Guts, Glory & Story's Podcast: Recent Episodes
Alok Sinha & Sangram Surve
This year – 2020, will be known as a year that transported us from a world we knew into a world that’s defined by completely different rules. And as we are hurtling into the new world – known as the next normal or the new normal, we all look peer out of the window panes as while the train is still moving, trying to ascertain what exactly the destination will look like, and what will be the contours of this new world.No one has the true picture, since the picture itself is evolving. But if we can grasp even little pieces of the jigsaw, we can try and make sense of the changing reality a tad bit better. Some people are closer to the action and thus have better perspectives – because they are industry leaders with a view from the top. And then there are others grabbing out little pieces of experience and getting a small piece out of the big picture. Guts, Glory and Story is not an attempt to capture the story of any individual – but rather, of all of us, who are battling Covid19 in our own way. As we attempt to decode the next normal, we will run two parallel streams – for starters, we will attempt to read the direction of the wind in specific industries as it navigates the crisis. Here, we speak to the top leaders in the industry. Secondly, we will unlock peer to peer inspiration through every day human stories of students, families, professionals, entrepreneurs, senior citizens as they fight the crisis and prepare for the next normal. Both formats will run in parallel on LinkedIn, YouTube and Facebook. The interview series will be run in a live webinar every Saturday starting 15th August 2020 between 6 and 7 pm. The human stories channel will release 2-3 video stories throughout the week. By this initiative, we hope to contribute in our little way to get a better grasp of the Covid crisis and will only be too happy if it helps people cope with it in a better way.
Meet the leader in the diagnostics and healthcare industry, Dr. Sanjay Arora! Owner and Managing Director of Suburban Diagnostics, Dr. Sanjay’s visionary approach towards women’s health has helped bring a change and improve the health outcomes in the country.
Suburban Diagnostics, the company that is serving millions of patients for the last 25 years is one of the first private labs that was appointed by the IMCR to carry out COVID-19 tests in India; they accepted the challenge to be of service to society at large by taking this task with utmost responsibility. They also formed an internal task force comprised of medical experts who together were actively part of the fight against the COVID-19 pandemic.
A Covid warrior, global traveler, non-professional chef, travel photographer, and interestingly a DJ, Sanjay Arora is someone who loves sharing his diverse life experiences!
We have Garvita Gulhati, Founder and CEO of ‘Why Waste? – Forbes 30 under 30, Asia! Why Waste is India’s largest youth-led non-profit organization working towards water conservation. The fact that 14 million liters of water is wasted every year in India just from the amount people leave behind in cups in restaurants led to the formation of ‘Why Waste’.
With relentless efforts, Garvita and her team, is trying to spread awareness about water conservation and changing habits and mindsets one cup at a time!
Not only does Garvita holds a title of ‘Global Changemaker’ but also is the only Indian recipient of the Shawn Mendes Foundation’s (SMF) Wonder Grant. She also received the prestigious Diana Award from the charity in honor of the late Princess of Wales, last year!
Statically, half of the world’s population could be living in areas facing water scarcity by as early as 2025 and some 700 million people could be displaced by intense water scarcity by 2030. With an escalating global water crisis impending over us, it is time to resolutely work towards conserving this limited and costly resource which is of great importance for human life and sustenance.
Meet Sushil Jiwarajka, a second-generation serial entrepreneur in fields as diverse as solar energy, telecom, batteries, and education. Being a strong proponent of climate change and environment he has taken up several social causes and is dedicated to safeguard the environment, rural development, bettering the conditions for women workers, increasing farmers’ incomes, promoting low-cost agricultural technologies, eradicating hunger, and banishing blindness.
Sushil’s to be published book ‘Empowering the Unpowered’ is an insight into his inspirational journey and dwells on the tremendous power that a single vision holds. It is a culmination of one thought and one idea – Upliftment of the Masses.
This time on Guts, Glory & Story, we have the First Fastest Indian to have circumnavigated the world across all the six continents and First Asian to have ridden on Antarctica - Deepak Kamath! From the Arctic to Antarctic, Deepak’s adventures have always been driven by the passion to see the unseen.
With The Adventures of Armstrong, his motto is to travel because he’d rather look back at his life, saying “I can’t believe I did that” instead of “if only I had”! Deepak is a motorcyclist who has traveled across all seven continents. Over and above this, he is an all-out explorer with numerous national adventures across India!
In this episode, we uncover the story of Divyanshu Ganatra. An IT Expert. Winner of a National Award. A Psychologist. An Adventure Sports Enthusiast. An Entrepreneur. And, to complete the picture - India’s First Blind Solo Paraglider.
