Communication, Proactiveness, and Sustainability : In conversation with Subhas Chandar

[00:00:00] I don't think we've discovered the potential of what AI can actually do to our lives. If today, I have to pick that one attribute, I would probably say how proactive you are. I would recommend two things.

[00:00:11] One, can you communicate very well and how well can you articulate your thoughts? You might not like all your seniors or you might love all the people that you're working with. That discipline is very, very essential. Good day everyone. Welcome to Wisdom Whispers with Abhishek Mittal.

[00:00:27] Get ready to decode the mysteries of business. As we welcome our guest who is the Sherlock Holmes of Business Intelligence, Market Maverick and Supply Chain Sage. He's here to help us navigate the wild world of data and build careers brighter than spreadsheets future.

[00:00:45] Subhas has two decades of experience. He hails from Chennai and settled in Delhi from past 16 years. Outside of work, he's a sports enthusiast and a big-time Rajnikanth fan. Let's welcome Subhas to the show. Hello everyone. Nice meeting you Abhishek. It's been fantastic.

[00:01:04] I was quite surprised when you reached out. In fact, I was watching all your episodes for quite some time now. And the good part was I was about to write to you saying that,

[00:01:13] hey, I quite like this episode and how you've been kind of invested in doing all of this by taking out time. But the surprising part was you reached out. And when you reached out, I remembered all the outbound trainings that we had been through

[00:01:25] and all the interactions that we've had during different projects. So fantastic connecting with you and thanks for having me on the show. Subhas, thanks a lot for agreeing to join us for this show. So before we get into the more detailed understanding of what you do,

[00:01:40] before we would like to understand how our career has grown over the last two decades. Okay, perfect. So, see I did my engineering from Ani University in Chennai. I completed my electronics and communication engineering way back in 2008. Now, since then, because of recession,

[00:01:58] the company that had given me an offer, right, had actually taken back their offer. Right in the sense that I got an offer later, but I never got a call later. Now this happened sometime between 2007 and 2008, between my third year and fourth year. Right?

[00:02:12] Just like every other fresher, it was a world full of opportunities and at the same time, it was a world full of despair. It depends on how you actually look at it. Yes. So I started looking around in terms of what are the different opportunities

[00:02:25] that are out there. Then I came across one of these procurement consulting companies in Chennai and I decided to kind of give it a shot. Now they gave me a very interesting assignment in terms of identifying the cheapest land globally and they wanted me to submit that assignment

[00:02:41] in like about a week. Right? Coming back, coming from an engineering background, you never do any of this, any of these type of assignments. We talk more about diodes, electronic components, semiconductors, etc. I was quite intrigued by what the question was. Spent a lot of time,

[00:03:00] reached out to different organizations or associations and then only realized there is an industry that exists like this and they call it consulting, quasi-consulting, KPO. There are different terminologies that are being used and that's how my journey began. I joined this company called Barrow.

[00:03:16] This was way back in 2008 and since then it has been no looking back. I was in Barrow for roughly about 20 odd months and after that I had an opportunity to work with the smart queue and I've been with the smart queue for the last almost 16 years now.

[00:03:31] I joined them as a senior research analyst and in my current capacity what I ideally do is I head the entire function that involves in providing analytics and research services for clients whereby our intelligence is used for the CP office or the CFO office

[00:03:47] or sometimes even the COE teams sitting globally for different types of companies and sectors such as CPG, life sciences, industrials, retail, so on and so forth. So that's largely about me in a nutshell. Great. That's good to know because I think 16 years back you moved to Delhi.

[00:04:07] So how are you feeling like being in Delhi from last 16 years? So it's been a great feeling to be very completely transparent with you. There was a funny incident that happened. So I landed in Delhi somewhere around 24th December 2009

[00:04:22] and my first day at the smart queue was on 28th December 2009. Delhi is freezing. I'm coming from Chennai. The lowest temperature that you probably see is a 23 or 24. We don't go below that. So first day in office, I'm getting acclimatized.

[00:04:42] I'm having a jacket so on and so forth. But first day in office, I'm completely dressed up and formal. We were supposed to be there by 9 a.m. I'm there by 8 15. And because this is my first day in office, I want to make a good impression.

