MUMBAI:In the buttoned-up world of financial communication, few dared to inject creativity into compliance. Nirmal Suchanti was the exception that proved the rule, transforming a stodgy sector into something resembling art.
The patriarch of Concept Communication Ltd, who died on 26 May aged 81, was a man who saw opportunity where others spotted only red tape. At a time when mainstream advertising agencies treated financial services like radioactive material, Suchanti had the audacity to make equity investments accessible to millions of Indians who had never heard of a prospectus, let alone read one.
“Communication can never be ‘just a business’,” his son Vivek Suchanti, now chairman and managing director, recalls his father saying. “It should be about creating trust and empowering people with knowledge.”
This wasn’t corporate waffle – it was Suchanti’s operating philosophy, one that built not just an advertising agency but an entirely new communication paradigm.
Born on 28 January 1944, Suchanti possessed that rare combination of business acumen and genuine warmth that made him as comfortable in boardrooms as he was sharing chai with junior colleagues. His door remained perpetually open, not merely for business but for advice, laughter, and the sort of human connection that corporate India often forgets to prioritise.
Those who knew him describe a man who listened more than he spoke, guided without imposing, and led with empathy rather than ego. In an industry notorious for its sharp elbows and sharper tongues, Suchanti’s approach was refreshingly different – he called spades, spades, certainly, but did so with enough grace to maintain relationships rather than torch them.
His measure of success wasn’t found in balance sheets but in the carefully nurtured relationships that spanned generations. Colleagues became confidants, clients became friends, and even casual acquaintances found themselves valued in ways that left lasting impressions.
I remember meeting him in his office in Nariman Point (if I correctly recollect the location, or am I confusing it with the office of Pressman Advertising run by Niren and Navin Suchanti), as a young journalist in the late eighties and early nineties and spending a few hours chatting with him. I was with BusinessWorld then working as chief sub-editor of the magazine. And he had no business giving me that time, running a busy agency as he was at the height of the investment frenzy that had hit the bourses. But he did. For that I am thankful. He presented me with a memory I hold as a treasure to this day.
As an increasing number of pioneers of the investment, advertising, and business community call it a day on earth, it reminds us of age that is creeping on us silently. Their passing reminds us of human frailty and that we are indeed caught up in the circle of life – and death.
“Dad, your spirit lives on in every life that you have shaped,” Vivek wrote in a heartfelt LinkedIn tribute that has garnered widespread attention in advertising circles. Along with his brother Vineet, Vivek promises to follow their father’s footsteps “with sincerity, humility and integrity” – qualities that made Nirmal Suchanti not just a successful businessman, but a genuinely beloved figure.
In death, as in life, Suchanti’s legacy transcends the bottom line. He proved that even in finance – that most prosaic of sectors – there was room for creativity, compassion, and the sort of human touch that no algorithm can replicate.
(PAINTED PICTURE OF NIRMAL SUCHANTI COURTESY VIVEK SUCHANTI LINKEDIN PAGE)
