Shantanu Deshpande, once called ‘slave owner’, praises employee ‘who never switches off’
2 min read . Updated: 17 Feb 2023, 02:02 PM IST
PremiumBombay Shaving Company CEO Shantanu Deshpande was earlier slammed for saying that young people should put in 18 hours a day.
Bombay Shaving Company CEO Shantanu Deshpande caused quite a stir when he said that young people should put in 18 hours a day throughout their early career years. He apparently could not take the trolling he faced after the “18-hour" comment and temporarily quit LinkedIn. “To those who sent nasty 'your son is a slave owner' messages to my parents and thousands like those - You won," he said.
In a TV interview, Shantanu Deshpande said, "I apologize to people for whom the post may have hurt sentiments or come across without context or without nuance that I now recognize was a need".
Now, in his latest LinkedIn post, Deshpande hailed Shanky Chauhan - the head of sales of his company. According to him, despite working with a number of “driven" people who “do everything possible and everything impossible", Chauhan never continues to surprise him.
“On paper, he is our head of sales, chief of staff, head of the people committee. But in real life, he is the heartbeat of the company," he wrote.
Everyone turns to Shanky in critical situations, he wrote while saying that, from Deshpande to co-founder Deepak Gupta to management to junior most colleagues, everyone’s last resort is Shanky.
“He LOVES the company. His eyes twinkle when he talks about his work, his team, his stores, his distributors, his customers. I see his team members start copying him. Talking like him, walking like him, working like him. It's so obvious his impact and inspiration," Deshpande wrote.
While calling his employee a “diamond asset", Deshpande wrote that it is a “struggle" to get Chauhan to “switch off". He added that he was constantly worried about Chauhan’s health and realised that “longevity is everything" for the employee to do justice to his own commitment to the company.
At the same time, Deshpande asked company founders to “find their Shanky" in their organisation.
Finding and developing such coworkers is the key to a company's success. One only needs one or two of such employees, he added.