[00:04:55] Make sure that I get a good head start. There are no delays so on and so forth. And I had a cab pick up and that time I was staying somewhere in Delhi because the office had provided an accommodation for the first week.

[00:05:06] So taking a cab, being there, tugged in and sitting in the reception waiting for people to come in. The best part that happened was almost everyone that came by, they all had a kind of a funky stare at me. And I was wondering why?

[00:05:23] It took me at least 20-30 minutes to realize that I am the only one who is not even wearing a sweater, who is not wearing a shawl, who is not kind of having any mufflers or gloves so on and so forth. Not even a jacket.

[00:05:34] I was tugged in my formals and I was actually waiting in the reception. Now obviously since then, I've also become a true Delhiite. In winter, I have multiple layers of clothing. And it's been a great journey. In fact, I love Delhi as a city.

[00:05:48] It's I love Noida, Delhi, Gurgaon. I've been travelling quite a bit in these places and the last 16 years no wonder I have not moved out. So the city also grows on you. The infrastructure is fantastic and you get to meet great people like you who are truly extroverts

[00:06:05] who kind of make you feel comfortable, who share their experiences. And that's something that that's really lovely to be very candid. Nice, nice. Good to know that. Daily welcome you well. So and and related to that, I can share like I like 20 months back,

[00:06:20] I moved to Singapore and when I moved to Singapore again, similar to that, like my first day in office, I was dressed up in a formals. I would have code code and pants and was going to office and I took I took public transport.

[00:06:35] That's how Singapore travels, right? And I reached office and everyone was staring at me throughout the journey. Why? Because I was the only person in that in that weather who was in code, right? Because I thought it's four months. You have to be in a co-operate environment.

[00:06:48] You have to be formal. I have lived a consulting life. And then I reached office. I saw like everyone was in casuals. So so I can just resend it back to that. I also face the same thing. Great. So so much thanks for sharing that.

[00:07:02] Now would like to understand from a perspective, from your perspective, when you started in this KPO research kind of environment, what was the expectations from you at that point of time? What you really did and when now when you on board new people

[00:07:18] coming from campus or one to is of experience like you, like you moved from Barrow to the Smart Cube. Then what exactly you look into them? So see, I think the expectations have really changed over the last 15, 20 years, right?

[00:07:33] So I've been going to campuses for the last decade or so, where we pretty much start with Delhi College of Engineering. And now it's called DTUIS. And that's the first day. That's day one for us. In fact, we get day zero there.

[00:07:48] We make the presentation so on and so forth. And I've been leading those presentations over the last four years, where that's where we go ahead and start kind of talking about what the Smart Cube is, what this entire analytics and research industry is all about.

[00:08:01] How is a KPO different from a consulting company? So on and so forth. Then we talk about what are the different aspirations that individuals can look at? Now, if I look at it, if I look at a decade back, I think almost all of us, right?

[00:08:18] When we went through different interviews, I think the first and foremost thing that was looked at was our academics. How strong are we in terms of our grades? Were we among the top five person in our particular function or practice? So on and so forth. Yeah.

[00:08:34] But over the last decade, things have really changed. We are seeing more entrepreneurs. We are seeing people who have a diverse set of capabilities. Right? If today I'm going to campus and I'm speaking to someone, or if I need to go back in time

[00:08:51] and advise myself in terms of what are those two, three attributes that organizations are looking for? I think the first and foremost thing is they're expecting individuals to have very good communication skills, both written and verbal.

[00:09:05] And when I mean verbal and written, it not be 100% grammatically correct, but you should be comfortable when you're put in front of an audience, when you're put in front of a client, when you're put in front of any business stakeholder.

[00:09:16] He could be a senior or she could be a senior stakeholder. How well are you articulating your thoughts? That's the most important thing that stands out. Second, what we really look for is business acumen in the sense that it's very similar to how you logically analyze a problem.

[00:09:34] If tomorrow you're given a business situation, can you think through? You might not know what that business is all about, but can you on the spot bring through how to approach that problem statement? Can you think through logically step by step?

