Tell it like it is

If you are mid-career and reflecting on the first half of your career, you have probably asked yourself – What impact have the actions of the past years had on my life (personally and professionally) and what have I contributed to the community around me. How many leaps of faith have I taken and how many have taken those leaps with me? 

With me today is Biren Bhuta, who has made taking leaps of faith an art form, beginning with a traditional job in banking to business journalism with NDTV and corporate social responsibility in Tata Steel. Currently, Biren is engaged in his exciting new venture, Disom, a leadership school for political aspirants. During our conversation, we spoke of taking a journey inwards, slowing down and listening to one’s conscience and inner voice to find the next path, holding paradoxes, learning from nature and native tribes and most importantly redefining reward question as what have I contributed as opposed to what’s in it for me . So, have you ever taken a leap of faith?

Contact: Disom

Credits: 

Storybook by Scott Holmes, on freemusicarchive.org, CC Attribution Non Commercial-NoDerivates 4.0

My guest is Viren Rasquinha, former captain of the Indian hockey team, an Olympian and CEO of Olympic Gold Quest. During his playing career, Viren has represented India in 180 international matches including competing at the 2004 Athens Olympics. He is an Arjuna Awardee and has been a member of the PMO Task Force in 2016 (along with Pullela Gopichand, Abhinav Bindra and others) that prepared India’s plans for the next three Olympics in 2020 (now in 2021), 2024 and 2028.

In today’s conversation we speak of dreams so big that they consume your entire childhood, and you follow them faithfully into later years. Dreams that make an impact on an entire nation and inspire generations of young children to pursue sport and compete at the highest level, the Olympics. We cover the grueling hours of practice that athletes endure day after day, far from the watchful eyes of fans. We flit back and forth between history and the present day so bear with us. We speak of the lessons that sport teaches you, the role of a coach, structural changes required in India’s outlook toward sport and how the Olympic Gold Quest is fueling a dream in over 300 athletes. It’s all about those 6gms of gold.

Contribute: Olympic Gold Quest

This season we focus on stories of impact. 

Credits: 

Storybook by Scott Holmes, on freemusicarchive.org, CC Attribution Non Commercial-NoDerivates 4.0

My guest today is Savio John Pereira, award winning celebrity hairstylist and founder of a chain of upscale salons and the Savio John Pereira academy in Mumbai. Savio’s story is one of coming in from the outside and building a personal brand, a story filled with glamour, gloss, high drama, and a never give up attitude. Alongside, it features some gems that go into building a successful luxury salon business. Sometimes the road to the destination is not obvious, its circuitous but with deep observation, thinking ahead, staying visible and paying attention to the little things, you can forge ahead.

My guest today is Manish Gupta, co-founder, and CEO of Indegene, a 3000 member global health solutions company specializing in research, content and data solutions to the pharma industry worldwide leveraging analytics and AI. The pharma industry, a highly regulated one, lends itself to the use of AI and digital capabilities since vast data sets exist across the product life cycle and therefore, the genius in spotting this opportunity. 

We cover: 

- Building a global company from India, raising capital from early investors, strength of the core team;

- Pivoting when faced by the headwinds of the dotcom bust and patent cliff; 

- Inflection points and how those translated into opportunities; 

- Clarity of purpose, outsized ambition, precision, and an easy vibe as a leader 

If you are interested in the life sciences industry and get your kicks from applying digital and AI solutions to solve for problems, check Indegene out. They’re hiring.

Join me, Manisha Kadagathur, as I chat with Ayon Banerjee, author of “As you Life it - Work as usual, Life as unusual”. We talk about overlapping boundaries of work and life, of successes and failure, of time, of youth, of dreams and relationships – all of it captured as a Work-Life tool kit.

Today’s conversation is peppered with advice and life lessons for anyone navigating work and life. There is no narrative and arc here, just a freewheeling catch-up with someone who has been through many experiences and has been thoughtful enough to capture it in a book for others. Think of it as many conversations rolled into one episode. Exactly the way, Ayon intended his book to be read.

Grab your copy of his book here: As you life it - Work as usual, Life as unusual

This episode is a Masterclass in entrepreneurship. At the same time, it is a fantastic story of a husband-wife team who were partners in business and are partners for life. I am delighted to share the inspiring story of Hema & Ashok Hattangady who turned a small family owned energy metering company into one of India’s finest energy management companies, leading to its eventual sale to Schneider Electric in 2009. Hema is a management graduate from IIM Calcutta  and Ashok has a master's degree from UT, Austin but their story is about so much more. It includes family politics, the role of a strategic investor and mentor, navigating through the regulatory, social and business environment and how the design philosophy percolated into the culture of the company they built. Hema Hattangady and Conzerv is a case taught at Harvard, London Business School, University of California, San Francisco, and Babson’s College. If you are an entrepreneur, a spouse, or a co-founder, grab your favourite brew, a note pad and pen and plug in your headphones. Trust me, you will be taking a lot of notes.

Grab your copy of the book here: Lift Off: The Story of Conzerv

Connect with Hema Hattangady here

“What do you want to be when you grow up?” In India, all of us have been asked this question by assorted aunts and uncles. Most common responses include - Doctor, Engineer, Lawyer, Chartered Accountant, sometimes vet and nowadays, YouTuber. Growing up, did you ever want to be a politician? You think I’m crazy. My guest today is a 3rd generation politician in Uttar Pradesh. Rahul Kaushik, a design consultant with a master’s degree from IIT Bombay, chucked it all to carry forward the legacy of his father. Today, he is the Pradesh Karyakarini Sadasya, Samajwadi Party. 

In a profession where the chances of being elected are less than 1% and where there is constant public scrutiny; a different kind of weapon is at play – a soft power. Rahul says, being clear about the purpose, knowing your goals, building consensus, developing keen observation, and really listening to people’s needs are the ingredients to success as a politician. Come to think of it, these apply to any profession minus 24x7 surveillance and constant judgment.

Interact with Rahul here: https://facebook.com/rahul.kaushik