From PepsiCo to Premium Spirits: Diageo CEO Praveen Someshwar on talent, growth and India’s future as a consumer market

Praveen Someshwar, the managing director and chief executive of United Spirits, has spent much of his career learning how to build global consumer brands. The formative chapter of that journey was written at PepsiCo, a company he describes as a “factory which brings out great talent.”

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“PepsiCo as I say, it’s not only in India, it’s global,” Someshwar said in a recent interview with CNBC-TV18. “It’s a factory which brings out great talent. And what they do, I think, wonderfully well is they get talent in and shape them constantly, and reshape them, so that when you leave PepsiCo — and typically, most of these leaders would have spent 15-20 years within the organisation — they’ve gone through every phase and therefore built it out.”

The PepsiCo school of management has produced a wave of prominent Indian business leaders, including Varun Berry of Britannia, Sunil D’Souza of Tata Consumer Products and Pratik Pota, former CEO of Jubilant FoodWorks. Someshwar counts himself among them, carrying the lessons of scale, brand-building and leadership discipline into the spirits business.

At United Spirits, the Indian arm of global drinks giant Diageo, Someshwar has leaned on those principles to steer the company into its next growth phase. He highlights three strategic pillars: reshaping the portfolio for the future, embedding the business in society, and building an organisation ready for the demands of the next decade.

PepsiCo Lessons, Diageo Ambitions

Someshwar’s PepsiCo training in shaping consumer occasions now informs his philosophy at United Spirits. “I constantly look at value, because the way I see it is: consumer in occasions, how do I get a share of the occasion, and how do you grow that share of the occasion?” he said. “I would love to see volumes consistently grow, but more importantly, how do I keep premiumising and look at value.”

That means betting on India’s rising middle class and the country’s evolving drinking culture. United Spirits has already built a formidable portfolio, with three ₹1,000-crore brands, three ₹500-crore brands and four ₹100-crore brands. “Wow. This is scale,” Someshwar said. “We are amongst the top 10 equity brands — we have five of them within Diageo. That’s a powerful space to be in.”

Betting on India’s Consumer Boom

Someshwar argues that the macro fundamentals of India offer fertile ground for growth. “India will be the consumer market of the next decade, as I see it. It’s got its ducks in a row, in spite of everything going on around the world. Look at the demographics of the country. Look at how the middle class is growing, look at GDP growth, and that’s a great place to be running a business,” he said.

United Spirits, which generates about $1.5 billion in revenue, is targeting double-digit growth over the next five years. For Someshwar, that is both a financial goal and a leadership mandate. “If I were to look at 2030 and look back, we’ll need to measure ourselves against each one of them. And we should be able to say: wow, there is more talent coming out of Diageo, there is more growth coming out of Diageo, there are more consumer occasions owned by Diageo. That’s what will make it exciting.”

A Talent Legacy

If PepsiCo shaped Someshwar into the executive he is today, he hopes Diageo India can do the same for the next generation of leaders. “When you started speaking to me, you spoke about PepsiCo. The way you remembered PepsiCo — it’s not about the scale of brands, not about the growth engine, it’s about the people,” he said.

That emphasis on talent may be Someshwar’s most enduring lesson from PepsiCo — and one he intends to leave as his legacy at United Spirits.