The Inspired Leader by Anil Sachdev | Book Launch | Hyderabad

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[00:00:00]Organizations need leaders who can do more than manage performance. They need leaders who can inspire purpose, build trust, and create lasting impact. The inspired leader promises to be a valuable contribution to this important conversation.

[00:00:17]We are particularly honored to have with us an exceptional panel of distinguished leaders whose own journeys exe exemplify the principles of inspired leadership.

[00:00:28]Please join me in welcoming Mr. S. Shiva Kumar board member and group head IT and agri business at ITC.

[00:00:40]We are also privileged to have Mr. KV B Reddi, managing director and CEO of LNT Metro.

[00:00:49]Can I can I have applause?

[00:00:53]And we are delighted to welcome Mr. Moan ready, founding chairman and board member of scient.

[00:01:01]To our esteemed guests, thank you for joining us and enriching this evening with your presence and insights. We look forward to an engaging conversation, valuable insights from our distinguished panel, an evening of learning and inspiration. Thank you all for being here. I wish you a wonderful and thoughtprovoking session. Welcome once again and let us begin.

[00:01:35]Sguru, Brahma, Vidwaram.

[00:01:37]I was only 5 years old when I met Swami Chanayan and every moment in his presence was so special.

[00:01:48]So I am very deeply grateful to my spiritual teacher.

[00:01:52]This book is written through me but the inspiration came from him. I became the instrument through whom the words were expressed in these forms.

[00:02:05]So what's the story of this book? A board member and a co-founder of soil Arun of intellect design. He was nudging me for all these years. You have created a school called school of inspired leadership.

[00:02:19]it's high time you wrote the book on inspired leadership and he kept on telling me and finally I got some time when I handed over the responsibilities of running soil to Sahil my son who came back from the US and worked with me worked his way up quite like your son has taken over the company I said now that I'm not involved in operations and I'm more like the chair of the board non-playing mentor because Somebody compared me to you know because I and couple they met two days back so we were being talked about I said I'm the non-playing mentor you know so that's what this is about so then the book happened now what's this book about first it begins by saying the only truth about leadership is that you don't lead a single other person no one leads anybody you only lead yourself.

[00:03:19]You lead your body and your perception.

[00:03:21]You lead your breath and through communication.

[00:03:25]You lead your relationships with people.

[00:03:28]You lead the way you think. You lead the way you learn.

[00:03:32]You lead through your own values. You lead through your purpose.

[00:03:38]And finally, you are led by the inner witness.

[00:03:42]You can call the inner witness by any name. You can call it divinity. You can call it consciousness. You can call it the lifegiving force. Whatever it is.

[00:03:53]The second part I begin by saying that leaders are not born. We all know that. I think so many of us were born in different contexts.

[00:04:05]But then thanks to our parents, thanks to our upbringing, thanks to our teachers, thanks to so many people, we embibed the right insights that define who we are today. So it's not that you are born into a context and therefore you become a leader. I think it's very well known to us. To each one in this room, I'm sure you understand and identify that you become special because of what you do with the context that is given to you. Then I describe the so-called seven practices and I said it begins with what's the story of your own life you tell yourself when you are alone with yourself.

[00:04:56]What's the story you tell yourself? One story could be that you know why has the world being unfair to me?

[00:05:03]Why haven't I got this? And there are some people wherever they go they spread this feeling as if you ask them and they say we ask how is your life and they say g life is going on and there are others like my dear friend Ashok Kapoor of a Krishna Marauti company who described in the book anytime you meet him you ask him how is he he says on top of the world and there's a whole story as to how that started when his surrender kapoor is brother of Sona told him to leave his business and he was virtually on the road and he felt depressed. Then a female psychologist friend told him from tomorrow onwards even though you don't believe it start saying I'm on top of the world and see what happens. So that's the chapter. Then I say you know the only thing that matters is for you to recognize who you are and what you are here for. So begin by first saying who you are. What's the uniqueness you have been gifted with? My teacher always said the uniqueness you have, the talent you have are the Lord's gifts to you. What you do with those is your gift to him. And so the second chapter begins on saying how do you discover your own gifts which we call in our tradition swabh.

[00:06:27]And the guidance comes that each time you do your personal best, you are at your happiest best which is the power of appreciative inquiry. You will discover your gifts. Then it moves on to say let's begin with the mother capacity of all human beings. How do you build the capacity to learn?

[00:06:49]And I describe that in three parts.

[00:06:52]one to say when you're learning from the past you're calling it introspection.

[00:06:58]When you are learning from the present you're calling it contemplation and therefore reflection and when you are learning from the unborn is through curiosity of the child which is the foresight because you are so open to receiving with that childlike curiosity.

[00:07:19]Then I move on to how do you build the capacity to relate to people and I talk about say in human communication and relationship the first thing it begins is to say how do you listen with complete presence because in this world of today with so much of distraction the biggest gift you can give to anybody is your full attention. So if you listen with your full attention, that's the beginning. And then as Swami Chananda told us, you learn to step out of your own shoes before you step into somebody else's shoes. Khal Rogers said to us, step into other shoes. That's empathy. But Gurudev said that's not enough. You have to learn to first get out of your own shoes.

[00:08:14]So we build that beautiful aspect of building trusting relationships and then we say how do you build trust with people through being authentic what my I learned from my dearest mentor Mr. Vikram Lalisher when I was a young man I joined the company and I he used to spend hours with me when I was a young person very young and he would only say one thing to me he said he learned from his life early that means you should just say the way it is there is too much of stress if you try to say something which it is Not because then you have to keep remembering what you said last time. So you know that's what he said. He said the power of being authentic is that you don't have to put on any act depending upon whom you are with just be yourself.

[00:09:14]So then we moved to the power of thinking and we said you know thinking analytically which we all are taught and all the schools business schools teach on analytical that's the starting point.

[00:09:24]We must have that. But we must allow the intuitive, the feminine inside us to express itself. And how to overcome one's fears? Because everybody is potentially creative. As children, we are all creative. But by the time we are teenagers, only some of us are still creative because too many fears have been put into our minds. So the good news is at any stage of your life you can become creative by overcoming your fears and developing that love. And finally I said let's move into okay this is all wonderful. This sounds very good but you know between knowing all this and doing it there are lots of gaps as we know between knowing and doing. So how do you actually carry out your salpa or your intention into actual work? So the work that you have come here to do, find that inner energy to keep focused on what your work is about, find that capacity for action. Not just through planning and managing your time through different methods, but truly getting that stamina, especially when you have many setbacks in life. How do you find the inner stamina and energy to stay the course? So we talk about that. Then we move to the sixth chapter which says you know all that we have described in these capacities and gifts and the stories has maximum impact when you answer the second question.

