TLOI's Meeting of Minds: 4 CXOs share their challenges and conquests

New Delhi [India], December 23 (ANI/SRV): Thought Leaders of India (TLOI), an engagement-driven community of Business Leaders, MDs, and CXOs of corporate India, organised its first peer-to-peer engagement for its members under its Meeting of Minds initiative.
Titled Peer-to-Peer Power: Up, Close and Personal, this is an exclusive engagement curated for TLOI members to share their wealth of experience, provide a sneak-peek into each other's success stories and learn from each other.
The members of TLOI bring with them an abundance of knowledge, experience, and leadership skills.
Rishi Kapoor, Associate Partner and Business Head, Sapphire Connect, in his welcome address detailed the core objective of organising the engagement - "celebrate and learn". Kapoor said that this platform is for members of TLOI to get a glimpse of each other's success stories and to hear how they have dealt with both - the successes and the challenges throughout their remarkable careers.
"We have invited our distinguished members to the podium to share their journeys to leadership - their struggles, their milestones, the highs and lows of their professional as well as personal lives. Kapoor said that Meeting of Minds is a recurring engagement, wherein members of TLOI will be invited periodically to share their stories with fellow Thought Leaders.
Amit Gossain, Managing Director, KONE India, took the thought leaders back to his childhood in Mussoorie, where he grew up watching army officers and jawans all around. And impressed by them, from a very early stage of his life, he dreamt of serving in the armed forces. A sports enthusiast, he also aspired to be a football player, which he pursued until his university days.
He decided to follow in his brother's footsteps, pursued engineering, and followed it up with a Master in Management. Gossain shared his over 20 years' journey from L&T in India to ten years in Sydney, Australia with CNH to JCB and eventually to KONE, one of the largest elevator and escalator manufacturers in the world.
He said his core values with his fellow members are Equal Opportunity, Integrity & Compliance, Team Work & Collaboration and Ability to Move People. Gossain said that culture has always been of paramount importance to him in each of his assignments. "I have never transitioned for money, culture is what matters", he asserted.

Sandhya Vasudevan, Independent Director, Indraprastha Institute of Information Technology, Delhi, and former Managing Director of Deutsche Bank, surprised not just herself but also her family when she decided not to follow in her father's footsteps and pursue a career in the armed forces instead.
She said, "I felt I should explore and learn". Vasudevan's first job after completing her MBA was to sell solar-powered heaters. While doing so, she received an offer from the TVS Group inviting her to be part of their financial services division.
Recounting her initial days Vasudevan said, "I didn't have a background in business and didn't have much of an understanding of financial institutions. So for me, it was - have a notebook for every question you have, write down what the question is, find the expert, get the answers, and keep moving".
Vasudevan added how that experience helped her move ahead and learn and not be afraid if she didn't know something. She then shared her onward journey of business process transformation and the digitalisation of NBFCs where she was actively involved in setting up TVS Group's share market and stockbroking activities. Vasudevan also shared her exemplary journey with Thomson Reuters and then with Deutsche Bank as their Managing Director.
Sreekanth Nadella, Chief Executive Officer at KFin Technologies, spoke largely about the impact the COVID19 pandemic has had on MSMEs in India and around the globe. He spoke on how technology can propel organisations to overcome challenging times. Nadella gave the example of the brass industry in Moradabad which was severely hit by the restrictions imposed across the supply-chain that led to reduced export to China.
He said, "Unfortunately the realisation was that neither the credit availability was that high for MSMEs nor was the availability of technology to scale up. The opportunity was there but many could not capitalise on it". Nadella highlighted the need to be future ready. He said, "Businesses must be ready for the future. Opportunities will present themselves in one way or another". He explained how the adoption of technology today can help organisations to be game-changers. Emphasising on the importance of technology, he said "Not every country is as technologically ready or willing to adopt technology as India."

Sanjeev Rao, a multidisciplinary leader with over 27years of management experience, shared his journey from Kharagpur to Mumbai. It included retailing at the age of 16 to funding his own badminton career and graduating as a kitchen operations trainee to his decision to focus on a career in retail. Rao spoke extensively on how he has never had to work a single day in his life because that is how much he has enjoyed his journey in the retail sector.
He gave insights into his career at Music World, Planet M, Total Superstore, the Landmark group, and eventually, into the iconic brand of Being Human Clothing, where he joined as CEO a few months ago. Rao said his core values include people first, patience, managing expectations,and integrity, which is the most important. He rounded off his address by saying, "Integrity is absolutely number one because you can't be successful if your integrity is not in place and I mean integrity in all aspects".
All the addresses were followed by interactions of the speakers with fellow thought leaders.
To know more visit: Sapphire Connect
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