SPJIMR Podcast

Dr Joseph Sassoon, Author and Professor, Georgetown University, is in conversation with SPJIMR Faculty Dr Dinyar Patel. Joseph Sassoon’s ‘The Global Merchants’ charts the meteoric rise and calamitous collapse of the Sassoon family, Jewish refugees from Baghdad who built a world-spanning business empire out of Bombay, London, and Shanghai. Sassoon’s book is full of fascinating characters: opium tra...

Faculty member Dr Surya Tahora is in conversation with Dr Justin Brienza, University of Queensland Business School. They discuss why despite extensive work on wisdom research it is yet to percolate to the Organisations. They also talk about how 'wise reasoning' can benefit organisations where intelligence, emotional intelligence and cognitive ability fail. The series is brought to you by SPJIMR's...

Dr Nikhil Menon, Author and Professor, University of Notre Dame, is in conversation with SPJIMR Prof. Dr Dinyar Patel. “In ‘Planning Democracy’ Nikhil Menon takes us to the summit of Nehruvian planning in the 1950s and 1960s—and what we find there might surprise us. The story of India’s first Five-Year Plans involved a genius professor, Prasanta Chandra Mahalanobis; deft Cold War diplomacy; and th...

Developing Leaders to Perform in Uncertainty: The Mindfulness Solution In our new podcast series, ‘Sapience’, Faculty member Dr Surya Tahora is in conversation with leadership Development Advisor Dr Elizabeth King They dive into the many aspects of mindfulness; does the evidence match the hype, and can we distinguish between mindfulness's peripheral and deeper side? They discuss the implications f...

Historian and Author Linda Colley is in conversation with SPJIMR Prof. Dr Dinyar Patel. Linda Colley's 'The Gun, the Ship, and the Pen' is a wide-ranging exploration of the development of constitutions, a book which demonstrates how increasingly violent warfare led to the worldwide spread of these documents between the 18th and early 20th centuries. In this episode of Past Imperfect, Colley discus...

In a new SPJIMR podcast series, 'Past Imperfect' our Faculty member Dr Dinyar Patel is in conversation with Historian Dr Ramachandra Guha. They discuss the dearth of good biographies in India and South Asia. Dr Guha emphasises why biographies should not be written with a political agenda but draw on rich and original research as well as a perceptive frame of analysis. They talk about his new book,...

Mr. Dheeraj Sinha, CEO & Chief Strategy Officer, South Asia at Leo Burnett, Publicis Business & Publicis Health, talks about life in a creative agency and how to build brands that people love. He decodes Spotify's strategy and how they go about finding a deeper consumer insight. He talks about how rapidly marketing as a discipline is changing and concepts such as USP don't hold true anymore. He al...

Ms. Megha Tata, Managing Director, South Asia – Discovery, Inc. is in conversation with Prof. Ratika Gore, Assistant Professor- Communications and Head – Alumni Relations, SPJIMR. They discuss the aspect of leadership that is unique to the world of content and the role of women in the workplace. She observes that while the participation of women has increased in the workforce there are still very...

SPJIMR Dean Dr. Varun Nagaraj is in conversation with Mr. Sunil Lulla, media industry veteran and SPJIMR alum, class of 1984. Dr. Nagaraj shares how he interprets SPJIMR’s mission to ‘Influence Practice and Promote Value-based Growth’ to different stakeholders and discusses how SPJIMR alumni can lead such growth. Mr. Lulla and Dr. Nagaraj discuss the unique role of Centers of Excellence in creatin...

Mr. Gourav Rakshit – Chief Operating Officer of Viacom18 Digital Ventures, is in conversation with Prof. Vineeta Dwivedi, Head – Digital Communications, SPJIMR. Mr. Rakshit speaks about how he managed to successfully transition across different industry sectors – FMCG, IT Consulting and Entertainment – and how he decided on the choice of his jobs. He sheds light on how his experiences working for...

Ms. Mansi Tripathy, Regional Vice President – Asia Pacific Middle East, Shell Lubricants is in conversation with Prof. Ratika Gore, Assistant Professor- Communications and Head – Alumni Relations, SPJIMR. They discuss how leaders are meant to and make tough decisions all the time. Ms. Tripathy talks about how having to flee Kashmir overnight during her childhood gave her a sense of perspective abo...

