Ivan Menezes: The man who put Diageo in every Indian bar and wedding celebration

Back in June 2010 when I joined Diageo, it was not the industry giant in India that it is today, with brands striding like behemoths in every segment of the alcohol market—from ultra luxury to mass affordable; with every bar that’s worth it’s drink proudly displaying (not just stocking) Diageo bottles; every wedding celebration—from society A-listers to the middle class family—feeling incomplete without Diageo brands; with the best talent across consumer products, e-commerce and even technology industries, vying to join the company.

Ironically, in the world’s largest whisky market, the “global drinks giant” renowned for its exceptional whiskies—led by the iconic Johnnie Walker—was a small player with a chequered history of fits and starts, unable to quite get it right. It didn’t help that this was a market even more acutely pyramidal than many other CPG markets in India, overwhelmingly dominated by Indian Made Foreign Liquor. Heavily controlled by state governments, playing in the Indian alcohol market meant dealing with complex and deeply entrenched regulation as much as the conventional mix of brands, sales, channels, and manufacturing.

And then Diageo had enough going for it in other markets—the US, UK, Europe, Latin America and the rest of Asia (excluding China).

But Ivan Menezes saw India for what it could be for Diageo.

It helped that he was an Indian, who despite his many years of pursuing a successful career in Diageo North America, had kept his deep connections with the country, and had as good a pulse on it as anyone in India—actually, even better.

My first brush with Ivan wasn’t in person.

“You share the same alma mater as Chairman Diageo Asia,” was the opening line of my first interview with the then CMO, Diageo APAC. I saw it as a good sign that the super boss of the region and I had something in common—St Stephen’s College and IIM Ahmedabad—separated though by many years.

My first meeting with Ivan was even before I officially joined the company. True to the energetic and hands-on leader that he was, Ivan asked to see me during a visit to Mumbai and called me into the middle of a ‘market performance review’. With the warm smile and glint in his eyes that I would associate with him forever, he spoke of how India was going to be a big focus market for Diageo in future, recruiting me was a reflection of that serious intent and that we had so much potential—after all, only a handful of brands in India commanded the equity of a Johnnie Walker. “What about Smirnoff?” I asked, having picked up that it was, in fact, the largest brand in the Diageo India portfolio. He answered, “Johnnie Walker is the heart of Diageo India; Smirnoff keeps the lights on. You must focus on growing both.”

Under Ivan’s oversight, we built back Diageo’s international brands business in India—an intensive all-round effort to create a new organisation from the embers of what had hollowed out some months ago under unfortunate circumstances, to operate with 100 per cent compliance in a tainted industry, to rebuild our sales and distribution, to resume our luxury business of imported spirits, and to answer Ivan’s exhortation “to put back Johnnie Walker in the heart of the best trend-setting bars in the country”.

Over the next three years, even as we celebrated the milestones within our mandate, Ivan was restless. He knew this alone wasn’t enough to ‘win in India’. With international spirits, we were participating in under 10 per cent of the Indian market—and as he told me one day “it’s a sub-scale business”. We needed to play in the belly of the market—in IMFL. Soon it was clear that organically building IMFL would take more time than Ivan had patience for, with medium to low likelihood of success because this was outside Diageo’s core competence as premium, international brand builders. Ivan concluded we needed an acquisition in India.

The biggest cheque ever or since for an international acquisition ($3.5 billion) to acquire the market leader in India could come from the gold-plated balance sheet of Diageo Plc.

But the boldness to buy a sprawling mass and economy brand business and dive straight into the murky mainstream Indian alcohol industry in which Diageo India had till then stayed peripheral, to play by a completely new set of rules—doing business the right way, building brands with responsible marketing and corporate citizenship—could only come from Ivan.

The acquisition of United Spirits propelled Diageo overnight into media glare, investor tracking, and government interest.

Thus began the multi-year transformation of ‘Diageo India’, a story in corporate India that is well catalogued.

A year ago, when I met Ivan days before leaving Diageo, he told me with characteristic warmth and generosity, “You should feel so proud of what you and the team have achieved in India”.

But we weren’t alone.

As the force that propelled us came to a sudden standstill 48 hours ago, we draw strength from knowing that here in Diageo India, the legacy of Sir Ivan Menezes will endure.

The writer was former Managing Director, Diageo India (2012-15), & Chief Strategy & Corporate Affairs Officer, United Spirits (2015-22). Presently, Chief Group Public Affairs Officer and Member–Group Executive Board, Mahindra Group