Deshabandu Dr. Victor Hettigoda: The last of the old guard

by Maheen Senanayake

It is with great sadness that I received the news of the passing of Sri Lanka’s iconic entrepreneur cum industrialist, Deshabandu Dr. Victor Hettigoda fondly known to the masses of this country as ‘Siddhalepa Veda Mahattaya’.

A former presidential aspirant – he unsuccessfully ran for election in 2005 in the teeth of family opposition -, I must admit I have never spoken a word to him directly though I have occasionally spotted him at his daughter- in-law’s home. I was hesitant to try to talk to him, something I would have very much liked to do.

For whatever reason or perhaps even time, the situation did not permit a full blown conversation. Yet from afar I closely followed this gentleman who I consider a true son of the soil, for he truly showed us – the people of this internet age, how senile our business acumen was.

While I have no idea what he actually put into his flagship Siddhalepa balm, I do admit that on the few occasions that I used it the results were near immediate. Of course, whether through sheer luck or hard work, he took a formula he claimed had come down over generations and then turned it into a modern brand that I understand also produced a series of variants that found markets in the European continent and elsewhere.

Venturing into the FMCG sector could not have been easy and coming from an age, long before the internet and the World Wide Web, Victor Hettigoda did what most modern marketers can only dream of. To illustrate this point let me share with you a story one of my close associates told me.

In the late nineties, most salesmen had to walk the talk and marketing managers who generally handled both sales and marketing kept their subordinates on tight leashes. My colleague who had through a competitive process acquired a job as a sales/marketing executive at Siddhalepa was assigned to manage an account which his predecessors had failed to successfully launch.

Dressed in slacks, shirt and tie, then considered appropriate for a media rep’s job, he had sat outside Hettigoda’s office for many days seeking an audience with the boss before other staff, feeling sorry for him got him into the sanctum sanctorum after two weeks of daily waiting during which his own confidence in his sales formula grew.

When he was finally guided into Hettigoda’s office, he described the big man as emotionless on first sight but had courteously asked my friend what his business was. As part of his pitch to sell his idea, my colleague had explained a certain behavioral aspect within a target group that he assumed was a potential market for a Siddhalepa product.

Hettigoda had listened to him attentively, picked up his black Nokia phone, brought it close to his face, Keyed a few things into it and having placed the phone back on the desk had stared into the air completely oblivious of my friend. Within minutes, the Nokia began to buzz and continued to do so for what seemed a very long time. He had ignored this for a full few minutes and then began to read the messages he had received.

After what my colleague claims felt like an eternity, he had smiled broadly, brought himself closer to the table and said, “you may be right, but not entirely.” Seeing my colleague dumb founded ( he claimed he felt like a cat in the headlights of a car), he softly explained in Sinhala that he always did his market research before taking a decision.

He said he had messaged his sales staff on delivery vehicles islandwide and checked with them on the behavioural aspect that my colleague claimed existed. While puritanical researchers will throw various technical flaws including biases into this approach, what was unique about this story, was that here was an an entrepreneur who relied on data and ground data at that.

He had also understood the non-conclusiveness of the information and therefore used it accordingly. I recall this story with fondness for I wish that many Lankans too may share my sentiments that policy makers and those in authority also used data the way Hettigoda had done.

Victor Hettigoda was a results oriented man who devoted his life to build the Siddhalepa brand, at times taking on MNC giants and carving for himself several niches for his brands, developing new markets such as his children’s toothpaste etc. He found a place for Sri Lankan ayurveda in the global health tourism industry with an ayurvedic hotel and set up a private ayurveda hospital.

While it is not the intention of this article to go into a detailed account of the empire Deshabandu Victor Hettigoda has built, I want to point to the many lessons young Lankans may learn from his efforts. Today we have access to a variety of tools of which the Internet takes pride of place making communication across the globe a much easier task.

His ingenuity and business acumen will remain a lesson and inspiration for many aspiring entrepreneurs. A study that I remember conducted in 1987 or 1988 brought out the fact that a Siddhaleppa kuppi (container) was available in most households in the country along with two Elephant House soda bottles! That’s no small achievement.

As an aspirant for the presidency, he promised the electorate a cow per family to enable fresh milk for every household. I enjoy teasing his daughter-in-law that we are still waiting for this cow!

As for my colleague, he did not immediately succeed. His daily visits to the boss’ office continued for a month and then became twice a week. After a full six months during which repeated attempts to remove the account from him was met with resistance. his success in promoting the Siddhalepa brand was not unnoticed.

In Victor Hettigoda both my colleague, I recognized a certain commitment, a fire that we should all learn from. May he who had taught us much, rest in peace and attain the supreme bliss of Nirvana.