The words ‘managing director’ (MD) conjure up images of a corporate boss who barely has the time to breathe. Then you hear Salil Murthy, 40, describe his typical office day and you begin to wonder when does he work. “I work in a consumer food company where I am surrounded by wonderful things to eat — cakes and ice creams. It’s a tough life,” he says. The calorie-laden goodies from brands such as Pillsbury and Haagen-Dazs don’t come in the way of Murthy’s addiction to running and golf. The IIM-Calcutta graduate has nine marathons and more than 20 half marathons to his credit, apart from representing India at the 2012 Turkish Airlines World Golf Cup, an amateur tournament, in Turkey. His team of 500 looks up to him as a leader who never says no to work. It shows in the growth rate of General Mills India, which has more than doubled since Murthy became the country head in 2017. Two years later, he was made MD for India and Southeast Asia.
Murthy, who grew up in Chennai, believes that running gives him an extra edge at work. He started to run 10 years ago, after he moved to Singapore with a job in Procter & Gamble. As with most people, weight issues got him to lace up and hit the treadmill. And just like most others, the first few attempts were frustrating. “I could barely do 2 km on the treadmill at first,” Murthy says. He felt as if his heart would rip through his chest or he would drown in his own sweat. “That really annoyed me,” he says. He converted his annoyance into motivation and determinedly started running a few times a week.
Murthy signed up for a couple of 10-km races in Singapore after six months of sustained running. “I was running more for the joy of it and weight-loss was a happy by-product,” he says. His first full marathon — the Adidas Singapore Midnight Marathon in 2009 — was also his toughest run till date. “I was naïve. I thought running in the dark would be easier because it was cooler. But Singapore is at its most humid at 2 am and it’s really hard to see in the dark when there’s so much sweat in your eyes. Add to that cramps at 12 km and losing my way for a bit. It was a massive slog and I’ve never been so happy to see the finishing line,” says Murthy, whose best marathon timing is the rather decent 3 hours 44 minutes that he clocked at the TCS Amsterdam Marathon in 2016.
While in Singapore, Murthy trained solo. After close to a decade there, he moved to Mumbai in October 2014 and joined one of the city’s biggest running groups, Striders. “There’s a wonderful sense of camaraderie in the group and I’ve got to meet some interesting people who are also pretty crazy about running and sports,” he says. So much so that Murthy ran the Bank of America Chicago Marathon and TCS New York City Marathon with his running buddies in the last couple of years. He plans to complete the six world marathon majors. With two down, he has to cross the finishing line in Berlin, Tokyo, London and Boston. One could enter London, Tokyo and Berlin marathons through the ballot system, but for Boston, one needs to qualify by running a marathon within a cut-off time, which is different for different age groups.
Active culture
Murthy has come to realise that he gets his best ideas while running because that’s when he is less critical and calmer than usual. “Whenever I have a tough issue, I’ve learned to allow it to percolate and think about it again when I’m running,” he says, adding that he is more energetic on his running days. “The best part is that these benefits are contagious — when you’re in a good mood or have more energy, it gets transmitted to the team around you.”
Murthy claims India Inc has turned its attention to employee wellness and health especially because of business leaders who are ardent runners. In a company such as General Mills, where it can be hard to resist temptation, “it is even more important to create a culture that encourages everyone to get some physical activity every day. I don’t think there’s a one-size-fits-all solution but find what you love doing and find folks you can do it with,” he says.
The marathons that Murthy has run have also taught him the importance of perseverance. “By the 32nd km, you don’t have anything left in the tank, everything hurts and you just want to go home and crash. The best runners are not necessarily the ones who are the fastest; they’re those who find a little inspiration from somewhere, smile through the pain and pick up the pace,” he says.
Shrenik Avlani is a freelance journalist and author based in Kolkata