How do you become a thought leader? It's easy. Follow these 5 important steps.
1. Have thoughts
2. Make sure no one else has the same thoughts.. mind control.
3. If you are a leader already, you have nothing to worry about.
4. If you are not a leader, find followers.
5. Call yourself a thought leader, in all your intros. Express yourself widely, on social media, particularly the 'professional' social media.
You are done.
You don't have to be in a plane to be among the clouds. These pics from a train journey between Indore and Pune (On October 22nd, 2024, early morning) via Khandala prove this-
As usual, the feelings are mixed. This time, it's not a new job I am leaving for, but a transition of a kind. But stepping down from a full-time role for now. Heading Prestige University as a founding VC has been an adventure, with multiple challenges. The location, Indore, is not top-of-the-mind for outsiders looking for a good education.
Faculty are always a challenge, whether you are at an IIM or any other B school (we started with a management dept.), and the fight for good faculty will continue. Infrastructure, luckily, wasn't a big challenge, as we have an award-winning building (for its architecture, by Sanjay Puri and co.) which is almost done. Only the student and faculty housing remain.
Marketing, someone has said, has to be the mainstay of any business. So we tried participating in student admission fairs at various locations, doing a lot of digital marketing and branding through participating in invited events, and sometimes as guest faculty at other institutes too. All this, along with student activities through Clubs and committees, will pay off. A great placement team also helped.
Our industry connect through guest and visiting faculty has been exemplary, thanks to many of our contacts giving us generously of their time. Past students, classmates and others have helped us tremendously.
Here's hoping for a great future for the students, faculty and staff of Prestige University.
Goodbye to an industrialist who changed India's image globally. We were known within India for various achievements in different sectors, but abroad, only for I.T. Services. Even there Tata group had TCS for many years. But it was really with the Tetley, Corus and Land Rover-Jaguar acquisitions during Ratan Tata's time that we arrived on the global stage.
He also consolidated the group by reducing the power of Russi Mody and a couple of other strong and independent-minded heads of various Tata companies. Also, appointed Chandrasekaran of TCS as a chairman following a spat with Cyrus Mistry who was earlier chosen Chairman.
He was also known for philanthropy, and some good human qualities. I never got to see him in person, unlike Mr. Premji, Mr. Ambani or Mr. Sunil Mittal (they came for our convocations at IMT Nagpur), but know enough to think he was good for our country, though he came up the hard way from being in charge of a dead company, NELCO, which made radios.
The best gifts are visits in person, of course. That I got from old friend Shweta Kushal, on my birthday eve! We had a blast, and visited Dopamine for some yummy food too.
The other great gifts, apart from wishes in hundreds, were pics of me with the wisher.. Sheetal Garg had one of ours at Prithvi Theatre, from a couple of years ago, and Meghana Khadilkar, likewise. Ananya Nandi De posted one of ours from a Delhi meeting too.
A surprise was a wish from Manuja Seth of NMIMS Bangalore. She had emceed our online convocation.
Enjoyed hearing from friends in Harihar too, on the occasion. And of course, my bookworm and ghost writer friends were at the forefront.
Two more visitors who made it special, were Ishita Modi, ex-IMT and Harish Chaudhry of IIT Delhi, a former classmate from MBA days. Ishita gifted me a Golf ball inscribed with her company name!
We also had a cake cutting at Prestige University, thanks to Divya and faculty colleagues.
Lots of relatives on Whatsapp too. Had a video call with my daughters too, which was nice.
Actually, there's no wishlist - just a few thoughts. More of a throwback.
I was born in 1960, which was a very different time. Rationing was in force, for sugar, cooking oil (Dalda) and a few other things- sometimes Rice and stuff. Radio ruled (still does in my life), TV did not exist in India.
Cricket was a gentleman's game, still played in Whites with a Red ball. We went to school, of which I remember only some kind nuns in the first few years, and a couple of classmates. Boarding school was different, and I remember the tough schedule, starting with P.T. at 6 am every day.
College is a blur, except the Hindi and Telugu films we saw in Hyderabad, and a mess-Ramaiah- we ate at on Sunday evenings coz our hostel mess took a break. Food at our mess was bad. But we survived. Chai and bun omelette at Hilton (Irani, not that one) was a luxury we enjoyed sometimes.
CAT happened, and then IIM Bangalore. That gave some direction to work life, as there was campus placement. An ad agency and a marketing research agency later, I headed for a Ph.D. to Clemson University, South Carolina.
It has been an adventure (starting with an Ad Venture where I worked) in teaching since 1989, full time. And then, admin. here and there, including PES, IMT, IFIM, and NMIMS and Prestige University now. As I prepare to say goodbye to this role soon, it's been a satisfactory run, as Nero Wolfe would say.
Don't have a specific wishlist. I have grown up, maybe?
I used to watch a French channel on TV during COVID. TV 5 Monde, which had a few good murder mysteries of films each evening. That was when except for news about COVID restrictions, TV shows were unappealing.
Later, I turned to Netflix for the same reason. Better choice of content compared to TV. I have now watched a few films, and series from around the world. Monk is my favourite, about a detective from San Francisco. A few good series from Mexico, and South America, and one or two from Spain.
I don't venture into recommending any, because tastes differ, and you may want to watch things very different from what I like.
But there is a lot of content available, so check it out. Not familiar with other OTT platforms yet.
Completing 2 years at Prestige University, so a throwback is in order..
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Starting with December 2023, on 30th I attended a wedding - and met Natasha Kothari, who runs Studio Ungap. Dhruv, her fiance, was the groo...
