Discover the fascinating world of SHRM's impact on global workforces as we're joined by Achal Kanna, the transformative CEO steering SHRM's course across India, Asia Pacific, the Middle East, and North Africa. Achal's expertise sheds light on the art of creating synergy between academia and industry, and the essential role of purpose-driven work in fostering deep engagement from aspiring students to seasoned boardroom veterans. As your host, Bob Goodwin, I'll share my own odyssey through the corporate realm, offering a unique lens on the strategic integration of HR within the core of business decision-making.
Tune in for an enlightening exploration of India's youthful demographics and its magnetic pull for multinational companies seeking to harness the potential of a dynamic English-speaking workforce. We dissect the allure of India's burgeoning market and its pivotal position in narrating the global economic story. The episode traverses the digital landscape and startup boom of the subcontinent, revealing how a digitally savvy India is paving the way for a revolution in job creation and innovation.
Harness the promise of professional growth with SHRM India as we conclude with a candid discussion on the power of shared knowledge and the cultivation of leadership and teamwork in HR. Learn how Achal Kanna's leadership at SHRM emphasizes cultural fit and shared values, and how confidence, when paired with humility, can transform workplace dynamics. This episode is an invitation to connect with a community poised to shape the future of the workforce and to gain insights into India's exciting digital and economic transformation.
Discover the fascinating world of SHRM's impact on global workforces as we're joined by Achal Kanna, the transformative CEO steering SHRM's course across India, Asia Pacific, the Middle East, and North Africa. Achal's expertise sheds light on the art of creating synergy between academia and industry, and the essential role of purpose-driven work in fostering deep engagement from aspiring students to seasoned boardroom veterans. As your host, Bob Goodwin, I'll share my own odyssey through the corporate realm, offering a unique lens on the strategic integration of HR within the core of business decision-making.
Tune in for an enlightening exploration of India's youthful demographics and its magnetic pull for multinational companies seeking to harness the potential of a dynamic English-speaking workforce. We dissect the allure of India's burgeoning market and its pivotal position in narrating the global economic story. The episode traverses the digital landscape and startup boom of the subcontinent, revealing how a digitally savvy India is paving the way for a revolution in job creation and innovation.
Harness the promise of professional growth with SHRM India as we conclude with a candid discussion on the power of shared knowledge and the cultivation of leadership and teamwork in HR. Learn how Achal Kanna's leadership at SHRM emphasizes cultural fit and shared values, and how confidence, when paired with humility, can transform workplace dynamics. This episode is an invitation to connect with a community poised to shape the future of the workforce and to gain insights into India's exciting digital and economic transformation.
I know you're gonna find it. You've got to keep on at it. Hello everybody, this is Bob Goodwin and welcome to another episode of Career Club Live. We're so glad that you've joined us today.
Speaker 1:Before we begin, I wanted to just let folks know of a couple resources that are available on our website at careerclub. If you're a job seeker, we are making some free resources available to you, including a free coaching call every Thursday that we do at one o'clock Eastern time. No costs, no expectations. We just want you to bring your questions about your job search and we will help you in any way that we can. If you are an employer, we would encourage you to go to the employer section on our website, where we are offering free candidate resources. So in disposition letters, you've got the ability to provide free resources to build your brand and develop a superior candidate experience. So with that, let's kick off our episode today. I am over the moon to welcome our guest today. Achal Kana is the CEO of SHRM in India, asia Pacific, the Middle East and North Africa, and with that, welcome.
Speaker 2:Hi, thank you so much for calling me to your wonderful platform.
Speaker 1:Now. Thank you so much for gracing me with your presence. I think is the right thing, but it's a really generally a pleasure to have you.
Speaker 2:Thank you. I am most humbled All right.
Speaker 1:So you know, we both obviously have connected through Johnny and through SHRM globally, but you look after a very, very important piece of the world. Do you mind just sharing? I kind of ticked off some geographic regions, but would you just sort of quickly explain to people what you do at SHRM, kind of the geographic responsibilities that you've got?
