Some time back, I came across this terminology of IWP which is in corporate culture nothing but inspiring work place.  How it is understood by many organisations and Leaders is that good colourful walls, written with lot of quotes, beautiful tables and comfortable chairs and likewise things generally make the work place inspiring. Some how I couldn’t see that inspiration there in those fancy furniture and gadgets! Last year, in one of the feedback, I understood, that our team was one of the very few teams, who could able to deliver the results above the expectations and even in the tough demanding conditions.  How was that happen ? We the team of 30 people didn’t even had place to seat.  Every morning team use to come and settle down in one small room and half of us will be standing for whole two hrs meeting, because not enough chairs were there. During the day colleagues will find the place wherever possible nearby and work with full enthusiasm. They were not demotivated with the fact that they don’t even have allotted place to seat. The inspiration doesn’t come from materialistic things but it comes with Powerful human interactions. Every human interaction in organisations can be inspiring or uninspiring.  There are hundreds of human touch points in the organisation and how people are interacting with each other will define that are they inspiring each other or demotivating. I have worked with many of the bosses during my long corporate career and my observation is that some of the bosses will not even wish you good day if they don’t need anything from you. They will cross you as if they don't even know you. Do we feel such leaders seating in glass cabins will inspire teams to deliver at high performance with fancy furnitures around. Rather I strongly believe that if we make every human experience positive and full of love and compassion the people will feel valued and engaged. The inspiration can flow from one human to another human, its human thing. The inspiration can flow in team with Common purpose and unique cause and someone guiding from front. The energy of inspiration lies inside human being and thats why with every human interaction we exchange either positive energy to negative energy to others. The inspiration is nothing but are we able to pass and generate positive energy in others with every human interaction in organisation. The warmth with which people exchange the eye contact to each other generates energy, whether positive or negative. I remember in my next door department there are two-three interns, who have joined, fresh from college and very young. Every time we cross, I see a wide smile on the faces, a spark in eyes. A positive energy get passed. Like a good human being, I reciprocate the same and some positive energy flows. The experience remains good and positive, there is nothing to loose we are not sacrificing on deliverables but how are we asking to deliver and how the deliverable are delivered makes a huge difference. To make the work place inspiring one must create that energy and ora around. How are you interacting with people ? Every time when you interact with people do you pass down positive energy ? Do people feel enthusiastic to meet and greet you ? Do people wait for your meetings ? Do people feel that something inspiring will come when I meet next time this person? these are some of the points we need to ponder upon and introspect. The inspiring work place can be created in any kind of circumstances. Some people feel that if everything is going good and situations are not challenging or rough then in that good going situation only we can create a good work place. Rather it is reverse way, when things are not going good and situations are adverse and things are not going well, you need more and more inspiration to draw positive energy and delivery on tough demanding conditions. People come to workplace for work. They do not have any other intention. But will they work at their fullest potential and will be able to delivery extra ordinary results? That all depends on as what kind of energy that place produces. This reminds me the article of Prof Sumantra Ghosh titled "The smell of Place" . If the ora of that place produces positive energy and inspirations, the ordinary people can produce extra ordinary results at the same place. The energy and inspiration is produced by human being on that work place. every person who is in influence of the situation, if start producing the right energy and inspiration the whole place will become inspiring. Thats how the inspiring work places are always created with lot of positive energy and creating experiences at each and every human touch points in the organisation. https://youtu.be/UUddgE8rI0E Creating positiveness and happiness movement. From here.. To.... -->>

S R Gopal Rao Opticians & Optometrists is the pioneer optician in Bengaluru. It was established by my ancestors in the late 1800’s under the name of Narayenrao. The business was then handed over to S N Rama Rao (Narayenrao’s son) after which it got rebranded in 1936, under the name of S R Gopal Rao Opticians. S R Gopal Rao was the son of S N Rama Rao. Each generation brought with it changes and improvements to the business, which helped it grow to become the trusted brand that it is today. Narayenrao and S N Rama Rao were both watchmakers and opticians. S R Gopal Rao on the other hand sold off the watchmaking division and focused the business on the optical sector only. S N Rama Rao was the sole optician to erstwhile Maharaja of Mysore and we continue to remain the opticians to the present Maharaja of Mysore and his family. Years after it was rebranded to S R Gopal Rao Opticians (SRGR), the business was inherited by my grandmother followed by my father, thus making me the 6th generation to take the business forward. A long line of ambitious entrepreneurs, loyal customers and a great team is what makes SRGR the brand that it is today. It managed to live through several changes that took place in the industry : the explosion of optical centres at every nook and corner of the city, the organised sector that came through in the form of large format retail chains, a city with ever changing residents and now it see the era of heavy discounts and ecommerce. Every change was take upon as a challenge to review and strategise. As a part of the industry that is saturated with competitors, intimidated by online reviewers, controlled by large multinational suppliers, exposed to technology and vulnerable to frequent changes, I decided to focus on our core strength, which is customer service rather than quick compromised expansion. To do so the first step would be build a team of efficient, caring opticians and the next was to highlight the rich heritage of SRGR. Trust is a very important factor and it comes with experience, we have over 100 years of it. Alternately, I decided to invest in technology to help with the operations, customer serviceability and growth of the business. We recently implemented SAP for our inventory management and customer management segment, making it efficient for us to locate each SKU, specific brand models and customer records. What I rely upon more are the reports and other metrics that the software generates, which will help us optimize purchases. We have also invested in technology that will help us showcase 5000 SKU’s available across our 3 stores, in any given store location, virtually. Both projects will be completely in place within the next 3 months. Further more, we have set up an ecommerce brand called Getspexy that focuses on selling customised eyewear accessories for either gifting purposes or own use. The future looks very interesting in this space. My intention is to grow the brand so that it sees’ another century. To do so, it is important for me to keep a ear to the ground, an eye on competition and industry changes and invest in innovation. I do have plans to get more creative in the near future. The way forward is to set the brand apart from the rest in ways that only a few can replicate, while always keeping the customer and team at the helm of affairs. Written by : Meghana Manay, Manager- Marketing & Expansions, S R Gopal Rao Opticians & Optometrists Photo credits : Saina Jayapal

