Jamshedpur : Another splendid session of XLRI PGDM (GM) Leadership series took off with an insightful speech by the COO of Deloitte Consulting, Mr. Manoj Singh, who is one of the top four managing directors reporting directly to the CEO, Barry Salzberg.
Mr. Singh has his roots in Jamshedpur. His connection with the city dates back to over 50 years and often visited Jamshedpur during summer and winter breaks. A pass out from IIT Kanpur, he went on to do his MBA from Carnegie Mellon University, USA.
Mr. Singh started off his discussion by expressing keen interest in staying connected with students and introduced the theme for discussion as �Impact of Disruptive Innovation on People�. He stated that most companies today are experimenting with such technologies due to the substantial impact of these on the very existence of the companies.
Citing examples of US and Chinese economies and the problems faced by them, he said that our country has great potential and a very unique opportunity.
Talking about the latest trends, he said the sectors related to Life Sciences, Pharma, Information Technology, Cyber Security, Big Data and Data Analytics are gaining unprecedented importance. He also praised the idea of 3D Printing and its contribution in life sciences in creating quality biological organs during transplantations, citing it as a disruptive technology that would revolutionize the health-care sector.
He then spoke about the extent to which information has pervaded each of our lives and how people of today are better informed. To highlight the value of data and data analysis, he said that if this information is used in the right way it could bring benefits both to the consumers and the organizations. He illustrated this by analyzing several companies in US which have been successful in adopting disruptive technologies.
At every point in the talk, Mr. Singh reiterated the need to reinvent oneself and never to stop learning. Citing the example of Michael Jordan and his leadership skills, Mr. Singh said that one should be inspired by failures and should keep trying till one keeps getting better at it. Mr. Singh also said that managers should be able to anticipate moves which others would be unable to decipher and this gives a competitive advantage.
To bolster this view, he told a short story about how Sachin Tendulkar, who had never been to a baseball match before, predicted speed of the ball while sitting 30 yards away from the pitch in a NY Yankee�s game.
As a leader, one needs to know the best way to communicate and connect broadly. He also emphasized the importance of pursuing our passion to enrich our professional performance.
He concluded by saying that �In a typical business scenario, one needs to realize where he is getting disrupted and to deal with such a situation he should be willing to jettison part of his business or create a separate entity to deal with such disruptions�.