Play To Potential Podcast

GUEST  Rich Fernandez is the CEO of Search Inside Yourself Leadership Institute (SIYLI). Prior to this he was a Director of Executive Education and People Development at Google.   SIYLI began as an initiative in Google in 2007 when a team of leading experts in mindfulness, neuroscience and emotional intelligence developed an internal course for fellow Googlers. It quickly became incredibly popular within Google and given the interest outside Google was so great, SIYLI was set up as an independent Not for Profit in 2012. Since then SIYLI has become a globally recognised programme and continues to work with Google as well as other Corporate, Nonprofit and Government Organisations around the world.   In our conversation, we spoke about Rich’s take on Leadership Development in a “rocket ship” such as Google and talk about the distinction between performance and potential, something that several organizations mix up. We talk about the various types of attention (open, focused and meta-attention) that we need to

GUEST Stewart D. Friedman is a professor at the Wharton School of Business at the University of Pennsylvania and the founding director of the Wharton Leadership Program and Wharton’s Work/Life Integration Project. He has been on the Wharton faculty since 1984 and became the Management Department's first Practice Professor in recognition of his work within the fields of Leadership Development, Human Resources and Work–Life Integration on the application theory and research on the real challenges facing organizations. In our conversation, we spoke about how Dr. Friedman thinks about 4 domains - Self, Work, Home and Community and how we can harmonise across the four domains by going after what he calls “4 way wins”. He also talks about positive spill-over effects from one domain to another and urges us not to see these choices as trade-offs but as porous elements with osmosis across them. He goes on to talk about how we can craft experiments and interface with the various stakeholders to create a life that in

GUEST Ramachandra Guha is a historian and biographer based in Bangalore. He has taught at the universities of Yale and Stanford, held the Arné Naess Chair at the University of Oslo, and been the Indo-American Community Visiting Professor at the University of California at Berkeley. In the academic year 2011-2 he served as the Philippe Roman Professor of History and International Affairs at the London School of Economics. Guha’s books include a pioneering environmental history, The Unquiet Woods (University of California Press, 1989), and an award-winning social history of cricket, A Corner of a Foreign Field (Picador, 2002). India after Gandhi (Macmillan/Ecco Press, 2007) was chosen as a book of the year by the Economist, the Washington Post, the Wall Street Journal, the San Francisco Chronicle, Time Out, and Outlook, and as a book of the decade in the Times of India, the Times of London, and The Hindu. Gandhi Before India (Knopf, 2014) was chosen as a notable book of the year by the New York Times. His lat

GUEST Tarun Khanna is the Jorge Paulo Lemann Professor at the Harvard Business School (HBS), where he has sought for two decades to study the drivers of entrepreneurship in emerging markets as a means of economic and social development. At HBS since 1993, after obtaining degrees from Princeton and Harvard, he has taught courses on strategy, corporate governance and international business to MBA and Ph.D. students and senior executives. For many years, he has served as the Faculty Chair for HBS activities in India and South Asia. He was named the first director of the university-wide The Lakshmi Mittal and Family South Asia Institute at Harvard in the fall of 2010 Outside HBS, he serves on numerous for-profit and not-for-profit boards in the US and India, including AES, a Washington DC headquartered global power company, and India-based Bharat Financial Inclusion Limited (BFIL), one of the world’s largest firms dedicated to financial inclusion for the poor. He is a co-founder of several entrepreneurial ventu

GUEST  Indranil Chakraborty runs StoryWorks, that helps organisations and leaders harness the power of stories to create and deliver impactful messages. He has spent two decades of experience leading teams and driving change at reputed firms such as Unilever, Tata Group and Mahindra & Mahindra.   He is the author of the book "Stories at Work - Unlock the secret to Business Storytelling” published recently by Penguin Random House. In our conversation, we talk at length about some of the insights in the book. Indranil first demystifies the term “Business Storytelling” and distinguishes it from other forms of storytelling.  We then discuss other elements including how one should listen to stories and collect them systematically, the different applications of storytelling, how story telling bridges the asymmetry that often exists due to the "curse of knowledge”, how one can build deeper relationships through stories, how we can bake in the story-telling habit in our life and more.   The lessons from this c

