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Corporate lessons (View Comments)
Viren Naidu
Posted On Wednesday, September 02, 2009 at 10:36:30 AM
A teacher/mentor and a student/mentee begin their journey as strangers. But the lessons learnt out of this relationship go beyond just the level of the textbook or your business manual, for both involved. After all, learning is a two-way process, right? As we celebrate Teacher’s Day on 5th September, meet a few India Inc. mentors/mentees as they share their learnings derived out of their experience of donning both hats at some point of time in their careers
1) Sanjay Kamlani, Co-CEO, Pangea3:
My mentor…
I consider Siva Subramaniam, my reporting partner at PricewaterhouseCoopers in New York City as my mentor. I gained three important learnings from Siva as my mentor—dedication to excellence, passion as a key ingredient of success the importance of a modicum of paranoia and entrepreneurship within the context of a large organisation. Siva taught me the theory of what I call “instantaneous gratification in customer service”. This means that you satisfy your customer with an immediate response regardless of the status or progress of the substantive response or ultimate deliverable. No matter how successful Siva was, he was always paranoid that something could go wrong. As a result, he was always over-achieving to build up capital (financial, political and customer satisfaction) to draw down on in the event of a downturn. Also, Siva supported and guided me as I built a line of business within the vast organisation of PricewaterhouseCoopers. Under Siva’s leadership, I wrote my first business plan, prepared my first P&L, and reported on line of business achievements and plans. Siva gave me my first lesson in balancing a business plan in terms of the reality of what a new business can achieve and the implications for how potential investors will react. That was great learning for my two start-up experiences that followed.
My mentee…
As a mentor today, I guide about ten promising individuals out of the 300 member team at Pangea3. One of the key learnings for me while mentoring team members in India is the need and importance of bridging cultural differences in cross-border businesses. During my years at PricewaterhouseCoopers and OfficeTiger, my thinking was more along the lines of teaching customer service. But over the course of doing business between the U.S. and India over some 15 years and working in a number of mentor / mentee relationships, I have realised the need to guide mentees through various cultural differences and help them understand and appreciate these in order to successfully exceed their clients’ expectations. Interestingly, I believe the same appreciation for such cultural differences has enabled me to be an effective mentor making me resonate better with my mentees.
2) C R Vinay, co-founder & MD, Customer Centria:
My mentor…
Of all my mentors, a person who inspired me the most during the course of my career is Mr. Subba of Ogilvy & Mather. As a senior account executive at O&M, he, with his great pool of knowledge, guided me in the right direction. Working under him was of enormous value for he gave me my required freedom to be myself, to learn and to evolve. From him, I learned the importance of focusing on my directions, effective leadership qualities, efficient thinking, and valued patience. At the end of my stint with him, I evolved as a mature and competent executive.
My mentee…
Learning, according to me, is a never ending process. I believe that it has to be shared; therefore through my company, I share my values as a mentor with all my employees. The most important aspects that you require to guide them through are in terms of their direction and constant inspiration to create an efficient team. A good mentor should be able to provide perspective in a manner that is relevant and proficient to his mentee. He should be able to create inspiration and the apt attitude in his mentee that would augment his performance.
Ajit Joshi, senior VP and head – Product Lifecycle Management Solutions (PLMS) Unit, Geometric Ltd shares tips to becoming a good mentor and a mentee…
Here’s how you could be a successful mentor:
• Do not give specific directive or mandate to mentee, but essentially give a broader perspective and platform with which the mentee can find his/her own answers
• Do not confuse the mentee and neither should you allow the mentee to confuse you!
• Talk about past failures in same breath as success stories.
• Also, don’t consider it as a favour, but a duty, which would also benefit you.
Here’s how you could be a successful mentee:
• Treat your mentor’s time as a privilege and not a right!
• Go completely prepared for the meeting
• Don’t expect the mentor to give you a specific answer, but rather a broad direction which should help you find the answer
• Keep mentor updated on the progress, whether good or bad
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