[00:10:56]What are you here for? Who you are is through discovery of gifts. But what are you here truly to do? So what is that purpose that will inspire you to become a far better version of myself and I described that incident with Mr. Muturaman when we were helping the Tata steel board and to choose the next MD I was traveling with him in his aircraft and he called from his satellite phone Jamshhatpur and said to his assistant will you read out to me that Sanskrit shloka from Patangjali and then he wrote it on the Tata airline boarding pass and gave it to me. When you are inspired by higher purpose strange things begin to happen to you. You discover talent in yourself which you didn't even know that it existed and you become a leader far greater than what you ever thought you were capable of. He had given that to every colleague of his. So such a beautiful statement and that's what I know and I narrate the beautiful story of the Taj with whom we were also working with the board at that time when that incident happened. So there are some beautiful stories weaved into this narrative. But the power of purpose and values and the very last thing is how do you then learn to invoke the inner witness? Because with all this aspects of inspiration the fact is our mind will prevent us from actually becoming a better version because it has got into certain habits, certain thinking processes, certain difficulties that it finds it very difficult to free itself from. So I explore my teachers beautiful teachings on how do you become an inner witness? How do you invoke the Sakshi bhav which professor Keegan in Harvard Business School creates an immunity X-ray of your mind. So how do you invoke the immunity concept of the X-ray where you become the witness of your own mind and therefore that sakshi bhav helps you to know that the mind is preventing you to change and then what can you do to do that. So this is all that the book is about. It's written in a very simple way because you know I come from a very simple background. I'm the son of an army officer thanks to the love of my parents and the teachings of my guru from a small town where I was born in Kharki near Pune.

[00:13:18]Here I am presenting the story of the book to you. So thanks very much. I love the fact all of you are here. My colleagues right from the Aisha days.

[00:13:25]Himmanshu is here. Arshana whom I worked with first time when she was a uni lever's kalpana of course I knew when I was in my 20s because in Hyderabad her dad Dr. Dhni Senna in ASI. I came to attend a course being run by him and she was a teenager and here I meet her mom Purima and you know her dad and as a teenager I got to know her. He didn't we probably would have all forgotten but then you know we'd met again so but thanks everyone you know thanks Chandra thank you very thanks to my alumni who are here and thanks to all of you that who are here they say whoever comes are the right people 45 people had confirmed 15 of you have shown up thank you to the 15 we'll talk we'll see about the 30 as and when they join but meanwhile thank you very much for this thank I requested chief to facilitate.

[00:14:27]>> Uh good evening everyone and uh thanks Anil for a very succinct and uh quick summary. Uh so I can assure you reading through the 200 pages that you have is like a breeze.

[00:14:43]uh like he said it's written a very simple language. Uh these are called out from uh the 53 people that he spoke to and many other experiences that he had. Now our attempt this evening is to really walk through those seven practices with the lived experiences of other leaders who are here.

[00:15:15]And uh so that we we really get insights about these practices even before you read the book.

[00:15:30]The very first one like Anil was saying, we are what we narrate about our stories and uh you know that Buddha saying that most of you will know we are what we think whether it's a negative experience, whether it's a positive experience experience and how you uh think through and narrate for yourself is really what determines.

[00:16:06]So may I start with moan and ask him to talk to us about some defining experience that he's had that really defines him as a leader. It could be any time right from his childhood something that really defines him today as a leader. What's that turning point? What's that experience?

[00:16:36]>> Thank you Shiv. Um first let me u congratulate u Anneil for his book. uh let's give a round of applause to him for uh sharing all his u experiences um so lucidly in a 200page uh book uh thank you Anil for that so back to your question u shiv um what's the defining moment uh which makes me feel leader um the fact that um I set up an organization which uh when I woke up this morning was 18,000 people strong but later in the day it turned out to be 22,000 people strong. We acquired um an American company during the day and the fact that 22,000 people believe in us in our leadership itself is a distinct um data point to say yes there's something that they believe in uh me in making sure that they follow And there could be number of stories and um I wrote a book myself uh all about u my professional journey for last um 30 years or so. That's the story of my company on ride. It so happened that Penguin published it and it also was the bestselling book for 2024. We sold more than 100,000 copies um of the book. So that's reflects on uh certainly what leadership we provided to people.

[00:18:17]But my story is fairly simple, fairly easy. It's uh what u Anneil talks about u leadership could make ordinary people extraordinary people.

[00:18:31]And that's why I relate my story several times in several places trying to impress upon people that you know I'm more ordinary than them and if they could extract an extraordinary person out of me every one of them can also become an extraordinary person. I keep challenging to a group of even students in a large group of even thousands of people saying that let's take an IQ test and I'll assure them that the guy who gets the least of the IQ will be me but the fact that I could still manage to get where I am at this point of time reflects there is something else you can do beyond just IQ itself and these were the traits that we learned over a period of time not just learned I think where I think I would say the people I like, people tell me that they like about me is all about my ability to execute them flawlessly.

[00:19:30]My leadership is all about what I preach, I practice to the last dot, nothing short of that.

[00:19:40]Values first is what you see when you enter my company. Values first.

[00:19:48]To me, values start from your beliefs.

[00:19:53]A sum total of your beliefs determine your behavior.

[00:19:58]And then the behavior of some total of a group of people uh sharing your beliefs, shared beliefs is the culture of an organization.

[00:20:09]And where does that culture come? What's your belief in life is all about your values being f i r s t first fairness respect integrity transparency or trust and sincerity or the other way sincerity and trust.

[00:20:29]So it's not just saying that you know you have these values with you but in ensuring that you practice them makes you distinctively different and you practice them with different stakeholders different stakeholders who have conflicts within themselves.

[00:20:47]Look at your customer. Who are your stakeholders? You can call them out.

[00:20:50]Four of them distinctly customers, employees, investors and not many other people call it out is I call very loudly that I'm also responsible to the society. The society is an extremely important constituent in spite of the fact that I am a private company. But what made all of us successful today is the public, the society which made us successful. So it's time for us to pay us back. So if you look at these four stakeholders, you'll also find they're conflict with each other. Investor requires all the time returns. Customer requires the best of uh product at the lowest of prices.

[00:21:33]And without anyation, without any hesitation, employee looks for better and better salaries year after year.

[00:21:41]So who is a silent spectator? as a society doesn't demand all right till of course in the recent passes legislation about this 2% we'll not get to that right now. So therefore you've got to have the ability to be equitable to all these four stakeholders who are at conflict with each other. That's to me is leadership.

[00:22:01]That your ability to be satisfying all these stakeholders creating value for each one of them not necessarily to the expectation that they have but being equitable to all of them. Get the best price to the value to the customer. Get the best return uh to your shareholder.

[00:22:21]and so also to your employee. So it's an ability to balance between all the four stakeholders make your leadership distinctively different from others. And of course thereafter there are several more things that have to happen. I'll add them thereafter ship. Thank you.

