Category: Leaders

Mr. Bista’s perseverance, immense hard work and excellent leadership have led the company to achieve great heights. Under his guidance, it has established itself as an INR 5500 crore-conglomerate. His journey is greatly inspirational to people belonging to humble backgrounds who aspire to make it big based on their efforts and dedication. The son of a village schoolteacher, Mr. Bista began the journey ahead of him with a lot of passion. Being a dutiful child to his parents, he is still remembered for the thoughtfulness with which he took care of his daily chores and family life. His exceptional organizational skills were witnessed by all when he assisted his mother in carrying out the family business.

With his meticulous and unwavering devotion, he has been able to achieve unparalleled victory. The Group currently has 2.5 lakh retail outlets across India. Its success can be attributed to the whole-heartedness and adeptness of its leader.

TAKING SURYA GROUP TO A WHOLE NEW LEVEL

Mr. Bista has been with Surya Group since a very young age. Over the last many years, he has grown along with the company. He received the relevant training and work experience from one of the best mentors in the business. Owing to his versatility and acute business acumen, he was entrusted with the responsibility to run Surya Foundation’s Adarsh Gaon Yojana very early in his career. This pan-India project was the brainchild of the Chairman of Surya Foundation and Padma Shri awardee Mr. J. P. Agarwal. Impressed with his ethical approach and immaculate diligence, Mr. Agarwal handed over the project to Mr. Bista, who then traveled extensively to take cognizance of the issues hampering development in the villages.

The project required him to identify and understand the problems the villagers faced and devise plans and strategies to enhance development at the grassroot level. The project continues to be close to his heart, which is why he continues to be at its helm despite the time constraints he faces as Managing Director.

A RENOWNED NAME IN EXPORTS

Since Mr. Bista assumed his role as Managing Director, Surya Group has seen a rise in the diversification of its segments. A business that has started with the steel and lighting segment, it has diversified to PVC pipes and fans, apart from home and kitchen appliances. Currently, Surya Group is among the top exporters of world-class products across 50 countries, generating an export value of Rs. 1000 crore.

A GEM OF A PERSON

His sincerity and unmatched capabilities have earned Mr. Bista a lot of recognition in the form of awards. He has been awarded the title of ‘Most Promising Business Leader of Asia’ by the Economic Times at the Asian Business Conclave, Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, 2017. He is also the youngest President of ELCOMA — Electrical Lamp and Component Manufacturers Association.

A leader who prioritizes his social commitments, Mr. Bista is unwavering in his dedication to society. This multifaceted personality is also a distinguished representative of the esteemed Darjeeling Lok Sabha seat owing to his record win of over 4.17 lakh votes in the 2019 parliamentary elections. His sheer brilliance and hard work have enabled him to become an inspiration for many youngsters coming from different corners of India. His success story has empowered many young people to chase their dreams.

An average student, Mr. Kovelamudi completed his engineering degree in Computer Science from the reputed VNR Vignana Jyothi Institute of Engineering and Technology in Hyderabad.

BITTEN BY THE ENTREPRENEURSHIP BUG

In the third year of his graduation, he started working part-time as an IT executive in his family’s then newly constructed hospital. While continuing to work in the hospital, he started a branding firm called SociaLight. His maiden venture has now evolved into an endto-end digital agency and Mr. Kovelamudi continues to oversee the strategy for it, while other professionals manage the operations. He then spearheaded the process of NABH – accreditation for the hospital and led the way for Prasad Hospitals to become the locality’s first NABH-accredited hospital, at par with the best in the country.

As he got more involved in the work at the hospital, he later ventured into revenue cycle management and started a company called Omnimed Solutions. This company provided payment services to medical practitioners based in the United States. In a span of 3 years, the company grew exponentially and employed over 150 professionals across India and USA.

Mr. Kovelamudi exited the company with 100X returns and then started his next venture — a fantasy gaming company called FreeHit that has recently raised INR 4 Crores through angel investment. Mr. Kovelamudi is now aiming to achieve a consolidated annual revenue of Rs. 100 Crores in FY21-22.

