Top 10 Trending Speakers

As the financial year 2020-21 comes to an official end, the country is eagerly looking forward to the next year and businesses are gearing up to pick the pace up in business activities. A lot has changed over the last 1 year and the conventional client engagement and employee learning sessions have been transformed into specialized programmes. In the latest edition of the Top 10 Trending Speakers, SpeakIn presents some of the most engaging voices that are imparting novelty to the client engagement and employee learning sessions. Over the various forums, these Speakers are creating impact through remarkable delivery and exceptional audience experience.

Deepshikha Kumar, Founder, SpeakIn comments about the latest feature, “We are seeing a tremendous enthusiasm in the organizations with respect to the new financial year. They finally are getting over the COVID-19 scare and are keen on organizing special sessions for their leadership, employees, customers, channel partners and more. Covid or not, businesses have to sustain and business activities have to restore – events, virtual and in-person, being a major part of it. The latest top ten features the trending Speakers who have become some of the most examples of successful interactions and discussions in these events.”

Gurcharan Das

Gurcharan Das is a popular Indian Author best known for his highly acclaimed trilogy on the classical Indian ideal of life’s goals. Gurcharan previously served as the CEO of Procter & Gamble India, and worldwide MD of Procter & Gamble (Strategic Planning) before opting for early retirement to devote more time to writing. Sharing his trust about market competition, Gurcharan comments, “People think that the economic reforms make the rich richer and the poor poorer, which is not true at all. The main problem is that people do not distinguish between being pro market and being pro business. Every business person is a monopolist and wants maximum market share. But markets on the other hand ensure that the person who wins actually deserves to win.

Amish Tripathi

The Director of Nehru Centre at Indian High Commission in London and a popular mythological-fiction Author, Amish is widely recognized for his best selling Shiva Trilogy. Has been listed among Forbes top 100 celebrities in India and was also featured in ‘Top 50 most powerful Indians’ by India Today. On being asked if he is worried about the subject of his books angering some people, Amish comments, “If you want to write stories like this, there is no better country than India. If you look in our past, the tradition of modernizing and localizing myths has been a rich tradition for thousands of years.”

Dr. Raman Gangakhedkar

Dr. Raman Gangakhedkar is an Indian Epidemiologist and the Dr. CG Pandit National Chair at Indian Council for Medical Research. He was formerly the Director in charge at the National AIDS Research Institute. Dr. Gangakhedkar is also the recipient of Padma Shri for his service and research in the field of HIV/AIDS. Sharing his insights on the public apprehension about vaccine side effects, Dr. Gangakhedkar comments, “One thing we have to understand is that when you give any foreign protein in the body, your body’s immune system is going to react against it. Once the body recognizes a non-self protein there are certain local and systemic reactions likely to occur. There could be pain and swelling at the injection site, there could be a mild fever which also happens during childhood immunization. These effects however, don’t last beyond a couple of days.”

Rajiv Narang

Rajiv is the Founder and CEO at Erehwon Innovation Consulting. Recognised as an Innovation Thought Leader, Rajiv was part of the National Planning Commission panel to recommend ‘India’s Innovation Strategy’, and the lead architect of the ‘Innovation for India’ Foundation. Sharing his views on innovation, Rajiv comments, “The first myth we need to bust is about managing innovation. We have departments being created around managing innovation. We are perhaps solving the wrong problem. Innovation is not the purpose. Innovation is the means. Transformation is the purpose. Innovation is not an end in itself. When we start managing innovation, things go completely awry.”

Rhea Mazumdar Singhal

Rhea is the Founder and CEO at Ecoware and is a global thought leader on climate change and inclusive growth. She is also the recipient of Nari Shakti Puraskar, the country’s highest civilian honour for women by the President of India. On being asked if we are heading towards a better world, Rhea shares her concern, “I think we have wrecked the world. I think we are trying to fix it. The question, for me, is if we are acting fast enough. I see a lot of people making commitments. We are seeing the big corporates do it. But I think we need to move quicker. I’m also seeing a new wave of entrepreneurs that are coming up and they are tackling some of the most challenging problems that we face today which is fantastic. They are so purpose driven that they are finding solutions.”

Anand Pillai

Anand Pillai is the Chief Transformation Officer at MothersonSumi Infotech and Designs. He is also the Managing Director at Leadership Matters and is a globally acclaimed leadership coach and organizational transformation guru. Sharing his insights about identification of market competition, Anand says, “Most people equate the word competition with competitors. Competitors are just one form of competition. If you are an airline, your competitors are other airlines, but your competition is somebody who is even using a car because that person is a traveller. Even someone having a video conferencing overseas is also a potential traveller and hence it is a form of competition. You need to correctly identify your competition.”

Vandana Sharma

Major Vandana Sharma (retd) is an Indian Army Veteran and an International Woman Icon. She is also the Co-Founder of STREE and the founder of StartupPeopleConsulting. She has expertise in talent acquisition, capability building, setting up new ventures, HR and people management and others. Commenting on the assumption of society towards successful women, Vandana says, “Success means different things to different people. People say that women can’t have it all and you sacrifice something to become something, to give something, to take something. Well no! You can have it all. You might have to juggle a lot, but it is ultimately your choice.”

Ashish Pradhan

One of the most widely recognized names in the packaging industry across Asia, Ashish Pradhan is the current President (Asia) at Siegwerk. Before Siegwerk, Ashish served in senior leadership positions at Huhtamaki, Henkel and International Paper. Sharing his opinion about what makes promising brands, Ashish comments, “A brand is all about emotions. When you think of a brand or see a brand, it evokes emotions in you. If those emotions resonate with your own emotions then you like the brand. But at the same time, it also has to be true to the value and emotions of the creator of the brand. If there is a synchronicity between the two, the brand becomes a strong brand.”

Subir Moitra

Subir is a corporate communications professional who has worked in senior leadership roles at Sterlite Power, KPMG India, Pratt & Whitney and United Technologies Corporation. At KPMG India, Subir was responsible for strategizing the communications plan for the firm.

Sumedh Kulkarni

Sumedh is a B-School faculty, proficient trilingual Corporate Trainer, Speaker and a Coach. As Chief Mentor with S.K Academy of Training in English, he facilitates learning for college students, job aspirants, SMEs, homemakers to enhance their conversational skills. Sharing his insights about verbal communication, Sumedh explains, “Body language is one of the major components of communication everywhere. Actual spoken words on the contrary have a little role to play. It is body language which is going to make or break your deal.”