[00:22:39]>> Wonderful. So we'll come back to you of these things but let me turn to KVB uh for his story as to what is that defining moment turning point that really defined you as your as a as a leader. Well, first of all, congratulations to Anil G for this great book and uh in fact about a week 10 days back when you invited me for this I was really surprised that you have considered me as a leader uh I'm not really sure uh but when I gone through the contents of these uh seven themes and each one of is relating to my life my experiences in fact we shared this in Goa we had two-day workshop shop uh in Goa along with my entire team of uh senior management team about 24 people and uh that day one day night we uh had a long discussions for more than 2 hours and now I'm relating all the questions that day you asked me I think uh things are falling in line with what exactly you have written in this book well I think uh like you rightly said um leaders are not born basically and they the there's a misconception that the Leaders think that I I have to lead the people. If you are leading yourself, then you are automatically a leader. By setting yourself an example, by introspecting yourself, your own experiences will teach you many things. Whether it is positive or negative, there's lot of things to carry forward with the positive things. Similarly, and the negative experiences, what not to do will also teach you. So fundamentally this is how it makes you a leader for yourself and that makes you all others also to follow you the like Mr. Ed has spoken already that uh the way you have to walk the talk. So that automatically comes once you are honest to yourself and the all the inherent qualities you discover yourself and uh like many people say leaders are born. I'm not a born leader sir. I born in a very small hamlet of small village with 500 people uh in Krishna district and my father was a government servant. Then uh I studied in a state public school then grew up went to all all through Telugu medium till intermediate. So then one day I thought in my school uh except me there were 26 people in the 10th standard 25 people have failed. I was the only person who passed. So there was a gift given to me by the principal about 60 rupees in those days 1977 that really motivated me sir. Yes I can also study.

[00:25:32]Yes. Otherwise I was also like like a completely mediocre uh boy and uh then I started studying. So basically thanks to God I think uh the intelligence was there. I kept on studying and in inter um I could not get selected in any of the engineering college in that time about seven engineering colleges were there in 1977 then uh luckily I got it in RC NIT Bopal that time uh mechanical branch of my choice God was uh great to me I went there studied that was the first time I went out of my hometown to a state which is outside I don't know ABCD of Hindi so some of the raggings were very bad. I think I must tell you sir the ragging that has happened the 3 months uh that teaches you a lot that uh takes you so much of strain but at the same time I can't go back there there's no option for me I must fight and survive fight and survive then after somehow you come out that 3 months of time then uh the seniors accept you and they start guiding you and they take you to to the next level that resilience of sustaining that uh difficult times uh will teach you a lot of things. So that's the first fundamental uh thing what I learned. Then after joining the college gradually went on I was not a good at studies all throughout I used to play around in the football and basketball court and I failed in almost all the subjects but when I came to the final year uh our graduation was awarded on the final year basis only. Um my father was uh retired forcefully because from 58 years 55 years was enforced by ENT at that time. Suddenly all the plans I was the eldest son I have two younger sons who are studying. So entire responsibility has come on to me. So my father said now you do whatever you want to do. Then I just locked and closed the doors and uh there's nothing other than studying focus study and then uh I'm happy to say that I stood 10th rank in the Bopal University that time with so many supplementaries clearing in single year. So if you have that killing instinct, I think you can achieve the things. But coming back to the leadership qualities, I I never thought that I should uh become a leader and I have to lead the people. But if you work with the people, understand their problem, have empathy to them and uh support them, create a trust between your junior, senior peers, everybody, then automatically you are accepted person in the system. Once you are accepted, yes, is a trustworthy guy. I think juniors will follow you and they accept you as leader. So you can't enforce yourself as a leader on any team. But if they accept you as leader, you are automatically a leader. That's fundamental thing what I learned and many other uh traits also what you explained sir I think one by one when we go through that I have not read the book but uh I'll be very happy to go through that I have never read any book in my life so far I think and I will certainly I am assuring this I will date other than class books shape your story.

[00:28:54]>> Okay, let me pick up just two dots uh and how they got connected to narrate my story.

[00:29:03]The first one was when I was in a undergraduate as part of uh what we have national service scheme went into a village to do so economic survey of that village. as I walked from home to home and were talking to people this was in the uh Ryal Simma part of Andhra Pradesh Karn district and uh that's when I felt I walked into poverty in its face uh yeah there were drivers servants many people in the industrial township where I was living but they were all always felt like family and never saw them as poor people but this is the first time when I walked in And that triggered a thought in me saying that no I must do something about poverty and that thought remained. That's the first dot. And couple of years later as I was looking at going for my postgraduation and looking at various options uh the institute of rural management came up that was the first year when it was set up and that also came up because students who got into IM could not get into IMA as it was called. I said what what is this all about? And that's when I read about Dr. Kuran and he talked about enterprise as a solution to poverty.

[00:30:24]It's not about uh doss and grants and government schemes but it is really the enterprise that can solve the poverty and that really gave me a life purpose to say that can I make markets work for the poor because as I was doing through that social economic survey I had no answer.

[00:30:48]It was like that people where the system has put them in uh a sort of a uh constraint that system is not designed by them and they can't get out of it easily and that was like a that vicious cycle was like a paralyzing thought I mean how do I really do it but when I saw this enterprise as a solution to poverty then I say if I can make the markets work for the poor then uh that becomes my life purpose.

[00:31:22]Can I do something about it? That's when I went and uh joined Institute of Rural Management to study and then moved on uh with that. I think these two connecting dots I would say as the trigger for my uh story and the rest of the life and I continue to live that.

[00:31:40]Let me turn to the second practice uh is uh the discovery of the gifts.

[00:31:47]uh you know you're all successful leaders and some of that came through in the story that you already narrated.

[00:31:57]What is that unique strength or a gift that really enabled you to create a disproportionate impact?

[00:32:09]And when did you really discover that gift of strength?

[00:32:14]How long did it really take to that discover that kind of a gift before you went on to create the disproportionate impact on I think it's not um you discover it u all of a sudden it comes to you over a period of time and I think um which I I'm sure all of you here in this room have it all depends upon how well you practice it is all about uh curious mind intellectual curiosity is what it is constantly I have this problem at times I get to a level that I keep telling myself you're getting too curious about things I like to know everything how it works why doesn't it work why the other day I was uh at Maria uh and there was a cricking sound from the shower uh cubicle and then there is a steel strip that falls apart.

[00:33:15]I spent 10 minutes thereafter to find out why, where it fell from, what could be possible reason. The door went in the wrong direction and that's where it was.

[00:33:26]And I had to make sure I the curious mind doesn't stop there. I went all the way to the reception, explained to them, and got it fixed before I left the hotel. So therefore, it's that curious mind, a curiosity to say, ask this question. Why why five times is the one which leads you into your leadership position.