AIMING FOR GREATER HEIGHTS

Under Mr. Kovelamudi’s astute leadership, all his ventures have scaled milestones that one can only dream of. A name to reckon with in the list of most successful young entrepreneurs in India, he has set up and streamlined multiple businesses in diverse segments, and turned them into successful companies. Becoming a serial entrepreneur with all ventures tasting success is not a story that one hears ever so often. He has worked untiringly to add so many feathers to his cap.

Be it his maiden venture SocialLight or his latest enterprise FreeHit, all have had one thing in common — his hard work and dedication. In the future, Mr. Kovelamudi is looking for all round growth for all his ventures.

WORKING FOR THE BETTERMENT OF SOCIETY

Mr. Kovelamudi is firmly believes in and encourages giving back to the society. He is on the founding panel of HES Society, a philanthropic organization run by his family for providing needy individuals support and better access to healthcare, education and sports.

Besides distributing essentials to thousands of slum-dwellers during the lockdown, the society recently awarded a scholarship named after his late grandfather, Dr. KVR Prasad. This scholarship funds the four-year long MBBS degree for students from underprivileged communities.

AWARDS AND ACCOLADES

A serial entrepreneur, Mr. Kovelamudi was part of the Forbes Great People Managers (GPM) Top 100 list for two years — 201819 and 2019-20. He is also the youngest person to be featured in the aforementioned list. His alma mater VNR Vignana Jyothi Institute of Engineering and Technology also conferred the Distinguished Alumni Award upon him. Mr. Kovelamudi’s achievements and milestones are an inspiration to many young minds.

Dr. Arbat is currently leading the Nagpur-based KRIMS Group of Hospitals as the Medical Director and Interventional Pulmonologist. KRIMS is a multi-specialty hospital with state-of-theart facilities and offers medical services under one roof. For treating various critical ailments, the hospital is equipped with ICU, NICU, Respiratory Critical Care Unit, Pediatric Critical Care Unit, Post surgery Critical Care Unit. The hospital also has a fully functional Respiratory, Neuro, Trauma, Burn and Dialysis Centre.

Having won many awards at prestigious national conferences, Dr. Arbat also has many national and international publications to his name. He is the youngest international faculty to teach at WABIP Program. He has performed 800+ Interventional procedures such as Cryotherapy, EBUS, Endobronchial Debulking and Thoracoscopy. He has an extensive academic training and professional experience from JNMC Wardha, KEM Hospital & Tata Memorial Cancer Centre, Mumbai & Ancona, Italy, and has been excelling as a clinician, teacher and researcher.

A GLOBALLY RECOGNIZED MEDICAL PRACTITIONER

He has many accolades to his name. He is credited with 3 inventions for COVID-19 which include the “Arbat Safety Box”, “Doctor Safety Assistant” and “COVI-SAT Covid-19 Safety Van”. All 3 inventions have received critical acclaim from international medical bodies for their usefulness during this pandemic. His research publications are widely cited by budding pulmonologist and medical scholars.

He received the “Fellowship of American College of Chest Physicians” at Chest Annual Congress, New Orleans, USA. In 2018, he was awarded the “Young Achiever Award for Outstanding Contribution in Health” by GNA. In 2019, he was also chosen as one of the “Vidarbha Ratna” from the medical field.

INTRODUCING NEW PRACTICES

Since the beginning of his career, Dr. Sameer Arbat has taken his role of a medical practitioner very seriously. He has brought in a fresh perspective in already existing medical practices.

He is probably one of the youngest medical leaders to have achieved so much in a short span. He also actively uses the social media to spread awareness and educate masses about various health issues including risks and safety measures for protection against COVID-19.

CREDENTIALS THAT MATTER

Dr. Arbat completed his MBBS and MD in Respiratory Medicine from JNMC, Sawangi, Wardha. Thereafter, he joined his alma mater as an Assistant Professor at the Department of Respiratory Medicine. Eventually, he joined one of India’s premier institutes, KEM Hospital in Mumbai as a Senior Registrar and expanded his knowledge in all specialties of pulmonology. Later, he joined the Tata Memorial Hospital, Mumbai, where he performed more than 100 Bronchoscopies.