This is the glorious story of a gutsy man who fought against all odds and redefined the impossible. Battling conventions, Divyanshu decided to stand out and beat the notion that a differently-abled person needs a helping hand. In 2014, after becoming India’s first blind solo paraglider, he formed Adventures Beyond Barriers Foundation (ABBF) - an organization which attempts to bridge the gap between abled and differently-abled.
This is a story of an optimist who never stopped believing and went on to achieve great things in life that brought him the most joy…
We are back with yet another story of courage and guts – with Mayank Gandhi – a social activist, a crusader during the emergency, India against corruption, the Right-To-Information act and most lately, the Parli Transformations – which has helped farmers in many drought and low yield areas in India quadruple their earnings as well as help them become water sufficient.
The 90s were some of the most defining moments for the future of India - from opening up its economy, to giving impetus to technology giants in the making. And here is the man credited with bringing the telecom and Information Technology revolution into India.
Ladies and gentlemen we kick off Season 3 with yet another tale of Guts, Glory & Story - featuring Sam Pitroda, the inventor, the bringer of telecommunication and IT revolution in India and heading six core technology missions for this country.
This week on Guts, Glory & Story, we bring to you yet another story of courage and guts with Nayan Khanolkar. He is a self-taught avid nature photographer who documents Indian Wildlife and is one of the only photographers in India who has won the World Press Photo Contest and BBC Wildlife Photographer of the Year Award together, along with many others. Nayan’s life revolves around photography and urban leopards have become his sole focus for the last few years. With his photography, he is constantly working on sensitizing people to animal behaviour and raising awareness about India’s rich wildlife.
Guts, Glory & Story brings you yet another session with Rohan Mirchandani - Co-Founder, Epigamia. Rohan’s journey is a true example of perseverance and conviction. He spent most of his youth growing up in New York, but in 2013, he left everything behind and moved to India to launch his dream venture - Epigamia. The roots of Epigamia dates back more than a decade when Drums was born as an ice-cream manufacturer producing the Hokey-Pokey brand. Soon thereafter, the ice-cream business was stopped and whatever was learned was put behind the yogurt business. The plan was to create a lifestyle brand that would cater to healthier eating trends - and that’s how Epigamia was born. Moreover, Bollywood Actress Deepika Padukone’s strategic initiative arm invested in Drum Foods International - the maker of flavoured yogurt brand and Deepika’s role as the brand ambassador took Epigamia to new heights.
For Rohan, success is a legacy that comes from work and family. He wants to leave behind a brand that stands the test of time way after he’s gone.
Listen to another amazing story of guts and glory - PC Musthafa, the founder of ID Fresh Food. ID Fresh is a leading food company that provides several flavors of Idli and Dosa like Ragi Idli/Dosa batter, Rice Rava Idli batter, Malabar Parota, and Whole Wheat & Oats Dosa.
From extremely humble beginnings in a village in Kerala to running a multi hundred crore company, PC’s journey is a story of true grit and determination. From a child who struggled to pass his standard 6 exams to being invited to speak at the UN, Harvard and Columbia schools, PC’s remarkable journey is all about his never-say-die-attitude, conquering limitations and about self-transformation!
After an entertaining session with Anuprita Bhomick on Guts, Glory & Story, we are back with one of India's highest-selling authors - Amish Tripathi. Sangram met Amish as part of his advertising journey and they worked together as client and agency before they became friends. Later Sangram marketed several of Amish's books - especially 2 books of the
Shiva Trilogy and the first book of the Ram Series.
We continue on the anecdotes and banter with Amish as we explore why he decided to be an author to how he quit his job and became a full-time author. We also speak to Amish on his vision for himself as a master storyteller and where he wishes to take his journey as a storyteller of mythology and history. We explore why he decided to produce a movie himself - (yes, he is producing his own movie) and why he decided to go to London and take a diplomatic job as a representative of India's culture... One more entertaining hour full of stories and anecdotes with India's biggest Author - Amish Tripathi...
After a power-packed start to season 2, we continue our journey with stories. And guess what! We bring to you a Women's special with a tete-a-tete with Anuprita Bhomick - Head of Customer Experience at Google. We discovered only stories of guts and glory as we spoke to Anuprita on her journey so far. And on the occasion of International Women's Day on 8th March we didn't need to look far to find the right person for our session.
Her career is a string of bold decisions of guts and breaking stereotypes - whether it's getting into badge value brands like Intel, Apple, HP and now Google to performing and challenging every assumption thrown at her. The episode is full of anecdotes from her journey - From how she became the first employee of Apple in India to her encounter with Steve Jobs to how she created history with James Bond franchise breaking a gender stereotype with Bond movies to her phenomenal networking skills. Dive in to a session full of stories and laughter!
