Shoury Gupta On Beyond Price Tags: What Makes A Corporate Gift Feel Thoughtful?
One thing people overlook is that festive gifts go home. The employee rarely opens it alone. Parents, spouses, kids, sometimes the whole joint family is around when that box gets opened. They’re all forming an impression of the company. When a candidate is weighing two offers and their mother says “that company sent such a lovely box last year,” trust me, that counts for something.
Corporate gifting is often treated as a procurement activity: select a product, set a budget, and distribute it during festivals or special occasions. But what if a gift is also an opportunity to communicate appreciation, strengthen relationships and reflect organisational values?
In today’s workplace, employees increasingly expect recognition that feels relevant and personal. A generic gift may fulfil a tradition, but a thoughtfully chosen one can create a meaningful connection. The difference lies not in the price, but in the intention behind it.
This makes corporate gifting a much broader HR consideration than conventional gifting practices often recognise.
In this interview, People Manager explores this question through an insightful conversation with Shoury Gupta, Founder & CEO of Patang, who examines what makes a corporate gift genuinely thoughtful. The discussion highlights the importance of personalisation, cultural sensitivity, regional preferences, sustainability and ethical sourcing.
One of the strongest messages emerging from the conversation is that meaningful gifting does not require extravagant spending. Understanding employee preferences, recognising milestones and choosing gifts with relevance and authenticity can make appreciation more memorable.
But the conversation also challenges HR leaders to look beyond the gift itself.
If gifting ignores dietary preferences, cultural sensitivities or individual needs, even an expensive gesture may feel impersonal. Thoughtfulness requires organisations to consider the people receiving the gift not simply the budget or the occasion.
For CHROs, HR leaders and people managers, this creates an important shift in thinking from gifting as a transaction to gifting as an expression of employee experience and organisational culture.
The objective is not simply to distribute gifts. It is to create moments of recognition that communicate respect, belonging and genuine appreciation.
And there is another important consideration in the conversation. Technology can support preference management, personalisation and logistics, but it cannot replace the human intention behind a meaningful gesture.
This interview therefore invites a broader question for the modern workplace: Are organisations simply giving gifts or creating experiences that make people feel genuinely valued?
The answer may lie not in the price tag, but in the thought, relevance and human connection behind every gift.
Q.: In your view, what distinguishes a truly thoughtful corporate gift from one that is simply expensive?
Ans.: Honestly, you can usually tell within ten seconds of opening the box. An expensive gift is about the sender. You see the logo first, then the foil, then maybe the product somewhere underneath. A thoughtful gift is about the person receiving it, and you feel that before you’ve even figured out what’s inside.
I spent over a decade in corporate roles before starting Patang, so I’ve been on the receiving end of a lot of Diwali boxes. I couldn’t tell you who sent most of them. The ones I do remember weren’t the costliest. One had a small note from someone who’d clearly paid attention to a conversation we’d had months earlier. That stayed with me far longer than any branded clock.
When I’m judging a gift now, I ask a couple of things. Would this make sense for anyone, or specifically for this person? Is there something in it worth talking about, a place, a memory, a reason? And will it get used, or end up in a cupboard “for later”?
Money helps you buy nicer things. It doesn’t help you pay attention. Most companies have the budget. What they’re short on is the effort of thinking about who’s actually going to open the box.
Q.: How important is cultural awareness when designing or selecting corporate gifts for a diverse workforce or global client base?
Ans.: Very, and I’d say Indian companies underestimate this more than global ones do. We tend to think “diversity” means international clients. Meanwhile a single floor in a Gurugram office can have Jain colleagues who don’t eat onion, garlic or root vegetables, people fasting for Navratri, families who won’t bring anything new home during Shraadh, colleagues keeping roza in Ramzan, and lots of strictly vegetarian households where even an egg in the biscuit is a no.
Send one standard festive hamper to all of them and you’ve probably upset a fair few without knowing it. Nobody will complain to HR. They’ll just quietly give it to the building guard.
The fix isn’t complicated. Check the festival calendar before dispatch. Know the basic dietary lines. Print ingredients clearly on the front of the pack, not in four-point font on the back. For international clients, spend five minutes with someone from that country before choosing anything. Alcohol, leather, certain colours, even numbers can mean very different things depending on where you send them.
The bigger opportunity, though, is going past “don’t offend.” If a guy from Kolkata working in Bengaluru opens his Diwali gift and finds something that reminds him of home, he’s going to remember that company. Respect is the minimum. Recognition is what actually moves people.