Speaker 2:Well, as you mentioned, I look after the entire Asia Pacific and MENA, and in Asia Pacific, the largest territory is India, with 1.4 billion people, and Asia Pacific is, you know, singapore, malaysia, goa, philippines and Japan, australia. So that is all the Asia Pacific. Mena is, of course, north Africa. Mena is also Dubai, saudi, oman, muscat, so all Arabic countries.
Speaker 1:Yes.
Speaker 2:So it is a big territory and it is one of the most challenging job I am doing, and I always say that I am proud Indian, but I am more proud Sharmite. I love my job. Every day I get up with a challenge that what next to do? So it is a great company to work for organization, to work for, the reason being that there is a purpose, and when you have a job with purpose, you always enjoy.
Speaker 1:Well, I appreciate you bringing that up and, just in all seriousness, talking about the geography, it's the most dynamic, vibrant, growing part of the world. Obviously, we're going to dive into some more specifics about India in particular, but just more broadly, your remit is really important and as you deliver, as you say on Sharm's purpose around work, workers, the workplace and making it better for everyone, yes, your ability to have really meaningful impact is not to be underestimated.
Speaker 2:Absolutely. And when I say that we are a purpose driven organization and I'll just give you an example we influence in this part of the globe, the academia, the early practitioner academia. We start with student, we work with them, we give them the right curriculum, we give the right facilitation slides, because only right curriculum does not make any sense. It need to be taught with the right facilitation slides. We work with the students, with practitioners going to the students to teach them and tell them what is the industry need, because that covers the skills gap, what industry needs. So we try to cover that. We work with the early practitioner, we work with the mid-level practitioner. We also work with the government, we also work with the public sector enterprise, we also work with the senior CHROs, business leaders and CEOs. So we work with the entire spectrum of the workforce. So that is how we are influencing the work, the work of the workplace.
Speaker 1:Which is why again I'm so pleased to have you on because again your fingerprints are all over all that. So before we dive into the topic, do you mind just giving people just a little bit of your career history and how long have you been at Sherman and kind of what led up to that?
Speaker 2:Okay, well, I have more than 25, 28 years of work experience and I started my career with selling cigarettes, which is ITC, which is a bath subsidiary, british tobacco company subsidiary in India, which is the largest multinational Indian multinational in India. From cigarettes I moved to DuPont and I launched Lycra and Teflon in India. I have a very vast career. From there I moved to Polaroid, instant gratification but, as you know, people think more about Polaroid is instant gratification. But Polaroid is more known for tamper proof IDs, the driver license, and in India also we won the best we're for one of the states. The tamper proof ID and the prime minister's IDs were also won by us. So I worked for Polaroid and that is where I started the first software development center for Polaroid. That was declared a chapter 11 company. So I was hired by GE. I worked there for around four and a half years managing, I would say, back office operations for NBC Universal as well as GE Consumer and Industrial.
Speaker 2:Then I started my HR journey started when I started working for Kelly services, kelly girls and we have some similarity because for Kelly I started a senior search wing because the temp didn't interest me and I said no, no, no, I should do something different. So for Kelly, I started globally a senior search practice and which is still existing and which is one of the most profitable business for Kelly. And at that time India had some entrepreneurial, a lot of startup entrepreneurial things were coming in India and I did a lot of search for Carlisle, which had just started their operations in India, and I did some good searches for them and the CEO of Carlisle said that why don't you start your own company? Because the best of the search firms I'll not take their names were not able to supply the good candidates which you are able to give me. And I said I will not do a mom and pop shop unless and until I get an angel funding. So I got angel funding, I started my own company, I sold it off and you know how it is and I was bought by a venture capitalist. I was the bonded labor of the venture capitalist and I did that work for five years.
Speaker 2:I was burnt out and I wanted a very cushy job and he told me that this is a not-for-profit cushy job. This would be a very good job. Join SHM as a COO. I joined SHM in 2011, july as a COO and I was told so many you know. I mean, this is what it is and this is the target, this is what you're supposed to achieve. So many members, so many, this thing. I said, oh my God, I thought this was a cushy job, but it was a very interesting journey which I started, and I am in SHM for 12 years. I was promoted as a CEO for India and then my territory was increased. So this is my journey and I just love my work every day.