GUEST Mr Om Prakash Bhatt (OP Bhatt) is the Chairman of Tata Steel Limited and a Board Member at Oil and Natural Gas Corporation Limited (ONGC), Hindustan Unilever Limited (HUL) and Standard Chartered Bank. He started his career in State Bank of India (SBI) as a probationary officer in 1972 and retired as the Chairman of SBI in 2011. I had first met him when I was participating in the Director’s Club programme conducted by Hunt Partners, designed to prepare individuals to be effective Board Members. In our conversation, we spoke about how leaders should think about whether Board roles is something they should consider and his thoughts on what it takes to be an effective Board Member. More specifically, he talks about the distinction between the skillset and the mindset required to be an effective Board Member. He dwelt on how leaders often need to build new muscles of influencing that their corporate career that they may not have built during their career. We also discussed the critical role of Chairperson

GUEST Ambi Parameswaran is the Founder of Brand-building.com, a Brand Advisory Organization. In a career spanning 30+ years, Ambi has handled assignments in Marketing, Sales and Advertising with companies like Rediffusion DY&R, Boots Company and UDI Yellow Pages before dropping anchor at FCB Ulka where he spent about 25 years finishing as ED & CEO of FCB Ulka Group. Ambi has also been a prolific author and his ninth book is 'SPONGE - Leadership Lessons I learnt from my Clients'. The book (SPONGE) discusses some of the key lessons Ambi has learnt working with his clients over the years. It talks about his interactions with leaders ranging across Ratan Tata, Azim Premji, M. Damodaran, Karsanbhai Patel, Dr. Varghese Kurien, Vinita Bali and Rohinton Aga. We spoke about his insights from the book around how leaders take risks, how they leverage wisdom from experts, how they keep connect with their consumer and more. We also spoke about lessons from his journey and his thoughts on building a credible pers

GUEST Arun Maira is a former member of the Planning Commission of India and former Chairman of BCG India. He had a distinguished career in Tata Motors (then called TELCO) and rose to be on the Board of the company. He then had to relocate to the US due to a personal situation and had to reinvent himself at 45. He has written several books, the most recent one being “Listening for well-being: Conversations with people not like us”. In our conversation, we discuss some of his key transitions post Tata Motors to the world of Advisory Services. We talk about how he went about making some of those choices and settled into the new context. We also deep-dive into his book on Listening and discuss its impact on various domains. We talk about the art of asking deeper questions, how we could steer through listening, how we can have tough conversations and give hard feedback by listening, the trade-off between richness and reach of conversations and more. Published in September 2018. HOST Deepak Jayaraman, the host

GUEST Bombay Jayashri is one of the leading Carnatic musicians in the country. She is born into a family of musicians with a rich lineage in classical music. She represents the fourth generation of music practitioners in her family. Apart from her contribution to the world of Carnatic music, she has collaborated with artists around the world including Egyptian musician Hisham Abba, Senegalese musician Thione Seck and Finnish composer - Eero Hammeeniemi. Her collaboration with Sir Ang Lee (for the movie - Life of Pi) got her a nomination for The Academy Award. In the conversation she spoke about how the role of an inspiring guru, her approach to growing as a musician and training for performances. She also sheds light on some of the elements behind team work that play out in a concert when artists from different contexts come on stage. She talks about her experience with Sir Ang Lee and his orientation towards excellence when she recorded the title track for The Life of Pi. Published in September 2018. HOS

GUEST Deepa Malik is a Silver Medalist at Paralympic Games (Rio 2016), an Arjuna Awardee (2012) and a Padma Shree Awardee (2017). She has won 58 National and 18 International medals (and counting) in her sporting career that started at the age of 36. She is paraplegic and was compelled to spend the rest of her life on a wheelchair after choosing to undergo a crucial surgery in 1999. This happened around the same time when her husband was fighting the Kargil War. In our conversation, we spoke about her formative years in the Armed Forces and how that moulded her attitudes and approach to life. We also spoke about some of the key choices she made at pivotal points through her journey (including the decision to go for a surgery that would offer a high chance of survival but would confine her to the wheel chair). We also spoke about her approach towards excellence and how she has trained and gone onto win all that she has. Published in August 2018. All facts are relevant and updated at the time of publishing.