[00:33:49]Um it could be as mundane as I'll give you one more story is um we now have about 37 schools government schools adopted by our um foundation.

[00:34:04]We touch the hearts of 20,000 children every year. It's been going on for several years now. When we started this about 16 years back or so, the first time I started walking into the school and walking across the classrooms, something which really hit my eyes and that was as the classes becoming higher and higher, the girl child population was becoming lower and lower.

[00:34:34]And we went back to ask this question why why why five times and the answer was just extremely mundane.

[00:34:43]It would shock people.

[00:34:48]More seriously taps in the toilet are stolen. Tap toilets were built.

[00:34:54]Pardon me. I think this is not being recorded. I can say many politicians are very keen to create infrastructure because infrastructure means spending a lot of money thereafter I'll leave it for your imagination so therefore toilets are built taps are stolen so then the question that came back to us is why are taps stolen in the schools why not in our homes then they said yeah there's a watchman by title in the pool.

[00:35:27]But what does the watchman do after 5:30? He's also gone home. Gone home is basically they also built quarters to the watchmen in every school, every government school that I have right now.

[00:35:41]So taps are stolen. There's no water in the washroom and therefore the toilets are unusable and my little girl child doesn't have any other choice but to stop going to school at this point of time because she has to use the washroom unless our home is close by.

[00:35:59]So we went back and said okay let's go ahead and then fix the toilets um build a compound wall and even today after 16 years the security for these schools are run by our private security system.

[00:36:18]What's the end result? On an average in these schools they used to be about 16% to 17% used to be the girl child population.

[00:36:29]What's the end result now is we now have 56% of the girl child in our school. So therefore it's that curious mind to say why is this happening this way is the one which makes the same question that comes back we ask this question our quality was bad at one point of time what we were exporting to our customers customers were screaming this is uh I'll I'll simplify it and tell you digitization of maps for instance that was one of the service lines I had 30 years back that's basically what is there on a paper map you digitize it.

[00:37:08]This is all the forerunner of today's in-car navigation. All that we use as Google maps actually they were all created by us for a customer of ours who licensed it to Google thereafter. And then they used to have mistakes and mistakes. We went back to understand what is the root cause for it. Root cause was the quality of the map dependent on the skill of the technician.

[00:37:33]So can we have the same level of skills for every technicians on the floor?

[00:37:38]These are not tens 20s. We already scaled to hundreds. We had 600 of them on the floor when customers were saying no we are having difficulty with the quality of you have. We went back to the root cause.

[00:37:53]What's the root cause is this skill has can and kill skill cannot be there the same. So we said we need to do a process change. We went back to understand what we all learned as industrial engineers at one point of time. There every task can be broken into subtask and subtask can have specialization.

[00:38:14]It might sound very hilarious to you if you look at a map. Map has lines, has text, has green bodies. So we made sure that each technician has a skill for himself or herself which specializes in only drawing lines.

[00:38:31]these are or making sure that their godmade uh uh god-made u creations are then captured on the map.

[00:38:45]So as a result of that what we defined is that there's a process that goes on and then we also learned very early in our life there's something called a maker and a checker.

[00:38:55]I belong to the stone ages of computers but I don't know many how many of you worked on card based systems how many of you worked on an autocoder as a language I belong to uh that age so in uh card-based systems there's something called punching system verifying system one guy punched a card the next guy verified it we did the same thing with our maps one guy draws them the second guy verified advis them and as a result of that over a period of 3 months it was 90 days after we implemented this practice the curious mind led me into that the customer started asking us saying that you get a better quality than we do how does this happen and this was the practice we laid out so therefore if you look at one quality that I see in myself which is I'm sure with every one of you is that curious mind but the key to it would lie in making sure You practice that and you execute it. A curious mind gives you a result. Just oh I know the answer. No. How do I make use of the answer? That's what I think makes you distinctly different from others.

[00:40:07]>> Wonderful. I think curiosity brought alive with with multiple examples. Uh K let me turn to you as how did you discover your gift a unique strength and what is that and when did you discover that? Well, I think uh it's a very I think very difficult to answer that question but uh everybody has got an inherent qualities you see uh the appropriate time has to come to discover that and uh I used to for even small things also I used to feel very worried when I small things it is not there why it is here all those kind of the things but uh certain big things that will happen in your life they will change your complete perception and they will make you rise above all your weaknesses.

[00:40:59]So one of the things uh that has happened in very beginning of my career uh in a public sector undertaking was um I was a trainee also that time uh there were some uh contracts were floated. I was just a traininee engineer. I used to associate a committee and uh fortunately unfortunately that has uh gone for a vigilance case. I think public people would be knowing that. So I was a just a traininee. My training was also not confirmed. I was coordinating and all the committee members were charited and uh as a traininee I was enthusiastic. I also signed Maran to I also got a chashet notice. Then it went on went on went on years were together. All my colleagues were promoted first promotion second promotion I stayed where it was.

[00:41:50]It was such a depressing uh situation for me almost six years. So I think thoughts were going way high even going up to suicidal thoughts also but uh somehow uh it was uh uh my wife was consoling me all throughout nothing will happen don't worry if this job is not there let's go back home we have the lands we'll do the cultivation and live so life it's not that tough we will have a good life but that feeling used to hurt me a lot for years together that daily two three times she used to repeat that to me then I said let it go what whatever will happen happen then I was focusing on my job only then uh the good day has come and uh the case has been uh uh taken out and uh I was given double promotion in single day in a public sector that was regarded that time so that boosted me that yes I think you should have a resilience and you should fight anything that comes you keep on fighting but honestly you do that and uh keep moving on the life this is there's no end I think there are multiple opportunities available uh world is so wide and you can make yourself you are honest and if you are hardworking you can make good of yourself that was one uh discovery what because otherwise I was I used to be always a worried man so that taught to me be happy I think that the things will come good things will come bad things will come sail through that that's one of the example which I immediately recollect so I can tell you that you know continuing with the earlier story when when uh I moved on to do the uh agri business and was working with the farmers I was feeling pretty constrained that you know I was not an agronomy I didn't study agriculture when I decided that I want to get in.

[00:43:54]>> I was not an engineer either.

[00:43:56]>> So I said I'm not agronomy or tech nor I'm an economist.

[00:44:01]Uh nor I'm a trained extension worker. I mean how do I really make this difference? Yeah it's it's all good to say enterprise solution to poverty. I studied management all of that. But I think along the line I discovered that you know between the each of these aspects the connection is what was really missing.