Speaker 1:You exude your passion for your job, which is awesome. Just one thing on your background, and then I promise we'll dive into the topic itself. But what I really like, Achal, is that you've got industry experience right. I mean, you've been at entrepreneur company, You've been at Fortune 10 with GE and you're kind of everything in between, and I just think that it's great that you understand the business side of all of this right so that you bring those business sensibilities and acumen to the things that, because as a business operator, it's one thing to have these policies and procedures and mandates and whatever. It's a completely different thing to actually build them into the business and the business be successful. So that practicality, I think, is part of what makes you so good at your job.
Speaker 2:Yeah, absolutely, understanding business is extremely important and that is why one of our program which sells beautifully is HR Business Partner, because it is very important for HR practitioners to understand business. And also we have curated a program Finance for HR people because they need to understand the balance sheet very, very well. Unless and until they understand balance sheets or business, they would never be able to get the seat on the table. So they now do get the respect and seat on the table because more and more HR people realize it, that they need to understand business.
Speaker 1:Exactly, exactly. All right, so let's move into our topic, which is India. I come into this with some ideas and notions about India, and particularly with the workforce, the demographics, but I'm really looking forward. Maybe we can start with this. Can you just sort of lay some general groundwork? We already said 1.4 billion people, which is an amazing number. It's funny, obviously, even looking that up earlier, and it said 1.324 billion. I'm like, okay, 1.3, 1.4 billion, that 0.1 is 100 million people, absolutely.
Speaker 1:So, can you just sort of look at the demographics and just maybe start to get a level set with the population of India?
Speaker 2:Yes, we produce one Australia, like every year, if I'm not wrong to understand the population. But the beauty about India is that we are the youngest country in the world with the largest buying power, and that is why it is attracting the world. Vibrant young buying power, which is 600 million young people, and India's dependency ratio is declining, which means that there are fewer dependents to support. You know, that is what is attracting India to the world, and our average age is 28 years, so this means that our buying power is enormous. The 600 million people are English speaking and they have the buying power. So every multinational across the globe want to come and invest in India. They want to leverage this manpower for their workforce, they want to sell to this manpower their products and services. So that is the beauty of India and that is the right. That is what is attracting everybody to India.
Speaker 1:So you spoke earlier in terms of just sort of your mandate at Sherman, working with academia, policymakers and companies themselves. How do you guys you know it's one thing to have a very youthful population I'm American, so you say it's English speaking. I'm like, yay, that's good, but what about? How do you actually get the skills development you kind of alluded to that to make sure that the workforce is actually being trained in the things that there's demand for?
Speaker 2:So skills gap is a global challenge. I would say what is coming out of academia is not what industry need. They would still need on the job training, which is a global reality. Now artificial intelligence throws another global reality. In my last conference I was interviewing two you know CEOs of big companies and they were from like Ivy League Institute and you know what did they say? And that was the biggest tweet across in India oh, degrees are useless, skills are important, no need for degrees. And I said but then why did you get the degrees and why your kids are going to the Ivy League colleges. So degrees are important, but skills are also very, very important. So in India, I would say, and so in shirm, in collaboration with the industry as well, as there are industry bodies like CII, confederation of Indian Industry, like NASCOM, like US India Strategic Partnership Forum, there are a lot of industry representation. We have developed courses to reduce the skill gap, which industry needs and that is, and we are developing those courses and government is also doing a lot of investments and engaging organizations like SHIRM and many other organizations. It is not only SHIRM but many other organizations and, like we, are also part of capacity building in India.
Speaker 2:Means.
Speaker 2:Prime Minister invited us to be part of capacity building and developing curriculum which is more skill focused, so that we are able to fulfill the industry need.
Speaker 2:So it is not only the industry need, but Prime Minister has also created a capacity building to train 22 million bureaucrats. Because he is conscious of the fact, which is a reality. He says that even the bureaucrats, their training is also more I would not say outdated, but their curriculum also need to be revised. They need to know more corporate governance, they need to know more digitization, they need to have more financial acumen, they need to have more latest HR policy. So, in fact, on Prime Minister's mission, on Mission Karam Yogi, which is hard work and sincerity in English I'm translating because Mission Karam Yogi is that Johnny was part of that and we developed that specifically, the HR curriculum was developed. Shirm was part of that, so it is across in India. We are working with the government as well as industry, through various bodies, not alone SHIRM, but through various industry bodies, whether it is NASCOM, which is related to IT skills, whether it is CII, which is a confederation of Indian industries. On reducing the skill gap, have we achieved the goal?