[00:09:46] Okay, this should be step one, this should be step two, this should be step three so on and so forth. And you're able to interconnect step one and step two to something else. Like for example, even as simple as if there is a earthquake in Mexico.

[00:09:59] Will it have any impact on Philippines in terms of Philippines? If they are one of the leading producers of coconut oil, will an earthquake in Mexico have an impact on Philippines? Now I might have zero understanding of this market, but is there a way

[00:10:15] in which I can connect both these subjects? I think that's really increasing. So if there are two things that I would tell fresh graduates or people who are aspiring to reach out to any job, whether you are on the client side

[00:10:29] or you are on the service provider side or you are like a thought leader like you. I would recommend two things. One, can you communicate very well? How well can you communicate and how well can you articulate your thoughts quickly in a very crisp manner?

[00:10:43] Second, how can you improve your business acumen? Do you read a lot about what's happening in the global businesses? What's happening in global markets? What is a company? What is a private company? What is a public company? How do they operate? Right. How does profit and loss work?

[00:10:57] All these small things make a very big difference in terms of how you are coming across in front of a placement committee or in front of where you are getting interviewed for. That's at least two things that is on top of my head when it comes to,

[00:11:10] you know, me looking back at my career or me kind of encouraging anyone to attend any of these interviews. And like when you enter now, so like now you got a chance to work, work for an industry like yours and to be successful in that industry.

[00:11:28] Now, what should I keep working on? See, it's a very tough question, but I can broadly summarize it into three segments. One, I need to be very disciplined in what I'm ideally doing. Right. Like when I mean discipline, I can break that down further into.

[00:11:45] It could be as simple as, you know, someone is, you know, asking me for a call, am I dialing in two, three minutes or at least five minutes prior to the call? Am I going prepared with an agenda?

[00:11:55] I'm just not, you know, going ahead in terms of looking at what is it that I can share on the spot, but going well prepared or at least if I'm not prepared being on time, ensuring that I'm responding to the other individual correctly, so on and so forth.

[00:12:11] Right. I think the best example that immediately comes to my mind is how you have been conducting all of this. You gave a two week sets up, you send the agenda well ahead and you kind of spoke about the theme. That was fantastic. Right.

[00:12:22] So that discipline is very, very essential. Second, I also feel that sometimes, you know, there is always this debate of, should you be an individual contributor? Should you be a team leader? So on and so forth. Right. Or can you be an all rounder versus specialist?

[00:12:36] This debate never ends throughout your professional career. There will be different pockets where you need to take a leap of faith and you need to believe that this will actually work. Right. That is very, very essential. Third, always look up to your seniors. Right.

[00:12:52] You might not like all your seniors or you might love all the people that you're working with and it may not be only your seniors, it can be your fellow colleagues and even juniors. There will be different attributes that they will have. Right.

[00:13:02] Their energy, their willingness to run the extra mile, their availability, they're continuously online. If you ask them anything anytime, they are always available. Right. All that stands out. Right. So if I have to summarize this, your discipline, it's very important

[00:13:17] to be very disciplined, staying on the ground so that you can keep moving forward. Always take a leap of faith and look up to people around you, especially see how the journeys of your colleagues have been, especially senior stakeholders whom you're reporting into.

[00:13:32] That will kind of be the initial stepping stone for you to understand what else you can explore. Right. That has always helped me at least. No, these are great insights because I think somehow in our previous

[00:13:46] episodes as well in bits and pieces, all the guests have covered these things. And you are bringing it together. That's really nice because I think professionalism, right? Discipline is more about professionalism. There is very much important and sometimes it is missing from a lot of individuals

[00:14:02] when they join from campus because they think the still casual attitude can continue into the corporate world too. Right. And that's what I have seen. I know you might have also seen that and we have observed that I can remember my smart cube days as well.

[00:14:16] And when we used to have a lot of people joining in from, fresh from campuses, like we used to face this as a challenge. But I think they need to really work on this aspect, professionalism. That's right. Yeah. Great.

[00:14:28] So there's one thing which I checked before coming for this episode, like you are an ambassador for the sustainable procurement pledge. Right. Can you please tell us more about it? That how and why do you get involved with this entire idea? Yeah.

