Interview with Mrs. Abha Maryada Banerjee, Founder & CEO, Success India by Vakani Saba

• Tell us something about yourself?

I am India’s first woman motivational speaker of international acclaim, rated as one of the Top Ten Life, Business and Success Coaches in Asia Pacific. An expert at Leadership, Human Peak Performance and Emotional Intelligence, I am also the Peak Performance/Mental Strength Coach for Indian Olympic Athletes.

After making a significant impact in different parts of Asia, I launched a People Building Company in 2008 in Mumbai, called SUCCESS INDIA. The ‘vision and mission’ of this company is to lead a ‘Mental Freedom Movement’ in our country. SUCCESS INDIA aims at building people by imparting ‘Leadership, Personal development and Success education. SUCCESS INDIA teaches ‘personal efficiency and constant improvement’ as a way of life, through multiple mediums in the simplest and most entertaining ways as possible. The Success India ‘vision’ is also to include this education as part of our ‘Education System’.

I have spoken at prestigious events across Asia as a representative of the Indian people. I have coached over 2000 People and Business’ across the World in performance enhancement. Known as ‘Asian Oprah’ and the ‘Asian Woman Motivator’, I am gifted with the unique ability to get people to take action to reach their fullest potential. I profess ‘Personal Mastery’ for individuals and ‘Emotional Fitness’ for Corporate’ for achieving excellence.

A lawyer by profession, I took the leap of faith to follow my ‘Core Calling and Life Purpose’ of finding ways to improve the quality of human life and thought. Committed to my super powered vision of ‘Celebrating Human Possibilities’, I set out to courageously retrain myself in the field of personal development after being in ten years of active Law Practice. Married for 20 years, a mother of two , a son aged 18 and a daughter aged 8, I stepped up to bring India on the World Map in the field of personal development. Loved by my students and audience, I am a livewire speaker who has a unique blend of passion, integrity, spirituality and practical useful knowledge, humorous enough to have you in splits, I am the ‘Emotional Fitness Guru’ of India for personal and business transformation.

You can check more details on www.abhamb.com

• How were you inspired to start this venture?

I am a lawyer by profession and my core calling was to ‘build people’. Having practiced law for over 10 years, I quit practice to pursue people’s development as the bigger goal and to achieve a bigger social purpose. The idea for this venture came up in 2006-2007 and I launched it in 2008 in India with a vision to start alternative education to fill the missing gaps in our existing educational system and professional studies. Currently we are located in Mumbai as our first branch and hoping to expand to other cities by the end of 2012.

• Whom do you admire as your role model? Why?

I have closely followed successful Entrepreneurs and my personal temperament is that of a risk taker apart from being an Ideator, Visionary and a Thought Leader. I have successfully executed many new ideas and I feel that is my biggest strength. Amongst the Indians, I truly admire DhirubhaiAmbani and Shahrukh Khan, who do different things but as Entrepreneurs and Business people have built up on a single idea from zero to massive empires. From the West, I admire Richard Branson for his ‘working in boxers’ style, Donald Trump for his resilience and sharpness. There are many more, but I also admire number of Leaders who have created history. A huge follower of Swami Vivekananda for his ‘mixed version’ of the East and West philosophy, Osho for his ‘in the face’ spirituality, Jesus Christ for an amazing learning of ‘self’ through the Bible, the Bhagvad Gita for its simplicity and application, The Inventors and Greats like Leonardo Da Vinci !

• What is your philosophy towards work?

I follow the principle that ‘there are no rules to life’ and ‘we have the freedom to make our own rules’! I prefer not to break rules, but to make new rules as when I create something, the pre-existing rules will anyway not work. Add so much value in every possible sense, that the client is flabbergasted. Keep the intention clear and honest, value ideas, time and people. Never stop trying new things and new ideas.

• Is the Name of the Institute from where a student does his/her Management courses important while entering into corporate world?

Yes, it does matter these days. As they say the first impression matters, so what you carry in your portfolio would make an initial difference. However, in today’s environment anyone who has the capacity to bring in results becomes the hero and it is possible to do that. At the end of the day, what you can deliver as an employee, coworker, partner or entrepreneur matters most.

• “Management is core to every individual, organization & society.” Give your views on it.

As I said earlier, there are no rules to life and we have complete freedom to create our own environments, be it personal or professional or organizational. Having said that, Management to me would mean ‘optimization and maximization’ in any given situation. At the core of every individual or organization is a ‘need to grow’ and that gives us an opportunity to test our limits and keep growing. The more we grow, the more we can manage.