Speaker 2:No because it is every time there is new challenge which comes up. As I said, artificial intelligence we don't know what new thing will come. Now there is chat, gpt, then there is fraud, gpt. So we need to learn how to overcome all these, you know, I would say, a new challenges which are thrown on us.
Speaker 1:Yeah, see so in terms of the skills that you.
Speaker 1:You've fascinated me on the skills part of this and it's very interesting to hear CEOs of big companies say degrees or I don't know, useless. I agree with you, I'm not, they're useless. But you know there's certainly not to be all end, all that they they have been traditionally, I think of India is being very strong in stem Right. You know, very strong in math, very strong in engineering, very strong in technology. Sign like like For me, you guys, the institutions that you guys have over there, are world-class and are producing, you know, world-class talent. You know where's where's, because I feel like you guys already have a lot of this in place. What's shifting? What? Are you guys doubling down on that that? Are you know preparing the 600 million folks for, you know, the future of work? Is it more technology?
Speaker 2:Okay. So I would say, you know, in IT we have proven our track record and that industry is growing by 10% year on year. It's I don't know how many billion dollar industry, but it is really growing and it is on track and it is improving. But India is also hub of Medical ITS, engineering, instructional design, any kind of research. All big fours have their research Center in India. So all high-end research is happening here, and I would say Jack Welch had that Vision way back 20 years back, because the GE's biggest research center, which is Jack Welch Technology Center, where aircraft engine research or any medical research was being done in India, it's still continues to Invest in India. You know, though, g is now a very small company, where it used to be 130 billion dollar company when I was working in that. So it was a huge center and we always used to be proud of that research center. Similarly, you know, means the Accenture's, the Microsoft, google's, the all these companies.
Speaker 2:Not only that, all the manufacturing companies are investing in India for their ancillary Manufacturing in India, because Prime Minister has also started a make in India initiative, which is a big initiative to leverage the engineering Base in India. You know, because there is a big engineering talent pool in India. Now, when Johnny was here, when he he was Co-chair for skilling and mobility and he was here at G20 summit, he got to interview the IT and skilling minister, rajiv Krishnan. So when he was interviewing him and one of the question on leveraging the engineering talent pool and make this initiative, what Is the value proposition we are doing? We say that, okay, we accept that India's productivity of an employee is low. So what we have told to car manufacturers in Japan? We will give you a talent pool of engineers. You take them to Japan.
Speaker 2:There there is shortage of manpower. All you need is take this talent pool, train them on your shop floor. You give them a stipend, you give them three meals a day and you give them a place to sleep or rest. Train them for two years. In the meantime, you have a manufacturing plant in India which would be a world-class manufacturing plant.
Speaker 2:This talent pool is now trained by you. Once they are trained, bring them back here, because your cost of production will go down because you're not paying them any salary, you're just paying them stipend and three meals a day. These trained people now you can't say, because they are trained by you, they would be productive because they are trained by you. Bring them back. In the meantime, your plant is ready, start manufacturing. This is make in India initiative, which is a big initiative, prime and under the leadership of prime minister Modi. Similarly, you know, means there was a big article in New York Times. Similarly, the next iPhones which you will buy would be make in India. So similar kind of deals have been signed by Tim Koch with many manufacturers, even in us in Europe and Germany, on various manufacturing initiatives to use the engineering pool, pharmaceutical pool and many other pools. So that is how we are working. No, it's brilliant.
Speaker 1:So make in India and and I, that's just such an interesting concept. And you take a country like Japan that is aging, it's super expensive, right and and you know they can kind of see Not a good light at the end of a tunnel and it's like, well, how do we solve for this? And then for you guys, it's like, well, we can go get best in class training Right from these world-class manufacturers and provide an incentive for them to, you know, relocate some of their manufacturing capacity, as you said earlier, in the world's fastest growing consumer market. So it's a win-win for them.
