'For Bhaskar Das, spirituality was key to peace and also organisational success'

Arvind Sharma, Ex-Chairman & CEO, Leo Burnett, writes about Bhaskar Das' lifelong quest for peace, which reflected in everything he did

by Arvind Sharma
Published: Jan 15, 2025 4:31 PM | 2 min read

I just a received a WhatsApp from Uditvanu Das, ‘Our beloved father- husband- mentor- bossman Dr Bhaksar Das passed away… at 10.25 am’. He finally attained something he worked for for decades- peace.

There are so many amazing facets to Bhaskar that soon a book will be written about them. But the facet I found most striking through my decades of association with him was his constant effort to achieve inner and external peace, his spirituality.

Ours has been an industry driven by intense competition. And sometimes noisy disputes. Dispute between HTA and Lintas. Dispute between IRS and NRS. Dispute between Coke and Pepsi. Dispute between Ad Club and AAAI. Dispute between HT and TOI. Even dispute between Tatas and TOI… the list will fill many many pages.

In this dispute ridden industry, Dr Bhaskar Das was a voice of gentle spirituality, voice of humility, peace and harmony. Bhaskar and I worked together on a number of industry bodies. I particularly remember the year Bhaskar took over as Chairman of ASCI. ASCI faced many challenges- from errant advertisers who refused to comply with the ASCI code, from bureaucrats (not all were supportive of ASCI), from wannabe ASCIs- smaller consumer interest advocates who thought that their path to success lay in bringing us down. Rather than focus on them, Bhaskar focused on significantly expanding the list of ASCI members. The larger the ASCI membership base, the larger will be its support base across all sections of the Indian civil society, he argued. He pursued this goal with joy and enthusiasm.

For companies and industry bodies, there are many ways of accomplishing a goal. Bhaskar always chose a way that led to amity, inclusion and greater happiness for all.

The idea that actions should be taken to maximise happiness for the greatest number of people, in the west, has been relabeled and recycled as utilitarianism. In India, for millennia, it has been called spirituality. And Dr Bhaskar Das practiced it and demonstrated that this is not just the formula for peace and harmony, it is also the formula for commercial success of organisations.