Currently, Dr. Arbat is leading the COVID-19 team at KRIMS Hospital, Nagpur. Bent on giving back to society, he also leads various community service initiatives. Dr. Arbat has been associated with various NGOs ‘Prawah’ and ‘Clean Air Asia’, through which he organizes regular health camps, blood donation camps & education programs to spread awareness on air pollution, sleep disorders, anti-tobacco campaigns and managing respiratory diseases like asthma.

Samit Hassan is currently serving as the director of Silver Line Group which is a textile and apparel company based in Bangladesh. The company was founded in 2002 by Mr. Samit’s father Mr. M.A.H. Salim. Mr. Samit became the director of this company at the age of 18. Presently, Silver Line is well reputed for supplying high quality fabric – to the world’s best global brands like RALPH LAUREN, H&M, ZARA, BERSHAKA, M&S, NEXT, AMERICAN EAGLE, AERIES, and JCP – which is being produced at one of the world’s best technological platform.

ALWAYS EAGER TO LEARN AND EXPLORE

Mr. Samit was counted among one of the top 10 students at his high school in California, USA. He studied International Business Management at university level. Although he started his learning at Miami, Florida, he eventually shifted to Geneva, Switzerland. Very surprisingly, even though he never studied textiles, but his acquisition of practical knowledge compensated for the lack of theoretical knowledge.

POSESSING A FUTURE-ORIENTED VISION

Mr. Samit and his dad both are forwardthinking leaders. They believe that while social media might seem like a distraction, it is an essential tool for gaining long term exposure which is in fact a quintessential prerequisite in this industry.

In that true sense of exposure, their clothes were displayed on the ramp at the Texworld convention held in Paris, France. Magic in LAS VEGAS had been the next stop to showcase the presence of Silver Line Group on the Global platform and then the journey to Visit/exhibit on all major platforms was initiated – the latest being VIRTUAL Showcase through F2F sourcing show where they turned out to be Platinum sponsors to the organizers.

DEDICATEDLY WORKING FOR PERFECTION

Possessing a passion for perfection and having a knack for working on new innovative ideas, Mr. Samit spends his qualitative time with R&D, Design team to ensure that something new gets created and is offered to the market. His strong belief to be the pioneer in the industry keeps pushing him to look the world more from the future perspective rather than following the regular cores in which major business in textiles work. He believes that if we have to be the leader, we have to be innovative, service centric and technologically updated all the time.

MARCHING TOWARDS A SUSTAINABLE FUTURE

It’s his sheer dedication and forward looking approach which has made Silver Line Group showcase themselves on a GLOBAL platform from being one of the domestic players trying to create their own existence 5 years back.

Mr. Samit’s dream to make Silver Line Group 100% sustainable by 2025 is a big leap step ahead for being one of the lead Sustainable players on the Global platform and work as a Lead design platform which will go further in building up the complete concept of a lead Design house which will work with the leading design professionals to create a complete solution for its customers from a single platform.

Coming from a distinguished background of leading lawyers, industrialists and educationists, Mr. Khaitan represents the best of knowledge, entrepreneurship & dynamism. The Khaitan family runs numerous schools, each of which is a beacon of excellence in the field of education. The Khaitan School (Noida), Khaitan Public School (Ghaziabad), Khaitan Preschool (Noida), BDM International School (Kolkata), Indus Valley World School (Kolkata) and Sunny Preparatory School (Kolkata) are some of them which are operated by his family. Mr. Khaitan is an alumnus of the Modern School, Vasant Vihar. He is a Mechanical Engineer from The University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, USA. Inducted into the management of The Khaitan School in 2008, he has played key roles in several of the institution’s milestones including founding the Khaitan Preschool in 2013. The school has since received numerous awards for quality education and is widely recognized as a leading educational institution in Noida. Mr. Khaitan has also played an important role in seting up the Gautam Budh Nagar Chapter of the Independent School Federation of India. He co-founded The K12 education chapter of FICCI ARISE, a policy advocacy body for education. He is presently the Chair of its North Committee and the Membership Committee. He has also completed a large number of certifications, including the Business Mastery Programme & an intensive course on Digital Marketing offered by Business Coaching India run by Mr. Rahul Jain.

