From CMO to CEO: Santharuban Sundaram on leading with risk, culture, and AI

When Santharuban Thurai Sundaram was asked to step into the CEO role at Etika Group of Companies, spanning Malaysia, Singapore, Brunei, and exports, his first instinct was hesitation. “I was really thinking twice and even considered not taking the role,” he admitted at Digital Marketing Asia Malaysia 2025. But the reality was stark: if he declined, he would have missed a huge opportunity.

Overnight, he went from leading marketing campaigns to overseeing an entire enterprise. A leap that demanded a shift from functional expertise to enterprise-wide leadership. “The biggest change is people,” Santharuban said. “As a functional head, your expertise counts. As a CEO, it doesn’t.” Suddenly, he was managing functions where others had far more knowledge in, requiring him to broaden his ability to lead through people.

Early on, he made a conscious decision to step back from marketing to give his teams autonomy, instead focusing on sales, operations, and later, HR and finance. “If I had spent too much time in marketing in the first two years, the marketing head would have hated me,” he joked. For him, the key takeaway was that effective leadership demands a focus on the bigger picture, empowering successful teams to operate autonomously, and consistently venturing beyond one's comfort zone.

Santharuban illustrated this with a story from his early marketing days: a World Cup event in 2010 meant to attract 13,000 people drew only 120. Rather than punishing his team, his then CEO Erwin Selvarajah, highlighted the controllable factors, allowing Santharuban to see that calculated risk-taking, and learning from failures, was not only acceptable, but essential to growth.

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AI, human instinct, and building a culture of risk-taking

While AI has transformed business, Santharuban is clear that technology is an enabler, not a replacement. “AI is today, is almost like a traditional calculator from when it first launched. It did not replace people, but helped everyone make decisions faster and more accurately,” he said. “AI accelerates access to data, but human instinct and decision-making remain central, especially when navigating uncertainty.”

For Santharuban, the real challenge of leadership lies not in the tools, but in cultivating the right mindset within teams.

One of the strengths leaders in today’s world need to have, is the ability to make decisions without the most accurate data. People and humans are still needed to make these decisions.

And that principle extends to how he encourages his employees to think and act.

He believes that risk-taking can only flourish in a culture where people feel safe to fail. “The thing is, when you start punishing people for mistakes, you end up creating a culture where people only do what is safe,” he said. To him, fear-driven environments stifle innovation and slow organisations down. “You want people to take risks, but they can only do that if they know you’ve got their back when it doesn’t work out.”

This approach, he noted, is not about being lenient—it’s about being realistic. “There is no such thing as a zero-risk environment. If everything you do is safe, then you’re not growing. You’re just maintaining.” That philosophy has been baked into Etika’s DNA under his leadership, where innovation is encouraged across departments, not just in marketing. He pushes teams to learn from every campaign, product launch, or operational decision, asking what could have been done differently rather than who to blame.

By normalising calculated failure as part of progress, he said, teams begin to think more creatively, act faster, and make decisions that drive long-term growth. “Sometimes, the outcome isn’t what you expect, but it moves you forward anyway,” he said. “That’s still a win.”

Navigating markets, cultures, and consumer expectations

Managing multiple markets adds layers of complexity. Santharuban shared that even within Malaysia, work cultures differ significantly. “Employees in Malaysia’s East Coast and Singapore, approach work very differently as they have different needs. There’s no wrong, no right. It is just different.” Understanding these nuances is essential to aligning teams and driving performance across regions.

Consumer behavior, he emphasised, is constantly shifting, noting that buyers are unlikely to consume the same beverage in a solus manner.

No matter how good we are, customers are still going to want variety. That is why innovation becomes important.

Lower barriers to entry and the proliferation of niche products mean that even established brands must continually adapt, leverage their strengths, and remain agile. Large organisations rely on distribution, manufacturing efficiency, and brand recognition, but smaller competitors often move faster. Hence, striking the right balance between leveraging scale and staying nimble is key to sustained growth.

The next chapter

On pressure, Santharuban is pragmatic: “I usually don’t get pressured by something that I can’t control. If the expectation is unreasonable, why are you placing yourself in this place?” He encourages leaders to maintain autonomy by managing personal finances and focusing on what they can influence.

His approach to talent is equally unconventional. “You should only stay if I genuinely think that this is the best for you. If it is not, and going somewhere else is good, then you should explore any options that will increase your rate of growth.” By allowing employees to explore opportunities freely, he believes companies cultivate loyalty, create learning experiences, and foster a culture where excellence is voluntary, not forced.

Looking ahead, he is open to exploring entrepreneurial options, as he steps down as Etika’s CEO. But influencing his next move, is his hope to guide others just as how he benefited from mentorship himself, ensuring the next generation of leaders benefits from his experiences.

I honestly don’t know what's next. But what I do know is that my definition of success has evolved. If a day comes where three or four people talk about me the way I speak about my mentors, I would consider myself successful.

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