Q.: Many organizations struggle to personalize gifts for large teams. What strategies can help balance scale with genuine thoughtfulness?
Ans.: I get why this feels impossible. If you have 3,000 employees, nobody’s going to sit and choose 3,000 separate gifts. But I think companies confuse personalising the product with personalising the experience, and only the second one really matters.
Some things that actually work. Break the workforce into a handful of groups, maybe by region, dietary preference, or seniority, and build a version for each. You’d be surprised how personal five well-thought-out variants can feel. Better still, let people choose. Give them three or four good options and a link. The act of choosing makes it theirs.
The note matters more than people think. A one-line message from someone’s own manager beats a generic “Season’s Greetings from the Leadership Team” every single time. For smaller teams, get the manager to write it by hand. It takes an afternoon.
If you know where people come from, use it. Somebody from Kerala getting something Malayali in their box, or a Gujarati colleague finding Methi Para, that’s a small touch that hits hard. You need an HR spreadsheet with hometowns, not an AI engine.
And please, deliver on time. A Diwali gift that turns up after Bhai Dooj has already lost most of its charm.
Q.: How do thoughtful gifts contribute to employee engagement and retention, especially in today’s competitive talent market?
Ans.: I’ll say this upfront, because I think the industry oversells it: no gift is going to fix a toxic team or a bad boss. If people want to leave, a hamper isn’t stopping them.
What a gift can do is reinforce how people already feel. If someone already feels valued, a well-chosen gift confirms it. If they already feel invisible, a generic one just proves their point. So the downside of a careless gift is bigger than most HR teams realise.
One thing people overlook is that festive gifts go home. The employee rarely opens it alone. Parents, spouses, kids, sometimes the whole joint family is around when that box gets opened. They’re all forming an impression of the company. When a candidate is weighing two offers and their mother says “that company sent such a lovely box last year,” trust me, that counts for something.
There’s also the social angle now. People post what they receive, especially younger employees. A gift with a nice story behind it gets shared on Instagram and LinkedIn with the company tagged. That’s employer branding you didn’t pay an agency for.
So I’d tell HR leaders to stop treating gifting as a procurement line item. Think of it as one of the moments in the employee journey, alongside onboarding and appraisals.
Q.: With growing emphasis on sustainability, how can companies ensure their gifting practices reflect environmental and ethical responsibility?
Ans.: Look at most corporate hampers and the first thing you notice is the packaging. Plastic trays, satin lining, a basket inside a box inside a carry bag. Half of it goes in the bin within an hour. It’s a bit absurd when you think about it.
If companies want their gifting to be responsible, I’d start by asking vendors some basic questions. Can the packaging be reused or recycled? Is there something in there, a tin, a jar, a nice box, that people will want to keep? Glass jars end up holding pens or spices in half the homes in India, so that’s a second life right there.
Then think about what’s in the box. Something that gets eaten or used up creates far less waste than another gadget that’ll be junk in two years.
The ethical side matters too, and it gets less attention. Who made the product? Were they paid properly? Buying from small regional producers puts money directly into towns and communities that need it. The government’s One District One Product programme is built around exactly this, and corporates can tap into it.
Also ask about ingredients and oils. If the vendor can’t give you a clear answer, that tells you a lot. You don’t have to give up on the festive feel to do this. You just have to be a bit more deliberate.
Q.: How is technology AI, data insights, or digital platforms reshaping the way organizations choose and deliver corporate gifts?
Ans.: Technology has made the boring bits much easier, and that’s a good thing. Five years ago, sending gifts to a hybrid team spread across thirty cities was an admin nightmare. Now there are platforms that collect addresses, let employees pick what they want, track every delivery and tell you who’s received it. Admin teams sleep better during Diwali now.
The data side is useful too, if companies actually look at it. Over a couple of years you start to see real patterns. Which teams preferred sweet over savoury. Which cities had delivery problems. What people chose when given a choice versus what the vendor thought they’d like. That’s genuinely helpful for planning.
Quick commerce has changed spot recognition a lot. If someone on your team pulls off something big on a Thursday evening, you can have a little something at their door the same evening. That kind of speed makes the gesture feel personal.
My worry is about AI writing the messages. You can tell when a note’s been generated, and it kills the whole point. Use AI for sorting preferences, flagging allergies, managing lists, sure. But the actual words of thanks should come from a person who knows the employee.
Use technology to save time, then spend that time on the human part.
