A 'Cokehead' made in India

Lunch With BS

Coca Cola India's newly appointed President Sanjiv Gupta tells Shyamal Majumdar that he eats, drinks and sleeps work

Can I have Kinley please? The slight irritation in Coke President Sanjiv Gupta's booming voice is quite clear after he sees the steward placing a different brand of bottled water on our table (luckily for the steward, it wasn't Pepsi's Aquafina). The waiter obliges quickly and Gupta flashes a broad smile and says, "It's a nice place".

We are at Bukhara, Maurya Sheraton's famous Indian restaurant. His long drive from Gurgaon notwithstanding, Gupta is looking relaxed in his checked half-sleeve shirt which, I notice, has not been tucked in. He didn't have any particular preference for a venue because he just doesn't eat out; apparently he puts on weight even if he drinks water outside.

Taking a long sip of a large salted lassi, the 41-and-a-half year old (I had mentioned 42 but Gupta swiftly corrects me) CEO of Coke India says he eats, drinks and sleeps work.

The only luxury "" actually, it's a necessity "" he allows himself is a swim every evening, even during the winter months, in one of Delhi's heated swimming pools. Back surgery last year prevents him from taking other physical exercise and that explains his reluctance to add extra calories by eating out.

Gupta loves talking about himself as a "Delhi boy with Indian values" "" which is why he didn't go abroad for higher academics after graduating from IIT and getting several scholarships. "During my schooldays, my mother used to tell me "" son, you are too shy, you have to be aggressive. IIT helped me grow from a boy to a man," Gupta says.

Another compelling reason for his fondness for IIT was that he met his wife "" a topper in the class "" there. Love blossomed during rehearsals for a play called Boy meets Girl where she was the heroine and he played the villain. "My two sons pull my leg even now for this," Gupta says.

Acting, though, is a distant memory these days. "There is so much to do in Coke that I don't have time for anything else," Gupta says. Among the many things he doesn't have any time for are books.

The only books he reads during flights or the long drive from home at Vasant Vihar to office are "quickies" like Robert Ludlum and Sydney Sheldon. "No heavy management stuff for me. The daily experience in a huge company like Coke is enough, I guess," he says.

Gupta need not have guessed. He talks eloquently about "the entire Coke team's" ultimate recognition in early March this year when a short message arrived from Coca-Cola's global headquarters in Atlanta.

The message said that Coke India had been awarded the Woodruff award "" named after Robert W Woodruff, one of Coca-Cola's most influential chairmen who led the company for over 50 years "" for outperforming the dozen-odd emerging markets of Coca-Cola worldwide in terms of volume growth as well as profitability during 2002.

That's a long way indeed from the dire straits that Coke India was in 2000. Coke had sunk investments of $ 800 million in its Indian operations by then and the returns were just not forthcoming.

Gupta says Atlanta has always been committed to its Indian operations. "I have found them to be extremely supportive. After all, they have allowed us to localise our strategies and have been generous with their support," he says.

The waiter comes for the order and "" inevitably "" suggests the "presidential cuisine" "" an assortment of dishes ordered by former US President Bill Clinton and his daughter Chelsea when they were in India.

Gupta ignores the suggestion, asks if I would mind sharing and places the orders: two roomali rotis(one each), tandoori jingha (prawns), murg malai kabab and dal makhani bukhara. Calorie-watching was clearly postponed for a day.

Quite unlike most of his counterparts in other multinationals in India, Gupta didn't do an MBA. Doesn't he regret it? "No way," he says, because among the many offers he got in the campus interviews was one from the Mecca of all aspirant managers "" Hindustan Lever.

A stint in Levers, he reckoned, was more than enough. He remembers how the then sales director called him one day and said: "Young man, I am sending you to a fascinating place because you have done quite well so far."

Within a couple of days of that conversation, he found himself in Chhapra "" one of the most backward districts in Bihar and found out the real reason for the new assignment soon enough. The sales director had told the district manager in Chhapra to "tone down the arrogance of the young man from Delhi".

Gupta never ceases to thank his former boss for the favour. "Chhapra taught me to listen to the markets and have empathy for the lowest link in the marketing chain "" the panwallahs or other small vendors. It also helped me to understand how difficult marketing can be. No IIM or IIT can teach you this."

He is a fast eater and clearly isn't interested in the food. By the time I am halfway through, he has finished his lunch: one rumali roti, one piece of prawn and some dal. He concentrates on the raita.

The only question he doesn't want to answer is about his stint in Amitabh Bachchan Corporation Ltd (ABCL), which I ask about when he said he loves watching films "" Hindi films especially. His list of favourites is quite predictable "" Shahrukh, Amir and, of course, Bachchan. "All of us "" the entire nation "" grew up once on Mr Bachchan's films," he says.

How does he rate the angry old man of Indian films as a boss, I ask, but Gupta chooses to duck. "My brief brush with entertainment and glamour didn't quite work out," is all that he would say.

He's voluble, though, in his praise for Amir Khan saying it was his professionalism and commitment that helped make the Chhota Coke campaign a roaring success with its class as well as mass appeal.

Another reason for the success of Chhota Coke, Gupta says, is the product's ability to break the "tea barrier". Those who drink tea at Rs 3 or Rs 4, Gupta's team thought, would love to shift to a soft drink.

Chhota Coke was also necessary because the management realised that despite years of marketing manoeuvres that often involved fighting a pitched price battle with its rival for market share, the two companies really didn't succeed in increasing the size of the pie.

But the main reason for Coke's "Phoenix-like rise from the ashes," despite what he calls "the competitor's disruptive pricing" (throughout the conversation, Gupta doesn't mention the P-word once) is the preparation that went behind the launch of the Rs 5 bottle.

To begin with, Coke India started benchmarking its cost structure with that of its rivals. Then it consolidated the procurements of all its bottling operations spread countrywide, which brought in substantial savings to the company. At the same time, it took a closer look at manpower, distribution and selling costs, which plugged holes that were resulting in leakages of funds.

Coke had attempted the Rs 5 concept before but had hastily withdrawn because the systems were not in place. Gupta remembers how he earned the nickname "Prince of darkness", because the new system hurt some people, but that's a small price to pay for the smart turnaround the company made after eight years of haemorrhaging.

Gupta seems to be relishing a paan he chose in lieu of dessert. He talks animatedly about how Coke India offices "hum" with success. "You should see the euphoria among the young people (the average age of Coke employees in India is 32). After all, nothing succeeds like success," he says.

He is also immensely proud of implementing the concept of entrepreneur managers. "If you have to retain talent and make company grow, you have to give your managers a sense of ownership. Every department of Coke has to act as a profit centre," he says.

As we walk out of the Maurya and his silver-grey Mercedes rolls up, Gupta pauses and says he should probably start listening to his colleagues who want him to develop some interesting hobbies now that he is a CEO.