[00:44:22]It is the ability to think in the full system is what I really discovered and said that it's it's not fixing what is not working but you redo the whole system because there are always certain unintended consequences because if farmers are poor and you give power free of cost, you pull out a lot more water from the ground And that became unintended consequence or you always had uh you know related uh further downstream uh problems uh that exist when you uh do things like this. So I think idea is that when you understand the creeks between doesn't matter if you are not deep expert in any of these you are able to look at that integrated view and then uh contribute that I think that really became what I thought was my strength and built on it to discover new business models and create >> wonderful you know I'm also inspired to share A little story that when I was 17 and studying in college in Pune, my elder brother was at war and because he was in the army, he had chosen to take up NDA, given up IIT admission.

[00:45:51]Both my sisters were married career guards officers in infantry. So and my dad was in the ammunition depot in the army in place called Dehuru road. So in so the whole family were there the 71 war, you know. So I said what can I do?

[00:46:06]So then I and my friends we decided to create a forum we call that Dehu youth forum. I wrote a play in Hindi and I went to film institute people and told the students will you come and act in this play. They agreed and we sold you know 5 rupees a ticket 1,000 tickets collected 5,000 rupees for the martyr's family and you know my spiritual teachers Swami Chennai and Nanda who used to always inspire us in our Chennai mission pledge there is a statement which we read we believe that the service to the country is the service of the lord of lords and devotion to the people is the devotion to the supreme So you know and every time the army had a war they would call Gurudev and Swami G would go to right to the border areas be with the troops and inspire them quite like Krishna did during the Mahabharata. So you know I was I was saying to myself as a student of the great teacher and my friend Harish is here he is also a guruhai and you know he's also a great devotey so that I discovered that you know I didn't know I had the talent that I could write in Hindi I would write a play and then it would be enacted and that the the thing that we all enjoyed the young people we had worked together was going from shop to shop in the bazar in the civilian area of our army controlment, convincing the shopkeeper to buy so many tickets, go to the neighbors, go so I just discovered that I had this I really enjoyed creating circles.

[00:47:50]So I hope my next book is going to be called circle time which is building community. So if you create circles and morning circle many of my alumni from soil are here and you know so circle time which is get people together I found this uh beautiful activity that I enjoyed with a cause to serve get people together and then when you get people together you get more power because individually you can't do anything so that's something that I think I learned from a young age so thank you >> great so in the interest of time what I'll do is that uh uh now the next few practices uh rather than going with all of us, let me pick up and ask uh on each of these practices one of them and then of course if if someone else has a compelling point to add feel free uh on that learning is something which is really important as part of uh the life itself uh leadership being part of it and and Anil talked about uh the hindsight and insight and the foresight or you know introspection and contemplation and all of that. So some of this comes easily and some of that is difficult for each of us. Let me turn to KVB and ask him which of these three the past, present and future comes easily to you and which one is more difficult and how do you work on it?

[00:49:30]>> Well, I think he's already explained in his inial speech past, present and future they're all all the three activities are very closely related sir.

[00:49:39]So whatever your past it teaches you it gives you some lessons positive negative we discussed in the earlier thing and those from that you can learn certain things which is right which is wrong and which way you have to go and practice them whatever you learned from the past practice them in the present and take the consciously honest decisions and move ahead and the results and other things will automatically fall in future. Right. So these three are very closely related and it is definitely the past that is going to and the present experiences. These two will uh uh take you to the next level. That's how I feel. But I think let me think of some examples if I come across. So in the meantime I think we can move on in that.

[00:50:27]>> If I were to add uh what uh Mr. KBB said is that u there's nothing like present to me. uh present what I just said became past in a few seconds thereafter.

[00:50:40]Therefore, there's past and uh future.

[00:50:43]So to me I spend actually a lot of time in thinking about future.

[00:50:49]Uh I am I don't need I don't I keep telling myself don't brood about what your past was. Past or lessons learned they're all positioned there. They're already there as lessons. So whereas uh the parallel that I draw is the amount of time I spend um on my future on my past is the amount of time I spend on looking at the rear view mirror when I drive my car. It's very occasional important there's learnings from it. All right. So therefore I think one thing that I keep telling people is don't think about past. It's done. Forget about it. The experiences store them.

[00:51:29]think about future. What can I do better than what I did in the past?

[00:51:35]>> Let let me uh pick up another angle of that uh just to uh build a point there is that you know I I uh started learning from the past very in an interesting manner. Now the present is there and you need to work on future and at some time I realized that the present is because of lot of actions taken by you and lot of actions taken by many others of it may be part of your own work as it happened quite often you don't know what others are doing because of which you came to the current and I started the practice of saying you reimagine the past >> that uh typically you say you reimagine the future >> but I said let me reimagine the past that how different people may have done different things as it may have happened that's not how I built it but the way I reached the current could have been through any of the other roots but now that I'm here let me reimagine how the whole thing came through and then I reconstruct the future just to illustrate this very abstract kind of a point. You know when we launched the Echopal initiative of ITC we said we are just reorganizing the supply chains of agriculture and what does it take to reorganize so that the farmer gains and the consumer gains and we profit.

[00:53:15]But as we moved forward at some stage when I started reimagining the way the uh the village level farmers worked and the government worked and the Sanchalak intermediates who worked and so on said that we came to build a platform that can be used to reverse flow of goods also and services.

[00:53:43]and then the version 2.0 happened and so on. So idea that reimagine the past became an interesting template that you may not have done the way it evolved is how I thought you can introspect on the past. I just want to share a story of again Mr. Motur Raman because he's somebody I got to know very very well.

[00:54:08]He had this very unique practice. He from a long time between Christmas and New Year, he would spend a week by himself, no television, no reading, no meeting anybody. And he would introspect about how the previous 12 months have been, his role as a father, as a son, as a sibling, as a business leader, as a member of the society, even as a golfer.

[00:54:37]What is the intention he had in the last 12 months? What did he actually achieve and what did he learn about himself and what should he be doing differently for so many years and he makes copious notes. He showed me in his diary 30 years each year one diary for seven days alone.

[00:55:01]And I was reminded of my teachers Swami Shmanandanda said you know if you don't spend with yourself then that's something you are not doing justice to your being a human being. He would always tell us those who do not enjoy their own company. If you don't enjoy your own company, why inflict it on others?

[00:55:24]So that's something he always said to us. And you know this date with yourself that this is your date and and there are many people I I realize who have this practice of being alone consciously. So thank you audience.

[00:55:42]>> Yeah, let me do a couple of other points and then we'll turn to the audience. We got a few more minutes before we do that.

[00:55:49]uh you know after the uh conscious learning uh the next practice is about thinking and deciding. Uh let me ask uh moan in terms of you know when stakes are high and situation is uncertain what do you really bring to the table to decide lots of data intuition with all your experience what's your decision template really >> uh I think what we have learned over a period of time is um collective thinking is far far superior to um what we do as individuals.