A MAN OF MANY SKILLS

Apart from his educational acumen, he has interests spanning sports, music and aero modelling. A technology enthusiast and an avid golf player, he is also an accomplished western classical pianist, photographer, singer and sportsman. He believes that a focused approach always leads to excellence. He has chosen his path and wants to be a leader in his field. He feels this is the secret of success of great entrepreneurs like Steve Jobs and Bill Gates as well as great companies like Apple and Sony. In his journey towards excellence, he has created a process-driven school system. The schools have mapped out all the processes in their functioning, down to the last detail in both academic and non-academic aspects. A task-level tracking system is also in place.

TRADITION MEETS MODERNITY

Mr. Khaitan’s planning and vision helps him take decisions related to finance, hiring, marketing, digital adoption, & growth in a very prudent & holistic manner. He associates actively with leaders in the field of educational infrastructure and educationists to gain insights into the best practices in the field. Mr. Khaitan’s vision helps him to see beyond the mass production-style system of education and rote learning. He emphasizes upon the importance of education in catering and preparing children for careers that don’t even exist today. The children of today need to be able to learn, unlearn, relearn and adapt to the fast-changing world scenario. Through staff training along with leadership development programmes, he is creating a unified vision for the institution. The ongoing Covid-19 pandemic has thrown an unprecedented challenge at the educational system. Students along with schools are adapting to the new normal. Visionaries like Mr. Khaitan have risen to the occasion to creatively combat the crisis. Technology is now playing a major role in how education is imparted, a move that has special significance for him as he is a visionary in the field. The Khaitan School has already prepared a roadmap to deal with the rapidly changing times. Under his guidance, the institutions are well-prepared to impart world-class education to the future citizens.

Niyati’s distinct skills and efficiency are a result of the dedicated efforts she had put in while pursuing a Bachelors degree in Business Management, alongside an LLB from KC Law College in Mumbai. Her sharp business acumen and abilities to identify the best standards in the field of education have been the driving force which led her to create pathways of good education for the next generation. Being a curious and interested learner, she came forward with her group to provide exceptional education to the young learners.

WORKING AT THE GRASS-ROOTS

Being closely associated with the field, Niyati had observed that there is a room for improvement in the way educational instruction is delivered to children; that is why she laid the foundation for Olive Trails. It is a preschool that offers exclusive play-based learning to toddlers and preschoolers. This method not only enables learning through fun and age-appropriate ways, but also empowers the kids to understand the concepts easily. Over the years, she has analysed meticulously to devise teaching methodologies for holistic development of the younger lot through various entertaining ways of learning. The schools aim at establishing an environment which is conducive to critical thinking, openmindedness, and fostering imagination for a better growth. Under Niyati’s aegis, RBK Institutes cater to over 10,000 students whereas Olive Trails preschool has around 1200 to 1600 toddlers and preschoolers.

EXPANDING OPERATIONS

Niyati has been focusing on making the group expand its outreach to all the nooks and corners of India and aims to emphasize the relevance of education and thereby, bring a refined and redefined ecosystem of learning for the masses. Followed by the grand success of RBK institutions in prominent suburbs like Chembur, Dahisar, Mira Road & Bhayander in Mumbai, the RBK Educational Institutions has also spread its wings to Mahuva in Gujarat. All these schools have been imparting world-class education by implementing a comprehensive curriculum in their English medium schools. Under her leadership, RBK International Academy in Chembur has emerged as one of the few eminent International Baccalaureate World Schools which focus on developing skills that are prioritised in the internationally followed curriculum. Life skills such as problemsolving & creative thinking are imparted under this extensive program. There are numerous enriching programmes which the IB world school offers. These include the Primary Years Programme (PYP), Middle Years Programme (MYP) & Diploma Programme (DP). Besides this, it is also one of the few reputable institutions authorized for conducting the Cambridge International Examinations (CIE). RBK institutes also provide Cambridge International Certificate of Teaching & Learning (CICTL) & Cambridge International Diploma of Teaching and Learning (CIDTL). The Mother Toddler Program from Olive Trails preschool is designed for children between 9 months -1.5 years to nurture their motor abilities, language, socio emotional skills and cognitive skills.

