Our new series, Leader to Leader, features in-depth conversations between Molson Coors leaders about the intersection of cultures and careers.
This installment features a conversation between Shruthi Potocek (director of pricing strategy; Chicago lead, Modern Family employee resource group), Lakshmi Toomu (IT business partner; Milwaukee lead AAPI ERG) and Manoj Kurup (VP, IT business partner).
All three come from Indian backgrounds, but have distinct experiences and points of view. Lakshmi grew up near Hyderabad in central India and came to the U.S. for work in 2003. Manoj was born in India, but moved to the U.S. when he was 2; his family settled in the Milwaukee area. Shruthi is a first-generation American whose parents came to the Chicago area in the 1970s.
This conversation has been edited for length and clarity.
Shruthi Potocek: What are some of the characteristics of Indian culture you identify with? What are some words you use to describe the culture?
Lakshmi Toomu: It’s a very family-oriented culture, and we have a vast variety of cuisine and nice food back in India. We love to celebrate. There are a lot of festivals back in India and lots of language differences. We have about 200-plus languages spoken in India. We are very historic in our arts and music. That’s the culture I grew up in; it was pretty diverse.
Manoj Kurup: I think family was definitely important, making sure I have close relationships with all my cousins, uncles and aunts. The other piece was respect and ensuring your respect your elders. You respect others.
And a focus on education. Growing up, I had two options: I was either going to be a doctor or an engineer. I didn’t really have any other choices at the time, and I went down the engineering route.
You never got compared (to others) on how you did in sports. But if your brother, your friend or anyone beat you at a test, you would never hear the end of it from your parents.
Laughter
Shruthi: Well, that’s certainly translated to me. I was born and raised in the U.S., and you had to go into a traditional profession. You don’t really think outside the box.
But I really appreciate what my parents did. They came to the U.S. with literally no money, nothing, no job. They had to start from nothing.
But they also had to learn to assimilate. So when I think about this question about the three words (to describe a culture), it’s more from a symbolic standpoint, like what are those things that they translated to me that I’m going to carry on. Certainly, community, whether it be family or even those you’re not related to. I mean, my cousin’s wedding was in India with 1,200 people, because you have to invite this person, or your grandmother’s best friend. That’s just the way it was. So I characterize our culture as community oriented.
Shruthi: Can you think of a time you were faced with a challenge of cultural assimilation? Which identity did you take on: the one that you grew up with or the one you were trying to assimilate to? How did that make you feel?
Manoj : I go back to growing up and you’re a foreigner. I grew up in a white, affluent area, and I think there were four minorities in school with me from the time I started to when I graduated. I tried to fit in a lot more when peer pressure was probably getting to me a bit. Now, I really value my culture. I value the background that I had, the opportunities I got to see. I’ve traveled the world because my parents traveled the world.
I think those are some of the things that I really see now as a benefit I’d never change. It was something valuable to me as I was growing up.
Shruthi: I have an offshoot of that question: do you think it’s a function of society embracing our culture more? Or that you’ve pivoted? Or because you yourself have a new lens? Or both?
Manoj : I think it’s probably both, right? You know, I’ve matured. I don’t try to fit in with what everybody else does anymore. I live my own life the I feel is the right way to do it. But at the same time, just looking at the last 40 years and how much change there has been – we have still have a lot of room to go, but the change has been pretty dramatic (remembering) some of the racial situations I got into as a kid.
Lakshmi : I came for work to the U.S. in 2003 and not being a student, I might have experienced what Manoj or even my son or daughter today experience at the schools.
My entry was into the corporate world, and (since then) there’s been a lot of investments in DEI (diversity, equity, inclusion), so I didn’t have to change a lot. …
When I see my kids’ behavior or the way they do things, they’re definitely trying to fit into society. For instance, my kids don’t take rice (for lunch) because they get alienated if they eat rice in front of other students. So they are adjusting to the culture. I didn’t have to do that.
Shruthi: I remember those first years in public school, I loved wearing lehengas (long, colorful gowns), so I’d wear them to school. People would be like, “What is this huge dress you’re wearing?” But I loved it and I didn’t know any differently.
But then, near the end of elementary school, into middle school and high school, we’d be coming back from the temple and my mom would still be wearing her sari and her bindi and we’d have to stop at the store and my stomach would turn. …
But after a certain age, you’re just like, “What did I just do? I just wasted so much of my life feeling self-conscious about it instead of valuing the beauty of our culture.”
