Talk CXO Life

It is 2020 and what better way to kickstart it than by showcasing a brilliant way an organization went about in building passion-based communities for all its employees, taking the concept of work-life balance to a different level altogether. And this, Our very own Bharat Petroleum Corporation!

Here's presenting a lovely conversation Sunayana Nair had with Mr. Padmakar Kappagantula, HR Director at Bharat Petroleum Corporation Ltd. on setting up talent-based employee communities for inspiring employees, enhancing the ease of communication across ranks, job functions, and team building.

In this segment, Padmakar shares how the primary vision of iPassion is to make employees understand themselves better, make them more self-aware and thereby generate more confidence, by showcasing talent through multiple spaces. He shares how communities can be build up in an organization, around such individual creative pursuits. The industry subsequently and therein become, a self-sustaining thriving activity in itself. He also discussed the representation of women in this program. Happy listening.

It is 2020 and what better way to kickstart it than by showcasing a brilliant way an organization went about in building passion-based communities for all its employees, taking the concept of work-life balance to a different level altogether. And this, Our very own Bharat Petroleum Corporation!

Here's presenting a lovely conversation Sunayana Nair had with Mr. Padmakar Kappagantula, HR Director at Bharat Petroleum Corporation Ltd. on setting up talent-based employee communities for inspiring employees, enhancing the ease of communication across ranks, job functions, and team building.

In this segment, Padmakar shares some of the renewed insights and attitudinal changes he witnessed across BPCL post the iPassion rollout. He recounts a particularly significant instance when an employee approached him and thanked him for ‘bringing me back into my world’ – to put it in his own words - powerful words there isn’t it, which must stay with one forever?

Padmakar also shares how quite a few of his senior colleagues were surprised to see the talent of their own team members, most of whom they had known for years. We also discuss the initiatives BPCL is currently undertaking to showcase the talent of their employees, encourage other employees to come aboard, ways of rewarding employees who show sustained interest in developing their talent, and ways of studying and showcasing behavioral evolution whilst unraveling aspects of functional learning.

Happy Listening!

It is 2020 and what better way to kickstart it than by showcasing a brilliant way an organization went about in building passion-based communities for all its employees, taking the concept of work-life balance to a different level altogether. And this, Our very own Bharat Petroleum Corporation!

Here's presenting a lovely conversation Sunayana Nair had with Mr. Padmakar Kappagantula, HR Director at Bharat Petroleum Corporation Ltd. on setting up talent-based employee communities for inspiring employees, enhancing the ease of communication across ranks, job functions, and team building. 

In this segment, Padmakar states how iPassion, run by his team at the Bharat Petroleum Learning Centre stationed at Sewri and where this interview took place, mainly comprises seven groups of interests. The Wordsmart Linguistic, Picture smart, Nature smart, Musical Smart, Body Smart, Number Smart, Multi – intelligence groups.

Of these groups, the most popular interests of the 700 members so far are poetry, photography, traveling, gardening, singing, instrumentalists, dancers, puzzle solvers, yoga and meditation enthusiasts.

He speaks of his team’s first brush with organizing an iPassion night wherein they also invited participation from other fellow oil companies like Indian Oil Corporation, HPCL whilst they exhibited and roped in external judges to review the best works put by employees in the photography section and also the singing and dancing performances.

Padmakar shares how this initiative, even within such a short span, opened an entirely different perspective and dimension of viewing and bonding with their fellow colleagues whilst also introducing the concept to their industry members, which they took to, rather spontaneously and enthusiastically. 

Happy Listening!

It is 2020 and what better way to kickstart it than by showcasing a brilliant way an organization went about in building passion-based communities for all its employees, taking the concept of work-life balance to a different level altogether. And this, Our very own Bharat Petroleum Corporation!

Here's presenting a lovely conversation Sunayana Nair had with Mr. Padmakar Kappagantula, HR Director at Bharat Petroleum Corporation Ltd. on setting up talent-based employee communities for inspiring employees, enhancing the ease of communication across ranks, job functions, and team building.

In this first segment, Padmakar shares how the idea of building passion-based communities within BPCL as an attempt to motivate and inspire employees, cutting ranks, divisions areas of expertise and location came about.

Padmakar shares how scourging through several surveys and his own experience made him initiate conversations with people across levels to understand what got them going especially when the going got tough and how pursuing that passion might actually assist them get over performance blocks that people experience differently and at various points in time. Thus sprung the idea of developing individuals from the Howard Gardner's multiple intelligence theory perspective.

iPassion was rolled out over a year ago to let the 12000 employees at BPCL across ranks, gender, location know that their passion matters as much to the organization they worked for as much as it should matter to them! Isn’t that wonderful? He shares how solitary operators in the company primarily in sales, who had no one to connect to or appreciate their finer aspects, now do! And how it resulted in ease of communication between employees, fellow colleagues who discovered similar interests cutting across hierarchies to form the now 700-plus members of iPassion.

