Satinder Grover, Business Advisor and Coach

Satinder Grover, Coach.

In today’s episode of The Brand Called You we have with us Mr. Satinder Grover, a highly knowledgeable individual and an accomplished coach by profession. Satinder has immense knowledge of all the shastras (sacred scriptures in Hinduism and some parts of Buddhism)

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In today’s episode of The Brand Called You we have with us Mr. Satinder Grover, a highly knowledgeable individual and an accomplished coach by profession. Satinder has immense knowledge of all the shastras (sacred scriptures in Hinduism and some parts of Buddhism)

In this interview, Ashutosh and Satinder discuss the stance of coaching with respect to the Mahabharata and the shastras. If we look at the skill requirements for coaching, we will have to go into an extremely ancient and totally different dimension ie- The Mahabharata. Lord Krishna is considered as the very first coach known to humankind. He strategized and mentored, consulted and reformed. He possessed all the skills. 

Satinder talks about Lord Krishna’s leading influence in Mahabharata and how this Vishnu Avatar was the first coach ever! However Satinder also talks about the previous Vishnu Avatars and how they all had coach and coachee relations. He backed his explanations with anecdotes from the Mahabharata itself. He throws light on the elements of wisdom which are imparted beyond competence. Satinder very interestingly connects the instances of  Mahabharata to real life coach examples. 

Satinder’s intersectional explanations are very interesting and relevant to modern day coaching. Watch the full episode to know more! 

Got my formal education from BITS Pilani and FMS Delhi.

However, the real school that I attended was at Oracle and prior to that Tata Unisys, which later on got merged with TCS. A journey spanning coding, consulting & sales. 

My title just read ‘Manager’ when I joined Oracle India , however i got the opportunity to introduce and establish a product in the market. And that journey continued thru many fruitful years, growing along with the subsidiary, and becoming the first Vice President.  The two distinct exposures, one to convert a question mark business to a star business and another to convert a cash cow into a fatter cash cow ( Using BCG portfolio matrix as a reference) was quite fulfilling. In my last assignment I ran a 100m USD business serving the domestic market.

My personal growth was significantly facilitated because of customers and prospects. The high end business solutions offering required  C level engagement in different industry domains. On the govt side, meeting up with the very bright IAS officers and some very forward looking elements in the political class.

My current avatar as an Advisor to few businesses and Coach for individual professionals has been an equally rewarding experience.

I got an opportunity to be a journey partner with few businesses helping them with their strategy and associated transformation in the Indian market. My minimum association was for 4-5 years and the longest has been for 10years  and still going strong. The environments and the  talent profile associated with these businesses was very different from what I had exposure in my own work life. They included a privately held multinational ((14 b USD) business in the people and engineering services, privately held multinational in engineering software products (around 600 m usd) and local software services business. All associations resulted from past relationship with the leaders managing these organisations.

Along side by virtue of my association with CFI India, i have been coaching individuals in organisations who have been transitioning into leadership role. Got the opportunity to coach talent from industries including mining, chemicals, heavy machinery, insurance and information technology.

Driving Transformation & developing people has been the centre piece of both advisory and coaching work. It’s about shaping their beliefs. And while one draws a a lot from western management practices & appreciation of human psychology, I have also found compelling stories, belief sets in the Indian Epics and other ancient texts that can be used to influence by merely re-connecting a lot of info that individuals may be aware of but have not viewed them through the lens of business management or leadership/ self  development. 

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Building on your thought  “coaching, it’s relevance and associated questions “ as the theme …

A possible opening gambit could be… 

Would the story of Mahabharata have been very different if Ekalavya and Karan also had access to Krishna or an equivalent  …(thru their life journey, their conflict moments, when they got emotionally tested) …the safe space that Arjuna got with Krishna and as a result emerged as a hero, essentially realising his potential to the fullest.

Eklavya and Karan are symbols of unrealised potential is many ways… 

It would be cool to develop on the topic , it’s shades ..and connect it to today’s context .( and stuff like the much spoken .Growth mindset and Coaching etc).

How would want to do it..any thoughts. Would you have any specific flow in mind.