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Nothing beats experience – Anand Joshi, MD NobleTek (India)

February 21, 2013 12:19 PM / 1 Comment / admin

In Learning Infinite Interview series, we bring to you perspectives from Anand

Joshi, Managing Director of NobleTek PLM Solutions Pvt. Ltd..

Anand has experience in managing and profitably growing Offshore Product

Development (OPD) as well as Professional Product Lifecycle Management (PLM)

and Engineering Services business. He was instrumental in turning Indian

subsidiary of NobleTek into a profit center. He is an ardent Chess player and

traveler.

LI: Please tell us something about your journey as a professional over these years.

Anand: I have had a very rewarding professional career so far. Although the career span has not been more than 18

years so far, I was fortunate enough to get a lot of opportunities to play different roles. The opportunities varied a lot

in terms of the organizations I worked with, different functions, different situations and in different countries. These

different roles posed different challenges at various stages. Overcoming the challenges provided precious learning

and the sense of achievement at the end of every role that lead to consistent career progression – a journey from

being a trainee engineer to the Managing Director. What I consider most rewarding however is the opportunity to

meet a lot of interesting people on the way.

LI: How did you learn about what you do? Was it a course that you did or was it on the job?

Anand: I have always learnt a lot from people I met with. In the professional career, I have always strongly believed

in the power of common sense. That alone has been the single most important teacher in my life so far. After my

graduation in Engineering in mid nineties, there were obviously two choices – one, to begin the professional career

and the other was to pursue the higher education. Most of my friends and batch mates decided to go abroad to

pursue M.S. in search of greener pastures while others chose to pursue Management education. However,

somewhere in my mind, I believed that the best way to learn the practical aspects was to begin the career and start

learning on the job. The career progression so far has proven that my assumptions were right and I am glad I did not

follow the herd. Besides, I was clear in my mind that from the career progression standpoint, the opportunities are

going to be abundant in the Indian market compared to those in the western (developed) world. Hence I have almost

always worked in India while occasionally traveling across the world on business.

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LI: What are the challenges you faced, interesting or otherwise? How did you deal with them?

Anand: Since the roles I have played vary a lot, each of them have posed specific challenges – specific to the

organizations, situations and functions.

Since I started my career on the production shop floor as a supervisor, the challenge then was to ensure I build

excellent relationships with the workers. I started out by assigning a new workstation/machine to myself everyday

while assigning the work to each of the 40 workmen in my shop. This not only helped me learn the challenges the

workers faced, but also gave them the confidence that I was one of them. It was quite satisfying achieving highest

utilization and through put consistently from them in a highly unionized production environment. When I switched over

to the design and manufacturing engineering, the challenge was to convince everyone to adapt to the computer

aided design rather than using the drafting boards. This change apart from the numerous automation tools we

developed boosted the productivity in designs. This paved the way for me to enter the world of Product Lifecycle

Management. My short stint in Singapore taught me how to win business and deliver growth for the organization.

The role as a Manager of business posed challenges from time to time on taking the business to the next level,

winning business and attracting and retaining talent. The challenge of attrition made me move into the Employee

Relations role and I learned a lot while being the change agent. The role in my current organization was to convert a

cost center of an American company into a profit center by winning business. For which, I had to take some tough

decisions such as bowing out of the domestic market. This allowed us to focus our energies on the international

market and we could win business from India! Each of these challenges have really given me immense learning and

the achievements have given a sense of fulfillment and job satisfaction which keeps me going.

LI: Who has (or have) been your mentor or coach in your professional journey?

Anand: All along this journey, I have learned through observing and picking up good qualities from several people. I

haven’t had one mentor or coach, but several of them. I strongly believe that there is always something to learn from

every individual – be it your boss, peer, subordinate, business associate or customer!

LI: What, in your view, does it require to be a successful executive?

Anand: One needs to learn and sharpen several skills in the profession. Since most part of leading involves working

with people, competencies such as communication, inter-personal skills, ability to motivate and teamwork play a vital

role. Besides these, ability to plan and execute, absolute focus on quality and customer, ability to take good decisions

quickly and result orientation are important traits to be a successful executive.

LI: What does learning mean to you? How can working executives/professionals learn better?

Anand: Irrespective of the profession, age and the position, the learning should never stop. One who feels that s/he

is not learning stagnates in the career and eventually becomes obsolete in this fast changing world. You do not stop

learning because you have grown enough, but you stop growing further because you stop learning. The basic nature

that separates humans from animals is that we inherently continue to learn on our own after the formal training is

over. There are several means by which one can continue to learn. I think in adult learning process, nothing however

beats experience.

LI: What is the role of a leader, in your view?

Anand: The leader, by definition is the one who has followers and the one that simply leads them. However in

today’s world, good leadership does not suffice to get results. Organizations today need exemplary leaders at all

levels. The leader’s role is to think and dream big, effectively communicate the dreams, effectively motivate people to

achieve the same and leading from front towards the goals. There are several traits that separate a great leader from

the rest. Great leaders have exceptional human skill. They are compassionate, but tough when required. They also

have an ability to see a Bird’s eye view (the bigger picture and a long term view) and yet, they stay grounded

(attuned to reality) at all times.

LI: What kind of books do you like to read? Any books that you would recommend.

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Anand: Tons of literature is available today and many of the world’s famous personalities have written a lot of good

stuff. However, I personally feel that leadership is something that cannot be taught or learned by reading. It is

certainly an art that needs to be honed through practice – constantly applying different ways, learning through the

failures and experiences and continuous improvement. The books however certainly help us guide and provide

direction. While there are plenty of books really worth reading, the one I found to be the simplest, concise and the

best is the “One Minute Manager”. The authors have very simply described different styles of leadership and how

one can navigate or flow from one style to the other based on the situation and the person(s) they are dealing with. A

good leader should always flow with the current in matters of style, but should always stand like a rock when it comes

to principles!

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Posted in: Interviews, Learning, Uncategorized / Tagged: Anand Joshi, interview, Learning Infinite, NobleTek

One Thought on “Nothing beats experience – Anand Joshi, MD NobleTek (India)”

Anand, excellent!

keep it up. you make us proud!

Baba and Aai.

Reply↓

waman

on February 22, 2013 at 9:01 AM said:

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