The Bengal Chamber of Commerce and Industry organised yet another session of its Think Lecture Series on 19th November, 2018 at the Williamson Magor Hall in the Bengal Chamber premises. The session had three panellists - Mr. R. Ramakrishnan, Chief Executive of Polycab India Ltd; Joydeep Dutta Gupta, Partner, Deloitte Touche Tomahatsu LLP; Mr. Mayank Jalan, Chairman and Managing Director, Keventer Agro, to share their thoughts on "Leadership: A perspective" - and was moderated by Mr. Anoop Hoon, Chairperson, Marketing & Brand Committee of The Bengal Chamber.

Mr. R. Ramakrishnan, who delivered the keynote address, stated that leadership quality is intrinsic to an individual which translates into success by teamwork and sharing of vision and truth by the leader. The property of leadership must be within one to succeed and the goals should be high, he remarked. He cited the example of Mr. Dhirubai Ambani who had the high soaring aim of setting up a petrol company when he was working at a petrol pump.

He added that excellence can be attained through team work and that every challenge faced only strengthens a leader. A leader, he said, is transparent and delivers the truth, no matter how bad the news is. Mr. Ramakrishnan in his speech also mentioned the success stories of Bajaj Electrical and ITC. Bajaj Electrical was a Rs 300 crore company with a profit of 40 crore in 2000 which made a loss of 15 crore through increased borrowings, but Shekhar Bajaj held out hope and they turned it around. By 2011-12 it became a 3000 crore company with an operating profit of 221 Crore. Talking about ITC he said that it started with Tobacco but has now made it big in FMG and hospitality.

Following Mr. Ramakrishnan's speech the session progressed towards a panel discussion with Mr. Mayank Jalan, Chairman & Managing Director, Keventor Agro Limited, Mr. Joydeep Dutta Gupta, Senior Partner, Deloitte & Managing Committee Member and Mr. Ramakrishnan, which was moderated by Mr. Anoop Hoon, Chairperson, Marketing & Brand Committee of The Bengal Chamber.

Mr. Dutta Gupta mentioned how the business model has changed over the course of time. Value previously was created by production, and the factors of production were land, labour and capital. In modern times technology-led disruption has changed the entire structure. Mr. Jalan contributed to the discussion by sharing his experience with Keventer Agro Limited. He highlighted various leadership points and shared how he built his team from ground zero and created a vision document for the company.

The Session ended with Mr. Deb A Mukherjee presenting mementoes to Mr. Mayank Jalan, Mr. R. Ramakrishnan and Mr. Joydeep Duttagupta.