[00:14:45] So this was way back in, way back in 2017-2018. So one of our clients had actually started this episode where they wanted to bring in people and they wanted to bring in people from different segments within a company, right?

[00:15:05] Within an organization, you have different buying offices or business units that you might call it. You have the procurement function, the finance function, the manufacturing function, R and D, marketing sales, so on and so forth. What this individual did was he had bought people primarily from the

[00:15:20] procurement function and his goal was very simple. To look at whatever you do, ensure that you're conscious about Mother Earth. Right. And that's how it started. Right. That was very fascinating. Right. And we, and our CEO also kind of was quite interested in it.

[00:15:40] And it was first between the smart cube CEO and me where we had kind of conceptualized this fact as to should we bring in more people on board, etc. Because we were completely sold on the idea. Right.

[00:15:51] Now it could be even as simple as, you know, the procurement function is actually going ahead and sourcing indirect services or direct materials. Can you actually take a look at ensuring that, you know, the process in which you're sourcing, you're not really damaging the environment.

[00:16:06] And can you pledge or at least work towards it? Today, you might still have a huge carbon footprint, but over a period of time, can you actually reduce it? Now, what that led me to think about was the fact that when we are

[00:16:21] advising clients because throughout we are using different analytics tools, research tools, techniques, etc. We are going ahead and talking to our clients about how can they procure different products? How can they source different products? What intelligence do they need?

[00:16:34] So in all these cases, what we felt was can we also bring in the sustainability element because it's not only for not only beneficial to the environment, but it is also going to help the client think in a different angle. Yes. That was widely appreciated.

[00:16:49] And in fact, today at the SmartCube, we have at least 40-50% of the community who signed up for that SPP as they call it, Sustainable Procurement Pledge. And that was really fascinating because it just, we all talk about sustainability globally.

[00:17:05] Even when we order something, we talk about sustainability even in a one-to-one setting or for our personal consumption, but it is great that people are talking about it. So it was just that one small kind of push from one of our clients

[00:17:18] that kind of made us ensure that we are also investing heavily in sustainability. Right. So that's how I ended up there. Nice. Nice. Because sustainability is it's not just a little bit companies now. It's even countries looking at the most more broader perspective. Absolutely. Right.

[00:17:34] And it's such an in-topic right now. It's very much required. We're all talking about global warming. If you don't take step right now, then nothing will happen. That's true. Right. So. You can already see it in Delhi. I think we had our worst winter. Yes.

[00:17:49] I think we are going to have a worse summer. Worst summers. Yes. I think it's going to be, it's going to be crazy. You've also published a book and you keep publishing multiple articles and you write multiple channels. Right.

[00:18:07] We have already talked about the importance of reading in corporate life. Right. But I would like to understand what's an important importance of writing also in the corporate life. So we all talk about reading and writing and to me it goes hand in hand. Right.

[00:18:23] I've always had a fascination for writing and this happened way back in 2009, 2010. There was an Icelandic volcano eruption that happened. And the first thing that hit me was this is going to impact the entire European airline industry and no one was paying heed to it.

[00:18:42] So I just put together an article talking about how this can impact different sectors from pharma, consumer health care, food and beverage and so on and so forth. That was the starting point. Now in our line of business, the primary thing that we do is write

[00:18:56] reports, QC reports, publish content. Right. So I've always been fascinated by doing that. But for that, the most important step is reading and it goes back to the earlier question that you had asked about business acumen. You can't improve your business acumen if you're not reading

[00:19:10] about what's happening globally and you need not be always business related. Sometimes even autobiographies play a very important role. Experiences play a very important role. A lot of business management books play a very important role. Right. So reading is very essential. We all agree.

[00:19:25] Now in the recent time and age, at least between 2013 and 2014, what I found was there is a demand for content out there. Now this content can be any fold. You have, you know, people are looking for content that is bit sized, 100 words, 150 words. Right.

[00:19:49] The best example are your LinkedIn posts where you talk about all this in like 100, 150 words and they just want the content to fit in their five inch, you know, touch screen phone. Yes. Now for this before chat GPT people started writing and they started posting different thoughts.

