Go Kiss the World: Life Lessons for the Young Professional

'Go, kiss the world’ were Subroto Bagchi’s blind mother’s last words to him. These words became the guiding principle of his life.

Subroto Bagchi grew up amidst what he calls the ‘material simplicity’ of rural and small-town Orissa, imbibing from his family a sense of contentment, constant wonder, connectedness to a larger whole and learning from unusual sources. From humble beginnings, he went on to achieve extraordinary professional success, eventually co-founding MindTree, one of India’s most admired software services companies.

Through personal anecdotes and simple words of wisdom, Subroto Bagchi brings to the young professional lessons in working and living, energizing ordinary people to lead extraordinary lives. Go Kiss the World will be an inspiration to ‘young India’, and to those who come from small-town India, urging them to recognize and develop their inner strengths, thereby helping them realize their own, unique potential.

The Professional: Defining the New Standard of Excellence at Work

‘In the new era, where every person’s actions have the potential to have a global impact, we must redefine what it means to be a true Professional.’By common definition, a professional is someone who possesses the skills and knowledge necessary to do a job—whether it’s a top degree from a prestigious university or simply years of on-the-job training. For centuries, we have relied on this definition to help us determine who is capable and who is not, often assuming that the person with the most professional characteristics is the best one for the job.

But every day we see examples of so-called professionals who do more harm than good. However, all of these people had the qualities necessary to do their jobs well, but instead they chose to abuse and corrupt their professions for their own personal gain.

So how can we weed out the best from the worst when the accepted standards are no longer enough, and when even the most powerful and respected among us cannot be trusted to behave responsibly or ethically? According to Subroto Bagchi, the first step is to redefine what it means to be a professional. Today, it takes more than just aptitude—it takes a commitment to doing what’s right, not only for your business, but for society as a whole. In a world where patients, clients, and customers can no longer completely trust the advice given to them, The Professional outlines the explicit and implicit code of conduct.

Review

LiveMint

This new book helps you to understand yourself better as a professional, encouraging you to test your mettle and assess your work.

The Elephant Catchers: Key Lessons for Breakthrough Growth

'Unlike an operation to catch rabbits, trapping an elephant calls for expertise over enthusiasm. Those who hunt rabbits are rarely able to rope in elephants.’

Many organizations, even those that may have a brilliant start, falter in their attempts to achieve transformational growth in their later phases. In The Elephant Catchers, Subroto Bagchi distils his years of on-the-ground learning to explore why this happens, and what such organizations and their people must do to climb to the next level and beyond. Through a combination of engaging anecdotes from his experiences as co-founder, and subsequently Chairman of Mindtree, and insightful stories from our everyday world, Bagchi demonstrates a crucial point: Organizations with real ambition to get to the top need to embrace the idea of scale and then ensure that it systematically pervades every aspect of its functioning.

Review

The Times of India

Bagchi’s success as a writer lies in his ability to bring business and life together to illustrate key lessons.

Sell: The Art, the Science, the Witchcraft

Everyone is a salesperson by some measure and selling is not a pushy, winner-take-all, macho act. It is an empathy-led, process-driven, knowledge-intensive discipline.’ In his book, Sell – the first book on the subject by an Indian practitioner of business – bestselling author and inspiration to generations of entrepreneurs, Subroto Bagchi presents the concepts of selling and salesmanship from his unique perspective. Elaborating on the essential skills required to be a successful seller – whether of a product, a service, an idea, an organization, or even of personal skills – Bagchi crystallizes his on-the-ground knowledge about salesmanship through stories and anecdotes from his vast repertoire of experiences and extensive reading to provide wise and profound insights and advice on making an impact on others and acquiring the power to influence their decisions. A comprehensive and contemporary treatise on the art, science and ‘witchcraft’ behind selling, Sell will redefine the meaning of salesmanship.

Review

Hindu Business Line

A breezy read, Bagchi does what he does best: selling; and in this book, selling the good tale. Bagchi is a delightful raconteur.

Zen garden: CONVERSATIONS WITH PATHMAKERS

In the world around us, we find two kinds of people: some who are path-dependent and some who are path-creators. The world goes round because of the former; these are the people who deliver predictability. But the world gets better, because the latter exist. These are people who see things that do not exist or see what others do not see. I am fascinated with their stories, collected over time, and published in Forbes India. Now the entire collection has just been brought out as Zen Garden (Penguin). Let me share a few stories from my encounters with these path-creators.

Review

GoodReads

When you finish reading a good book, you are left with some kind of a parting sadness as your journey with the book comes to an end.

MBA At 16: A Teenager's Guide To Business

You are 16, going on 17.

Steve Jobs was all of sixteen when he met Stephen Wozniak. What resulted was Apple.

When Sergey Brin and Larry Page met at Stanford, they were in their early twenties. They were soon to start Google.

Today’s teenagers are our smartest generation yet. They are tomorrow’s entrepreneurs, investors, managers, policy makers, watchdogs and of course, consumers. But do you know what the corporate and business world is all about? How do businesses touch everyone’s lives? What really makes an entrepreneur tick? How does the engine of a company run? Who is a social entrepreneur? And why do we need the world of business — is business good or bad for us? If you are curious, come join me and a group of smart teenagers on their exciting voyage of discovery, and in the process, get yourself a teen MBA!

Review

Business Today

To those who are in the thick of things already, the book serves as a valuable reminder of how innovation and the spirit of enquiry are nurtured and eventually how virtuous cycles are unleashed.