• What is Talent Management Strategy all about? Why is it important?

With the growing opportunities and competitiveness, managing talent is the new challenge for every organization and reducing the turnover is one of the primary goals in today’s organization. It has become a challenge to bridge the human resource gap in terms of capabilities, retention and deployment. Apart from that, the ‘growth’ desire of every employee has substantially increased and retaining the talented people requires much more involvement and support from the employer as compared to five years ago.

SUCCESS INDIA is an initiative into ‘holistic success, growth and development of the people’s potential for business and for self ’ through personal growth education, motivational seminars and workshops, training interventions and entertainment. With the growing need to have a TALENT MANAGEMENT STRATEGY in this competitive business environment, to match up to the best in the World, offers powerful solutions for extraordinary personal and business excellence as their key offering, creating human potential development systems, talent management strategies, World Class Executive Coaching, Performance Coaching, Skills development and targeted development interventions.

With a vision to ‘empower mindsets’ and ‘celebrate human possibilities’ Success India Mastery Academy , uses the ‘just in time’ approach to address deficiencies in current performance or to strengthen underdeveloped skills. Our Coaching and Consulting provides organizations with an opportunity to undertake pre-emptive and pro-active interventions to improve and enhance performance.

• How does Motivation and Leadership play an effective role in managing the business?

Motivation and Leadership is the big key to success of any venture or an individual. The basis lies in ‘managing people, situations and the vision all at the same time.’ Any mistakes there can be fatal to the business. To keep people motivated, engaged and involved is very important and it is the ultimate role of a Leader to do that.

• Name 3 qualities of prime importance that an Entrepreneur should possess.

The first big one would be having a ‘thick skin’ and be able to not get affected by naysayers, often who do not have vision, cannot see one. Listen to feedback, but never listen to naysayers and negative people.

Secondly, Building the resilience capacity, that of bouncing back because the entrepreneurial journey does not have a charted path, that we are comfortable walking on, we will fall many times.

Thirdly, Be comfortable being uncomfortable, throw the idea of the ‘Comfort Zone’ out of the window. Every day, you will experience something new and apart from a business, entrepreneurship is also a personal growth journey which tests you at every point. This calls for becoming a superpower as far as flexibility and adaptability to new things go.

• According to you, what are the challenges for Entrepreneurship today?

The first and the big challenge remain convincing the right kind of people to work with you and allowing your idea to be thrashed over and over.

The other big challenge is finances and to survive until one can raise the money or sustain the venture on its own money. This is where many Entrepreneurs give up.

• Can Management and Entrepreneurship be taught in B-Schools/Management Institutes/Colleges?

It should be as Entrepreneurship today is not limited to personal ventures; the same skills can be used in organizational contexts as well. Some new Institutes have come up with courses on Entrepreneurship.

• Do you think today’s economy is conducive for a new venture to start upon?

At the moment the business environment is very organic and some specific businesses are more viable. However, as long as there is life on the planet and people have ‘needs’ anything that serves the needs and imagination of people can be turned into a business.

Also, society has now opened up to the idea of Entrepreneurship in a new way, as a means to social change, which is very good sign for new Entrepreneurs to test their socially relevant ideas.

• “Earning more & more is the motive behind any business.” Is it justifiable?

A business cannot survive without making money; therefore, making more money is never a bad idea. However, if we lose the objective of the business in the name of money, diluting the very essence of why the business started in the first place, it is not worth it.

• What message would you like to give to the budding entrepreneurs?

Do not fear, take the leap. Research your idea very well, make up your mind, do not allow outside people to tell you that you cannot do it and when you feel strong enough to ‘fight’ for it every day, go out there and tell the World what you are capable of!

• What qualities you see for apart from the required academic qualification while recruiting a person?

For my company, I particularly look for dedication and honesty as results come over a period, people who lose patience fast cannot go a very long way. Secondly, I search for people who are sincerely charged in themselves to achieve and perform. It is always a pleasure to work with someone who is a go getter. Thirdly, I want people to stay in the ‘learning mode’, people who are willing to learn and implement and are not stuck to their educational qualifications. Fourthly, I like people with a sense of humor. Life can be cruel, but if one has the capacity to laugh at it, cruelty gives up.

• Your feedback for BMS.co.in?

Loved the knowledge sharing part of BMS.co.in.

Interview with Mrs. Abha Maryada Banerjee, Founder & CEO, Success India by Vakani Saba