R Gopalakrishnan, CEO, The Mindworks
R Gopalakrishnan studied physics at Kolkata University, engineering at IIT Kharagpur and attended the Advanced Management Program at Harvard Business School.
Podcast
Overview
TBCY is pleased to welcome R Gopalkrishnan on the podcast today. He is a highly celebrated and well-known professional who has contributed greatly to society. He has worked with some of the most iconic companies in India.
R Gopalkrishnan is the CEO of The Mind Work. He’s the former Vice Chairman of Hindustan Unilever. He is a Director of Tata Sons, Chairman of Castrol India, Director of the Press Trust of India and he is the author of 16 books.
In this very interesting interview with host Ashutosh, Gopal shares his amazing journey of working with two of India’s most prestigious companies. His experiences have helped him gain immense knowledge of the corporate sector. It has also helped him author 16 books! Gopal talks about the importance of building a company culture.
He believes that there should be a greater preference for attitude than skill in companies. Building a culturally rich and safe work environment is a very important aspect for any company.
Gopal credits his success to the people he has worked with and the challenges he has had to face in his corporate career.
“I attribute whatever little success I might have achieved to the challenge, the colleagueship, the comradeship of people at the give and take and learning that you can be competitive and collaborative at the same time”
He shares what goes into building a strong company.
“I look at the difference between a hippopotamus and Octopus. The hippopotamus is large, it has got bones, it has got mass and that’s how we build our traditional companies. Lots of bone, lots of mass. Look at an octopus it has got eight arms and each arm is operating independently and yet in a coordinated way correct through that little brain and an octopus is considered to be particularly clever. Look at the structure of an octopus’s arms- they are pure muscle. There is no bone in it. So I think the key for large companies is to avoid shaving off the bone and strengthening the muscle!”
His advice to young managers is to think of their obligation before their privilege. His experiences reflect in his statements and his metaphors are apt to the T!
Tune in to know more about Gopal and his amazing journey in the Indian corporate sector!