The Covid battle rages on, and while we have hope that it should ebb and give us some relief, we are back with Season 2. And in this season we focus on our title - Guts Glory and Story - bringing you stories of Guts and Glory. And boy we have a powerful line up for this Season!
For starters, we have Jason Kothari - the turnaround man. Author of the National Bestseller - ‘Irrationally Passionate’, Jason’s story is a warehouse of inspiration. Jason was a childhood fan of Valiant Comics. Later when he passed out of Business School in America, he discovered that Valiant Comics was bankrupt. He did something unusual - he hatched a plan to buy it. And he did precisely that! He bought out Valiant in a bankruptcy sale, revived it and struck 4 Hollywood movie deals over the next 6 years before selling it for a profit. Bloodshot, a movie starring Vin Diesel was released last year and was one of the 4 movies. Later Jason came to India and cemented his turnaround reputation by turning around Housing dotcom, Snapdeal and Freecharge.
In our next episode, we meet Umesh Shrikhande, the veteran advertising CEO, former head of Contract Advertising and currently the CRO of Taproot, one of India’s most creative powerhouses. With Umesh, we dig into the creative side of the advertising industry.
Let’s discover:
1.The changing consumer marketing landscape post Covid.
2. The relevance of creative message despite Covid and digital
3. The increased criticality of organisation culture
The COVID crisis and the ensuing lockdown created a crisis for several industries.
In the coming week, we see the impact on publishing. And we speak to the Preeti Vyas – CEO of one of India’s oldest storytelling brands – Amar Chitra Katha.
During COVID, ACK did what was the most natural thing to do – Go Digital. And guess what – They saw a massive surge in subscribers, from 79k to almost a million. What’s more, they brought families together reading classic mythologies or getting lost in the innocent world of Tinkle. Preeti used the lockdown to craft one of the finest transformations stories for the brand ACK.
This Saturday we unearth how ACK gave families a lovely reprieve from the harsh COVID reality.
During these difficult times, should brands only work for profit? Or should they also be picking a bit of broader societal responsibility? Christian Sarkar, a management thinker and co-author of two books with Philip Kotler including one on ‘Brand Activism’, thinks brands need to think beyond profit.
In this session, we’ll unveil:
- Christian Sarkar’s views on why brands need to adopt social responsibility, which is even more essential during COVID times.
- How the world needs to look at Mittelstand and push for more equitable economic development.
- How COVID is creating opportunities for a new economic order.
- Christian Sarkar’s collaboration with Philip Kotler on the Wicked 7 project to tackle some of the world’s pressing problems.
We could not have thought of a better finale for Guts, Glory & Story's Season 1. Today, Steve Winter took us on a wildlife expedition to see the "Big Cats" across the globe through his mesmerizing photographs, and he re-lived the glorious story of his gutsy experiences.
Steve believes in capturing images that no one has seen before and quotes "patience" and "faith" as the key aspects required to capture "The Steve Winter Photograph". He also shared his experience with camera trapping techniques and how uniqueness is important to get the right shot. More importantly, Steve talked about the conservation of wildlife and how one can contribute towards it.
Akhil Gupta, the former chairman of Blackstone India from 2005 to 2014, is the founder director of Universal Enlightenment Forum. He spent the last five years at Harvard University as a Senior fellow/guest. He serves on the Advisory Boards of Stanford Business School, the Leadership Council of Harvard Divinity School, and the Advisory Board of Harvard University’s Human Flourishing Initiative. He is currently finishing writing two books: one on Human Flourishing, and another on common themes across religions.
Prabhat is an alumni of Stanford business school with over 25 years of experience in technology enterprises and startups. He is the Founder and CEO of YourOwnROOM, a residential real estate prop-tech rental and property management company. YourOwnROOM currently manages co-living and family Homes spread across 0.35 million sqft, valued at $30 million across Bangalore and Pune.
He has worked in senior global leadership and management positions in building and managing P&L of up to $100 M at Xchanging, MphasiS, Zensar and Hewlett-Packard. Prabhat is very passionate about advising and helping technology based startups and SMEs build, restructure and grow.
The fragile crumbles when order is broken down and disorder prevails. The anti-fragile thrives in disorder.
Today when uncertainly, volatility, and disorder are having a field run thanks to Covid, the one trait we all need is antifragility. And Sinan Si Alhir is a global transformation leader who helps and coaches organizations to embrace uncertainty and develop antifragility.