Speaker 2:Exactly and same way we are working on the hospitality industry. Same way. We are working, you know, because, specifically the housekeeping staff, because India, the biggest advantage of India, 600 million Professionals is they are all English speaking because our work language is English. So, even if you look at it, housekeeping staff is in shortage across the globe. Yes, and India, can you know, means all the hotel chains.
Speaker 2:Indian tourism industry is like really doing Exceedingly well. So all these trained people Can even means Sham does J1 visas, they can go for training, come back and work back in India. So it is a win-win situation and that is what we work on skilling and mobility. That is. That is the need of the R, I would say, to serve and make it one world. Work together and everybody can thrive and everybody is. It will benefit everybody.
Speaker 1:One of the things that in one of our earlier conversations you had shared with me that I think is really interesting is going from tier one to tier two cities and kind of diversifying where the labor pool is so that it's not just concentrated in mega cities but that the economic benefit is touching more people. Can you kind of describe a little bit about tier one and tier two cities?
Speaker 2:Absolutely. You know, first the concentration was in Bombay, which is now called Mumbai, delhi, which is national capital region, bangalore. Delhi is like a Washington DC. Mumbai is the financial capital, like New York, bangalore is the Bay Area where all the IT companies stay. So the concentration was all in these three cities and they were like crowded, like an over-capacit.
Speaker 2:Thanks to COVID, everybody started working from home and also India had a little bit of a bad infrastructure in the tier two and tier three cities. Good thing is that India invested a lot on infrastructure in tier two, tier three cities and also now we have got, and when the COVID hit, everybody started working from home and they went to their tier two, tier three cities. Government was forced to invest a lot on the infrastructure, specifically on digitization. So I'm proud to say that India is one of the most digitally savvy country in the world. So when they moved to two and three cities, they were as efficient and simultaneously the infrastructure also moved in tier two and tier three cities. And now also what happened was there is, when the infrastructure moved, they were not required. The companies also invested in those tier two and tier three cities. They opened offices, there was manufacturing plants which opened, they were more wealth created, they were more jobs created and which was win-win situation for everybody.
Speaker 2:And to also answer to that also is earlier the foreign direct investment was always in these three, concentrating through these three cities. But I would say now, if you will look at the statistics, in every state in India there is foreign direct investment. It is not restricted to this couple of states like earlier it used to be. Now it is in smaller states also. There is foreign direct investment because there is an opportunity, there is more wealth creation, there is more job creation and it is a happy situation in tier and tier two, three cities and you can attract better talent there too. Because they don't want to leave their homes, they don't want to. India is very family oriented country where people don't want to leave their parents and go to bigger cities and work, so it is not still a nuclear family kind of a situation here. They love us with their parents.
Speaker 1:Which is one of the neatest things about the Indian culture. So we've talked about, like, a lot of big companies and stuff, but there's a lot of entrepreneurship happening and startups. Can you talk a little bit about that piece of the economy?
Speaker 2:So India has always been a entrepreneurial driven country, but because of the lack of funds and lack of infrastructure, lack of policy, that was the reason entrepreneurs were not able to survive or thrive. But when Prime Minister Modi in 2016 put the thirst to start up India campaign, believe it or not, we have 81,000 startups which are thriving. Now there were many more, but 81,000 startups are thriving and doing exceedingly well, and they say that through these startups, there would be around 100 million jobs which will be created by 2025. So that is a nutshell about the startup India campaign, and they are in various areas, and this is mainly because of investments in tier 2 and tier 3 cities.
Speaker 1:Well, that's funny. I appreciate you saying that, because that's exactly where my mind was going is, as the infrastructure, the talent has kind of gone back home, as you say, kind of due to COVID, and then the funding. Of course, it all comes down to money at some point that you've got smart people with the right tools, with money, with ideas, and now they've got the opportunity, and then I'm sure you know this, in the US you have the vast majority of employers in the US are small businesses, it's not the big companies, and so that's what creates a very diverse, thriving economy, that you're not just dependent on one thing or another, but it's spread out and it seems to benefit everyone.
