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Mind Over Matter
Move over McKinsey, roll over BCG, the quintessential consultant of our time is here. Like any consultant worth his jargon, he has a clutch of old-world CEOs in tow: UB's Vijay Mallya, the Yash Birla Group's Yash Birla, Modicorp's B.K. Modi, Mukand's Suketu Shah, Exide's Satya Brata Ganguly, and Tata Finance's Subodh Shah. Meet Sri Sri Ravishankar, the 45-year old jet-setting spiritual leader who's not just found favour with the corporate types, but with the smart set too; he counts Tina Ambani and Rhea Dutt (nee Pillai) among his acolytes. Ravishankar's Art of Living (that's his equivalent of Prahalad's core competence and Porter's competitive advantage) empire spans several continents, and has found millions of takers. But CEOs? It's what the man teaches chorus his followers. That's the six-day Art of Living course comprising a programme dispensing simple homilies and meditation techniques like Sudarshan Kriya, an exercise that is supposed to encourage positive thinking and ''restore natural body and mind rhythms''. Its USP, claims a practitioner, is its ability to ''instill love'' in the user, and make him achieve an ''ever-joyful'' composure. Says Yash Birla, a long-time disciple of Ravishankar: ''It helps one gain equanimity and makes one more focussed as an individual.'' Adds Modi: ''It increases your spiritual quotient and can act as a self-development tool. It can also encourage corporate productivity, if used judiciously by companies.'' Given the health of the businesses of most CEOs listed here, equanimity, positive thinking, and corporate productivity, may just be the cure.
Raj And The Art Of 3M
Math, music, and movies make an unlikely brew. But then, the 34-year-old finance head of Mumbai-based advertising agency Ambience D'Arcy, Naveen Raj, is an unusual man. A CFO who cuts an Indipop disc and plays beach football on weekends, and even models for men's magazines, the man has never had an issue with right-brain, left-brain alignment. Why, even his track record displays the same passion for diversity: Raj is a Chartered Accountant with an MBA and a degree in law to boot; and he's worked with Citibank and Sony Pictures. Now, he is juggling his duties at Ambience with time in the studio, cutting an Indipop album. And someday he wants to make a motion pic. Says Raj: ''It could be a cliché, but music and movies are my true passions.'' He could score... Flagging It Off
This is one CEO with a conscience. When Niraj
K. Gupta, Director (South Asia), Flag Telecom, a US-based submarine
cable major, was invited to speak to MBA students at a few Business
Schools, he was struck by the lack of information available on telecom
industry. And, smart marketer that he is, Gupta took it upon himself to
fill the gap by penning The Business of Telecommunication, a definitive
tome on the Indian telecom scene (published by Tata McGraw Hill). Good
manager that he is, he has followed up the book with a website,
www.telecombynirajgupta.com, that presents information about the Indian
telecom industry, making things easy to understand through the use of a
wholly Indian icon, Ramdin Chacha. And he plans to use his standing as a
member of the task force on the digital divide constituted by the World
Economic Forum, to further the cause of telecom education in the country.
Says Gupta, 48: ''While the world is grappling with broadband problems we
are still wrestling with issues related to narrowband.'' His only regret:
updating his site every day and working on the germ of an idea for his
second book means he gets no time for golf on weekends. All for a good
cause... |
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