Talk CXO Life

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, Prashant touches upon his approach towards running, biking and swimming and how he has evolved with respect to each. We also converse about his training methodology – which comprises 5 to 6-day routines per week. Prior to an event, training is scheduled and worked backward, usually 2-3 months prior, with a minimum of 15-20 hours per week. The biggest challenge for Prashant is to get back to training after a break due to frequent travel since as per his admission, even a week’s break sets him back by a month. He also divulges how he stopped being obsessive about his diet once he realised that he and the people around him weren’t really having fun.

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, you’ll get to know of the crazy bike rides Prashant and his team have undertaken. The first such major ride was from Bombay to Pune and back. After just 6 weeks of training, Prashant and two of his friends endured a 13-hour road journey and kept pedalling away even as Prashant started feeling delusional midway due to exhaustion. Soon after the completion of this trip, Prashant trekked to the Everest basecamp and describes this as the craziest two weeks of his life. 

Another crazy ride was a non-stop Delhi Bombay ride with a targeted time of 60 hours which his gang manged to pull off in spite of the several challenges they faced and learned from. Prashant speaks of how these charity bike rides bordering on insanity are made possible when it is the heart which switches the gear during the trying times. For Prashant, a cause or a mission motivates him to push his limits much more than wanting to ace a timing or attain a desired speed.

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, Prashant shares how he began his endurance journey through biking with the help of his ex-boss, twenty years ago when he was coping to come to terms with life after battling a serious health scare that had him feeling overwhelmed.  

What began as an attempt to give his mind a fresh lease, soon graduated to pushing his limits gradually, as his ex-boss constantly motivated him to keep giving it his best shot. Together, they began participating in biking events and races across the US and then even across the world. Prashant believes cycling gave him an incredible opportunity to explore food culture and people around. He also speaks of the importance of the role of his ‘crazy bunch of friends’ in discovering his limits and pushing them. Constantly.  

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 first segment Prashant speaks of his childhood. His parents’ bold move from Mumbai to Zambia during the copper rush with less than 1000 dollars in their pockets, how he came back to Mumbai for schooling and lived with his grandmother in a chawl which lent him his first major impressions and went on to colour his perspectives as a child. He shares how going to a boarding school in Panchgani in the fifth grade and his five years there had the single most important impact on his life. Prashant thereafter went back to Zambia and then to Texas to complete his last years of high school where he picked up American football and made some great friends. He believes these experiences across vastly different cultures ingrained within him the ability to survive anywhere and get along and understand people from all walks of life.

Prashant also shares what it takes to sustain or endure and how at the behest of a friend, he took to Ironman, considered the hardest single day sport, especially when he didn’t even know how to swim and how with some much support he overcame that hurdle! BTW, Prashant recently completed his fourth Ironman 70.3 in Turkey and true to style, also biked along the Turkey Coast soon after the Ironman, along with his gang!

Happy listening!

This episode comprises the highlights of the conversation of Ajith Nair, Director @ Kincentric, a talent and HR advisory firm specialising in employee engagement, leadership assessment and development & HR advisory with Sunayana Nair, Editor CXO Life. 

 Ajith speaks at length on the –

·         Essence of employee engagement in every organisation & its role in managing and aiding disruption

·         Emergence of EX – Employee Experience & the benefits (& need) of linking it with customer experience

·         Challenges organisations face implementing sustainable engagement solutions & how the basics are at reach for every organisation regardless of its size,

·         Importance of work-life balance and how encouraging employees to expand their faculties can, in fact, help a corporate to 'de-risk'  

·         Role of corporate and leaders in inducing and more importantly, sustaining a dynamically engaged corporate culture,

·         Attributes and skill-sets of a new-age leader &

·         Leadership is more of a calling to go beyond oneself – be it a corporate, local or global level. 

And of course, since this is the KIA series we also conversed about Ajith’s passions, primarily, his love for music, playing the mridangam and other percussion instruments as well as yoga and writing. As a way of giving back, Ajith regularly coaches students and NGOs and is also part of a Citizen's Action Group working towards shutting the Deonar Garbage dump in Mumbai.

I hope you enjoy listening to this conversation! Stay tuned!