[00:20:09] They never worried about how grammatically accurate their language is etc. Now what writing helps is it helps you articulate your thoughts better. It stays out there and you can always refer back. Sometimes thoughts, you lose your thoughts over a period of period, but

[00:20:24] when you write content, it helps you further improve your overall communication skills. It helps you go out there and express yourself very well. And to me, writing is as important as reading. And what I've found is when you write that content always exists.

[00:20:43] People can always refer back as against when you speak. You still have to summarize that at the end in case if you want the person to remember. So writing is very essential. I think reading and writing go hand in hand.

[00:20:55] It's important that over a period of time, as I said, as if you're a fresh graduate and watching this episode, I don't think you should hesitate in putting your thoughts together, picking up pen and writing it. There are different tools today that will help you correct your English.

[00:21:09] I'll help you articulate your thoughts better so on and so forth. But as you start speaking and writing, you will be able to articulate your thoughts better and to me that's the most important thing. Nice. Nice.

[00:21:19] Because that was on top of my head because we now from the last three months, I'm writing a lot of content on a lot of platforms and I'm presenting a lot of content through this podcast as well. But I think writing is very important.

[00:21:35] As you said, you can anytime go back. You can look at your content, like what you have done. And that's how you are learning. And in our research industry, we do look at a lot of people's

[00:21:47] what exactly they have written in the past and what they're talking about the future. And that's how we also gather our thoughts around it and then you summarize and bring a new perspective altogether. And I'm sure in your vision for your podcast, you're thinking that at some time

[00:22:00] you're also going to publish transcript of these interviews. So there it goes. Yes. Thank you. That's that's a good suggestion, so I will take it. Perfect. But this is one more question in my head. You have you have worked with so many different clients, so many different

[00:22:19] industries. What's the one constant which you have seen, which applies to everything? Maybe in terms of research, maybe in terms of your learning, maybe in terms of a problem statement. So there must be some things which are constant across your different work.

[00:22:34] See, at least I can divide this probably into two, three parts. If you look at before covid, the economy was moving so on and so forth. Clients who are not really pushing you to get insights at a faster pace, they were looking more for quality insights

[00:22:56] and they were looking for insights and individuals who can run the extra mile who are willing to focus on excellence so on and so forth. But since the advent of the pandemic, this entire landscape changed.

[00:23:12] If today I have to pick that one attribute, I would probably say how proactive you are. Agility. Right. And clients typically love us for that. Four years back, you need to complete the entire report and then send it to the client. Right.

[00:23:30] You can obviously have a discussion over an interim report. But today, the client is not interested in the entire report. The client is interested in insights. The client wants to work with you. Right. So collaboration takes high presidents over us just submitting a report to a

[00:23:46] client or just sending a report to the client and then taking them through addressing questions. The client wants to be invested throughout the process. And for collaboration to work out very well, it is important that I have to be proactive. I reach out to clients.

[00:23:59] I reach out to my different stakeholders. I reach out to my colleagues. I reach out to people across different levels and show that I bring them on board. And if I do this proactively, it works really well.

[00:24:11] In fact, when we talk about proactiveness, there is this one story that I keep talking to my colleagues about. So, you know, there were two people and there were two people in an industry. Let's just say Tom and, you know, Ram, right?

[00:24:25] And Tom and Ram are due for uprisings. Tom is rated three on five, whereas Ram is rated five on five. Tom is a bit upset about it because he gets to know what Ram is rated and Tom conferences boss saying, Hey, you know what? What happened?

[00:24:41] Why am I getting a three on five? I've put in as many hours as Ram. So what this boss does is he brings Tom and Ram into a room. He tells him that, Hey, you know what?

[00:24:52] Why don't you go and why don't you go to the nearby market? Nearby market. Tell me how many watermelons are there in the market? Mm hmm. Right. Tom and Ram both go off. They spend a couple of hours come back. Right.

[00:25:08] Both have come in and, you know, they are ready to present their insights to the boss. Now they're put in a meeting room and first Tom goes ahead. The individual who's got three on five. He says that there are 16 watermelons and probably there is one vendor with 16

[00:25:25] watermelons and there is another vendor with two more watermelons. Right. Then he shifts the question towards Ram. Ram is with you that, Hey, you know what? Yes, he's right. There are 16 watermelons with one vendor and two watermelons with another vendor.