NURTURING FUTURE LEADERS

Niyati has been envisioning to develop a 360 degree learning skills programme to inspire the young minds to grasp & learn new concepts conveniently. She has constantly tried to establish layouts of learning which help in unleashing and nurturing the potential of the students. Her efforts have consistently been directed at helping them to gain excellence as students as well as reliable and responsible citizens, and ultimately grow into the leaders of tomorrow.

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.”

Dr. Aditya brings a wealth of experience to Sahara EVOLS. With a clear vision and exceptional leadership abilities, he has made a name for himself among the forerunners of today. He has over 12 years of experience in managing, conceptualizing, and leading different types of businesses.

AN ENTREPRENEUR AT HEART

Dr. Aditya is a determined person who takes every challenge in his stride. The young entrepreneur nurtured Sahara EVOLS right from its conceptualization during 2018 and launch later by the end of 2018. In a short span of two years, he has helped Sahara EVOLS to make a definitive mark in India’s EV industry. Currently, Sahara EVOLS is one of the top 10 EV companies in India. Dr. Aditya has always been keen on innovating and transforming ways of doing business. His hands-on and practical outlook played a pivotal role in establishing Sahara EVOLS as one of the leading EV Brands of the nation. He organized the first-ever EV expo in Uttar Pradesh, India, and also established 250 plus authorized dealer networks, along with 350 authorized service points in 22 Indian states.

A LIFELONG LEARNER

Dr. Aditya is always curious to learn from his surroundings. The enterprising leader believes that a good leader always leads by example; therefore, he ensures being on the learning curve always, so that he can encourage his team to do the same.

He always strives to bring something new to the table and generates result-driven ideas proficiently. The dynamic leader exhibits a true entrepreneurial spirit. He believes in promoting the rights of his sales & service network, along with his esteemed customer. Throughout the last decade, he has been managing, conceptualizing, and leading businesses of various nature like dairy, agriculture, retail, hospitality, portfolio management, stock trading, EduTech, Meditech, blockchain, astrology, AI-enabled applications, and services, as well as electric mobility. Additionally, through Cosmo World, he is working on the fusion of the science of Astrology with emerging technologies like Blockchain, Artificial Intelligence, and Machine Learning.

KEEPING EMPLOYEES HAPPY

He encourages a people-oriented work culture. Relentlessly focused on employee productivity, he continually looks for novel ways of managing his team. He believes that investing in people is vital to foster innovation. He efficiently led his team in the testing times during the COVID-19 period. During the lockdown, while other businesses were in a wait-and-watch mode, Sahara EVOLS was in full blast action mode, which helped the company earn an impressive revenue. The attrition rate of the employees in the company was zero during the COVID-19 lockdown period in India. The employees were given a salary hike and also promoted to higher positions during the lockdown phase.

HIS INSPIRATION

Dr. Aditya credits much of his fast-rising success to his mentor ‘Saharasri’ Subrata Roy. The young leader got the opportunity to be personally mentored by the Sahara Chief during his initial learning years.

AN ECOLOGICALLY CONSCIOUS LEADER

Dr. Aditya’s yearning for saving future generations from the clutches of a deteriorating natural environment on the planet has led him to focus on developing and evolving a complete ecosystem in the e-Mobility and the Electric Vehicle (EV) space. At the same time, he regularly initiates tree plantation drives to create a greener world.

