VP Rajini Reddy
Typically, education in our country means completing a postgraduate degree. It’s not often that we find people getting back to studies after that. A new trend that seems to have emerged is CEOs, business magnates and other important people involved in running of businesses getting back to studies even after spending decades building an enterprise. Cashing in on this are customised programmes for such people by Harvard University, a world-renowned education provider based in the United States.
R Kumar, Managing Director, Navin’s Housing, Chennai, VP Rajini Reddy, Managing Director, Exemplarr, Chennai, and Utsav Seth, CEO and Managing Director, India Operations, Pavers England Limited, besides the common link of being a Harvard alumni tell us their tales — why they went back to school, what they learnt, how they applied it to their businesses and more importantly, the difference such programmes brought to their lives
The Managing Director of Exemplarr, previously known as RR Infotech, felt the need to brush up on management concepts and enrolled for Harvard Business School’s Advanced Management Programme. She graduated in 2011. She is a civil engineering graduate from Sri Venkateshwara University, Andhra Pradesh (1989), and also completed an executive MBA from Indian School of Business, Hyderabad, in 2013. Going back to school, almost two decades later, is not unheard of, but ain’t common either. “I serve on the Board of Directors for MARG limited. During the board meetings, I used to draw a blank whenever financial jargon was used such as shares, stocks. Etc. Not only that, we used to get a lot of enquiries for a stake in the company or a buyout — I couldn’t decide on anything as I had zero knowledge about finance and management of a company. That’s when I decided to enrol for the programme.” Exemplarr, started in 1999, was initially into healthcare (medical billing), later litigation and is now concentrating on e-publishing with a team strength of 300+. Details at www.exemplarr.com.
Rajini was quite adamant that she would go for further studies only if it was Harvard as “I wanted to experience what it is like to study at one of the best.” She wasn’t disappointed as her time at the Ivy League institute “gave me a lot of confidence — it wasn’t just about learning or teaching, networking was a primary aspect and intent of the course. We met up with senior officials of companies in the range of Vice-Presidents and above from all over the world. I, of course, applied as Director of MARG to fulfill the eligibility. Peer learning was tremendous; my batchmates were a mix of venture capitalists, angel investors, COOs, etc.”
During her time at Harvard, sharing a common room with seven men for eight weeks, Rajini also found there weren’t many women in her class either. “Less than 10 per cent of the class were women; this is a global phenomenon everywhere. We even had talks with the administrators of the programme on how to increase participation of women.”
Another thing that fascinated Rajini was case studies. “Having a science background, I haven’t been privy to case studies. What was more fascinating was when we were discussing about Xerox, it so happened that the CEO of the company was in the same room as us.”
More than the knowledge she acquired from the course, it is the networking Rajini is thankful for. “Harvard’s alumni network is very active; we share information, reports and articles on social networking platforms such as LinkedIn and Facebook. Get-togethers happen in different parts of the world. There are Harvard Clubs in Mumbai and Chennai. There are so many professors of Indian origin, who keep a tab on how well we are doing.”
Rajini is into Corporate Sociality Responsibility as well. In 2011, she started Exemplarr Centre for Employability and Learning. “The focus is on skill development of rural youth in and around MARG Swarnabhoomi, a Special Economic Zone on the outskirts of Chennai. We conduct a two-month training in e-publishing and place them either in-house or with others in the business,” she says.
Rajini is also one of the founding members of Empowering Women in IT, popularly referred to as e-WIT. “This is a forum that focuses on increasing the share and sustainability of women in senior positions in the fields of IT and ITeS. A lot of women are reluctant to embrace high-profile positions due to family priorities or such. We create awareness about managing your finances — women mostly hand over their salaries to their families or spouse. We also concentrate on women’s rights inside the workplace and outside, and dealing with sexual harassment — we work with law firms to take up such cases, help women get back to work after a hiatus like marriage and childbirth and train women so that they can take up part-time work from home in case they are unable to attend office,” explains the 46-year-old.
As an active director of Swarnabhoomi Group of Institutions, which include a college for music and another for architecture, apart from a CBSE school, Rajini is passionate about education and she want more of it is in future. Her husband GRK Reddy is the Chairman of MARG, son Madhusudhan just completed an architecture degree while daughter Roshni is a BA economics student of Stella Maris College, Chennai.
R Kumar
Having just returned a month ago, after completing the Owners President Management Programme from Harvard, Kumar is happy that now he has friends all over the globe. He spent three weeks at the University every year for the past three years. He holds a BE in civil engineering from Government College of Engineering, Salem (1975), an ME in urban engineering from College of Engineering, Anna University (1977), has a honorary doctorate in construction science from University of Milan, Italy, conferred four years back, and is also a FRICS fellow of the Royal Institute of Chartered Surveyors, United Kingdom.
Despite having so many degrees, why the need to go back to school? “My son, Navin, who is on the board of directors of the company, completed his MBA from George Washington University, US. He was the one who egged me on to continue with my learning and also told me that such programmes were different from executive MBAs. In retrospect, I realised that though I had technical knowledge, gaining knowledge on management and networking could take me higher,” begins the 59-year-old. He is also all praise for Harvard’s professors “who are among the best in the world’, their pedagogy, their much-acclaimed case studies and more.