[00:56:36]Um as it could be from data, it could be from your gut uh u it could be from your uh instincts any of those but we thought a collaborative working together is far far superior and um reflecting back on the acquisition that we did um earlier today I thought you know um it's digital transformation and AI I didn't have the expertise people were talking about it so we dig deeper into it by collectively thinking about it going back to the best experts to ask the right questions. Your ability to ask the right questions is what you can be the leader but then you know you can also take the decision thereafter but collect the right information. So we thought collective collaboration is the one which will make distinctive difference in terms of taking good decisions.

[00:57:29]>> Yeah that's that's an interesting point.

[00:57:32]uh collective thinking and decision. Uh did you touch upon that also in your book Anil?

[00:57:41]>> Yeah, I do. And I want to narrate the story of uh Dr. James Doy you know in Stanford the world's most brilliant neurosurgeon. He created the center for altruism in Stanford and he is the emissary of his holiness the Dalai Lama.

[00:57:58]This man's whole research on the brain said that there are a large parts of our thinking capacity that we underutilize because of the fear in our mind which prevents us to think from the power of the whole mind. And he was narrating his own story. He said his father was an alcoholic, mother went into depression as a child and he was completely lost in life at the age of 12 when he met this woman in a magic shop. Her name was Ruth and Ruth began she said this magic shop belongs to my son. Next 3 weeks I'm coming visiting and every day I'll be at the shop. Come and spend time with me.

[00:58:43]She began to talk to him and said this voice that is speaking to you in your mind where you are continuously living in fear is making him think that he's not good enough making him think that he's not capable of doing something with his life. He said most people use a fraction of their thinking capacity because there are so many limits in their own mind they put and so many fears they put and said how can you start speaking a new language to your mind which is the power of compassion you teach yourself to let go of the past to forget all the fears and begin to have that beautiful conversation with self. So he's written Dr. James Doty his books you know any one of them one of his books was converted by a K-pop group in Korea into a best-selling song which was on the top of the charts for months altogether doc unfortunately we lost James last year but on YouTube you can find a fascinating conversation of mine with James doi which is also shared in my book so you know fear is prevents us from taking the right decisions and I think somewhere we have to invoke that to to make sure that we can do that.

[01:00:06]Yeah.

[01:00:09]>> So the next practice about building trusting relationships.

[01:00:14]Uh KB if I may ask you uh of course building trust is easier said than done but is there a practical mechanism that helped you in building trust with different stakeholders? Well, I think uh personally I give the most valuable trait of a leader is creating a trust in the team. If that is there, I think it will that the team is going to deliver the best out of it. See uh recently I think last couple of years there is a great place to work organization that they do the uh service and other things.

[01:00:49]We are about 120 people in LNT metro. uh this last year we have initiated and uh LNT at group level many of the IC it's a very vast organization they were uh doing for last 3 four years and u LNT at all different IC they were securing between 50% 60% 70% and uh one year I mean the first year when we did it LNT metro this a different organization altogether it's a SPV so we secured about uh 90% of the score first time itself and there were five critical factors uh that is being evaluated by this uh GPTW and uh the highest factor that has come is uh trust second one is fairness trust in the leadership so that's I'm very proud to say that the second year which very recently was done it is 92% again so again topping the entire score and probably we are in the top 10 in India so that's a small organization But very cohesive the fairness trust these are the two important factors on which we secured 100 out of 100 points. So creating a trust I think like uh in his speech when he mentioned I think uh uh you have to have the empathy uh this is a small uh team so therefore we could do all this practice that and listening to each of the employee whether it is HOD or next level or next type two type three type four there are many ties and I mean create that practice I create that practice to my juniors there are about 7 to 10 people reporting to and they will follow it to the next level.

[01:02:32]So uh call them, discuss them, talk the plans and take their views. They feel yes I am part of the management and create the trust. Yes, you have these five points are there. Okay, these two are not relevant because of these three.

[01:02:48]Yes, we must take it to the next level and the they feel that they are part of the team and the trust is there. Yes, my leader is taking and his leader is taking the trust chain will grow and this is the way I think you can um create the trust in the people and uh that will definitely give you the success in the making the organization a successful organization.

[01:03:10]>> Yeah, makes sense. Can I add >> a very interesting uh story on trust?

[01:03:18]>> Uh this is um 25 years back uh initial days of uh starting my company that was about 7 years before that I when I started uh signed or it was called Infotic Enterprises. There's this very large multi-billion dollar multinational called Prattton Whitney. Prattton Whitney basically makes aircraft engines. Uh they're one of the three largest companies in the world. they probably are now at about 14 billion or 15 billion revenue. Then they used to be about $10 billion. So they were on this uh shopping spree in India to find a potential partner to do work for them.

[01:03:56]Uh and I got an invite very late. I won't make the story short. There's fairly gory details of how I even got the invite. But this uh was a dinner invite at Grand Kakia locally here. uh 15 people uh from Prattton Whitney private jet coming in from uh New Delhi land in Hyderabad Beam airport those days came in so you're already getting uh late for dinner uh but still you say okay these are customers you know we need to take care of them the first thing I keep saying is I had the ability to uh spot out who was the decision maker and who was uh the coffee maker the 14 of them were coffee makers the decision maker was red crows. Uh that was an ability to uh and then uh I was a little bit in a hurry to go but then I said this gentleman looks very interesting. So I had my story to tell him on a glass of uh those days uh Indian wines there used to be one famous infamous wine called the Golkunda red ruby and lot of people used to pull my leg by saying moan drinks chemical and not uh uh wine that used as bad as that it was. But then you know I ordered a bottle of wine for Ed Crow and both of us between us uh finished the bottle and at the end of it he said uh Moan what are you doing tomorrow? I said I was going to a NASCOM event in uh Mumbai. He said I want to come and see you in your office. That was a surprise to me. So they came they said they'll spend an hour with us. We were not in the charts.

[01:05:31]Um the bayome of Satim Computers those days was in town. Uh so they said they were planning to spend half a day there.

[01:05:39]Instead of that they came to us they spent an hour and a half and at the end of the meeting he said moan when are you coming to uh Hartford and I asked him this question saying that you tell me when uh salesman in me always would say that. So he said maybe tell me when I said under the two weeks he said come by. So after about six months, sorry I gave you a long story. After six months, I had this courage of asking Ed Crew what made him decide in favor of us. And he said, "Mohan, you built trust with us." I said, "Ed, I mean, I had I had the liberty by that time define what trust to you means." He said, "Mhan, under promise overd deliver is trust to me." He said what all you told me that evening on the bottle of wine we drank next morning I came to your office everything was there there's nothing that you said you didn't do we did not have a big engineering practice we were just doing a small piece of work for Ford Motor Company on uh engine block finite element analysis I think the issue is it is a small seed with which we started that off but then what did it grow to be a thousand people engagement with a 100 million revenue annutity that comes to us. So therefore to me trust is an extremely important part of leadership. You've not only built trust with just a customer. I have employees who work for us for the last 30 plus years. We current form and I keep telling the story that TomTom in the current format is is out of five acquisitions that happened but starting from the first one which is called EAG to now TomTom we continue to be their outsourcing partner. Where did it happen is because the trust that they have in us. So I think that to me u trust is a extremely important quality in a leader.

