable

Bharat has proved that one can stick to one job and chart an impressive career as long as one is as fired up about the company and the job as he is.

Bharat Patel, Chairman, Procter & Gamble India

The original Patel families from six villages in Kaira district of Gujarat have an illustrious tradition of working only for themselves. And then the scion of one of the families crosses the seven seas and gets a great education in distant USA. The young man then seeks employment in an American company instead of returning to Gujarat and continuing in the entrepreneurial ways of the family.

The script so far seems to be straight out of any good television serial. The difference is that Bharat Patel, the young man in question, decided to script his own soap with Procter & Gamble. And it has turned out to be one of the longest-playing and most successful ones in today’s corporate world.

From management trainee to Chairman of one of the biggest names in the business is the kind of career graph that anyone would marvel at. Yet, Bharat Patel seems totally unaffected by all that he has achieved. Casually attired and very informal, Bharat has a deceptively mild demeanour. His aggression is reserved for the fiercely competitive market where he spent a lifetime building market share and mindshare for his brands.

In a world where young managers seem to think it almost mandatory to move jobs in order to climb up the corporate ladder, Bharat has proved that one can stick to one job and chart an impressive career as long as one is as fired up about the company and the job as he is.

He smiles and says that he has been having so much fun in his job he never really thought of taking any other job, even though there were many offers. “Enjoy your job. When you stop having fun, quit” he says.

A devoted family person, Bharat who was managing some important international assignments realised that his wife who helps run one of the country’s best-known NGOs wouldn’t be able to live abroad with him. He didn’t see any problem in heading back to India, heading the company’s operations here and ensuring an endearing family life with his wife and daughter.

Bharat is credited with strategically positioning the Vicks brand as an ayurvedic product in India. This really catapulted it to the position of a market leader, a distinction it has retained over the years. He is also seen as the brains behind the massive success of the Vicks Action 500 brand. Yet, not one to talk about his successes, he is candid in admitting that one of his big disappointments is that Vicks could not have the kind of brand extensions it should have had.

A complete P&G person, Bharat is proud that his company has a great record of retaining good talent. He attributes it to the policy of internal promotion that recognises and rewards the people who work for the organisation. This has fostered a feeling of belonging and enabled the company to hold on to its human assets. He believes that today’s young MBAs aren’t obsessed with earning more money. They are confident that money will come to them at some stage. What is important to them is the work they do and the way they are treated.

Bharat does not see himself as a workaholic. Rather, he has been the type who works to get the job done. His advice to young managers is “keep learning and keep having fun”.

But Bharat is so much more than just a great marketer and corporate leader. He has played a sterling role in protecting and promoting the interests of advertisers in his role as the head of the Indian Society of Advertisers. Having personally dealt with him in an inter-industry role, I can vouch for the fact that he is as fair and reasonable as he is exacting and demanding.

Even though the industry lauds the role he has played in the Advertising Standards Council of India (ASCI), Bharat with typical modesty prefers to speak about the great job the association is doing in encouraging self-regulation in the industry. When quizzed about the Indian advertising industry, Bharat is forthright. He believes that Indian advertising agencies really should be earning more than they do. However, he feels they are not perceived as providing great value and therefore are unable to retain great talent.

When he is not squaring off in corporate and industry fora, Bharat can be seen teeing off in fairways across the world. A passionate golfer, his golf kit accompanies him on all his travels. His eyes sparkle as he recounts his experiences at fabulous golf courses in places such as Bangkok, Barbados, Singapore and California.

Bharat is a confirmed FMCG person. And he says a true FMCG person always cuts through the intervening layers and connects directly with the consumer. This focus on the consumer led to a rather interesting and little-known fact: Bharat Patel is the person who christened a customer-oriented bank as ‘Yes Bank’.

Yes, Bharat! Keep enjoying. People around you will keep learning.

(Ramesh Narayan is a communications consultant.)

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