Though a three-week programme in a given year, Kumar had a packed schedule. “My classmates were from around the world and rich in accomplishments. We used to meet up at 7.30 in the mornings to chat about the course and proceed to our classes where we discussed and debated on real-life cases,” he says. Kumar is grateful for the course as it gave him a better understanding of various aspects of management, situations people face, a wide spectrum of news and strategies, issues his compatriots from other countries and businesses were facing and so on. “I haven’t been exposed to subjects like finance, marketing, global business strategies, negotiations, innovations, global markets, business operations, etc… it was all the more exciting.”
Elaborating more on the outcome of the course, he says, “It really broadens your thinking, you get a much bigger perspective on issues and learn how leaders are made…” Kumar also says one should not take the course lightly, as it is demanding in terms of the time and energy spent. We also prod him on how he is going to improve Navin Housing, with what he has learnt from completing the programme, and he says: “First things first, it has changed me as a person. I have learnt to deal with team members better. I shoulder more responsibilities now, as it is not just about business anymore; it is also about how can I contribute to the economic development of the country. I have in me a renewed confidence to take on stakeholders and other players involved in my company. We can’t be doing the same thing over and again. I have to groom the next generation of leaders to build this organisation into a world-class one.”
The story behind Navin Housing
As Deputy Planner with Chennai Metropolitan Development Authority for more than a decade, Kumar handled many projects and found many discrepancies with respect to approvals, enforcement and such. “Many consumers and some builders used to come to me with complaints almost on a daily basis. This got me thinking, ‘Why can’t there be transparency in this business? Why can’t there be quality constructions, following the standards of architecture? When buildings make a city in this age of expansion, they need to be sensible and livable. This is the whole idea behind Navin’s Housing, started in 1989. Long before government made rainwater harvesting compulsory, we had been following it. We believe in transparent deals and keeping our promises.” They have so far completed about 100 projects.
Details at www.navins.in.
What you can study
Harvard B-school’s next Owner/President Management course runs from May 10 to 29 and the first unit costs $38,000 (approx `23 lakh), this year’s
session being already filled to capacity. The course will help you improve your leadership effectiveness, build strategic consensus and in a nut shell, sharpen the skills needed to run your businesses better. Topics that will be touched upon include finance, marketing, negotiation, global markets and sales alignment to
leadership. The programme is ideal for business owners and entrepreneurs, chief executive officers, chief operating officers, presidents, and managing directors of companies with an annual sales of at least $10 million. Candidates are required to be actively involved in running the business and must hold a significant equity stake in their firms. Applications are on a rolling basis and early applications are recommended. Details at www.exed.hbs.edu/programs/opm/Pages/default.aspx.
The B-school also offers Advanced Management Programme
(www.exed.hbs.edu)
Utsav Seth
With over 18 years of work experience, Mumbai-based Utsav Seth was ready to go back to school, but not just any school. “I didn’t wish to attend anything that wasn’t extraordinary, so Harvard was my choice.” He was Kumar’s batchmate in the Owners President Management Programme. “I am on the same page as Steve Jobs — stay foolish and stay hungry. If you start thinking that you have learnt everything, you just keep plummeting. Everyone needs to take a step back and sharpen their skills, or rather that’s what I wanted,” he begins on his back-to-college plan.
According to him, his times at the B-school “were the second best, my marriage being the best thing that happened to me. Everything was a win-win, from the knowledge I acquired, and the ambience to faculty. In fact, 10 of us who underwent the programme have come together from different parts of the world and started a Harvard Global Forum. This is to stay connected and share ideas. We have even set up an investment fund,” says the CEO and Managing Director, India Operations, Pavers England Limited. He is a board member of UK-based global conglomerate Shoe Club Limited.
Utsav believes that the course being about global leadership, participants can align it to any role they play in their lives. “It doesn’t matter what business you do, you need to understand the basic framework, that is all. For instance, students graduating from IIM-Ahmedabad might be placed in Unilever, Tata Steel, Ford or Microsoft. Doesn’t matter which industry is absorbing you, the course needs to teach you to apply the learning you have acquired in any context,” he says. According to him, the biggest take away from the course was coming to terms with the fact that thinking impacts everything. “At Harvard, they made an impact on the way we thought,” he says as an after-thought. He again stresses that such courses do not necessarily align themselves to specific roles/jobs or companies. Utsav is extremely determined and passionate to make Pavers the number one footwear brand in India and this is what is going to occupy a lion’s share of his responsibilities in the next three years.
Utsav and wife Manjari dote on their three boys — the eldest Samrith (13) and twins Utkarsh and Yash (9). Outside his work, he spends a good deal of time with his family. He loves to travel and runs marathons as well. He runs about 40 km every week, 2,000 in a year.
— shilpa.vasudevan@newindianexpress.com