[00:25:39] But both these vendors have a lot more watermelons in their warehouse. And this is that headcount. Each watermelon costs X Y. If you buy everything together, they're willing to give you a discount. If you want them to be transported to your house as well, this is the charge

[00:25:56] that they're actually, you know, incurring per kilometer. And this is what your final price will be. Now the question to both of them was how many watermelons are there? Now this makes a big difference. Now this is what clients are expecting.

[00:26:08] A client has asked you a question next, but can we go back to them proactively and tell them about X minus one, two X plus one, two. And that adds a lot of value. Right.

[00:26:16] So at least that's one thing that I've really seen in the last four or four years where clients want individuals to be proactive and it's not only clients, even stakeholders within an organization, the leadership, people at, you know,

[00:26:29] senior leadership levels, people at mid managers, everyone wants the other individual to be proactive. Right. So at least that's one attribute that I can definitely share. Yeah. Because now that is what are you meeting expectations? Are you going beyond that? Right. That Tom met the expectations. Correct.

[00:26:47] And even meeting expectations was not easy. Absolutely. I'm not saying, right? Absolutely. But are you going above and beyond and saying that, okay, I have met the expectations, but these are additional things which I can bring on the table. Absolutely.

[00:27:00] And that's what I think we have faced a lot of challenges when we do an year in appraisal and people say, well, I've done everything what you asked, Subash, but why am I getting three? Because you have met the expectations. That's what I was looking from you.

[00:27:12] So yeah. No, and in fact this goes to our business acumen as well. Right. When you start looking at an industry or when you start looking at a topic, you start thinking about it in all angles. Yes. Right. And then you start asking questions.

[00:27:23] Now, the more you ask questions, the more you learn and that helps you succeed. At least that's how we've been seeing in the market. And if there is one thing that I would tell myself even five years back,

[00:27:34] I think I should be even more proactive right before someone comes up with a question. If I can go with that question and provide that answer, then it's game on. Yeah. Because we are into a research industry as you're saying, like if you don't

[00:27:48] look at the other perspectives, sometimes you are not putting the right perspective in front of your client. Why? Because it's quite possible. So let's I can easily take an example of let's say Motorola or BlackBerry, right?

[00:28:01] If they would have asked that what will be the market size in 2025, we would have said it's a great market size. The market will grow. But will you be able to grow or not? If you would have seen that what other players are doing and how they

[00:28:15] are changing the market, they would have none before that. We have to move ahead with something new, some new product, not the product which we are doing because that's what I could agree more. I think, you know, I understand why you're coming.

[00:28:28] And that's where this whole degree of proactiveness come in and your proactive and not only in your professional life, but even in your personal life, that adds a huge value because now you're married to know, you can understand the proactiveness there. Thanks for reminding.

[00:28:46] So one more thing in this particular profile, which you have been, how the artificial intelligence has changed the way we are working and what you think will be the future ahead of this artificial intelligence in this particular industry.

[00:29:05] And I see this is a question that we get asked almost every two, three days to be very transparent with you. The impact of generative AI ever since the advent of chat GPD has been enormous. Right. Now, let me put it this way.

[00:29:19] See, if you personally ask me, I don't think we've discovered the potential of what AI can actually do to our lives. Yes. So we are experiencing this in different formats. It could be even as simple as a simple chatbot and one of these

[00:29:34] applications helping us answer different questions. There need not be a customer representative or if tomorrow an organization had 100 customer representatives, at least the first five 10 questions, they're kind of getting it completed through know some of these chatbots, etc. This is a very simple application of generative AI has

[00:29:51] played a very important role. Right. I wouldn't go to the extent of saying that generative AI is going to impact jobs immediately so on and so forth. I think we are only at the tip of the iceberg.

[00:30:02] We don't know what is beneath, but we all expect that what is beneath is going to be humongous. That's absolutely right. I think what is beneath is going to be humongous because we ourselves have been running different experiments for our clients in all

[00:30:16] these initiatives that we spearhead for our clients. We see tremendous potential, right? But can we clearly articulate the outcome in the given setting? We can articulate it in certain pockets, but we are not able to articulate it across different pockets, even as simple as, you know,

[00:30:31] let's say tomorrow you had a, you had like 200 PDF files and all you need to do was extract information from each of these PDF files and put it in a table. 10 years back, it was a, it was completely human intelligence.

