Sanjiv Mehta’s new book, A CEO’s Brew: Stirred with Passion, Purpose and Humbition, opens with a story few corporate leaders would choose to tell. It is about a moment when Hindustan Unilever, under his leadership, decided to give money back—returning what it called “unearned” gains after a GST rate change, even though the law did not demand it. The amount eventually stood at ₹118.9 crore. For Mehta, the episode was never about optics; it was about drawing a line between what a company can do and what it should do.

That instinct runs through the book, which is less a victory lap and more a reflection on leadership in India at scale. Mehta writes from experience—having led HUL for a decade after returning home from senior roles overseas—about the constant tension between performance and principle. During those years, the company’s market value multiplied several times over, margins widened, and operations were reimagined. But the chapters linger just as much on moments of uncertainty, when decisions had to be taken without the comfort of precedent.

What gives A CEO’s Brew its distinctive tone is Mehta’s insistence that business success cannot be separated from the country it operates in. He revisits HUL’s work in water conservation, sanitation, women’s livelihoods and climate action, not as corporate social responsibility but as long-term investments in India’s resilience. The numbers matter, he argues, because intent without outcomes is just another slogan.

The book also reflects on leadership under pressure—from volatile overseas assignments early in his career to steering HUL through GST disruption and the COVID-19 crisis. Again and again, Mehta returns to a simple idea: if leaders look after their people, the business will follow.

Written with restraint and candour, A CEO’s Brew avoids the gloss of a conventional CEO memoir. Instead, it reads like a conversation with someone who has spent decades making hard choices, and has come to believe that ambition works best when it is tempered with humility—a philosophy Mehta calls “humbition,” and one he suggests India’s next generation of business leaders would do well to take seriously.