’14 years at this school made for a lifetime of precious lessons’

He is now a well-established business professional based in Europe. Meet Munish Suri, an alumnus of Apeejay School, Panchsheel Park from the 1991 batch. In a candid interview with us, Suri recalls his good old days at school have left an indelible and positive mark on his life.

Read edited excerpts here.

What are you doing professionally now?
I am working at Signify (formerly Philips Lighting) based in the Netherlands for the last 12 years. At present, I am the head of Offer Management for our Professional Business in Europe. My team is comprised of over 160 colleagues mainly focusing in Product Management, R&D, Data management and Marketing domains who are responsible managing all our professional lighting product portfolio in Europe. 
 
 How does your typical day look like?
Most days would consists of some team/project meetings where are jointly reviewing a key topic, tracking progress on actions and agreeing next steps. Every Friday, we have a milestone meeting where we review all relevant new product launches in the pipeline and decide on go/no-go decisions. Some weeks, I am traveling to one of our key sites in Europe to meet with the teams there; I am based in the Netherlands and my teams are spread over several countries in Europe (France, Hungary, Poland, Spain, besides Netherlands) where I review their projects, meet with the managers and the talents 1-2-1 and conduct coffee corners with the team members.
 
Share any nostalgic memories from Apeejay.
We had so much fun at school, that I actually looked forward every day to go to school; and so much so, we never ever even thought of bunking the school. Every day was special! I made friends for life at Apeejay, some of them I know since well over 40 years now (many of us turned 50 during the past year). I meet my school friends every year when visiting Delhi, typically during Christmas time. At home, we were two brothers. One of my classmates started tying rakhi to me about 40 years ago and to this date she sends me rakhi every year from thousands of miles afar. These are the kinds of cherished bonds that we formed at Apeejay!

I remember we had our basketball court surrounded by our three floor school building in a U-shape. So, when we would have Inter-house or even more exciting were the interschool volleyball matches – the atmosphere was electrifying. We were so in love with sports that at times when we didn’t have enough players, we would just play volleyball 2 v. 2 (instead of the typical 6 v. 6 players).
 
What’s your biggest takeaway from Apeejay?
(i) Be a person of strong character and values
(ii) There are no shortcuts in life – always work hard to get things done
(iii) Have fun and cherish your relationships – your school friends can be a great source of lifelong support.
 
5. How were the teachers at school and how did they help to hone your skills?
In general amazing and outstanding. I have learnt so much from several of my teachers and our Principal. I can almost write a book on them. Our Hindi teacher once told us some tips a few months before our final exams to motivate us to work hard and achieve excellent results. While this happened about 35-40 years ago, I still so vividly remember that day, it feels like “yesterday”. One of the tips was related to the weather, as it was winter season, and she encouraged us to put an alarm and when we would wake up, to immediately remove the quilt and not fall in the trap of five more minutes. Our Chemistry teacher as well as our class teacher in class XII always motivated us to work hard and give a strong performance.

 
Any message for the school students?
“Success Is Not Final! Failure Is Not Fatal! It Is the Courage to Continue That Counts” – Winston Churchill. If you are your class topper, don’t let it get to your head and don’t get complacent. If you are struggling with your academics, don’t despair put in more effort, ask your teachers and friends for help (you will be surprised that most people are willing to help, only if someone asks); and you will see improvements in your grades/marks. 

Also, academics is very important; but it is not the only thing that will determine your long-term professional success, especially in business environments. What finally counts, in addition to the subject knowledge and discipline is: Ability to solve problems, ability work collaboratively with and at time lead cross-functional teams. Pursuing co-curricular activities will help you develop these skills.
Finally, if possible, do learn to play an instrument. It helps in so many ways, including to help you relax when you will come back home after a day’s hard work.