Speaker 2:Yeah, and they are focused on specific sectors like infrastructure, skill development and foreign direct investment. So it is in all way, it is a good situation.
Speaker 1:So, as the CEO of SHRM India, apac, meena, what's keeping you up at night? We've talked about a lot of tailwinds. What are the things that keep Achal up at night? A little bit, you know what?
Speaker 2:actually it is. Nothing worries me. To be very honest with you. There's nothing to worry about because we are really doing very well and means we have a very happy culture here in India and we have a Meena office as well as we have this year open Saudi office, so it is really good position to be in in all respect.
Speaker 2:What keeps me up at night is what next big thing I can do for SHRM. You know, because I'm, per se, a nice way aggressive person and very competitive. So these two things and I compete I'm like a game of golf. You know you're competing against yourself what best thing you can do for SHRM and for your country. So these are the two things which keeps me up at night. You know, what is the thing which we can do? Next big challenge, which will be a really big one. So that is what you know means like I would love to do a big, bigger conference. It's a big dream, but it is our. One of our guiding principle is bold purpose. So unless and until you have a bold purpose and big dream, you will never be able to achieve it. And the biggest dream is and there is no other country which can do it is, why not have a like SHRM annual conference? Why not have a that kind of a conference in India?
Speaker 1:I'm in like I want to go. I think this is not you know in our discussion guide, but, given your background and your exposure to so much talent, when you're hiring people, when you're promoting people, what are the talent attributes, what are the qualities that you look for?
Speaker 2:You know, what I look for is I look at a person. I don't go for a job description. I mean, of course, you look at her. I look for more, for a fitment, cultural fitment. That is more important. He can or she can be a highest achiever, he or she can be, have a greatest of qualification, but he or she does not fit in SHRM culture. He's not the right person, Because one person who does not fit in the culture would be a disaster. That is why we make sure that there are multiple rounds of interview and I will try and interview each and every candidate.
Speaker 1:But besides just an intuitive feeling, are there questions that you'd like to ask to kind of tease out the cultural fit?
Speaker 2:You know, one is like an intuition. You come to know how the person talks and you know how comfortable he or she is. And now that I have interviewed so many people in my life and I'm a totally people managers, but people manager and I do my business from heart so you come to know I work on my intuition and my HR is my right and left hand, so I work very closely with my HR person. So, as I said, that we get to a multiple rounds of interview and normally we are right in our hiring the person. But the right question we, I would say there is no such right or wrong questions, but it is more intuition, I would say, which works in our case.
Speaker 1:One of the things that we teach our clients is we say people hire people. Yeah right, and your resume might get you the interview, but ultimately people hire people and the double click on that is what I've kind of distilled down into three P's, which is proficiency you have to be good at the job, Like I mean, you have to know how to do. If you're a digital marketer, you need to know how to do digital marketing. So sort of take that as just table stakes. The second P is passion, and you talked about the purpose of SHRM earlier and say you need to have passion for.
Speaker 1:What is this company about? What are they doing? Who are the customers that they serve? Like, and you need to be able to exude that in a very authentic way. And then the third P is personality, which is kind of part of what you're saying, which is are you a good fit here? Like, can I see you, can I see working with you? Can I see you working with our colleagues here? Do you look like somebody that you know shares the same values that we do right, without being a clone of everybody else?
Speaker 2:So proficiency, passion and personality does that resonate with you Absolutely, and I call it ABC a person who looks to be aspiring for something high. Be perfect in everything you know, try to be perfect, perfectionist and see confidence. So if he or she walks in with confidence, he has aspire and agility. You know means of a person and flexible, so that you come to know, and B is so I follow the ABC rule. I like that, so so it is somewhere similar, and when I was hearing your introduction, I would definitely like to join, if you will permit me, your coaching class, for I'm not looking for a job, but certainly as a candidate. You know how do you coach the candidate, because it is always good to learn, so I found that very, very interesting.
Speaker 1:Well, you, you, I will send you the invite. You have a forever invite to that.