Welcome to the KIA series by TalkCXOLife. In continuation with the series of conversations we are having with HR leaders, people-centric managers and coaches we bring to you our conversation with Ajith Nair, Director of Kincentric, a talent and HR advisory firm specialising in employee engagement, leadership assessment and development & HR advisory. 

Ajith spoke to Sunayana Nair, Editor, CXO Life at length on the –

 

·         Essence of employee engagement in every organisation & its role in managing and aiding disruption

·         Emergence of EX – Employee Experience & the benefits (& need) of linking it with customer experience

·         Challenges organisations face implementing sustainable engagement solutions & how the basics are at reach for every organisation regardless of its size,

·         Importance of work-life balance and how encouraging employees to expand their faculties can, in fact, help a corporate to de-risk  

·         role of corporates and leaders in inducing and more importantly, sustaining a dynamically engaged corporate culture,

·         Attributes and skillsets of a new-age leader &

·         Leadership is more of a calling to go beyond oneself – be it a corporate, local or global level.

 

And of course, since this is the KIA series we also conversed about Ajith’s passions, primarily, his love for music, playing the mridangam and other percussion instruments as well as yoga and writing. As a way of giving back, Ajith regularly coaches students and NGOs and is also part of a Citizen's Action Group working towards shutting the Deonar Garbage dump in Mumbai.

We hope you enjoy listening to this conversation! Stay tuned!

Welcome to the KIA series by TalkCXOLife. In continuation with the series of conversations we are having with HR leaders, people-centric managers and coaches we bring to you my conversation with Ajith Nair, Director of Kincentric, a talent and HR advisory firm specializing in employee engagement, leadership assessment and development & HR advisory.

·         In this segment, we delve briefly into the academic and career background of Ajith - His transition from Advertising communications to research to HR and Talent advisory.

·         His present role in Kincentric which encompasses training individuals and teams to do their best and helping organizations look at talent in a way that it serves to be of strategic advantage.

·         We also delve on Ajith’s passions which include his interests in yoga, playing the mridangam and other percussion instruments, writing poetry, blogging, coaching and also environmental activism.

Welcome to the KIA series by TalkCXOLife. In continuation with the series of conversations we are having with HR leaders, people-centric managers and coaches we bring to you my conversation with Ajith Nair, Director of Kincentric, a talent and HR advisory firm specializing in employee engagement, leadership assessment and development & HR advisory.

·         In this segment, Ajith speaks on the essence of leadership and the attributes of a new-age leader

·         How leadership is a calling to go beyond oneself and beyond the ordinary

and

·         He also speaks of the importance of time management within the context of striking a balance between work and life

Welcome to the KIA series by TalkCXOLife. In continuation with the series of conversations we are having with HR leaders, people-centric managers and coaches we bring to you my conversation with Ajith Nair, Director of Kincentric, a talent and HR advisory firm specialising in employee engagement, leadership assessment and development & HR advisory.

·         In this segment, Ajith speaks of how some corporates are promoting multiple growth-seeking avenues to employees to tap their overall potential, actively motivating them to seek such platforms and how this is a great way for organisations to de-risk itself.

·          the role of leaders in inducing and sustaining such a growth-led mindset and culture

·         How an increasing number of CXOs are seeing the benefits of pursuing a passion which helps them to engage the mind in different ways, be more effective as a leader and even differentiate themselves in their professional realm.

Welcome to the KIA series by TalkCXOLife. In continuation with the series of conversations we are having with HR leaders, people-centric managers and coaches we bring to you our conversation with Ajith Nair, Director of Kincentric, a talent and HR advisory firm specializing in employee engagement, leadership assessment and development & HR advisory.

In this segment, Ajith Nair speaks to Sunayana Nair, Editor, CXO Life on - 

The commonalities across corporate cultures globally while pointing to the differences within the employee ecosystem.

 He emphasizes the significance of fundamentally anchored value systems – pillars of what an engaging culture thrives on and how these lead to unfathomable employee behaviours – what he calls as emergent behaviours – behaviours, much beyond the expectations any employee manual can seek. And how this is a by-product of a thriving engaging culture. 

 The critical role of engaged employees in aiding and managing disruption

 The need for organisations to shift from the outdated Process lens which served well for consistency and predictability to intent-culture-purpose led lens to tap that delta or competitive edge.