Brain Box - The Leadership Podcast

I had my first guest, Ashish Wattal , in Episode 6 on October 11, 2021. He was then MD at Cisco. Fast forward exactly 18 months: April 10, 2023. He returns after exactly 50 episodes as Country Director at Google Cloud to kick-off Season 12! We discuss in detail around the traits that make him a great leader of multiple high-performing teams: - Empathy & Compassion - Criticality of Trust in get...

On the Season 11 finale, I'm delighted to host Darshan Shetty - currently the General Manager at Continental, who has worked with conglomerates like Bosch in the past. He is also my batchmate from RVCE over 2 decades ago.   Having been in a whole variety of roles - right from R&D to Project Management to Sales - he shares his leadership mantras on how to develop high-performing teams. Bein...

Abhishek Gupta has some of the best credentials there are: He's the CEO of Turbotic, ex-Partner of KPMG & a Board Member.  My conversation with him is around some of the hottest topics today: - Leveraging AI in Self-Driving cars - Utilising AI & Blockchain in HR - Fail fast-fail safe in startups - His 5th & 6th Ps in Marketing!  - How to build an innovative startup (He invest...

If you have read any of the viral posts about “How all the sharks except Aman Gupta are suffering major losses” .. I have the source.  He's Ankit Uttam - an author, LinkedIn influencer & a solopreneur.  There’s a reason, though, that Brain Box is an award winning show by Spotify - we will be digging into the other facets of his life, which aren’t too commonly known - yet are very rem...

Customer Experience (CX) is defined as the customers' holistic perception of their experience with your business or brand. It's one of the biggest differentiators to stand-out in a crowded market. So in today's episode, our guest is an expert in CX in both B2B and B2C - Kavitha Ashtakala.  She also talks about her solopreneurship journey, Individual Social Responsibility (ISR) and how career...

After 51 episodes, it gets more and more difficult to have FIRSTS. Anyone who knows me though.. knows I somehow make it happen. On today’s podcast, I have the first Lawyer on my show! He’s one of the leading lawyers in Gurgaon - Advocate Pradeep Kumar Khatana! If you are like me.. and want to know more than just what-you-see on TV about the legal system, you've got to listen to this!

On this landmark of  launching the 50th episode of Brain Box, on this very special episode - I host someone who is a 2-time entrepreneur, a Certified Yoga Instructor, a Certified Nutritionist & an accomplished Interior Designer, who's delivered projects in Dubai & India.  She's also been in the Corporate jungle in Dubai & India for over a decade, before starting her own start...

I love psychology - and it was indeed a very interesting conversation that I had with Mark Fernandes. He's  been recognised as a Global Thought Leader by LinkedIn in 2022; he's the Senior Vice President of HR in Kotak Life, has 17 years of consulting experience across the Big 4 & is a behavioural therapist. Some of the very interesting topics we discuss: - Why some entrepreneurs succeed?...

One of the most inspiring LinkedIn posts that I happened to see on the New Year of 2023 & I decided I had to get Tamojit on the show! He's currently with PwC in Dubai & is ex-Accenture after completing his MBA from IIM Bangalore.  We discuss:  -  Investing in humility & self awareness when the going is good. - Criticality of self-awareness for leaders - Don't lose hope w...

Today's guest is a Serial Entrepreneur, Amit Goel. He is the Founder of Prodigee Finance - one of the fastest growing NBFCs in the country. We cover aspects of work life balance, how he drives wellness initiatives in his own organisations, his focus on physical and mental wellness etc. 

While the first 9 seasons focused on Leadership, Season 10 is the Season where the focus with my guest leaders is on "Wellness".  My intent this season is to get Leaders to share their honest experiences with Wellness and what we need to improve. This particular episode is spun off from the Season 9 finale, which I felt deserved it's own episode by itself.. and here it is! Most people think t...

For the Season 9 finale, I have one of the most purpose-driven leaders I can personally vouch for! He’s the CEO & Founder of two companies - both into sustainability. He’s an ISB Hyderabad pass-out and is without a doubt one of the sharpest minds I’ve come across & I personally love his leadership style. In today's show we discuss: - Criticality of premier colleges in shaping one's career...

On the penultimate episode of Season 9 (& the year 2022), I have the "Entrepreneur of the Year, 2019", Indonesia. He's also been nominated for Forbes Indonesia’s Most Promising Growth-Stage Startup 2019. In today's show, we discuss: - How he scaled his business from 0 to a $14 mn in sales in just 6 years.  - His practical experiences in doing zero-budget marketing! - How critical culture...

