The speakers who wowed students this week were:
Mr M. Ramani, Managing Director, Load Control Group of Companies. True to his entrepreneurial spirit, he leads companies such as Mani Sales Bangalore, Load Controls India Pvt. Ltd., and MODUTEC Ready Panels Pvt. Ltd. Mr. Ramani’s Group Turnover in March 2018 was INR 740 billion and he presently employs 200 people.
Mr Ramani gave an interesting talk on the ‘3C’s to build one’s career’, the three C’s being Clarity, Competence and Commitment.
Mr Ramani started his talk with the first ‘C’, ‘Clarity’. In order to gain clarity on their career paths, he urged the students to spend the meaningful time to discover their goals and also to be aware of their subconscious mind. He elucidated the concept of Johari Window, a useful psychological tool created by Joseph Luft and Harry Ingham.
Mr Ramani then moved on to the next ‘C’, ‘Competence’, which can be built only after understanding the competency gap. We usually dwell in unconscious incompetence which means often we may not be aware of which fields we are not competent in so it is important to understand one’s strengths and development areas. When we understand the competency gap, we are in an advanced stage of conscious incompetence. Through proper train we can reach conscious competence and then heighten our skills to unconscious competence. While competence building is indispensable for ourselves, for an organization, building competence for the team becomes a differentiating factor. People can become ‘masters’ in their profession through knowledge, experience and attitude.
Elaborating on the third ‘C’, ‘Commitment’, Mr. Ramani quoted former US President Abraham Lincoln who stated: “Commitment is what transforms a promise into reality”. Mr. Ramani put forth the idea of a “Commitment Continuum”, in which a person may start with ‘Resistant’ phase (not bought in) and gradually move towards a ‘Compelled’ phase (no matter what, find a way to reach your goals) where he/ she is driven by internal motivation to achieve his/her goals. Again, setting up our ‘end goals’ and steering ourselves towards the right ‘means goals’ is very important for building a satisfying career. At the end of the talk, Mr. Ramani interacted with the students and answered their questions.
Mr Prateek Madhav, General Manager, Accenture and Board Member & Former CEO of Samarthanam Trust for the differently abled persons was the guest speaker for the day. The session started with a short video clip of Paralympics with a “Yes, I Can” do attitude to do the impossible and come out in flying colors despite life’s hardships. It’s the hope, courage, confidence and passion that steers human beings to win against all odds.
Mr Shekhar Naik, the former Captain of the Indian National Blind Cricket Team shared the podium with Mr Madhav, and shared his encouraging and extraordinary life journey. Mr. Shekhar started from a very humble background as a farmer’s son in a village in Shimoga district of Karnataka and went on to receive the Padma Shri award in 2017 from the Government of India.
The session ended with a positive feeling when Mr. Madhav urged all the students to chant “Yes I Can” along with him. ‘It’s never late to become what you might have been’ was his parting message.
Dr Angshuman Ghosh, Lead Data Scientist at Target, the guest speaker for the day, started his session with the basic understanding of data science. “What is data science?” – was his first question to the students. He made the students understand the need for data science, the difference between a data scientist and a data analyst and the factors contributing to the increasing importance of data science. Data science is a growing field today as there is a critical need to analyze huge amounts of data within limited time and with less manpower. Availability of data over the Internet, improved devices/ technology for data storage and analysis helped proliferate data science in India. Another important aspect was the availability of open source software such as R and Python which ensure that a large number of people can use them at lesser cost.
Dr. Ghosh stressed the fact that it was important for data scientists to understand the logic behind the algorithms and have a clear understanding of the business. Only then can a data scientist come up with the right analysis, models and solutions. Data science is an evolving field and he was sure that many bright students would carve a career as data scientists in future.
The guest speaker for the day was Mr Prabhanjan Deshpande, Co-Founder The Higher Pitch, a performance marketing company, specializing in digital marketing, digital experience management and integrated marketing services. The session started with interesting responses from the students to Mr. Deshpande’s question “Why an MBA”. Using the analogy of a conditioner and shampoo, he emphasized that an MBA curriculum fine tunes a student’s career choice.
Mr. Deshpande’s mantra for Millennials to create their own Brand Identity was:
- Practice the strength of silence – the students need to learn to say the right words at the right times and also practice silence when needed.
- Break the limit – one should know what he/she does not know
- Play a long game
- Follow the 90:10 rule – 10% of our success is dedicated to our core work whereas 90% of success depends on our people management skills.
His parting message to the students was “Be yourself to be different”.
