Ravinder or Ravi, as he is fondly called, is a C-level Leader and Award winning Technologist with over 2 decades of global assignments in 5 continents with his base in the USA, Europe and Asia. His achievements in the professional sphere diverge into different spheres; ranging from Airlines, Aviation MROs, Aerospace organizations, Management consulting practices, award winning E-commerce ventures and brands, Robotics and AI-driven factories in the area of Forest Products, Retail, Semiconductor manufacturing, Aluminum smelting and Sports Marketing. Ravi has built trillion dollar information networks for governments and his technology frameworks have transformed domains ranging from microfinance to the largest postal services in the world.
A Harvard alumnus, Ravi is a celebrity Innovator with several patents, and is a Non-Executive Advisor to the board to several enterprises where incubation & differentiation is core necessity and challenge. He brings in technology sanity, brutal honesty and no-nonsense management thinking to facilitate rapid profitable business growth and transformation via digitization. He sits on the advisory council of many global research firms where he contributes in predicting practical future automation use cases and respective technologies.
INNOVATING EXCELLENCE
An inventor par excellence, Ravi has recently created 4 types of respiratory systems ranging from Ventilators to Oxygen Concentrators; 7 types of affordable Robots for healthcare, hospitality, aviation, automotive and citizen services; and a multipurpose Drone for security & civil services. In the year 2020, he created algorithms and products for direct democracy, future airports, business value of customer emotions, and others based on Blockchain, IoT and Artificial Intelligence. He has invented several systems ranging from cross-compilers to encoders to machines to modern software in diverse domains namely Aviation, ITeS, Manufacturing (Forest products, Semiconductor, Automobile), Mining, Public Services (Postal, Citizen, Finance), Retail, Sports & Fitness and Technology.
INCUBATING STARTUPS
Quite recently, Ravi has incubated 2 startups, 1 global institution and has helped in maturing 3 startups to profitability. He actively contributes through advisory, & cocreation services, Hackathons and innovation funding to create mass-entrepreneurship at grassroots across rural, towns and cities in India, USA, Singapore, Scotland, Mexico and Africa. As an angel investor, he has mentored and managed more than 60 start ups over the last decade.
A LEADER IN EVERY SENSE OF THE WORD
True leaders motivate and inspire others to do the right thing by charting a visionary course and, in turn, create something new out of the familiar. Ravi is one such leader who believes that leadership is the ability to map out the best route to success and is always dynamic, inspiring and designed to excite others into action. Describing himself as a leader and sharing some of the unique aspects about his leadership style, he elaborates, “I have always been associated with an organization or institution where incubation or change is the core necessity and challenge. This has enhanced my natural ability to apply art and science to solve today’s problems and build a sustainable foundation for tomorrow. Hence, my professional persona is focused on creation, influencing my social style, management philosophy and leadership virtues.”
He further adds, “Change has been constant in my professional life. My management philosophy has evolved over the years and leadership style as per the situational practicality and environmental context of time and space. But if it has to be classified into conventional buckets, I would say that my management philosophy has been in the range of autocratic to democratic, but always leading and never controlling. There are nine commonly defined leadership styles, mine oscillates and varies from transformational to servant and laissez-faire to democratic.”
Ravi takes failure in his stride and believes that “Failure is critical to Creative Leadership.” He is of the view that “Depiction of Future is essential for Meaningful Leadership” and vehemently believes that “Compassion and Courage are mandatory to bring change.” He aptly concludes, “Overall as an inventor and a rescue pilot, life has provided me with ample opportunities to see life and death both from close quarters; hence wisdom to focus on good Karma is central to my existence.”
DEDICATED TO SERVING HUMANITY
As a leader who believes in leading from the front, Ravi feels that “An ounce of practice is worth more than tons of preaching.” He rightly asserts, “Loud speech, profusion of words, and possessing skillfulness in expounding scriptures are merely for the enjoyment of the learned. They do not lead to liberation. Among the contributory factors of liberation, devotion stands supreme, and it is the search for one’s own true nature that is meant by devotion.”
In his bid to connect with his true self, Ravi has been inventing products and services to serve humanity, save lives and enhance the civilization. As a rescue pilot, he has saved lives across the globe. He has served various international agencies by flying several hundred hours as emergency response expeditions ranging from COVID to floods to earthquakes.
Owing to his ground zero experience as a frontline leader, he has some useful tips for the industry. He stresses, “COVID lockdown has exposed several flaws especially great versus good i.e. great government, great domains, great companies, etc. versus the good. Good is not good enough. Everyone needs to learn. Irrespective of the status of the lockdown, the speed of change will continue. Companies will have to use this momentum and fully embrace agile strategy and the resultant operating shift.”
In this regard, he vehemently asserts that companies must “learn fast and reflect continuously.” Alluding to the changed business scenario in the post COVID-19 world, he strongly feels that “leveraging technology is the key to smooth sailing through the troubled waters.”
