He Came, We Saw, and We were Conquered... !!

Well I am talking about CEO of Capgemini's Financial Services SBU, Mr. Raymond Spencer, who had come to visit us at Great Lakes today as Guest Lecturer.

During the course of one hour with us, he shared his experiences on many things including "How to successfully manage a Business", "Keys to becoming a good leader" & "Successfully managing one's Career". By the way, Mr. Spencer, also happens to be on BAC (Business Advisory Council) of our Institute.

On Successfully managing a Business
While telling us about how to successfully manage a business, he laid special emphasis on 3 dimensions of Business Management namely - Customer, Organization, Employees. Apart from setting the Organization's processes right & following world class standards and keeping the morale of Employees high by taking care of their professional growth, it is very essential to understand the aspirations of your Customers. You have to know your Customer's business and the needs of your "Customer's Customer" to successfully come up with effective solutions for your own Customers. Most of the senior managers, said Mr. Spencer, manage the parts and not the whole of business. This has to be addressed by focusing on all 3 aspects of business to be a successful enterprise.

On Becoming a Good Leader
There are 3 dimensions of effective Leadership : Knowing, Doing & Being. While 'Knowing' is related to the intellectual rigor of a leader and 'Doing' is the art of skillful execution with discipline, 'Being' is something which has to be understood in context. This is the inner arena of a leader which forms the fundamental core and here lies his inner strength. This aspect is the very basis upon which the other two dimensions i.e. 'Knowing' & 'Doing' are built. As per him, this foundation can be made strong by regular meditation, introspection or by taking a 'Daily Sabbatical'.

On Managing One's Career Effectively
First and foremost, one has to have a powerful vision of what one wants to be in future. This vision should be nothing short of a clearly projected picture/painting or a snapshot of what one aspires to become. Secondly, one has to introspect and come up with a set of values which will form the basis of one's day-to-day decisions and behavior. The third element of managing one's career is to set specific career goals which will show the course of direction to one's life. After setting goals, one has to inculcate a habit of doing daily action towards achieving these goals. And finally, one should have what he called "Personal Board of Advisors" in life as one cannot know everything and hence cannot succeed in isolation. Therefore one should actively seek advice and rely on other's help to be successful in life.

All in all, it was a great experience for all of us listening to the success mantras from somebody who's been there and done that and that too splendidly !! By the end of the session, (to say the least) we were all sitting there in Lake Superior, totally spellbound by his charm, amused by his wit and overwhelmed by his profound insights.

Are you a CEO ??

A very interesting definition of CEO given by one of our profs :-

"You are a CEO if you're there in Golf course by 11:00 o'clock in the morning everyday and your company is able to run without you" !!
(Of course, you're there to play Golf with other CEO golfers while charting out plans for your company's new Strategy)

Now thatz something called practical knowledge :o)

Can CREATIVITY be taught ???

Boy, you must be kidding !! Nothing can be farther from the truth and this subject statement is completely B**S**.

Well this bold statement was made by Mr. K R Ravi who'd come to deliver us a guest lecture on "Lateral Thinking & Creativity". One has to keep one's eyes and ears open when the speaker is none other than a well known management guru who also happens to be South Asia's First Dr. EDWARD DE BONO certified public trainer in Lateral Thinking.

But then, I must admit, he definitely had some point.

Contrary to popular perception, Creativity is not only something which Mr. M F Hussein or Mr. Javed Akhtar are bestowed with. Even generation of new ideas during brainstorming session in a Boardroom can also be termed as Creativity. Looking at the same problem with altogether a different mindset is another example of being creative. And this Creativity, Mr. Ravi emphasized, can be very well taught and learnt. So Creativity is nothing more than a skill with a specific set of techniques which can be learnt by anybody.

Some other management gyaan from this guru :
- If you have defined a given problem in only one way, you might not have defined the problem completely.
- If you have come up with only one solution to a given problem, you might not have got the complete solution.

His final words of advice to us :
Keep on challenging the existing notions, beliefs and assumptions as they are the biggest stumbling blocks in way of Lateral Thinking and Creativity.

Well said Mr Ravi.....!!