Beyond Work

Freelancing has truly come of age for the modern corporate professional in India. In an era of increasing life-spans, and shortening career-spans, how can experienced professionals prepare themselves for the changing demands of jobs and careers? And how can they adapt and succeed in the emerging freelance gig-economy? What are the options to them after retiring from a fruitful corporate career?

In the inaugural event of Gurukul – “Thriving In The Gig Economy”, organized by IndusGuru, a curated platform for independent business consultants, more than 100 senior freelance professionals – from functions related to Strategy & Finance, HumanResources & Organizaiton, Marketing & Operations, InfoTech & Digital, got together to discuss and explore these themes. The event was led by an eminent group of speakers and panelists, who have been CEO’s and Business Leaders – and then chosen to take the road-less traveled, including Mr R Gopalakrishnan, Milind Sarwate, Pramod Gothi, Anant Bhagwati and Priyanka Gulati.

The key note speaker, R Gopalakrishnan, who is a celebrated author and has served on the Boards of India’s 2 most respected companies – HUL and Tata Sons, regaled the audience with his personal life journey of learning and renewal – abiding themes he has explored in his books. He spoke of the need to unlearn before learning, when faced with new situations, challenges and roles – citing his own experience in Unilever Arabia and later, when he moved from HUL, as one the oldest executive Board members to the Tata Group – where he was the youngest on the Board! Most importantly, he shared his tip to staying young– “keep your Telomeres long”! Telomeres as biology students would know, are the end points of our DNA, whose wearing off and shortening leads to aging.

The finale of the session was a panel discussion, drawing out the life events, stories and mantras of success from accomplished business leaders – who had chosen, at a relatively early point to leave the corporate rat-race – and do something different, whether it was being a Coach, an Independent consultant, an Entrepreneur, or join the Social Sector.

Milind Sarwate, a celebrated CFO with Marico and Godrej, shared his own life changing event at 50, when he decided he must do something different. He now serves on the Board of several listed companies, and runs a financial advisory firm.

Priyanka Gulati and Anant Bhagwati, represented that breed of young professional of today, who have chosen to give up lucrative corporate & consulting career in a large firm in their 30’s and 40’s– and instead do something different, be it turn entrepreneur or join the Social sector – to contribute back to society.

The audience engaged in high-octane Q&A with IndusGuru’s established management consultants Vinu Vishwanathan and Sangeetha Shankar. Both questioned the assumed norms of consulting and marketing. Vinu translated the diversity of India’s culture to his success as an independent management consulting – when in Rome do as Romans do. Debatable? Perhaps. Sangeetha shook and questioned the very foundation of marketing. Why do you choose Amazon over Flipkart? What makes a product successful? Its marketing campaigns? Word of mouth? After-sales service? None of those.

IndusGuru today has grown to a network of 400+ senior professionals, with a combined corporate experience of 6000+ manyears.