NATIONAL, 10 JUNE, 2023 (GPN): Day 1 of the three-day leadership programme saw industry veterans- Samit Ghosh, Founder, Ujjivan Small Finance Bank Ltd.; Vasanthi Srinivasan, Professor, IIM Bangalore; Amit Anchal, Board Member, Ola Electric; and Himanshu Saxena, Founder & CEO – Centre of Strategic Mindset (COSM) – share insights from their fields with participants, who are thought leaders, business and HR heads from organisations across India. 

“We have to be equally good to all the stakeholders who are there- the shareholder, the customer, the employees, the regulators, the community we work with. All are equally important to us,” said Samit Ghosh, Founder, Ujjivan Small Finance Bank Ltd, emphasising on building an Organisational Culture on Friday, the first day of the 7th edition of  “Human Is NOT a Resource” (HINAR) Leadership Program organised by the Isha Leadership Academy. 

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The picturesque and powerfully energized Isha Yoga Center, Coimbatore, is hosting the three-day leadership program, from June 9- June 11, 2023. Envisioned by Sadhguru, the program is distinguished for its unique focus on unpacking human potential in business.

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Ujjivan Small Finance Bank offers Employee Stock Option Plans (ESOP). Explaining the rationale behind the decision, Mr Ghosh stressed, “We did not see our employees just as a resource but as a stakeholder.”  Offering ESOP brought a sense of ownership among employees in the organisation and resulted in creating remarkable stories of transformation, he said. Every year, “Great Place to Work” identifies India’s 100 Best Companies to Work For and Ujjivan SFB has been consistently featuring in the list. “We get the Great Place To Work award because these people are so proud to be a part of the work they do and how aligned they are with the objectives of the organisation.” 

Earlier, Vasanthi Srinivasan, Professor, Organisational Behaviour and Human Resources Management and Chairperson, Digital Learning, IIM Bangalore led the participants through sessions on Understanding Culture. “The first thing when we talk about culture is there is no good culture or bad culture. There’s only an appropriate culture or an inappropriate culture,” said Prof Srinivasan firmly setting the context for the discussion. 

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Drawing outcomes from a short exercise where participants attributed a one-word perception about different renowned brands, Prof Srinivasan underscored, “Culture is often not entirely an internal attribute. Culture is also feeding into the image and which is why I’m going to make this distinction between organisational image, which is How do outsiders see us? to building organisational culture, which is largely internal. 

“We ought not to lose sight because unless the organisational image and organisational identity internally align, people won’t know how to perceive you,” cautioned Prof Srinivasan. 

The post-lunch session began with an enthralling dance performance by students of Isha Samskriti. The students danced to the famous Kabir song ‘Ya Ghat Bheetar’, mesmerising the audience and leaving them wanting for more. 

The session then advanced to Culture Transformation Stories from industry experts. Amit Anchal, Board Member, Ola Electric laid out his career journey and stories of transformation in Airtel and Ola. Similar to the views of Mr. Ghosh, Mr. Anchal highlighted, “If we are able to get the teams through the various hierarchies to actually own the vision of what we are doing and where will we reach, then that becomes the biggest pull for any culture of this sort.” 

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Explaining further, he said, “As entrepreneurs or as leaders, we become too fixated at times with the vision that we have.  We may feel very, very enthusiastic about it. But what is equally important for us to think about is what is in it for the person who is working on it, who is coming to the office…and that is very, very important in percolating down the overall vision in terms of, what does it mean for me as an employee, as an individual?”

Taking over from him, Himanshu Saxena, Founder & CEO, Centre of Strategic Mindset (COSM), sharing his lifelong learnings summarised, “Culture is an amalgamation of beliefs, business practices, and behaviors.”

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Human is NOT a Resource (HINAR) is an annual leadership program organised by the Isha Leadership Academy. The 3 days program brings together thought leaders, business, and HR practitioners from diverse fields to discuss practical steps to enable a paradigm shift from human beings as resources to human beings as possibilities. The next two days of the program will witness speaker sessions of S. Somanath, Chairman, Indian Space Research Organization (ISRO); Anuradha Razdan, Executive Director HR, Hindustan Unilever; CHRO, Unilever South Asia and Pratik Pal, CEO, Tata Digital. Ashutosh Pandey, MD & CEO at Mahindra First Choice Wheels, and Moumita Sen Sarma, Isha Leadership Academy are Program Anchors for HINAR 2023. 

During the program, the participants get a unique opportunity to interact and pick the minds of the Resource Leaders, who are industry veterans and mentor the participants individually. The participants also undertake yoga and meditation sessions with the aim to bring overall well-being into their lives.

Over 12 years ago, Sadhguru founded Isha Leadership Academy to provide the highest quality leadership education by combining external skill sets with tools for well-being. Isha Leadership Academy focuses on cultivating leadership as an innate and intuitive process – beyond strategies or techniques. Its guiding principle is the importance of first managing one’s own mind, body, and energies, in order to manage external situations and people.  

To know more about HINAR, please visit: https://www.ishaeducation.org/human-is-not-a-resource/ 

For pictures, please click here.