My daughter is at the age right now where, at 5 years old, she loves dressing up in her Indian clothes. Mind you, my kids are mixed. So they’ve got a blended background. But she wants to invite her friends over so they can all wear her lehengas. And I love that.
I’m just wondering if the same cycle is going to happen in a few years.
Manoj : You know it’s interesting, because my daughters, when they were going through that age, it was a lot more open for them to continue to wear those things into their teens. I think it depends on the person. They were a lot more confident that I was when I was a teenager.
I think part of it is there’s more understanding of the different cultures. You see all these shows on Netflix that are covering Asian backgrounds, whether it’s Chinese or Japanese or Indian.
There’s Indian movies at local movie theaters now, which is crazy to me. I just never thought that would happen, showing Bollywood movies. So I think there’s a lot more understanding and openness than there was when I was growing up.
Shruthi: What about our culture would you like to carry on both personally and professionally? Are there specific values you believe our culture prioritizes that you’re interested in maintaining?
Lakshmi : Me and my wife have been striving hard to make that happen and make our kids carry the culture forward. We make numerous trips to India. We took our son to India when we was young, like 6 months old, just to get the feel of it.
The respect and other traditional family values they are carrying, we are doing the same thing with your daughter, too. It’s been a constant every year we take one trip to India with the family so that they know who their relatives are, what their traditions are so they can carry forward the same culture over here. My daughter (is learning) Bharatanatyam (traditional dance). We go to temple and we take part in all the festivals. So they’re very much ingrained in that Indian culture.
Manoj: My parents live near us and when my kids were growing up, they became very close to their grandparents because of that. (They understand) a lot of the history, a lot of the culture. I never was really a part of that in India because I was in the U.S., so I’d only see parts of it. But my parents lived it and started passing on those traditions to my kids…and they completely love it.
My youngest is very artistic and has henna designs tattooed all over her body.
At that time in my life, I was trying to fight it…I didn’t learn as much about (the culture) until I was in college and that’s when I really started to get engaged with it again. So that culture is something I’m really looking to continue to push because I know it’s difficult.
Shruthi: In terms of values I’d like to instill in (my kids), there are some fundamental things that I think are core to our culture and quite honestly, I think that’s embracing different opinions. I feel like the core of our culture is there’s a deep-rooted respect for others. So that’s the piece I would like to continue and carry on.
Shruthi: What is Molson Coors doing to ensure that we have an environment that fosters various cultures? Do you feel like the company does lot in that vein? Do you think there’s opportunity?
Lakshmi: I’m president for AAPI in Milwaukee, and have been part of the group for long time. Miller Brewing, MillerCoors, Molson Coors has done an extremely fantastic job on maintaining and managing the ERGs. People realize how important these groups are. There are so many events and a lot of funding goes into this. There’s a lot of community engagement.
I’m really proud to be part of a company that values diversity and respects people from various backgrounds.
Manoj: The ERGs are really beneficial for engagement, whether it’s AAPI or others. One of my team members is part of the veterans group (VALOR) and another is part of BEV (Black Employee Voices).
I think it makes people more comfortable, it gives awareness of other points of view, other ways of working or living. I think it goes back to my culture, and you mentioned this, too, Shruthi, it’s valuing other people…to understand why they’re there’s something different. That’s something that's really powerful to me and I think the company does a great job supporting us with all these ERGS.
You don’t have to be Asian to join the Asian ERG. You don’t have to be a veteran to join the veterans group. I think it’s great you can learn about these
Shruthi: I completely agree. In the wake of a lot of big stories in the news over the last several years, there’s been a kind of test for how the company will respond each and every time. They never cease to amaze, in terms of putting people first and really acknowledging what’s important right now.
To me, it’s clearly a priority. Being able to have those open conversations among your peers about what could potentially be polarizing viewpoints, but knowing that we have the respect for one another, to listen to those viewpoints, I think is so critical.
Shruthi: I appreciate you being so candid and open. Is there anything else you want to add to this conversation?
Lakshmi: It all boils down to leadership, right? If we have the right kind of leadership in place, diversity and inclusion will be alive for a long time. So I think we have the right leadership in the company and I think DE I will be in Molson Coors for a long time.
Manoj: A nice thing about working at Molson Coors, is there’s a big focus on not only understanding what others feel and how others are working. But that interest level to get engaged and join other ERGs. So I’ll push the ERGs again.