Karan Gupta, CEO, Karan Gupta Consulting
What are the breakthrough ideas that you suggest to India in your industry?
India has over 287 million uneducated adults which accounts to 37% of the World’s illiterate population. Furthermore, India produces 24 Million graduates each year out of which 6.72 Million are unemployed. Education is the only thing that can change India for the better and is the tool out of poverty. We need a double-pronged approach where we provide high quality education, skill development and strong communication skills to our youth so that they are able to find employment and lead meaningful lives. We can achieve this by designing internationally recognised and accepted skill development programs and replicate and teach these programs through technology even in the remote parts of the country.
What innovations are you getting in your industry for a better Indian economy?
We run skill development courses for differently abled people and people from underprivileged backgrounds. The courses have been recognised and approved by the Prime Minister’s office and hence after students complete these courses they are able to find employment. By finding employment, these people, who otherwise would be unemployed are now leading meaningful lives and contributing back to the Indian economy.
We have started a ‘train-the-trainer’ program wherein the students who have gone through our course are trained to teach other students. This creates a cycle of trainers and more and more people can be reached through this innovative and breakthrough idea.
Define your leadership style and role.
Being Harvard Business School alumni, I have studied and learnt different leadership styles and have had the opportunity to lead teams using different leadership styles. I strongly believe that a leader should be focused on bringing out the best in people – a leader can achieve this by being trusting, providing guidance and most importantly, motivating the team and people to achieve the team’s objectives. My leadership style focuses on the individual – I do not believe in micro managing but instead believe in motivating people and encouraging and guiding them to achieve their potential. My role is a strategy role and I play this role by being a facilitator.
Breakthrough ideas from you.
My idea is that although we have a very large number of people, we need to focus on each individual’s growth and potential. We can achieve this by designing skill development programs and then customising these programmes for each person. Employers have suggested that most students, even the ones graduating from top institutes have poor communication skills. We can run this communication programme for all students, making them more desirable in the employment industry. Similarly, we can get specific skill development programmes for almost every single work area and then customise this program and run it with the help of technology to reach people even in the most remote areas of the country.
Suggestions for a Better India.
India is a country with kind people and potential to achieve great things. The way to do this is to have the entire population move forward at the same time. We cannot be a great and developed country if a large section of the people are uneducated and unemployed. No one can be left behind. To make the country move forward we have to make sure that the people are educated and have the right skills to take on the challenges of a global economy. We need to prepare people for jobs that don’t exist yet.
