When Work is Play

In this conversation Harsha Mutt is sharing his career story with Sivaguru from PM Power Consulting where Harsha talks about *Lessons from role transitions *A Bangalorean, helping his father run a printing press during school days *Studying Engineering and cost accounting, in parallel *A career choice to join Infosys, that he is very happy about *Learning basics of computer science and languages from the founders of the company, as a trainee *His first major transition in life - moving from Bangalore to the US, from a day-scholar, cycling from home to the first flight overseas *How this was like hostel days, learning about new countries, cultures and people *Handling the first major transition in its stride, by not having any fear or inhibitions *When work is play, time passes quickly *How an introspection for annual planning helped him evaluate and consider options outside his first employer *About the many ‘firsts’ in his career with Infosys *On a daring approach to get re-immersed in the Indian ways of life, on returning from the US after a long stint there *The three main differences in his work scope, when he took up a job in HCL and what he learnt from that *What he learnt in becoming an investor and entrepreneur *How learning management concepts on campus and actually adopting these in practice are different and difficult His tips for entrepreneurs on what it means to ‘live within one's means’ *His story of the transition to being a coach from doing things by oneself *The value a coach can bring in with an outside in or a ringside view *His current interests to pay it back or forward *We conclude with his advice to both entry level and mid-career IT professionals Harsha brings more than three decades of General Management experience serving as Head of strategic business units, and from multiple global assignments. He is a mechanical engineer and a management accountant. He started his career at Infosys, building commercial software solutions to leading US companies in retail, distribution, manufacturing, telecom and financial services, and went to become a business leader leading multiple accounts and teams. He completed an Executive Education Program PMD at Harvard Business School. He went on to play a leadership role at HCL Technologies heading Technology and Operations for Capital Market Services. He is an accredited Executive Coach from Coaching Foundation India and actively coaches a select few CXOs each year. He started his entrepreneurial journey with Lukup Media Pvt Ltd, playing role of CFO and Board Member, which has since been wound up. He has enabled projects, teams, and businesses to scale multi-fold and grow. https://www.linkedin.com/in/harshamutt