GUEST Neera Nundy is Co-Founder at Dasra - India’s leading strategic philanthropic foundation. Dasra actively shapes the process of social change by forming powerful partnerships with funders and social enterprises. Since its inception in 1999, Dasra has accelerated social change by driving collaborative action through powerful partnerships among a trust-based network of stakeholders (corporates, foundations, families, nonprofits, social businesses, government and media). Over the years, Dasra has deepened social impact in focused fields that include adolescents, urban sanitation and governance and has built social capital by leading a strategic philanthropy movement in the country. In our conversation, we spoke about how she and Deval Sanghavi (her husband) started Dasra about 19 years back after their initial careers in Banking in the US. We also discussed how she has evolved as a leader as the organization has grown, the challenges in people transitioning from a corporate career to the Social Impact worl

GUEST Vinay Sitapati is an Assistant Professor in Political Science and Legal studies at Ashoka University. He has a PhD in Politics from Princeton University, in addition to degrees from National Law School Bangalore and Harvard University. His book - Half Lion: How P.V Narasimha Rao Transformed India (Published by Penguin Randomhouse) - traces P.V. Narasimha Rao’s journey from his modest beginnings in Telangana to the post of the Prime Minister. More importantly, the book talks about the fact that despite heading a minority government, P.V. Narasimha Rao was able to drive significant reforms that have fundamentally altered the economic trajectory of the country. In our conversation, we spoke about P.V. Narasimha Rao’s unfettered curiosity across disciplines, his resilience that saw him manage the vicissitudes in his political career, his intellectual and implementation agility, his ability to reflect and introspect, judgment around playing like a Lion, Fox or a Mouse depending on the context, capacity to

GUEST Roopa Kudva is Partner at Omidyar Network and Managing Director of Omidyar Network India Advisors, where she leads overall Investment Strategy, Operations and Portfolio Development. Prior to joining Omidyar Network, Roopa spent 23 years with CRISIL, and was its Managing Director and Chief Executive Officer from 2007. She led CRISIL’s transformation from India’s premier ratings agency into a diversified global analytical company. Under her leadership the company’s market capitalisation grew four-fold and revenues tripled. In this podcast conversation, we spoke about her initial years in Assam and Meghalaya, her journey to IIMA after being rejected the first time based on a technicality. She speaks about her journey through CRISIL and how a stint in Standard in Poor (Paris) changed her mindset towards her career. She also talks about the various transitions in her career - getting to the Chief Rating Officer role, MD role and then to Omidyar Network. She shares some interesting insights around how she h

GUEST Chandramouli Venkatesan (Mouli) has a strong corporate track record of over 25 years. He is an alumnus of XLRI, Jamshedpur and spent his initial years in Sales and Marketing in Asian Paints, GE Capital and Onida. He worked with Cadbury’s from 2005 till 2016. Over that time Cadbury metamorphosed to Kraft Foods and Mondelez and his last role there was Managing Director for India. In his decade-plus time there, he has worked across areas including Strategy, Marketing, HR and General Management across India and Asia Pacific. He now works with Pidilite Industries as CEO, Special Projects with the mission to create and set up a new business for them. Mouli recently authored the book - Catalyst which was published by Penguin RandomHouse. It is a synthesis of his reflections around how leaders should think about the two questions - Where to go & How to grow - as they go through their respective journeys. In this podcast conversation, Mouli talks about the notion of TMRR for leaders to turbocharge their p

GUEST Amit Chandra heads Bain Capital in India and is a Managing Director in the Financial and Business Services Vertical and a member of the Asia Pacific Private Equity team and a part of its leadership group. Before joining Bain Capital Private Equity, he spent most of his professional career at DSP Merrill Lynch, a leading Investment Bank in India. He retired from DSP Merrill Lynch in 2007 as a Board Member & Managing Director. Amit is also a committed Philanthropist. He and his wife Archana (CEO - Jai Vakeel Foundation and Research Centre) aim to donate 90% of their wealth to social causes. He has moved to a part-time model in Bain Capital where he devotes 50% of his time to Bain Capital and the remaining 50% to Social Impact and related topics. In our conversation, Amit spoke about his formative years and his early career choices including the decision to come back to India after an MBA in the US and join Investment Banking. He spoke at length about how he was able to have a successful career in I

