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How to Become a CEO?

Sandeep K. Krishnan crafts a way for aspiring youth to become a CEO in his book Making of a CEO. The book explores nuances of leading in different contexts like start-ups, large corporations, family businesses, educational institutions, not-for-profits, public sector and the government.
Making of a CEO is an illuminating culmination of interviews and analysis of top-level CEOs across various sectors.
Here are a few tips you can employ to climb the professional ladder.




Inspiring, isn’t it?

The Trials and Travails of Corporate Culture, An Excerpt from ‘Shikari: The Hunt’

‘Shikari’ by Yashwant Chittal is set in the concrete jungles of Mumbai and weaves together the high-stake conspiracies of the corporate world. Through Nagappa’s story Chittal reveals a fiercely competitive arena where Man’s primordial instincts surface, and the line between the hunter and the hunted is often blurred.
Here’s an excerpt from the book.
As the situation he found himself in began to make some sense to Nagappa, he recalled K, the hero of Kafka’s novel The Trial that he had read years ago. Just like it had happened with K, somebody must be spreading false rumours about him. Or why would this bizarre order from the personnel and administration manager come yesterday morning, when he was getting ready to go to work? The thought unnerved him.
You have been suspended with immediate effect due to serious charges against you. You will be informed of the charges at the earliest. You have been ordered not to attend the office till such time
that we inform you about them. The order was very clear. And it had come with a piece of advice: With the view that you are not adversely affected in any way in the event of the charges being proved false, it is in your interest to apply for a month’s leave immediately.
Nagappa had sent in his leave application. But he now faced the predicament of having to hide from others the real reason for his forced leave. He wracked his brains for a plausible explanation he could give, but couldn’t think of any. And then there were these ‘charges’. The more he tried to think what they could possibly be, the more intriguing the whole thing appeared to him.
For a moment, he wondered if it was all a terrible mistake. He couldn’t somehow bring himself to believe this was really happening to him, because he was to leave for America in a couple of months for higher training—something he had dreamt of for years. And now this, when he was eagerly waiting for the day.
A thought occurred to him: Was being selected for the training the very reason for this sudden turn of events? As time passed, he became convinced that was the case. What had started as a vague suspicion began to appear like the truth. This meant Phiroz still harboured that old hatred towards him. This’s surely part of some vicious plot hatched by that Machiavellian manipulator . . . that evil politicking bastard . . . the son of a bitch Number One! Nagappa thought. Things would become clearer if he could somehow find out what the charges framed against him were. Now he could do nothing but wait for further information from the personnel and administration manager.
He found the wait unbearable. He became suddenly and acutely aware that he had nothing to do. He shuddered. The question of what to do with his time had never bothered him before. But now, empty hours stretched before him, directionless. He recalled reading in a book on psychology that one of the greatest problems the human mind finds difficult to grapple with is the structuring of time.
Suppressing the waves of amorphous panic that threatened to engulf him, he tried to define it and give it some shape. But the more he tried, the more it seemed to gain an upper hand. He shook inwardly, uncontrollably. He spent the day analysing each passing mood and thought and recording it. And his chronicling continued:
Comment 1: This is the second day of my forced leave. The thought that came to me as I woke up: If I keep thinking about this problem, I might either end up in a mental asylum or committing suicide. Both are ways of running away from the situation—attempts at alienating myself from the world.
Is the constant act of analysing the meaning of life a sign of a profound inner search or of losing faith in life—in one’s very existence? Isn’t embracing life with enthusiasm and living with a sense of commitment a natural instinct? Isn’t it the very wellspring of life’s process?
Why does this question, that doesn’t seem to bother millions of other living beings, constantly trouble me? Maybe it’s not because of my philosophical bent of mind, which I secretly take pride in, but because I have no zest for life. I think the very wellspring that energizes my being has run dry. Maybe it’s meaningless to search for the meaning of life. How can you search for something that doesn’t exist? This so-called ‘meaning’ is something we’ve invented. And then, how is creativity possible when there is no zest for life? How can the creative impulse spring in this arid desert?

 

STAR: The Mantra to Develop a Caring Mindset

Subir Chowdhury has helped numerous corporations to climb up the ladder of success in the course of his career. However, he has observed that while some companies benefit only marginally from the training others do exponentially well.
Chowdhury credits ‘a caring mindset’ as the difference in the performance of the two companies. Furthermore, he states that a caring mindset contains four facets.
The four facets make up a useful and memorable acronym: STAR. Here’s what it stands for:
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Do you agree with Subir Chowdhury?
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Subir Chowdhury – A Bio

Subir Chowdhury is one of the world’s leading management thinkers and consultants, who works with Fortune 500 companies to improve their processes, operations, quality and performance. His clients have saved billions of dollars by deploying his process of improvement methodologies. His client list includes industry leaders such as Bosch, General Motors, Hyundai Motor Company, KIA Motors, and many more. He established ASI Consulting Group, LLC in 2003 and became its Chairman and CEO. In 2011, along with his wife Malini, Subir began a foundation that has been instrumental in starting educational programmes at major universities of India, U.K. and the U.S.
In the course of his career, he has written 15 books and is noted for his knowledge about strategic initiatives, quality consulting, and training. He is the bestselling author of The Power of Six Sigma and The Ice Cream Maker. In The Ice Cream Maker, Chowdhury used storytelling to make complex topics like quality management. His books have sold more than a million copies and have been translated into over twenty languages.
subir-chowdhury-midSubir is included in the illustrious list of 50 Most Influential Management Thinkers in the World by Thinkers 50 of London. He is also revered by the New York Times as a “leading quality expert”. He is an eminent member of the World Innovation Foundation. He has also been conferred with the Outstanding American by Choice Award by The United States Department of Homeland Security.
Subir’s 15th book, The Difference: When Good Enough Isn’t Enough, guides individuals to develop a caring mindset. In this inspiring book, he says that a caring mindset is one that includes the qualities of being straightforward, thoughtful, accountable and having resolve (or STAR). The book has already garnered advance praise from stalwarts such as Narayana N.R. Murthy, and R.C. Bhargava.
The book has also received appreciation from professors of eminent institutions such as Scripps Research Institute and Columbia Business School. About the book, professor at Columbia Business School, Rita Gunther McGrath said, “Myths about how we should live our lives abound. But they are just that, myths. And too often they lead us to lesser and poorer lives.”
In this straightforward and inspiring book, Subir Chowdhury distills a lifetime of experience, rising from impoverished beginnings in Bangladesh, to his decades of consulting work with CEOs of many of the top Fortune 500 companies, to becoming one of our leading thinkers on workplace culture and organizational values. His STAR model for making a difference at work and in our personal lives is seemingly simple but surprisingly nuanced and profound. This short but powerful book could change your life.”
Subir says that the insights given in the book can be instrumental in bringing change in any industry or person. He further adds, “All four elements of STAR are critical. I find poorest of poor may have STAR qualities and richest of the richest may not have these qualities. Financial Success does NOT define a person has a quality mindset or not. You know, how many ‘so called financially successful people’ did crooked stuff? That’s why in the final chapter I talked about my grandfather who is a simple man (elementary school teacher) and a deeply caring person had a huge impact on my life. And now, 40 years later I am teaching world’s top CEOs and business leaders about my grandfather’s teaching which is STAR. In social media generation and money hungry youths in India are losing values and a caring mindset is missing in most of their lives. They should spend more face to face time with their grandparents, parents, families and friends who deeply care for them.”

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