In his long career, Mr. Nathani has gained deep knowledge and insights to deliver innovative electronic solutions — a highly valued skill to understand and adapt to different challenges in this field. He has been seamlessly taking crucial decisions for ensuring the company’s continued success, maintaining its impressive record of accomplishments, and developing strategies for its rapid progress. In 2020, when the entire globe was hit badly by the COVID-19 outbreak and social distancing became the norm, he enhanced the existing workflow and reached excellence in customer service. With a mission to provide innovative products, he has been driving the firm to newer realms of success. With these sustained efforts, under his dynamic stewardship, his team has achieved the customer satisfaction rate of 98%. Being one of the stalwarts in the industry, he ensures that all his strategies are aligned with the vision for the company’s as well as the sector’s consistent growth.

A BIG HIT IN THE WORLD OF BUSINESS

It is the truth universally acknowledged that the more a company adds value to the lives of its customers, the more it succeeds. Offering a comprehensive range of services and projects spread across various verticals and geographical locations, M/s Airtec Electrovision Pvt. Ltd. has become a distinguished name among the top private companies of India. Besides, Mr. Nathani lays emphasis on reaching out to more and more people every day as this helps improve the understanding of demographics and psychographics of potential customer base. Therefore, the organization connects with more than 1 million people through social media posts and has already garnered over 1, 50,000 views on its corporate videos.

CREATING HIS TRAJECTORY TO SUCCESS

Mr. Nathani’s life is a lesson for the generations to come. He never gave up in the face of adversity and persisted hard to turn every adversity into an opportunity. With sincerity, dedication and determination, he embarked on his entrepreneurial journey and successfully completed various projects in diverse areas. His quest for perfection in every aspect of life has made ‘Airtec Electrovision Pvt. Ltd’ achieve great success in the Amazon marketplace. Providing standard trade name for different sizes of TV sets in lieu of products by popular brands such as Mi, OnePlus, Hisense, etc., his project management system brought a considerable transformation, which has helped optimize and improve the ongoing scenario.

AN EXEMPLARY LEADER

He shares a great rapport with his staff, who always look up to him for inspiration and guidance. He staunchly believes that employees should be continuously motivated and supported because innovation and excellence cannot take place in an environment of fear and submission. He lends a helping hand and a supportive shoulder to one and all at their time of need. He firmly believes that employee satisfaction goes hand in hand with the company’s ongoing and futuristic growth. Under his visionary guidance, every staff member undergoes an intensive training programme designed to equip them with all the skills and knowledge required to serve clients in today’s competitive marketplace. He reckons that a leader’s biggest strength is his team and it is important to nurture, collaborate, and promote the growth of every individual working with him.

Mr Rakesh Rathi is an MBA/Engineer from leading #1 institution from Switzerland and India. He is based in Europe since 28 years and recipient of multiple corporate awards including a prestigious Presidential Award for engaging with C-Suite executives and also the AsiaOne/CNBC Global Indian Award. He has featured in leading publications such as Forbes, Fortune, Business Today and also in CNBC. His core areas of expertise include transformation (business and technology), SMAC (Social, Mobility, Analytics, and Cloud), Robotics and Wireless (Wifi6, 5G), IoT (Internet of Things) et al.

Mr Rathi is also a humanitarian supporting rural schools for underprivileged children facilitating on-line mainstream education (MOOCs) using remote digital tools and has received recognition from the state for this initiative collaborating with the CSR (Corporate Social Responsibility) efforts of a leading global Fortune 100 corporate firm. 

TAKING A BALANCED APPROACH

Rakesh believes “Business transformation is a long-term marathon, not a sprint. Companies require to balance innovation and technology with enhanced and new business models to gain competitive edge, revenue and customer experience.” According to him, this facilitates “operational efficiency resulting in better management of working capital / OPEX and inventory / CAPEX, maturing customer experience (CX).” Sharing similar viewpoints of some of the top business leaders, he elaborates, “During a recent interview, Mark Schneider (CEO, Nestlé) said ‘….when it comes to safety in the pandemic, we want no stone unturned if we send hundreds and thousands of people to work every day.’ Similarly, Vas Narasimhan (CEO, Novartis) has advocated ‘unbossed leadership’ at Novartis which resonates well given healthcare sector has accelerated significantly due to the pandemic.