A big session next Saturday, where we have a long conversation with Si who is logging in from Chicago to help us develop the much-needed trait of antifragility.
The business of nature is more than just greens! And in today’s chaotic pandemic-ridden world where the spaces have been reduced to the confines of home or a quick visit to the grocery shop, where school, office, and home have all merged into one, where relationships are finding new meanings and spaces need to be transformed repeatedly for varying needs through the day - resilience, happiness, and constant rejuvenation is nature’s prescription for the worn-out.
Listen to Babita Sinha and Saumya talk about rejuvenating worn-out minds and spaces, and how nature can inspire businesses.
Find out how the shape of medicines is changing into more personalized formulations, how researchers are fighting hard to find low-cost drugs, and how the future of healthcare will be so different from today.
In this session, we explored how Siddharth Mittal is redefining a new Biocon Ltd. and how the company is at the forefront of fighting the pandemic.
We are releasing a big update for Guts, Glory & Story – We have a really big speaker lined up for 19th September, CMD and Leadership Program Director at the London Business School – Steven Sonsino.
Ranked as one of the Top 30 Management Gurus in the world, Steven has been a leadership expert with London Business School for over 20 years. He also teaches at 6 other global management schools and is a sought after international speaker. He is the author of over 12 books including ‘Leadership Unplugged’ and the upcoming ‘What’s your legacy?’
With Guts Glory and Story, Steven will explore Leadership 3.0. He feels leadership in these times is an excellent opportunity to build a legacy. Aimed at CEOs and anyone in a leadership position, this webinar is not worth missing.
Sanjay is the Joint CEO of Mirum, one of the fastest-growing digital arms of the WPP group. The interesting part is the growth that Sanjay and his partner Harish Tibrewala were able to engineer after becoming a part of the WPP group. They managed to grow the agency to thrice its size.
Listen to Sanjay talk about the new rules of marketing in the digital age.
Few highlights of what to expect:
- The rapid migration to digital – why it’s imminent
- The importance of brand building whilst going digital
- The new world of influencers, bloggers, and content
- Marketing automation – what it is and how your business can leverage
- Agile marketing – Data, numbers, and how even small businesses can ride the digital opportunity
Deepak Bagla with a professional career of over three decades, started with the World Bank in Washington DC. In 1989 he joined Citibank Global Corporate and Investment Banking team and held several responsibilities across Europe, Africa, Asia and Australia. In 2007 he joined Private Equity to start an India dedicated fund for core infrastructure.
Deepak is currently the Managing Director & CEO of Invest India, the National Investment Promotion and Facilitation Agency promoted by the Government of India. Invest India is also the execution agency for Government of India’s Start-up initiative. Deepak is closely associated both with the GoI’s Project Management Group as well as the Science and Technology Department and is on several government committees.
Kanwal Singh is Founder and Managing Partner of Fireside Ventures. Fireside has invested $50Mn across 18 investments in the early stage consumer brand companies and is in the process of closing a $100Mn second fund.
Kanwal has been passionate about mentoring and helping build consumer brands in India and has been involved as an investor with brands like Paper Boat, ID Fresh, Epigamia, Yogabar, Licious, Mama Earth, Vahdam Teas, boAt etc. Kanwal has been investing in the early stage ecosystem in India for the past 19 years, first as a Director of Carlyle Group, India and later as a Co-Founder and Senior Managing Director of Helion Venture Partners.
Prior to his investing career, Kanwal spent over 13 years in consumer marketing with Hindustan Unilever and Intel India. He has over 30 years of experience in venture investing, marketing, sales and business development across diverse sectors.
Samir has over 25 years of rich experience in research, strategy and transformation consulting in India, Asia, Middle East, Singapore, UK and the US.
Samir currently leads the Sahayata and the Advantage programs in India, at the Wadhwani Foundation, focused on supporting small and medium enterprises to tide over the current Covid crisis and to help them scale up to 2-5X and create or preserve jobs. Wadhwani Foundation was founded by Dr. Romesh Wadhwani, who has pledged USD 1.5 Bn for the mission of job creation and who was recently awarded the Padma Shri for 2020.
Samir is a thought leader, author of over 40 articles, has built conceptual frameworks and has rich insights in several domains such as strategy, organisation behaviour and psychology, etc.
Samir holds a Master of Change, from INSEAD, France.
Are you trying to make sense of the changing reality and decode the next normal?
Join us for a conversation with Mr. Praveer Sinha, MD & CEO Tata Power as he shares his perspective and helps us understand how they are navigating through this crisis.