January 22, 2011
School of Business, Bengaluru
 

Amrita students recently had the opportunity to meet with a celebrated business leader of our times. Given below is their report of the meeting.
 

As students, we all have role models who we look up to, who motivate us to do our best. But how often do we actually get the opportunity to meet them in person and interact with them?
 

For the three of us, first- and second-year students of MBA-MS at Bangalore, it was a like a dream come true when we met the legendary founder of MindTree, Mr. Subrato Bagchi.
 

The meeting was in connection to a project being spearheaded by Prof. Jay Misra of Amrita, for the development of business cases to be used in our curricula.
 

MindTree is a mid-sized IT services company based in Bangalore and the Amrita business case will document its best practices.
 

First we met with Mr. Sagar Paul, Chief Knowledge Officer, at MindTree. Mr. Paul is responsible for the effective management of ideas, new processes and managing knowledge right from creation to application.
 

Next was the meeting with Mr. Bagchi himself. We knew him as the best-selling author of three books viz. Go Kiss The World, The World is Flat and The Professional. We knew that he derived inspiration from none other than his parents – his mother who taught him qualities such as inclusion and empathy and his father who exposed him to the idea of a global environment since the tender age of five.
 

During the meeting we saw many more facets of the man.
 

Emphasizing that success we see today is only in the materialistic sense i.e., earning a big salary and maintaining a high standard of living, Mr. Bagchi noted that the real idea or definition of success comes from building a legacy for the next generation and doing extraordinary things for ordinary people.
 

“These are not my ideas,” he was quick to point out. “These come from great people who became the instruments of change for India since the very beginning of time, and I salute them in all humility.”
 

“Who is a professional?” we asked him.
 

Metaphorically answering, he said, “A professional is like a municipal pipe. The pipe’s work is to be a channel for the community and for those who need water to quench their thirst. It is not for the the pipe to quench its own thirst.”
 

“Aspiring young professionals should take into account that only living with integrity will bring them self-awareness; this is lacking in a lot of budding professionals today.”
 

Before the meeting ended, he gave us a mantra for self-awareness. “We all have to be observant of what is going on around us, we have to be aware of our body’s actions vis-a-vis our mind and its thoughts, analyzing what we do, whether it is right or wrong.”
 

“Lastly, we should be firmly grounded in our roots. This is the one-point agenda for success in creating a work-life balance.”
 

– Apoorv Singhal, Ganesh Janikraman and Sri Sobhita Settaluri