08 Jul 2020|Noida | Amity University, Noida
Campus to Corporate - Transition to Pick up
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A webinar on ‘Campus to Corporate - Transition to Pick up’ was conducted was conducted by Mr. Rajagopalan Paliyath - Ex Vice President HR - Skoda - Volkswagen, India. He shared his experience of 38 years in the various organizations and the qualities that made some of his interviewees break the ceiling. He stated that one doesn’t need to be from a premier business school as they only give the individual a foot in the door and the rest is upon an individual to perform. He talked about stretch that is going beyond the capacity and shows the can do attitude of an individual. He stated that people in this lockdown are learning and showing how they are stretching themselves. He further added that not showing a reaction also another aspect of stretch. Mr. Paliyath further added that learning new skills is integral. He asked students to introspect and realise the domain they are good to get to their career, i.e. being self-aware. He also talked about the importance of reaching out to people integral to relationship skills. He also shared about Platform Skills and their importance in the corporate world. He further shared his experience of giving elevator speech/pitch and how it helps to make a lasting impression. He advised students to keep their boiler plate or a basic description about themselves ready at any given point of time during their career to deliver the elevator speech whenever needed. Talking about the ability to ask questions and being street smart that are also part of platform skills, Mr. Paliyath asked students to pay attention to these aspects. He averred about leadership skills and how to influence the key stakeholders & make crucial conversations. He also shared his experience of looking and thinking about the bigger picture. He stressed that it is important to walk the talk. Talking about networking skills, Mr. Paliyath stressed that it is using the connections on the various platforms and becoming a valuable partner.
A lecture by Mr Nitin Jain, Partner, PricewaterhouseCoopers was delivered on ‘Sustainability and Growth Post COVID 19 for Financial Institution’. While addressing Mr Nitin Jain said that to enable sustainability and growth, BFSI needs to focus on the six pillars that are Re- engineering the business continuity process; Cost optimization; Digital transformation; Asset-life operating model; Productivity; Rest outlook; Strategy and plan. He stressed upon building resilience in processes to ensure smooth services for customers across touchpoints, branches, ATMs, call centers, digital assets and support operations. He further advised to look at the larger picture and channelizing efforts in potential growth area while withdrawal from cost inefficient and non-essential segments. Mr. Jain stated that keeping employees productivity high amidst the COVID 19 crisis will require innovative efforts beyond the usual crisis management playbook. He averred that shifting to an asset lite model with a larger focus on digital platform and remote working, thereby reducing fixed costs without any disruption to services should be looked at.
He also talked about several challenges like ensuring social distancing while servicing the customers in branches; higher demand at ATMs as customers prefer going to branches less; maintaining SLAs and controls in internal operations; managing vendor performance and accommodating increased customer queries in call centers. He said that branches have to make flexible offices hours and staff rotation and encourage use of bots and IVR, minimizing ATM downtimes and promoting digital transactions should be laid emphasis upon.
A lecture by Mr. Yaduvebdra Mathur Ex-Special Secretary NITI Aayog, Ex- Chairman & Managing Director, Export-Import Bank of India was delivered on ‘Transformation Leadership’. While addressing Mr. Mathur said that transformation leadership is very important especially in the era of change. Covid-19 has led to major changes in every sector. He stated that there is a very thin line between follower and transformation leader. Mr. Mathur stressed on the fact that accepting fear will help in overcoming that fear, so one must accept the fear and good leadership and good follow ship are inter related. A good leader has to be a good follower. He suggested to students that every stage of life initially you have to work like a beginner and asked them to form a team and work collaboratively. He also stated that when someone says something, then our mind does not pay attention and has different kind of thoughts. So it is important that to be a leader one has to be a good listener and should have respect towards the words of speaker. He also mentioned that a transformation leader has a quality not to react aggressively in a negative situation and will help his team to come out with new innovative ideas.
Sharing that Elon Musk, CEO of SpaceX is the biggest example of successful entrepreneur, he advised students to read about his success journey. He also mentioned the perfect example of successful leader is PM of India, as he sleeps only four hours a day and serves the nation in the remaining time. He added that a transformation leader is not only for giving lecture and motivational speeches but also for showing his personal leadership capacity which must be equal or more than a follower.
A lecture by Mr. Warren Harris - CEO - TATA TECHNOLOGIES was delivered on ‘Managing Teams with emotions of anxiety, fear and hope in context of Covid-19’. Addressing the virtual gathering Mr Harris said that as Covid 19 spreads to high revenue generating nations (UK, US & EU) some impact on business is expected. Sharp fall in aviation demand will potentially prolong existing backlog. Automotive sector's supply chain disruption will lead to a domino effect on global production. Industrial production stoppages and decreased demand end industries plague the sector. He called for smart organization focus primarily on setting organizational strategies and tactics; identifying internal and external customers’ needs; developing unique products and services; engaging marketing and sales to achieve results and establishing infrastructure and processes. He stressed upon building staff capacity to think and lead at all levels of the organization and on developing high functioning teams. The need for creating a reflective culture that recognizes the need for proactive change and reducing politics and infighting through norms was also discussed. Mr. Harris averred that if an organization, team is not behaviorally unified, there is no chance that the organizations will become healthy. He asked the future leaders to ensure that everyone in the organization knows the answers to questions like why the organization exists, how do we behave, what do we do, and what is important right now.