Shradha Sharma is a storyteller who engages with India’s digital space. Other than writing, she manages the media technology platform for entrepreneurs, YourStory. In Cut The Crap and Jargon, Shradha Sharma, along with T.N.Hari explores the skills needed to establish a start up and addresses the curiosity raised by young entrepreneurs.
T.N. Hari is an IIT-IIM alumnus and has worked at an executive level with multiple start-ups and scale-ups and has been through four successful exits in different industries.
Here are a few facts about Shradha Sharma.
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Tag: ceo
Making of a CEO, An Excerpt
Sandeep Krishnan is an adjunct professor at IIM Bangalore. His book ‘Making of a CEO’ found its genesis in a popular course he taught at IIM Bangalore, where the students interviewed and analyzed twenty CEOs to learn how they charted a clear path to the top. The book explores nuances of leading in different contexts like start-ups, large corporations, family businesses, educational institutions, not-for-profits, public sector and the government.
Here’s an excerpt from the book.
The chief executive officer (CEO) epitomizes the organization. The organization’s existence and its future are defined by the role the CEO plays. The CEO is the ultimate decision maker and can often be defined as a combination of a chief operations, marketing, finance, people and communications officer apart from the other key roles. The success or failure of the organization is often directly attributed to the CEO. At one level, the CEO is also the chief decision officer.
Great CEOs leave their footprints behind. They have the ability to transform businesses and even change the way society operates. Bill Gates changed the way the world works with Microsoft. Steve Jobs changed the way the world designs gadgets with Apple. N.R. Narayana Murthy of Infosys paved the way and showed how corporations can share their wealth with employees in India. Dhirubhai Ambani, founder of Reliance, showed how an entrepreneur can start from scratch to create an empire. Larry Page and Sergey Brin, co-founders of Google, changed the way the world searches for information. It is amply clear that every CEO has a unique opportunity to leave behind an enduring legacy.
In this book, the word CEO is sometimes used synonymously with positions such as managing director and chairman if the incumbent is also, in many ways, handling the operating role of running the company. Research shows that the role of a CEO is becoming more significant and often has a more direct impact on the company’s performance. With the environment of organizations becoming more dynamic and competitive, it is the top management’s strategy led by the CEO that can steer the company towards sustained growth. A CEO also shapes the culture of the organization—either sustaining or changing it. An interesting example of this would be of the ex-chairman of IBM, Louis V. Gerstner, who is credited for its turnaround. Gerstner revived the ailing IBM by pulling the levers of its culture, changing the attitude towards teamwork, providing solution to the customers, integrating different business units, changing the measurement of results, and improving communication with external and internal stakeholders. In the end, it is a well-known fact that Gerstner got IBM to dance!
There are leaders in corporates, NGOs, government and public sectors who have made a tremendous impact. There are great examples of public servants heading government enterprises and making a lasting impact on society. In India, E. Sreedharan illustrated how a government servant can influence society by high levels of effectiveness. He is credited with the successful execution of key projects that helped the Indian public. This includes the Konkan Railway, a 741-kilometre line that connected Mumbai to Mangaluru. As per Wikipedia, ‘With a total number of over 2,000 bridges and 91 tunnels to be built through this mountainous terrain containing many rivers, it was the biggest and perhaps the most difficult railway engineering project in the Indian subcontinent at the time.’ He was then entrusted with another key project: to develop the metro lines for urban transport in the National Capital Region (NCR), called the Delhi Metro. The success of the project gave E. Sreedharan a new name: ‘Metro Man’. The ability to lead and make a difference in the society has made E. Sreedharan one of the most successful CEOs that India has seen in the recent past.
Verghese Kurien, known as the Father of the White Revolution, made a tremendous mark on the cooperative movement in the country. He is credited with establishing Amul and the National Dairy Development Board (NDDB). Kurien was able to bring dairy farmers into the fold, changing the dairy supply chain of the country. His ability to organize the cooperative movement, first in Gujarat through Amul and then later to replicate the experiment across the country through NDDB, points to a leader who could articulate a vision and execute it to make a large-scale institution.
Subir Chowdhury – A Bio
Subir Chowdhury is one of the world’s leading management thinkers and consultants, who works with Fortune 500 companies to improve their processes, operations, quality and performance. His clients have saved billions of dollars by deploying his process of improvement methodologies. His client list includes industry leaders such as Bosch, General Motors, Hyundai Motor Company, KIA Motors, and many more. He established ASI Consulting Group, LLC in 2003 and became its Chairman and CEO. In 2011, along with his wife Malini, Subir began a foundation that has been instrumental in starting educational programmes at major universities of India, U.K. and the U.S.
In the course of his career, he has written 15 books and is noted for his knowledge about strategic initiatives, quality consulting, and training. He is the bestselling author of The Power of Six Sigma and The Ice Cream Maker. In The Ice Cream Maker, Chowdhury used storytelling to make complex topics like quality management. His books have sold more than a million copies and have been translated into over twenty languages.
Subir is included in the illustrious list of 50 Most Influential Management Thinkers in the World by Thinkers 50 of London. He is also revered by the New York Times as a “leading quality expert”. He is an eminent member of the World Innovation Foundation. He has also been conferred with the Outstanding American by Choice Award by The United States Department of Homeland Security.
Subir’s 15th book, The Difference: When Good Enough Isn’t Enough, guides individuals to develop a caring mindset. In this inspiring book, he says that a caring mindset is one that includes the qualities of being straightforward, thoughtful, accountable and having resolve (or STAR). The book has already garnered advance praise from stalwarts such as Narayana N.R. Murthy, and R.C. Bhargava.
The book has also received appreciation from professors of eminent institutions such as Scripps Research Institute and Columbia Business School. About the book, professor at Columbia Business School, Rita Gunther McGrath said, “Myths about how we should live our lives abound. But they are just that, myths. And too often they lead us to lesser and poorer lives.”
In this straightforward and inspiring book, Subir Chowdhury distills a lifetime of experience, rising from impoverished beginnings in Bangladesh, to his decades of consulting work with CEOs of many of the top Fortune 500 companies, to becoming one of our leading thinkers on workplace culture and organizational values. His STAR model for making a difference at work and in our personal lives is seemingly simple but surprisingly nuanced and profound. This short but powerful book could change your life.”
Subir says that the insights given in the book can be instrumental in bringing change in any industry or person. He further adds, “All four elements of STAR are critical. I find poorest of poor may have STAR qualities and richest of the richest may not have these qualities. Financial Success does NOT define a person has a quality mindset or not. You know, how many ‘so called financially successful people’ did crooked stuff? That’s why in the final chapter I talked about my grandfather who is a simple man (elementary school teacher) and a deeply caring person had a huge impact on my life. And now, 40 years later I am teaching world’s top CEOs and business leaders about my grandfather’s teaching which is STAR. In social media generation and money hungry youths in India are losing values and a caring mindset is missing in most of their lives. They should spend more face to face time with their grandparents, parents, families and friends who deeply care for them.”
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