[00:30:45] In today's day and age, you are able to do this in less than an hour by running different algorithms, extracting information, presenting information in the format you need. Right? But this is just one end of it. Right?

[00:30:55] The second part of it is how can this be further automated? Then how can insights come off it directly? And even as simple as you are interacting with, you know, a food delivery executive, right? Or you're, you know, a transportation service provider.

[00:31:10] These days, the first individual who you talk to is actually a chatbot, right? You don't end up talking to a customer care executive. Yeah. And it's, it's in voice, it's in text, so on and so forth. So artificial intelligence is really penetrating businesses, right? That's definitely there.

[00:31:28] Is it displacing jobs? I don't think it's really displacing jobs. Does it have the potential to displace jobs? Maybe some of the jobs that can be automated can actually get displaced. However, I still feel that at least in the next decade, human

[00:31:45] intelligence and artificial intelligence will go hand in hand while the tool can extract all information and while the chatbot can provide answers to a set of questions. If you go beyond that, they do need a customer executive to come in and talk to you, right?

[00:32:03] As simple as you ordering food over a food app or raising a complaint against, you know, a service that you've recently subscribed to so on and so forth. So the advent of AI is tremendous. Clients are really investing in it.

[00:32:16] Some of them have stayed out of it and want to see what competition is doing so on and so forth. Some of them have outsourced it. Some of them have adopted a hybrid model where they have set up central teams to continuously monitor all the

[00:32:28] different developments that are ongoing so on and so forth. So that's absolutely fantastic. I do think that the potential is humongous. If you are a fresher and you are actually looking at, you know, will this displace my job before I get a job?

[00:32:42] I don't think that's the way you should look at it. I think it's important that you start understanding how these tools work. What are the different things that you can upskill about? Right? Even as simple as today, there is a huge demand for

[00:32:56] people who can speak multiple European languages or Asian languages in India. Yes. Right? While Generative AI or any tool can only provide that much cover. Now this is a very good area for you to upskill. Right now, like this, there are so many spears where you can upskill.

[00:33:11] Analytics is going to be a huge industry. It is already a huge industry and it's going to have even higher growth because that will form the base of all your AI models, ML algorithms, so on and so forth. So it's a no brainer.

[00:33:24] As a fresher, my request would be more about how you can upskill yourself in these nice areas and keep a tab of what's happening in this space so that you can be abreast in terms of what are the different things happening in this space?

[00:33:36] How can you actually use it today? AI is not your competition. AI is your friend. If you treat it as a friend, it means you need to get to know what AI is about. Look at it that way. That will really set you up for success. Great.

[00:33:50] Thank you. And that's ending this entire conversation at a very high note. Right? So thanks a lot, Subash, for joining us for this. Guys, if you like this episode, please like, share and subscribe on YouTube. And if you are listening to this on a podcast, audio podcast

[00:34:06] platform, do follow us so that we can keep sharing the more content around this. With this, Subash, we will with this, we will now move on to the next section of it, which is unwind. You said reading is also important.

[00:34:24] Can you name any two books you recently read? The books which you think that everyone should read? See, I think, see, I'm a big fan of cricket. I adore watching a lot of cricket matches, especially test matches. Right.

[00:34:38] So I recently ran across this book called A Century is Not Enough, which is the autobiography of Saurav Ganguly. Right. Having been a millennial and seen for people of our age group, we've seen the rise and fall of Indian cricket

[00:34:55] with Saurav Ganguly in the sense that, you know, if I look at it in the second half of or during the Y2K period, hardly had a team, right? It was Tendulkar and it was only Tendulkar. Tendulkar, you know, and Saurav Ganguly came in and

[00:35:11] gave a different perspective altogether. His book, A Century is Not Enough is truly pathbreaking and I would recommend it for any campus graduate or anyone who's closely followed Indian cricket over the last two decades. He talks about how he rose to stardom and how he

[00:35:27] fell from stardom overnight and how he managed through the different nitty gritties that he was actually put into. Right. The way he navigated through all the problem statements, the individual who he recommended as a coach wanted him out of the team. Yes. Right.