Mr. Rajaram Narayanan, Managing Director & Country Chair of Sanofi in India is in conversation with Prof. Vineeta Dwivedi, Head Digital Communications at SPJIMR. Mr. Rajaram speaks about the availability of Covid vaccines in India, the challenges related to getting everybody vaccinated and what normalcy might look like in India in the next 9-12 months and sheds light on the development and manufac...

Ms. Sangeeta Talwar, Managing Partner, Flyvision Consulting; a leader behind iconic brands like Maggi and Tata Tea is in conversation with SPJIMR’s Professor of Marketing and Head, Delhi Centre, Dr Ruppal Walia Sharma. Ms Talwar reflects on her successful career and talks about the iconic brand campaigns and emphasizes why customer centricity and consumer insights are keys to any successful busine...

This episode of the podcast is a conversation between Padma Bhushan and Padma Vibhushan awardee Mr. A. M. Naik, Group Chairman of Larsen & Toubro (L&T) and Dr. Pallavi Mody, SPJIMR’s Professor of Economics. Mr. Naik talks about his 56-year journey at L&T where he started off as an engineer on the shop floor and went on to become the CEO of the company in 1999 and later the MD, Chairman and Group C...

This episode of the podcast is a conversation between Mr. Partha Sinha, President at Bennett, Coleman & Company Limited (Times of India Group) and Prof. Vineeta Dwivedi, Head Digital Communications at SPJIMR. Mr. Sinha reflects on his journey from being a nuclear design engineer, a banker, a strategy and marketing head of media and internet companies, and an advertising strategist. Mr. Sinha dismi...

How did a talented cricketer, coached by none other than Ramakant Achrekar, start his entrepreneurial journey at the age of 23 and go on to become one of India’s most successful bankers? Mr. Uday Kotak, Managing Director and CEO of Kotak Mahindra Bank (KMB) in this riveting conversation with Dr. Tulsi Jayakumar, Professor of Economics and Chairperson of the Family Managed Business Programme at SPJ...

Mr. Amit Jain, Managing Director of L’Oreal in conversation with Dr. Tulsi Jayakumar, Professor of Economics and Chairperson of Family Managed Business at SPJIMR, reflects on a leadership journey that has seen him helm companies across industries - paint and chemicals, soft drinks, media, cosmetics – and made him a truly fungible leader. Growing up in various Air Force bases across the length and...

Mr Deepak Iyer, President of Mondelez India talks to SPJIMR Professor Dr. Ashita Aggarwal about why it is important for leaders to plan well in advance of a crisis, enable an innovative and growth mindset in organizations, remain invested in brands and employees during crises and how to take advantage of a Black Swan event such as a pandemic to retool the organization. They talk about the myth of...

Mr. Sanjiv Mehta, MD and CEO at Hindustan Unilever Limited (HUL) in conversation with SPJIMR Executive-In-Residence, noted author and corporate advisor, Mr R Gopalakrishnan talks about how the Bhopal Gas Tragedy crisis turned him from a “boy to a man”, and how the experience helped him as a leader to navigate various other crises such as the Arab Spring in the MENA countries, the introduction of G...

In this episode of the podcast, Mr. Bharat Puri, Managing Director and CEO of Pidilite Industries Limited and SPJIMR Dean Dr. Ranjan Banerjee, talk about the links between an organization’s culture and its innovation capabilities, the importance of a leader listening to every last voice in a company and the role of an organization’s leadership in a crisis such as a pandemic. Mr. Puri gives a compr...

Mr Suresh Narayanan, Nestle India Limited’s Chairman and Managing Director, talks about how it was his employees who helped the company survive the Maggi crisis in India, the importance of highly engaged employees in companies at all times and his conviction that well-run companies need to invest more in building a company culture than in CAPX. His insightful discussion about People and Leadership...

Prof. Vineeta of SPJIMR answers questions related to SPJIMR ThoughtCast and what should our listeners expect from the series. ThoughtCast is SPJIMR's official podcast,. With challenging news ideas, management wisdom and practice-oriented leadership lessons, it is an informal conversation between an academic and a CXO. This series showcases the 'influencing practice' principle of the institute and...