Ravichandran Venkataraman wears many hats. He is the founder of Alive Consulting, a leading firm that specialises in leadership training, mentoring and coaching. He has had a distinguished career spanning over 35 years in banking, consulting, shared services and education. Renowned for his philanthropic endeavours, Mr Venkataraman has been steering eVidyaloka, a non-profit institution dedicated to providing high-quality education to millions of children in rural India. Sharmila Chand meets up with Mr Venkataraman and is amazed by the sheer breadth of his activities.

Your five management mantras

·       Effective use of silence: This will help when the full story is not known; when you are angry; when emotions run very high; if you can save a relationship; and when you want to listen intently.

·       Observe carefully.

·       Show empathy.

·       Be resilient.

·       Keep a very positive attitude, and support others to do so too.

The turning point in your career

In 1990, I moved from a business finance role to a sales role. I wanted a sales role, and I was lucky enough to get a break in a bank. This role changed my career and my life forever.

A game that helps your career

I play the guitar. The biggest skill I have got out of guitaring is the ability to connect complex dots across different aspects in any given situation. There are only seven notes in music, but there are millions of songs. This is possible only because composers are gifted enough to combine notes in unique ways. For me, I am able to improvise, sing one line in multiple ways to meet different moods or to interpret that line in many different ways. This helps you see multiple points of view in real life.

Secret of your success

There is no one secret ingredient but rather a cocktail of many. The quantity that you mix depends on the situation. These ingredients include customer focus, hard work, grit, courage, resilience, communication, relationships, confidence, empowering and supporting the team, listening, emotional intelligence, risk-taking, learning, being calm under pressure, rewarding and recognising, speaking from the heart and, above all, acknowledging mistakes and living down those mistakes. The secret is to figure out the situation and know which ones of the above are required for the situation and how much of each to mix in that situation.

Your philosophy of work

Make dealing with your organisation the most convenient and delightful experience in the world for all customers, employees and stakeholders.

A person you admire

There are many that I draw inspiration from. Whether it is a very young person who studied in a government school where we gave free education and has now completed a degree, taken up a job and come forward to support a child’s education in a village by donating to our NGO, or Bob Shultz, a leader at Hewlett-Packard where I worked. Bob has been a mentor for decades. It is his simplicity and the sheer ability to foresee how the market moves in the shared services (BPO, KPO, ITO and GCC) industry that keep inspiring me.

Best advice you got

One that stands out is from my dad who told me and taught me by example to live with 10 months of my earnings and to donate the remaining two months to a cause that is dear to me. I have been doing this for most of my life.

Your journey so far

Absolutely wonderful, and I know that this Cosmos (read as God) has been amazingly kind to me in all ways. The destination does not matter so long as you enjoy the journey and you have the right companions and companionships and you are a great companion.

Your favourite movies

The best movie that I have liked is a Tamil movie, Mudhal Mariyaadhai (loosely translated as First Honour). It is the story of a village head (a man in his late 50s or early 60s) experiencing true love from a young boat woman who comes to live in that village. His journey is like going from a house (where he lives with his wife who does not like him and sees him as a failure) to a home (which is where this boat woman lives). The sheer presence – how he feels in the boat woman’s presence and how she feels in his presence – is the highlight of the movie.

Another movie that I really like is The Way (2010). It is about a father going overseas to recover the body of his estranged son to discover that his son had died while doing a pilgrimage of the El Comino de Santiago. He decides to take the pilgrimage, complete it on behalf of his son and spread his son’s ashes in the ocean at the end of the pilgrimage. This movie shows how different people deal with grief in different ways.

Your fitness regime

Walking and meditation

Your five business mantras

There are a few unlisted organisations in Japan that have existed for hundreds of years. That has been possible because of a few of the following mantras:

·       Focus on normal profits and not super profits. The concept of normal profits drives a completely different leadership behaviour. This helps leaders take a very long-term view of the future that they want to create.

·       Understand that the performance of an organisation will be similar to the performance of a country’s economy and will follow business cycles. So, the organisation will not have to show growth quarter after quarter. Like the first mantra, this too helps leadership take long-term decisions. It also ensures that leadership does not focus on maximising returns for shareholders but rather maximising returns and opportunities for all stakeholders.

·       Replenish what you take from nature. These companies always ensure that as they exploit resources from nature, they also replenish it to ensure sustainability.

·       Identify core competencies and stick to those. These organisations have stayed with their core competencies. Their products or services focus purely on what the local culture supports. They are also risk averse and continuously scan the market for only products or services that are still in demand.

·       Do not curry favours with the authorities and the government. These companies realise that if they follow the laws of the land, pay taxes correctly and not curry favours with the government, they will not generally be exploited by the authorities and will be seen by their customers as leaders who work with their heads held high.

Your message on management to youngsters

Be yourself. The world needs authentic people. Every person wants to be treated as a human and with respect that one deserves. Every person wants to be a part of a team and be accepted as a team member. Everyone wants to know the vision or mission of the company, and how their work links to that larger vision or mission. Everyone wants to be recognised and rewarded fairly.

Lastly, how would you like to define yourself?

I am an instrument in the hands of that Cosmos (read as God) that helps empower children to dream.