Never say No, to new challenges

Story of role-model Hrishi Mohan

Hrishi said, “ ..

I make my company thrive, by never saying NO to new challenges.

I finished my MBA in 1998 with a specialisation in HR from SIBM. Soon after, I joined Godrej Appliances - a joint venture between GE and Godrej. 

In 2 1/2 years, I learnt my HR ropes by working hard and never saying No.

Our company had 22 locations across India where sales and customer support staff were located. I travelled around, met many people, and solved problems. 

Then, I revisited our service organisation to implement ways to lower our costs.

I moved to Wipro Infotech in 2001. We were 1200 people strong then. There was much to do and lots of freedom to deliver results.

What I lacked in experience, I made it up in the naivety of nodding my head up and down (to say yes :)). 

It helped to no end that Wipro operated on merit and if your work had a voice, you could be one amongst equals. 

I got to manage the HR operations of a business unit soon after and loved the freedom that the driving seat brought to me.

Wipro old timers will tell you that every 2 years, you are off to a new role, learning new ropes. The musical chairs brought me to the corporate office and I was now a hello shout away from Mr Premji himself.

I was asked to solve an interesting problem. Who was I to say no?

Mr Premji wanted to bump up his reading speed, given that a large part of his working day was spent in reading reports. He already reads faster than most of his peers but wanted to do even better.

I researched the possibilities for about 15 days. I found a browser based solution that rapidly flashed words on a screen in quick succession so that you did not have to move your eyes while reading. Voila! speed bump!!

We brought the solution to Mr Premji. He loved it. He even asked his reports to check it out.

My next adventure took me to the US where as part of a client engagement, we were to unfortunately let go of several employees. 

Besides managing the tenterhooks for all those around me, I also helped to defuse potential fires daily. 

No lawsuits were filed. Thank God!

If wonder if not saying NO, earns you a reputation of sorts? In 2011 - do you remember the Arab Spring? - we had to shut down our Cairo operations. I got sent there to do it.

I spent 8 weeks there, gracefully shutting down shop.  

Some nights I would wake up in cold sweat. I feared for my family's happiness, more than I did for myself - lest something untoward happen to me.

I moved to Uganda next, as we were setting up operations there. Been there. Done that.

Time passed. 

In 17 years, I had become the HR head for a line of business. Up to now, I had never said no to new challenges. This had worked well for me.

New challenges were becoming scarce. I figured it was time to move on. 

Since then, I moved to Accenture. This was 2020 beginning. 

I said yes, to program managing our business continuity in India, during the Covid Crisis. 

Now I work in the Pharma Industry. My quest for challenges continues.