[01:07:39]>> Yeah absolutely.

[01:07:41]On the next practice let me turn to all the friends who are gathered here.

[01:07:47]You know capacity to act uh is the next practice.

[01:07:52]It's really uh like an was saying the knowing doing gap.

[01:07:58]Uh yeah, you have uh as we counted different practices, gifts and purpose and thoughts and as as I recall when I was saying it, you know, professor Sumantra Goosh, the late Sumatra Goosh uh in one of his earlier articles on human capital uh you know, so in in a business context, if all it takes is intellectual capital, a bunch of Nobel laurates would have built greatest businesses.

[01:08:28]No, but between that intellectual capital and actually building something, you need a bias for action which he classifies as emotional capital uh in in his different titles.

[01:08:44]So bias for action. So anyone can pick up this thread and say that no between knowing and doing what really enables you to act as opposed to knowing and saying yeah I know it anyone may want to pick up and talk about it and with that >> such leaders sitting in this room who wants to talk about Just add a point on that.

[01:09:22]>> Every time I have something which is larger than myself, it it enhances my propensity to uh take action. So as long as I see value of what I am doing is beyond my own need that converts. So that is one point thing for my experience.

[01:09:51]I want to have a view on this and the new view is quite simply those who think they're founders act. Those who think they're employees wait.

[01:10:05]So if you don't have an ownership mindset, you don't have a founder mindset, it's always going to remain at 500,000 ft. Bridging the gap from there to there, owning things end to end, owning the outcome and not the output.

[01:10:23]That's it. You have to think like a founder. But the problem is how do you engender that in organizations especially as the organization starts becoming large and we get into functional silos and all the beautiful things that we are so good at doing all of us as managers.

[01:10:41]Thank you.

[01:10:42]>> No I think a very valid point you made but I think that's the reason why organizations all around the world struggle to say develop that entrepreneurial mindset. You may not be the founder, you may not be the entrepreneur but you have that mindset.

[01:10:58]Uh we have a school of innovation entrepreneurship in ID Hyderabad. I built one um for ID Hyderabad from our foundations basically and that's what we teach people there. Uh because one of the thing you have to also recognize that startups only about 10% of them succeed. What happens to other 90% of them? I keep saying that's a wonderful experience that they've had in trying to build something and there's a rich experience that go along with them. So therefore if you say now come back to the question of how do we develop these people the ability to give them responsibility and hold them accountable incentivize them give them enough of room to take decisions is what I think makes the difference. I learned it the very hard way but I I my first job was with DCM group. This is 1974.

[01:11:52]Uh then it was the uh uh the dream job as the management trainee of DCM group and I was one of them. And what did Laaji did? Laacharitam is whom I used to literally report to threw me into the hot water by saying Rook run this diesel Indian assembly shop. You have industrial Indian background. And that gave me ability to say this is my shop and that's what always ingrain ingrained in my mind saying that look my salary would come but if I think that this is my place and work differently I think I can create more results back to the >> so let's put aside these outliers let's talk about everyday managers everyday leaders how do we build people who so secure that they will give you an entire outcome and so go run it. You got to be really secure to do that. How do you build such leaders? I think that is what uh is the call of the hour because if you keep and and there is so much of research to sh show that narcissistic, self-obsessed, uninspiring, toxic leaders rise to the top.

[01:13:08]I have myself in my career been told good guys will finish last.

[01:13:13]I've been told this in a large multinational. I've proved him wrong.

[01:13:17]That's another issue. But I've been told that. So how do you build people who are not toxic, who are not narcissistic and yet rise to the top?

[01:13:28]Yeah, I think >> what I write about in my book is that uh see most people don't wake up in the morning and say I want to do some harm in the organization.

[01:13:40]So the fundamental assumption is that there is goodness in every human being in spite of all these conversations about toxicity.

[01:13:50]So if you create an environment in which people really find out who they are and what they are all about.

[01:14:00]So that means you have to be you have to really believe in this completely that you cannot achieve anything in any business. No matter how powerful you are, how much money you have, you call yourself a promoter or an owner, it doesn't matter.

[01:14:14]You cannot achieve even one thing on your own.

[01:14:19]And I think almost all the so-called business people have now understood that if they don't treat their people with this kind of a feeling they will go out of business actually.

[01:14:30]So you know you and I started our careers in Aishar and I think Mr. Vikram Lal whom I call the finest leader I've ever worked with. Nobody here has met Mr. Vikram Lal. You will never hear his name. He's not in the media at all.

[01:14:47]Right from the first day I observed him.

[01:14:49]He carried his own bag. He never allowed anybody to come and receive him at the airport.

[01:14:57]He drove his own car those days and he treated us. Dr. Saty Morti my dear friend and colleague is here. He was heading R&D of uh Aishar doc is here. Sudha Morti Naran Morti's wife's hero alltime hero is Dr. Satya Morti. H so he's sitting there because she used to work with him. So that environment which Vikram created he made each one of us feel we are the owners of Aishir. I never felt like an employee of the company. Never till today I've left that company so many years back but I still feel as if I am the owner of that company. I think that love in our hearts is so I think it depends on how you and he was very secure. He didn't he was not doing it just to it's a different matter that he's amongst the top 10 richest people in the country now thanks to Siddhhat Lal's son having embedded the right lessons and thanks to everything that has happened to Aisha but this goodness he said you and I are equal I just happened to be the so-called promoter but he always treated us as if we were just equal to I had typhoid when I soon joined Aishar.

[01:16:18]I was down for 40 days. I write about it in the book. He came to me 11 times during those 40 days to my house.

[01:16:27]11 times. And he would go and quietly sit with my wife, my in-laws because I was shifted to my in-laws place and would keep on asking only this and each time he would carry some fruits. He would just leave it quietly.

[01:16:42]So other day I told him you must come to my convocation. He said Anel I will come only on two conditions. I'm not the speaker. I will sit at the back. You will not name that I am sitting in the audience. And after the convocation is over I'll mix with your colleagues and friends and have a cup of tea. Don't put me on the spot. Don't tell anything about me. Only on those conditions I'll come. There you are. Kalpa. Go ahead.

[01:17:06]>> The question is why is that an exception?

[01:17:09]Why are those leaders even today after spending all these billions of religion?

[01:17:16]Why is that still >> that's actually also so few of >> and and we I mean today we've got to a point where we celebrate narcissistic leaders and you know the the gloss and the glamour and the power that goes along with it. Um and and people like Vikram are fewer and far between. So there's something that we are doing very wrong.