Q.: Should corporate gifting be limited to festivals and milestones, or can it play a role in everyday recognition and appreciation?
Ans.: Definitely beyond festivals. Don’t get me wrong, Diwali is huge for us and I’m not going to argue against Diwali gifting. But think about it from the employee’s side. In that same week they’re getting boxes from their company, their bank, their builder, their CA. Yours is one of many. Even a great gift gets a bit lost.
A gift that arrives on an ordinary day, for a specific reason, gets noticed much more.
There are lots of moments like that. Someone’s first week, when they don’t know anyone yet and a welcome kit makes them feel like they belong. The end of a really tough quarter, when the team’s exhausted and a small thank-you lands better than any party. Big personal moments, like a baby, a wedding, moving cities. People remember who acknowledged those.
And the small wins. Somebody stays late to fix a client problem, or finally closes a deal that’s been dragging for months. A jar of pickle and two lines from the manager costs very little and people talk about it for weeks.
What I’d suggest is not putting the whole gifting budget into one festival. Keep some aside for these everyday moments through the year. I think most companies would find it goes much further.
Q.: What metrics or feedback mechanisms can HR leaders use to evaluate whether a gift truly resonates with employees or clients?
Ans.: It’s not as easy to measure as a performance marketing campaign, I’ll admit that. But it’s definitely not unmeasurable. Most companies just don’t bother.
If you’re giving people a choice of gifts, look at how many are actually redeemed and how quickly. A low claim rate is a pretty clear message that the options weren’t exciting. Look at what people chose, too. Patterns by city or team are very useful for next year.
Then there’s the softer stuff. Did people reply to the sender? Did anyone post about it? Did it come up in team chats? People don’t share gifts they didn’t like, so organic sharing is a decent indicator.
A short survey a week later can help, but keep it to one question. Something like “Did this gift feel like it was meant for you?” with a simple rating. Anything longer and the response rate drops off a cliff.
I’d also try to find out, informally, what happened to the gift. Was it used, shared with family, or passed on? If a lot of people are regifting, that’s your answer.
With clients it’s more about the relationship afterwards. Was the next call warmer? Did they mention the gift?
For us at Patang, a good sign is when someone who got one of our hampers later orders for their own family.
Q.: What emerging trends do you see shaping the future of corporate gifting, especially in terms of personalization and emotional connection?
Ans.: A few things I’m seeing, and a couple I’m betting on.
People care a lot more about where things come from now. A few years ago “imported” was the premium tag. Today, a product made in the exact town it’s famous for has its own pull. Origin has become part of the value.
Branding on gifts is getting more subtle. Companies are figuring out that a box covered in their logo feels like a marketing exercise. I think we’ll see more gifts where the brand is just a small mention on the note.
Choice is becoming normal. Employees increasingly expect to pick their own gift from a curated set, the same way they choose everything else online.
For India specifically, I think regional food is going to be big. So many people have moved away from home for work. Anything that brings back the taste of their hometown hits an emotional nerve that a generic premium hamper just can’t.
I also expect budgets to spread out over the year, with less riding on one festival and more on smaller, frequent gestures.
And gifts will be designed more for families, not just individuals, because that’s who’s really sitting around opening them.
Overall, the story behind a gift is starting to matter as much as the gift.
Q.: How does Patang approach the challenge of making gifts feel meaningful, and what lessons can other organizations learn from your model?
Ans.: Patang came from a pretty simple observation. India has an enormous number of regional foods that most Indians have never tried, and quite a few of them are slowly disappearing. We call them the Flavours India forgot, and the whole business is about bringing them back.
The one rule we don’t bend is that every product is made where it comes from. Ratlami Sev is made in Ratlam, Jamnagari Chiwda in Jamnagar, and the same goes for Darbhanga Makhana, Kollam Puli Inji, Banarasi Bharwa Lal Mirch and the rest. We work with 18+ manufacturing kitchens across the country now, and each product has a place and a method behind it. Simple ingredients, no bad oils, no shortcuts.
That’s really why our corporate gifting works. When someone opens a Patang hamper, they’re not just getting snacks. They’re getting a small tour of India. Our three hampers are called Utsav, Pitara and Aabhaar. Aabhaar means gratitude, which felt like the right word for a gift a company sends its people.
If there’s something other companies can take from this, it’s to begin with the story and choose the products after. Be specific. Remember the family will see it. Respect the people who actually make things. Long after people forget what was in the box, they remember whether it felt like it was meant for them. For further insights into the evolving workplace paradigm, visit