Padmakar also shares the challenges that his team grappled with initially and how it is now about getting more and more people onboard as they look forward to taking this platform to everyone’s smartphone so that it is more accessible and convenient to connect, share and bond!

Happy Listening!

This is the highlights section of our conversation with Prashant Mehta, Partner at Lightbox.

 

Don’t forget to listen to the full conversation –

 

https://cxolife.com/prashant-mehta-lightbox-on-endurance-sports-biking-ironman-trekking-and-million-dollar-ideas/

Hey, you are listening to talkcxolife and in this edition, we will be conversing with Prashant Mehta, Partner at Lightbox, a venture capital firm in Mumbai. Now Prashant is also known as the endurance man. Why you ask? Imagine pedaling from Mumbai to Pune and back, that is about 330km, for 13 hours, and (no don’t run out of breath as yet) then within the same week of pulling off that feat, trekking to the Everest basecamp!

Well, that is Prashant Mehta for you ladies and gentlemen! So hold on as we begin unraveling this intriguing story of Prashant across various fronts.

Born in Mumbai, and having spent his growing years between India and Africa, Prashant studied biotechnology in the U.S. but ended up working for a bank, pursuing an MBA from Wharton School after which he headed straight to work for Lehman Brothers which helped him understand the art of investing in emerging markets. He subsequently moved to Silicon Valley to head Yahoo’s commercial operations for emerging markets.

It was this move to California that also fortified his love for the mountains and he began studying and researching various aspects of trekking and mountaineering. His zest for testing his endurance too culminated in California, twenty years ago, when Prashant was grappling with some critical health issues. His then boss and friend egged him on to take to biking as a way to reboot his system. What started as a way to distract his mind and get fit soon became an obsession to push his limits, which Prashant himself hadn’t anticipated. Soon, Prashant began participating in various races and events across the US and other countries. It soon graduated to participating in triathlons and then came the half Ironman.

A noteworthy interesting pattern, that emerges from his story as most of the other CXOs I have interviewed is also a strong presence of ‘the tribe’. An equally, if not more, enthusiastic bunch of friends who goad you on to do things, however out of reason or out of bounds it may seem, but doing them nevertheless and doing it together. And yet, if anything, there is hardly any pattern in his story excepting that of episodic, erratic moves including Prashant’s move from the US to Mumbai to head an advertising technology startup for 5 years before he surprised himself yet again and became a venture capitalist.

And now here’s some great news, weeks ago, Prashant completed his Turkey half ironman that involves a 1.9 km swim, 90 km bike and a 21k run in 6.45 hours about 37 minutes better than his last attempt about three years ago.  So here’s cheering for him and his gang of boys who call themselves the Worli 5.45. True to their style days after which, his gang of friends biked along the Turkey coast!

Among the very many crazy things up their sleeve is an inspiring K2K (Kashmir to Kanyakumari) bike ride, which will be a second marvelous attempt at raising charity for children suffering from terminal and critical illness. The previous one was a non-stop Delhi to Mumbai ride through which Prashant and his team raised and donated Rs. 3.5 crores towards the same cause. And then there is the Full Ironman which Prashant is targeting after the K2K.

Ah alright, I hear you, let’s get going already! But hey, as if this wasn’t already good enough we also captured the venture capitalist in him, sharing his insights on recognizing wealth-generating business ideas and more importantly people potential and of course his philosophy on success and work-life balance.

Don’t forget to stay tuned for the CXO Funfacts segment at the end of the conversation wherein you’ll know of Prashant’s unusual fixations, fears, his favorite food and why Orange is indeed the new Black.

Happy listening!

In this latest edition of TalkCXOLife, Sunayana Nair, Editor CXO Life interviews Prashant Mehta, Partner at Lightbox, a venture capital firm in Mumbai. Now, Prashant is also known as the endurance man. Why you ask? Imagine pedaling from Mumbai to Pune and back, that is about 330km, for 13 hours, and (no don’t run out of breath as yet) then within the same week of pulling off that feat, trekking to the Everest basecamp!

Well, that is Prashant Mehta for you ladies and gentlemen! 

Born in Mumbai, and having spent his growing years between India and Africa, Prashant studied biotechnology in the U.S. but ended up working for a bank, pursuing an MBA from Wharton School after which he headed straight to work for Lehman Brothers which helped him understand the art of investing in emerging markets. He subsequently moved to Silicon Valley to head Yahoo’s commercial operations for emerging markets.