[01:17:41]>> So my hope is that um the there are so many people who are not like what we are talking what I just talked about.

[01:17:50]But my prayer to me every day is that I I find such people around me that I discover my people who are the true devotees of for example gurudev swamiandanda or there are so many people we never talk about in this society who are doing good in this country. We have to learn to shine the light on them because we are obsessed about what doesn't work. Our media is obsessed about what doesn't work. But I think we should involve some of the younger there are alumni of soil sitting here. Would you like to say something about this question on how do you feel about it? Because you got some education which was trying to give you some other perspective. Is that practical what we taught you in soil?

[01:18:37]Does it really work in in the industry where you are working now? Go ahead.

[01:18:42]Reuka Madan there are so many people here. Go ahead.

[01:18:46]>> Yeah. Can the microphone speak for a few minutes about >> uh yes sir actually also at the back. So as a as a alumni uh so the uh teachings especially in the soil morning circles what we used to have in the morning like everybody uh just to gather at a place and we used to have a discussion in the morning that used to help us to open up a lot in between in between the larger forums.

[01:19:18]Even now also in the companies we follow that in our teams also to have a morning huddle. So so that every employee in the organization also to open up and speak in front of everyone that will even gives us more ideas more discussion points and the new generation especially they have lot of new ideas we as a leader especially we should motivate them motivate them to give more ideas to open up more so that we'll get uh we'll get more uh discussion and even more participation and collaboration also will happen and even the ser was saying about the trust trust also will happen when they open up and they speak in front of everyone sir. So uh that is one thing and even learning uh learning especially in soil we used to do every day sir. So learning is a never- ending process even I agree like that should have a consistency consistency builds more uh practice for every individual.

[01:20:16]So learning is very very important. We learned in soil and we are following now everywhere wherever we are continuing in the companies also. Sir thank you so much.

[01:20:25]>> Go ahead.

[01:20:28]>> Hey good evening everyone. My name is Akash. I graduated from soil in the year 2012.

[01:20:35]So happy to see you Anils again. Uh so just yeah borrowing that thought uh it's it's something that you had taught us during the uh the the classes itself not in it in its notim I'm quoting it but uh uh you mentioned something like you and I spend more time with our colleagues with our workers you know co-workers than we happen to do with our families right so the way we stay with them behave with them has a very profound impact on who we are and it'll work in the beststead for ourselves if we do not exhibit a dual personality. What do I mean by dual personality is uh would I not would I throw people under the bus in my family if I won't why would I throw people under the bus in my company right if I am in you know innately that's my personality that I'll pro protect people I'll you know do everything to make ends meet for them what why should I I be a different person at work of course uh I'm not able to recall the exact verbatim but this was the spirit of what you uh taught us during then that yeah just treat your work space as your extended family because you invariably happen to spend you know most time of your life with them than your own family. So if you carry that spirit in your heart u I think it goes a long way in the way again uh joining it back to the the u you know bias to take action. How do you take action? Uh if there is something you know falling upon my family, would I be sitting you know in a reactive mode or would I just go there productively and act act for it. So if you bring that same spirit in the workspace then this is what we are really talking about. Do not exhibit dual personalities uh whatever you are to your truest self with your close ones with your family.

[01:22:28]Uh this is the exact self you should exhibit uh when you are at the workspace. Sorry if you have if I misquoded something or not been able to verbatimly tell but this is the spirit.

[01:22:38]>> Thank you. I just want to narrate a story that I've written in the book about Radhika Krishna Kumar.

[01:22:44]Radhika is a tech person from Chennai and the day Swami Chanayanandal's body was being put to Mahas samadi in Sbari near Dharam Shala the sun was going down and Radhika was standing next to me. She turned to me and said, "Anil G, I have found the purpose of my life." I said, "What is it?" She said, "I'm going to start writing books for children and I'll write stories and I'll ask questions at the end of every story that if you were in the place of this character, what would you have done?

[01:23:23]And I'll design this curriculum for school education."

[01:23:27]Radhika penned these stories, wrote a series of books called the garden of life series. The highest selling books ever in this country. Millions of books, hundreds of school have adopted it called the Chinmaya vision program.

[01:23:44]All through storytelling.

[01:23:47]But the story doesn't stop there.

[01:23:49]Radhika had pledged all the royalties would go to the charitable activities of Chinmai mission.

[01:23:57]So the first 50 lakhs came royalty of course was given to Chinmma mission but then the 1 cr check came and meanwhile her husband's business he was bankrupt they had to sell their home they didn't have any money but then the check came of a large amount but she in the presence she told Guruji Guru G this is my sulp here it goes somebody whispered to Guruji that they need money very badly She said that money will come. This is my salp that I did there.

[01:24:33]If simple software tech techie suddenly discovered this talent in herself of becoming the most. So this is the power of goodness that something invokes it touches in your heart.

[01:24:47]You find something worthwhile to do. And Radhika of course I mean she was here yesterday at the launch function in Chennai at our Chinmaya center and she brought this brilliant young son who's you know now Anerud who came with her and who's who has come from the US and he's broken all the record records in his academics but he's come here to India back because he was telling me he wants to serve he wants to work in the social sector because Radika gave him permission to dream not just about becoming the founder with the highest amount of market cap but how could he do more good in society and there are young people like that as well and I hope many young people here have that kind of capacity in their heart so I just wanted to invoke that that to me is the inspired leader Radhika Krishna Kumar whose story I talk about in the book yeah thank you >> yeah thank you thank you and thank you very thank you so we call Rap with that.

[01:25:51]>> Uh can I invite my colleague Pragna to give the vote of thanks?

[01:25:57]>> Thank you.

[01:25:59]A very warm good evening to each and every one of you present here. On behalf of soil, I would like to extend my heartfelt gratitude to each one of you for joining us in the evening for the launch of the inspired leader by our founder and chairman Mr. Anil Sachdev.

[01:26:14]Today has been more than just a book launch. It has been an evening of reflection, learning and meaningful conversations around around leadership, purpose and journeys that shape impactful leaders. Mr. Sachdev, thank you for sharing not only your book with us but also the wisdom and experiences behind it. Your thoughts on purpose-driven leadership continue to inspire all of us. A sincere thank you to all our panelists for making today's discussion so ini insightful and engaging. And to all our esteemed guests, thank you all for your presence and continued association with soil. It truly means a lot to us. And as we conclude the formal session, we invite you all to continue your conversations with cocktails and snacks. Thank you all for once being a part of this memorable evening. Thank you.

[01:27:06]>> Thank you. Thank you.

[01:27:11]>> Great job.

[01:27:14]What do you think?

[01:27:45]How are you?

[01:27:50]I've been here one week.