As 2022 draws to a close, I am delighted to host Deepti Karthik, voted among “The Women Disruptors” & "Marketing Head of the Year”.  She’s the Senior Vice President of Marketing at DaMENSCH, ex-Nokia, HUL, SnapDeal & Wipro CCL.  Listen to the show to listen to her very interesting and lucid thoughts on #marketing, #leadership & #startups.

As today's host, Govind Kedia, (Managing Director of Arctic Invent) said "The hunter has become the hunted".  In today's session, the tables are turned - and Kaushik Bose is the one on the hot seat sharing his learnings on "Generating the first Sales as a startup".

On the first episode of Season 9, we have the opportunity to host Kosta Panagoulias on the show. He's a serial entrepreneur & has just recently made a successful exit from Web4Realty.  He is also a fellow podcaster, and is the host of the show "Founder Views", considered to be one of the top-rated business podcasts.  Here we discuss his views on: - How to scale a bootstrapped company...

For the Season finale, I have a very special guest, Mr. Sanjay Vidyarthi. In his career spanning 34 years, he’s worked across industries, across the globe & even built a very successful services startup, iQor which went from 0 - 400 cr in just 10 years with 9 of them being awarded as "Global Best-in-class". 22 of his supervisors are CEOs of various Public companies in US & India.  For...

A very focussed discussion around agriculture with Mr. Raghavan, who's been a Food & Agribusiness Leader with a 360 degree view of complex "Geo-Political, Environmental, Socio Economic, Techno-Commercial & Cultural" perspectives of Agri Food Value Chain in Asia Pacific.  He's a regular speaker at Agri Food industry events/ conferences having started off in the rural marketing space. H...

It took me 8 seasons & 37 episodes before I found the first Marketing Person to feature on the show. Mr. Dhruv Talwar, GM of Corporate Affairs of the Godrej Group.  Being a branding person myself, I’ve finally got THE perfect marketer on today’s show which LinkedIn also validates - he's in the elite Creators Day & has over 50,000 followers on the platform.  He’s won a lot of acco...

Today's guest is Pranav Sanghvi who’s a prolific investor. He’s the Managing Partner at Dot In Network, Principal at MABS Family Office & Managing Partner at Patronus. What differentiates him from the rest of the investor fraternity is that he's also a DJ, a Music Producer & even an Electronic Music production designer!  If that's not enough, he's even a Certified Scuba Diver! Listen...

On the first episode of Season 8, I have the opportunity to host Girish Aivalli - one of the most dynamic leaders I know.  He’s the Chairman, South Asia for AgTech Hub for Innovation; has authored 4 books & also has his own You Tube video series - Tata Katha! Do follow the Brain Box LinkedIn page: https://www.linkedin.com/company/brain-box-media/

In the Season Finale of the very special "Game Changers" Season, I’ve got a very special guest, Mark Kahn, on the show today. He’s one of the biggest names in the Venture Capital space & is the Managing Partner at Omnivore. He set up India's first Agri-focussed fund way back in 2011 & is revolutionising this space.  Just last month, Omnivore won the reputed IVCA Award for Social Impac...

Today’s guest is our first guest from Sweden - Jamal Reimer. He is someone with who I share a common passion - closing large deals!  He closed his first mega deal way back in 2012 in Oracle- for a whooping $50 mn!  He coaches enterprise sellers & startup CEOs how to close mega deals in his workshops.  Not surprisingly, he recently authored the book “Mega Deal Secrets”.

On the third episode of the "Game Changers" series, we have a guest, who's been interviewed by the likes of ABC, CNN, BBC, Thomson Reuters etc.  He's Martin Stark, the Founder & CEO of World Gay Boxing Championships happening in Sydney in 2023.  We discuss about: - How he had his first amateur fight at the age of 47 after suffering from 2 comas;  - Diversity & inclusion; - H...

Season 7, "Game Changers" is the season where I host trend-setters across industries who've redefined leadership. Our second guest of the season is Mr. Hetal Sonpal, who is a proven leader in global MNCs like LinkedIn, Microsoft, Intel & Wipro across countries; then moved on to being a successful angel investor, a TedX speaker, a Half IronMan & even an author! The quest continues & he'...