He rightly concludes, “So, clearly while Revenue and Profitability is important for any business, leaders nowadays also look at the holistic ecosystem across corporate ethics, fairness to their employees, D&I, empowering talent, inspiring workers, creating a purposedriven workplace and having empathy, which has taken a precedence in their narrative and is now the accepted norm as compared to controlling by ‘old-style’ power.”

CARVING A DIGITAL ROUTE TO SUCCESS

His vision for future is that “technology has evolved from a business enabler to a critical driver for all organizations. Organizations that understand this fundamental shift must learn to navigate such challenges as modernizing platforms, leveraging data and analytics to improve operations and products, building capabilities, creating a software engineering culture. Business and IT leaders have to deliver end-to-end techenabled transformations by focusing on IT infrastructure, architecture, operations, and overall tech strategy. Every company wants the power of insights-driven by machine learning and artificial intelligence. But like any complex undertaking, making that wish a reality involves specialized expertise and a lot of investment … unless someone else will do the heavy-lifting for you”

He vehemently asserts that “IT (Information Technology) is the backbone of all business functions and we are looking at a seismic shift in the scaling of digitization, at a pace never seen before. Technology spend is expected to increase to more than $2.9 trillion by 2021, so clearly IT will be key for any business to drive competitive edge since every company now is a technology company driven by customer centricity (CX) and this resonates across B2B and B2C.” He further elaborates, “Role of a CIO (Chief Information Officer) and CDO (Chief Digital Officer) have moved beyond being a cost-center and their point of view are being discussed in board-rooms as part of corporate strategy. Cloud is at the center of digital transformation and in parallel we have to build a strong infrastructure for a digitally empowered ecosystem”.

An ardent advocate of customer centricity, he believes in aligning customer service with organizational goals. In his view “there will be 50 billion connected devices in the world in the near future. As such, high speed network and internet mobility (Wifi6, 4G, 5G) and an automated ecosystem ‘technology as a service’ around PaaS/SaaS/IaaS (i.e. IoT, Cloud, Data Centers, Robotics, Mobility, Analytics, Computational power et al) to accelerate transactions in every business will be the centre stage of digital revolution where innovation has become the norm as a game-changer. A customer-centric firm is the catalyst on how new technologies are deployed as such it is imperative we listen to our customers & ensure we align to their objectives.”

SPINNING A GREAT SUCCESS SAGA

He derives his motivation to excel from his close and active engagement with CXOs of large global MNCs around their corporate strategy driving innovation. He believes that Covid-19 pandemic is a monumental changeover for business as usual and a launching pad for organizations to become virtual, digital-centric, and agile – and to do it all at lightning-fast speed. As leaders look ahead to the future, they ask: How do we keep this momentum going? How do we take the best of what we’ve learned and put into practice through the pandemic, and make sure it’s woven into everything we do going forward? Speed is of essence and is unleashing a wave of innovation unlike anything we’ve ever seen before! Even before the pandemic, over 85% of the companies surveyed thought that this business model would not remain viable at the rates of digitization. The pandemic just put that whole scenario on steroids. The companies that are leading the way from the crises, the ones that will grab market share and set the tone and tempo for others, are the leaders. The fundamental reality is that the accelerating speed of digital means that we are increasingly living in a winner-take all-world. However, simply going faster isn’t the answer. Rather, winning companies are investing in tech, data, processes and people to enable speed through better decisions and faster course corrections based on what they learn.

DEDICATED TO SOCIAL WELFARE

Rakesh considers CSR as an important attribute for every firm. He asserts, “Leaders today look beyond Revenue & Profitability. They have the advantage of being in influential positions of large firms with abundance of resources (financial, manpower, expertise) and are socially obliged to use these resources to empower those with limited means.” A humanitarian at heart, Mr. Rathi has been involved with ILO, Switzerland and World Bank for the development of Re-insurance in India & Philippines. In his free time, he also supports development of schools for underprivileged children in rural country-side using on-line digital technology and has received state recognition for this.