[00:35:41] The same board got him out. Right. And all of a sudden he was playing for, I think, West Bengal in one of the Ranjit Raufi matches. The way he talks about his depth, the way he talks about his highs and lows is truly amazing.

[00:35:55] And you could, as a professional working in a corporate environment, you would very well relate to it. If it can be, you know, you can actually go ahead and that book is relatable to any individual across different spheres. I wouldn't recommend two, but at least this one

[00:36:11] book really caught my eye. I've at least read it two or three times now and there are different snippets where I've kind of earmarked where, you know, whenever you have your highs and lows, it's important that you kind of go through those snippets. Lovely.

[00:36:23] That's, that's good to know. Uh, I know you, you have been working very hard, right? So what you do to unwind yourself from the work environment? See, it's sometimes when you're working, uh, you know, you're working, right? See, I'll, I'll put it this way.

[00:36:40] I don't see a huge difference between my personal life and professional life. I look at things as, you know, if you need to get something done, you will focus on getting that done or whether it is at your personal end or your

[00:36:51] professional end, you start prioritizing which one you want to do first. Right? That's how it typically works. Now in the last two, three years, I've really started enjoying gardening, right? I have built a small garden around my house and I've been kind of enjoying, you know, watering

[00:37:07] the plants, using different types of manuals, seeing the flowers blossom, so on and so forth. Right? I've really enjoyed, I have quite a few pets around my house, though I don't really, they don't live with me, but they live in and around my house, the

[00:37:20] cats, the pigeons, so on and so forth, feeding them, seeing them. That's something that really gives me a lot of strength, right? And one other thing that I really enjoy is I watch a lot of sports, a lot of football matches,

[00:37:32] a lot of cricket matches that really helps me, you know, kind of unwind to a great extent in terms of taking my head off from what I'm doing and coming back again, that gives a lot of fresh perspectives. At least these are two, three things that really

[00:37:45] stand on top of my head. Okay. What does success means to you? I should say success means happiness, right? If I am happy, I'm successful, right? Thanks a lot, Subash. Thank you Abhishek. Thanks for being part of the show and thanks for sharing so many insights with

[00:38:00] the audience. Yeah, and it's truly fantastic, Abhishek. You know, when I, I think we worked for certain projects for the farmer sector, if you're able to recollect way back in 2011-12 in that period, I still see the same smile and the enthusiasm.

[00:38:16] You greeted me saying, I have not changed a bit, but it doesn't look like you've changed a bit. But I truly appreciate the enthusiasm. In fact, what really pushed me to join this podcast of yours was the amount of effort that you put in, despite you working

[00:38:31] around the clock, managing numerous things, the investment that you made is truly amazing, right? And the planning that you actually put in, I did not expect this from you, right? I thought you're calling all your friends and, you know, making them speak and becoming an influencer.

[00:38:45] But you're doing much more than just becoming an influencer. I think making a difference is very essential. And I'm glad that, you know, I could participate with you and share my two cents. No, thanks. Thanks, Subash. Thanks for being part of the show. Thank you.

[00:38:58] Thanks for the good words around it. Thank you. Thanks. So this was our episode with Subash, the things which we discussed. And I think what he also was very, very much enthusiastic talking about was that how we can be successful, not just in this business

[00:39:14] intelligence and research field, but in our, in our lives, wherever we go, right? So one is communication. And as I have talked multiple times, communication does not mean you have to be perfect in your English verbal communication or writing communication. It's about how you articulate. That's very important.

[00:39:34] That's one thing he has been talking about. Another thing which he was been talking about is proactive, that how proactive are you? So please follow these things. We will keep bringing more such food for thought ideas and conversations in our next episodes.

[00:39:49] Again, if you have any feedback, please do write to us. We are available on Gmail, LinkedIn and Instagram. And please, please, please do subscribe to the channel and share it with your friends and colleagues so that we can reach the right audience.

[00:40:05] This is me, Abhishek Mithal, signing off. We will be back next week with another episode. Thank you.