I completed my MBA from IIM-B this year in March. I was one of the eight Gold medallists out of 593 students graduated from IIM-B this year. This 2-year program included regular classes coupled with stay at IIM-B during weekends. This course demanded nothing but the best out of everyone. Many have asked me as to how I managed to juggle successfully between the 3 balls – Family, Profession and Education at the same time. One has to have a shared interest with all the stakeholders if you want to succeed. The key here was to create a robust Eco-system among (with) all your stakeholders. This will then ensure that everything else runs smoothly while you can concentrate on critical things. I would spend a minimum of 10 hrs. at office every day and weekends at the institute. During this tenure, connecting with family and seeking their support in this journey was very crucial. Having breakfast along with family before leaving for office used to give me lot of leverage to spend time with family and also reaching home by 7.0 PM and having dinner with family was ensuring that I am not leaving them out of touch and every day to spend some time with family systematically on weekdays. Occasionally, we had some time to spend during weekends when I was not at IIMB. Although it land me spending late evening for office work at times but worth it. At office, I worked with my team to develop their competencies and empowered them to take care of the operational topics. I would involve only where it was necessary based on the topics. My team and I worked a lot on processes and ensured that we are more of process driven and not people dependent. The idea here was to manage the processes (and not the people) and engage with the team. This was crucial in building the right Eco-system at workplace. This ultimately helped me manage my work schedule within the working hours. We did not have many instances where we had to extend our work hours to late nights or work on weekends. Similarly, in my studies, I used to plan everything systematically on a weekly basis. Classes were scheduled for Friday evenings and full day on Saturdays. I would plan all my studies before the next schedule of classes began. I always ensured that on daily basis, I would finish my assignments and case studies before sleeping for the night or wake up early morning and complete them without any excuse. I would also plan the daily load systematically for every subject, that way balancing the load equally. I also factored in the specific event if any taking place during that week. I ensured that I stuck to the plan and completed all the tasks before the next schedule began. I used most of my leaves in the last 2 years for preparation and projects. I managed to do 3 international projects - One was with Soul National University - South Korea, another was with Smurfit Business School, Dublin - Ireland and one with Lomonosov Moscow State University – Russia. I had to visit these countries for a week each. This meant a lot of investment in terms of money, efforts and time. This all came with lot of learning's that was very enriching and value adding. This is short summary as to how I managed multiple roles and gave the best in every aspect. I have always believed that the best way to lead others is to lead yourself first. Leadership is not only leading big teams and leading a mass but it starts from self and goes way beyond. Only when we start leading ourselves with passion and integrity we set examples for others to follow, during which we earn respect from others who will then see us as their role models. This is something I have always believed and learnt over my career in different roles. Start with yourself The following words were written on the tomb of an Anglican Bishop in the Crypts of Westminster Abbey: When I was young and free and my imagination had no limit, I dreamed of changing the world. As I grew older and wiser, I discovered the world would not change, so I shortened my sights somewhat and decided to change only my country. But it, too, seemed immovable. As I grew into my twilight years, in one last desperate attempt, I settled for changing only my family, those closest to me, but alas, they would have none of it. And now as I lie on my deathbed, I suddenly realize: If I had only changed my self-first, then by example I would have changed my family. From their inspiration and encouragement, I would then have been able to better my country and, who knows, I may have even changed the world. We inspire others by leading self. Seeing my journey, my wife re-started her hobby of art and transformed her passion to profession and now her work has been displayed in several art galleries. Inspiring each other in our team, 6 of us are engaged in higher studies on various fields and up-skilling ourselves. One of my team member is doing course on Data analytics and AI, another is doing CFA, one of them is doing up-skilling course with IIM-C and one another colleagues is getting expertise through course in IFRS and forensic accounting and so on. We all need to inspire from each other’s and aspire to be better compared to yesterday and a lot may follow….! IIM-B 8 Gold medallists for 2018 Convocation

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