This is the CXO Fun Facts segment and an official warrant to turn up the amusement quotient on TalkCXOLife which is why it is unmissable! Stay tuned to know some interesting and fun insights about Prashant Mehta including why orange has been the black for him since quite a while, 9 of his most precious days of his life, some of his most enthralling journeys, dishes he loves to cook, his favorite comfort food, his fear, a quirky business idea that he believed in and took off and an unusual obsession which probably even his family is unaware of and I guess he would rather it stayed that way!  You don’t want to miss this one!

In this latest edition of TalkCXOLife, Sunayana Nair, Editor CXO Life interviews Prashant Mehta, Partner at Lightbox, a venture capital firm in Mumbai. Now, Prashant is also known as the endurance man. Why you ask? Imagine pedaling from Mumbai to Pune and back, that is about 330km, for 13 hours, and (no don’t run out of breath as yet) then within the same week of pulling off that feat, trekking to the Everest basecamp!

Well, that is Prashant Mehta for you ladies and gentlemen! 

Born in Mumbai, and having spent his growing years between India and Africa, Prashant studied biotechnology in the U.S. but ended up working for a bank, pursuing an MBA from Wharton School after which he headed straight to work for Lehman Brothers which helped him understand the art of investing in emerging markets. He subsequently moved to Silicon Valley to head Yahoo’s commercial operations for emerging markets.

In this concluding segment, we chat up on work-life balance, Prashant’s take on success and life’s unpredictable twists and turns. According to Prashant, having flexibility in life to figure out and pursue what one wants to, is what work-life balance is all about. He believes he will consider himself successful when he will be able to get up in the morning and do what he wants to do, that day, rather than having to follow a schedule and though he is fortunate like most to have that freedom on most days, he hasn’t been able to really act on it as often as he thinks he ought to. Prashant states that The ‘Never stop learning’ attitude is the legacy he would like to bestow his three wonderful daughters with.

Happy Listening!

In this latest edition of TalkCXOLife, Sunayana Nair, Editor CXO Life interviews Prashant Mehta, Partner at Lightbox, a venture capital firm in Mumbai. Now, Prashant is also known as the endurance man. Why you ask? Imagine pedaling from Mumbai to Pune and back, that is about 330km, for 13 hours, and (no don’t run out of breath as yet) then within the same week of pulling off that feat, trekking to the Everest basecamp!

Well, that is Prashant Mehta for you ladies and gentlemen! 

Born in Mumbai, and having spent his growing years between India and Africa, Prashant studied biotechnology in the U.S. but ended up working for a bank, pursuing an MBA from Wharton School after which he headed straight to work for Lehman Brothers which helped him understand the art of investing in emerging markets. He subsequently moved to Silicon Valley to head Yahoo’s commercial operations for emerging markets.

In this segment, we try to get into the mind of Prashant Mehta, the venture capitalist as we try and understand the bankable attributes he looks for in a person/team before partnering with them. Prashant shares how for him, instincts play a bigger role in arriving at such a crucial decision apart from weighing the leadership and the business opportunity. He lets his instincts guide him to recognize the possibility of building trust and being able to work together and work through things together in the long term. Which he says is the most crucial aspect of a partnership such as this. We also speak about how pursuing a parallel dimension one is deeply passionate about besides work helps one evolve.

In this latest edition of TalkCXOLife, Sunayana Nair, Editor CXO Life interviews Prashant Mehta, Partner at Lightbox, a venture capital firm in Mumbai. Now, Prashant is also known as the endurance man. Why you ask? Imagine pedaling from Mumbai to Pune and back, that is about 330km, for 13 hours, and (no don’t run out of breath as yet) then within the same week of pulling off that feat, trekking to the Everest basecamp!

Well, that is Prashant Mehta for you ladies and gentlemen! 

Born in Mumbai, and having spent his growing years between India and Africa, Prashant studied biotechnology in the U.S. but ended up working for a bank, pursuing an MBA from Wharton School after which he headed straight to work for Lehman Brothers which helped him understand the art of investing in emerging markets. He subsequently moved to Silicon Valley to head Yahoo’s commercial operations for emerging markets.

This segment is about Prashant’s love for the mountains. Know how it all began and listen to Prashant share how a trekking trip with his daughter to the Annapurna base camp proved to be revelatory in more ways than one. In the CXO Funfacts segment, in fact, Prashant refers to this time he spent with his daughter as the 9 most precious days of his life. We also converse about a mountaineers’ popular itch of conquering the highest peak, the reason Prashant hasn’t yet attempted it and the unfortunate and tragic incident at Mount Everest this year. Prashant also divulges how pursuing these varied interests have made an impact on him.