Book Review     

Published: June 30, 2025
Updated: June 30, 2025

Perils of a CEO’s ‘Corner Suite’!

Both professional MBAs and aspirants have, perhaps, one common ambition – to occupy one day the coveted corner room — or the CEO’s suite — of a major corporate entity. Well, nothing wrong in having such a lofty aim, as having a goal in life is a must for one’s success. However, after bagging the ambitious post, a not so well-known fact is that it is far more difficult to retain the position than getting it, as the job is full of pitfalls and dangers, from known and unknown quarters. One has to be constantly aware of this and has to be on one’s guard as any small wrong move could land him with the pink slip, costing him his job.

In such a scenario, the author has done well in bringing out the book under review. Jayaram Easwaran, with 30-plus years of multi-functional leadership experience in several firms across the globe, and a prolific speaker at different business schools, has discussed threadbare the pressures CEOs are subjected to. Presently a director of Casa Blanka India Consulting in Gurugram (Haryana), he has narrated some 21 real-life incidents to reinforce his viewpoint. In a highly readable short story format, each of the stories has a management thought to ponder over.

According to Jayaram Easwaran, reaching the coveted position and staying on is all about “one’s ability to navigate the undercurrents prevalent in the rarefied environs of the C-Suite.” In other words, the whole thing boils down to how one manages the egos, the politics, the insecurities, the hidden agendas and motivations of the people at the top. At the lower levels, these factors also no doubt exist but they are surmountable. But at the higher levels, they manifest themselves in a big way as the top bosses’ egos particularly are more fragile and insecurity is at its peak. This, however, is the price one has to pay for working in the private sector, for job insecurity reigns supreme at the highest levels.

MANAGING EGOS

For the sake of brevity, I shall limit myself to describing here only the author’s personal expe riences mentioned in the preface of the book and take just one of the stories as a sample. The rest I leave to the readers to go through and draw their own inferences. The author’s first experience in this regard occurred in 2010 when he was in Dubai. During a breakfast meeting with a CEO of an international bank there, he enquired of his friend as to how ‘safe’ his job was as the meet was just after the major global banking crisis of 2008. His cryptic reply was: “At my level, I will never lose my job because of incompetence. But yes, I could be thrown out tomorrow if I do not manage egos and insecurities amongst my colleagues at the top.”

The other event happened even earlier while he was in Delhi in 1998. His colleague, one of the divisional heads, placed on his desk the minutes of the last review meeting where the order of the names of attendees for the meeting was changed. He mentioned that till then his name was at number 3 and was now changed to 11. As the author had no clue about this, he took it up with the CEO, who always meticulously prepared the minutes. While agreeing that all the names henceforth should appear only in the alphabetical order, the author quipped: “Are our senior folks so inse cure? I just write down the names in the order in which they sit around the table during the meeting.”

As for the stories, I thought of mentioning the concluding one, ‘The Last Supper’, for the readers to get a real insight into the author’s meticulous presentation. In this, the author has presented two characters: Rudra, the head of the marketing team of an automobile firm, and Samarth, head of the sales division. The latter, however, had a superiority complex, an all-knowing attitude, an exaggerated feeling of the role of the sales divi sion, and always tried to dominate meetings to have the last word. Besides, he felt that he was ‘very close to the MD’. The HR head had forewarned Rudra of Samarth’s ‘domina tion’ in all matters. On one occasion, the company’s Japa nese collaboration firm’s chairman was visiting India, and Pratik, the company’s MD, announced the same at an im portant meeting. He wanted to ensure that the event was a grand success and said that the chairman desired to host the guest for a gala dinner at a five-star hotel in the capital, at which 60 plus leading corporate heads, their wives and top-notch government officials would be participating.

WIFE’S MENU!

At the outset itself, Samarth wanted to hold the event at The Oberoi. How ever, Rudra, whom the MD had spe cifically instructed to make the arrange ments, preferred The Taj Mahal Hotel. However, in deference to the wishes of Samarth, he booked both but indi cated to the chairman that he had se lected the latter for the event. With some persuasion, Rudra got the MD’s ap proval for The Taj as this hotel had agreed to serve a mixed menu from all their restaurants! By promptly present ing the menu card to the MD, Rudra clinched the issue and requested him to select the items for dinner, much to the discomfort of Samarth. The MD took the card home, saying that his wife would be better at the task of selecting the menu! Incidentally, the MD’s wife was a prominent socialite who often threw lavish parties at the same hotel, which Rudra knew. The next day, the MD gave Rudra the menu as approved by his wife. It was well known in the office that none dare oppose the MD in such matters, especially if they have been approved by his wife!

On the evening of the gala event, as the guests trooped in, followed by the chief guest and his entourage, all eyes were on the menu and the waiters who had begun serving drinks and soup. Samarth moved over to Rudra and with a disdainful look mentioned that The Oberoi would have been a better venue! Rudra ignored him and moved over to a different place. Soon, Samarth caught up with him and said in a louder tone that the ‘soup tasted like dishwater’. This was audible even in the midst of the constant talk/chatter of the guests by Pratik’s wife as she was standing nearby, busy entertaining the guests. Rudra pulled Samarth away to a corner and said that he ought not to have made the remark about the soup as the MD’s wife had clearly overheard it and was obviously ‘upset’. To the query as to the reason, Rudra decided to spill the beans and handed the knock-out blow: the menu was selected by the MD’s wife herself! His face turning ashen, Samarth clearly knew that the game was up for him and that this could be his ‘last supper’ in the company! The story clearly shows how one has to be very tactful/skilful in dealing with the top executive of the firm, for any slip-up could easily cost him his job.

FOUR ‘TYPES’

According to the author, in all organisations there would be four types of people: the insecure ones who compete with their juniors, the political beings al ways competing with superiors, the ma ture folk competing with their peers, and the true leaders who compete with them selves. The stories brought out are ex pected to help the aspirants judge for them selves the category to which they belong. Needless to say, the best category would be the last one, as one’s aim should al ways be to learn from mistakes and im prove one’s performance.

Another feature of the book is that all the chapters are stand-alone, in the sense they can be read separately as well. One would not be losing any connecting link if the book were to be read in one go. Be sides, all the stories are relevant in any glo bal context.

The author has also thoughtfully given a small tip to aspirants who aim for the topmost post. To understand what happens at the highest levels, one has to gain entry by pick ing a job as the executive assistant to the CEO and act as the ‘fly-on-the-wall in the office’. However, it is extremely diffi cult for everyone to gain entry in this manner and then work one’s way up the ladder, as there would be more hurdles like favouritism on the path. Also, such opportunities sel dom crop up.

In sum, this handy book is very well written and docu mented and would undoubtedly serve as a handy guide for all professionals wishing to manoeuvre their careers amidst the daily challenges of corporate life. In this con text, one can end by quoting the noted industrialist, Anand Mahindra, CMD, Mahindra & Mahindra, from his preview of the book: “‘Inside the C-Suite’ has excellent insights and is a must read for every person aspiring to do well in business and life.”