The Brand Called You

It is said that time makes the best decisions for us. This happened with our guest, Anil Kumar SG, too. Our guest for today, Anil Kumar SG, is the founder and CEO of Samunnati, India's largest Agri-Tech Enterprise. He says that moving to the Social sector was an accident for him. He tells us that he started his career when he was 18 with Canara Bank. He had to discontinue his engineering to work. Later, he graduated in humanities and then did his MBA, both from distance learning mode. He still had a complex that he never went to a college so he took admission to a college. He also wanted to change his career to academics so he took GMAT and went to the Manila Asian Institute of Management to do his master's. There he got to learn about inspirational leadership and realized how microfinancing is changing the lives of people.

‘Your package is arriving soon’, isn’t this the most exciting line you read after ordering something. But have you thought about what goes behind post-checkout? After a customer has placed an order on any e-commerce site and made their payment, Shiprocket takes over. Today, we have Vishesh Khurana, Co-Founder (Growth), Shiprocket to discuss this platform in detail. Shiprocket is an advanced technology platform that lets e-commerce stores ship products to customers with ease. Shiprocket is a complete post-checkout experience. It is used by e-commerce stores worldwide to ship products to their customers with ease. It offers tools and technologies required for everything post-checkout of an order. Starting with warehousing, packaging, selection of a courier partner, shipping tracking management and end-consumer communication, and ending with return management.

Our guest for today, Sam Yilmaz, is a tech entrepreneur. He is also the Chief Operating Officer and General Partner of a company called Bloccelerate. Sam is also a writer. His writings have been published too. Sam says that if we think of emerging technologies over the course of history where we had over-the-wire technologies that were game-changers, we have electricity, which is power over the wire, then we had a telephone, which is voice over the wire, then we had internet which is data over the wire. Similarly, we have developed blockchains which are Consensus over the wire. Sam talks to us about how blockchains help us through their different applications like improving transparency. He also talks about the Vulnerabilities of blockchains.

How women have excelled in every field is no secret anymore. Our guest for today is a perfect example of the saying.  She is a founder, CEO, Chair of the Board. Our host Frits Bussemaker, calls her a true global entrepreneur. In this episode, we chat with Diana Daniels, CEO, and Founder, TinkerLink. This episode is about startups, entrepreneurship, role models, time management, motivation, and a lot more. Diana shares her insights on the telecommunication industry. Her story is truly inspiring. She is a multi-tasker. More than a role model, she wants to be an inspiration. She is always mesmerized by the female warriors in history that break the status quo and redefine it. She wants to inspire middle-aged women to realize that they are not too old to start their businesses or go after their dreams.

In India, we believe that teachers are superior to God. Teachers help children grow and thus help in building the nation. But due to some of the obsolete methods and inefficiencies in the Education System, the mental level of the students are falling collectively. To fight this situation, our guest for today Dr. Trishta Ramamurthy founded The Ekya Schools in 2010. The Ekya Schools is a chain of dynamic schools designed with the aim of bringing pedagogically sound researched-based learning experiences to India. Dr. Trishta spearheads K10 and K12 initiatives under the CMR Group. She brings cutting-edge educational advancements to Ekya Schools from her experiences of exposure to the principles of Project Zero Classroom from Harvard University, inquiry-based learning from the Regio Avila approach from Italy and design thinking from the Standard Design School.

We hear a lot and pay attention to physical fitness, essential for our body. But, equally important and often neglected is the concept of mental fitness. Including the daily exercises for mental fitness reaps multiple benefits. It improves our performance and physical being, too. Today, we have a mental fitness coach who delves into the importance of the same. Kathy Sarafian is the chief executive coach and a mental fitness expert. She has been the CEO of Drive Medical Canada and has been a member of YPO since 2005. Kathy calls herself a human capital optimizer. She believes that people are the greatest assets and that leaders sometimes find it challenging to tap their true potentials. She cites interesting anecdotes of how the behavioural change and sensitivity of language help make a long-lasting impact.

The participation of women in the workforce in India is just 20% and participation of men in the workforce is 80%. There are many reasons for this gender gap in the workforce. Women in India, generally are not encouraged to work. Even if they work, they are expected to quit their jobs post marriage or after having a baby. Neha Bagaria, our guest for today, took a four-year break from her career after she became a mother. After four years when she decided to return to work, she saw a huge gender gap in the workplace. She decided to fill it. Neha founded JobsForHer in March 2015 to enable women to get back to the workplace. Since then, JobsForHer has worked with over 2 million women, 7500 companies, more than 1000 mentors and over 500 re-skilling partners.

A personal brand, like a company's brand, is an ongoing and never-ending process. One has to consciously put in efforts in developing and maintaining one. But what does that mean? How to start? How to maintain? We have all your questions answered with a personal bran coach today. Jen Dalton is a certified personal brand coach and a founder of Brand Mirror, an organisation focussing on your current reputation and how to present it. A keynote speaker, panellist, and podcaster, Jen is an all-rounder. Jen gives an account of her desire to become a personal brand coach as she realised her true calling after ten years of her corporate career. She defines personal branding as how people feel about us when we are around them.

Do you ever sit back and observe your surroundings? We often do. We take a break from life and just look at things while admiring them. But the moment we end our break, we go back to our usual lifestyle and stop thinking about what we saw and felt. But there is a breed in this world which does not stop thinking. This breed is called 'Authors'. Our guest for today Ann D'Silva and our host both are Authors. They have both agreed that 'the authors are the people who are not afraid to put what they feel and know in front of the world even if they get brickbats against it'. Ann D'Silva is a well-known author. She is of Indian origin who, not long ago, shifted to Istanbul, Turkey. Ann has written multiple books. She is involved with Cultural Inclusion and Diversity. She also hosts a  woman empowering talk show. Her show is called, 'Ann talks Women Enough'. She is a Global Goodwill Ambassador. She has been awarded many times for the work she does.

We have heard a lot about Innovations, but less about Innovation Consultants in organizations. Our guest for today is an Innovation Consultant. Let us learn together about the roles and responsibilities of an Innovation Consultant. Our guest for this episode of our show, Deepa Prahalad, is an author and Innovation Consultant. She has co-authored a book called, 'Predictable Magic: Unleash the Power of Design Strategy to Transform Your Business. Deepa Prahalad also writes for the Harvard Business Review. She has been elected as a member of The International Academy of Management. She has also been ranked 34 on the Inaugural Thinkers 50 India List. Deepa tells us that the Innovation Consultants help organizations or individuals in bringing their ideas to life. There is a process of continuous learning and experimentation in organizations and Innovation Consultants really help to shepherd that process along.