GUEST Baijayant Jay Panda is currently serving in his 4th term in the Parliament of India. He was elected to his second term (2014-2019) in the Lok Sabha from the Kendrapara constituency, Odisha. He graduated from the Michigan Technological University and, with a background in Engineering and Management, worked in the world of Business before joining politics. Jay Panda had helped to form the erstwhile Young Parliamentarians Forum (YPF) and was its Convener. He has also been associated with the India-USA Forum of Parliamentarians from its founding in 2001 and is currently its Chairman. He was awarded the “Bharat Asmita National Award” for best parliamentary practices by the Hon’ble Chief Justice of India in 2008. In our conversation, Jay spoke about what it takes to build a career in politics and specifically addresses the notion of resilience in a political context. He also talks about how politicians need to think about staying relevant over time in a digital world. He goes on to share his perspectives on

GUEST Devdutt Pattanaik writes on relevance of mythology in modern times, especially in areas of management, governance and leadership. Trained in medicine, he worked for 15 years in the healthcare and pharma industries before he focussed on his passion full time. He is author of 30 books and 600 columns, with bestsellers such as My Gita, Jaya, Sita, Business Sutra and the 7 Secret Series. He was a speaker at TEDIndia 2009 and spoke on Myths that Mystify, East versus West. His TV shows include Business Sutra on CNBC-TV18 and Devlok on Epic TV. He consults organisations on culture, diversity and leadership and also consults various television channels and filmmakers on storytelling. In our conversation, Devdutt spoke about how he transitioned from the world of Medicine and Healthcare to the world of mythology. He recounts the teaching methodology of some of his professors in medicine which, he mentions, laid the foundation for him to be curious about the world around him. We spoke about his take on flourishi

GUEST Suresh Narayanan is the Chairman and MD of Nestle India Limited (which recently crossed INR 10,000 Crores for the first time after about a century of operating in India). Suresh is often dubbed as a turnaround leader given what he has accomplished in various markets - Handling the operations in Singapore during the 2008 financial crisis, Leadership in Egypt, Libya and Sudan during the Arab Spring around 2011, turning around Maggi in 2015 when the company had taken a significant hit on the P&L and the Balance Sheet. In our conversation, Suresh spoke about how his childhood years, especially the years at Rishi Valley School have given him the foundation and the attitudes that have helped him through the journey. He spoke about how he made some of his early career choices including the decision to join Hindustan Unilever Limited, while he was actually preparing himself for the IAS. He also discussed how he has transitioned effectively from one context to another and his perspectives on what it takes

GUEST KV Sridhar (Pops) is one of the most respected creative leaders in the Indian Advertising World and has been the driving force behind several international awards including 22 Cannes Lions. He currently runs Hypercollective - a cross-disciplinary platform for leading independent companies in strategy, communication, content, design, technology and data to collaborate and solve real world problems for brands, institutions and governments. In our conversation, Pops spoke about his humble beginnings and how dyslexia (which was a diagnosis that happened later in his life) had an implication of the choices he made. He candidly shares about a passage of play when he was beginning to be noticed in the ad world and was getting several job offers but he went against the flow and took a 6 month break in Goa to discover his voice and develop greater conviction in his career direction. He talks about how he has reinvented himself in the context of the changing role of Advertising and Technology in the lives of co

GUEST Meher Pudumjee is the Chairperson of Thermax Limited, one of India’s leading energy and environmental engineering companies. She is also an active Philanthropist with a passion for making a difference in Education. She is the Chairperson of Akanksha Foundation and is a Trustee of Teach to Lead, Mumbai. She is also on the Board of Imperial College India Foundation, Shakti Sustainable Solutions and Pune City Connect. Meher has a keen interest in music, especially western classical and is a member of a Pune based choir. Meher represented India at the Asian Business Women’s Conference in Osaka in 2006. The World Economic Forum in 2008 selected her as a Young Global Leader for her professional accomplishment, commitment to society and potential to contribute to shaping the future of the world. She was selected CEO of the Year, 2009 by Business Standard. In our conversation, Meher spoke about influences from her childhood that have shaped her attitudes specifically towards philanthropy, how she dealt with