Speaker 1:I want to pick up where we're going like in a little bit of a different direction for men. But that's cool. And this confidence piece, this actually came up on our coaching call. You and I are recording this one a Friday. I mentioned we do these calls on Thursday, so we just had one yesterday and a woman said basically like I hear you on the confidence piece, bob, I would say woman, sometimes that's misinterpreted and that she has struggled to, if she's interviewing with a man, to find this balance, like if a man is confident, why he's confident, that's good you know and he's strong, and if a woman exudes confidence, that it can be misinterpreted and taken as a negative. What would you have said to her on that call?
Speaker 2:I would say no, not at all. It is never misinterpreted as that it is. I am a woman and I've never, ever felt like this, because I'm always been very confident. And I would say confidence, with humility and grace, is always respected for women, so that one should never forget. But confidence is part of a leadership skill. Or even if you are not a leader, you should always have confidence in whatever you are doing.
Speaker 1:Yes, yes, I mean what we teach is you need to know your convictions. What's true for you, that you generally believe is true for you. When you have your convictions, that brings clarity, which is I know what to say yes to and I know what to say no to. Clarity leads to confidence, and then I always say confidence is not cockiness, that's different. Confidence is not arrogance, that's different. But when we are confident, it is contagious. When you believe, you make me believe, and when we are confident, we sit up straighter, we smile more right and we lean into the conversation because we are feeling it. And it is interesting teaching introverts how to be appropriately confident. And I love what you said. I'm going to steal this from you the grace and humility piece. I think that applies across the board, that when you can be confident, but that's tempered with grace and humility, that's really really good advice.
Speaker 2:Thank you, and I mean as a woman leader I would always say, because there's no shame in accepting that it is man's world. So you have to be a little overconfident, I would say, to get your voice heard, but with humility and grace, Don't be boisterous to show that you are a woman and don't do that. Be a woman and let your voice heard.
Speaker 1:Yes, okay. So bringing it back on to theme for a second and bringing this to a little bit of a close, I have enjoyed so much. I've learned a ton about the demographics of India. I've learned a ton about what Prime Minister Modi is doing, being very strategic in terms of infrastructure, attracting capital, developing talent, which is amazing. Obviously, shrm has a very strong presence in India and is able to influence academia, policymakers and the commercial side of it, which is awesome. Is there anything that we haven't covered, as we kind of bring this to a close, or how you might want to just summarize everything?
Speaker 2:I would say you know, SHRM is playing a critical role in this part of the globe. I feel very proud. Not alone I have done it. It is with my team, and my team is, each and every member of my team is very, very proud in whatever work they are doing. I am happy to share that last year we trained around 10,000 individuals. We were every week, we were doing workshops in various cities or various organizations. We concluded, I would say, six conferences last year in the region, which is a great achievement for what we have done with a small team in this part of the globe.
Speaker 2:So we feel, as I said, it is not only me. I would say each one of us. We are just 80 member team and each one of us is very, very proud SHRMite, that is how I would like to say. Conclude this, and we want to grow much faster than we can. And I will say is that we all work as one team and we believe in one thing is flock of birds can reach the destination much faster than bird alone. So we work as one team, not only in India, but we collaborate with our US team also together, because we really believe in collaboration and we thrive with the SHRM guiding principles If you are aware of if you are not, I can repeat it for you which is you are.
Speaker 1:Please, please, repeat them.
Speaker 2:Okay so bold, purpose, excellence and accountability, flexibility and agility, smart and curious, collaborative and openness, challenge, decide and commit. So we live by these guiding principles.
Speaker 1:I can hear Johnny's voice. That's awesome.
Speaker 2:And another thing. Sorry, sorry, you asked.
Speaker 1:No, please, please, go ahead. Another thing.
Speaker 2:Another thing is I believe personally in what Lord Buddha said is you can light One. You can light one candle. Sorry, one candle can light thousand candles, but the life of one candle cannot be shortened by lighting thousand candles. Similarly, knowledge sharing, knowledge and happiness If you share it, it will not reduce your knowledge and happiness. So we happily share knowledge and happiness and distribute it. It doesn't shorten our happiness and knowledge and that is what makes us thrive and live more happily.
Speaker 1:Even build on your point, and not only does it not shorten your light, it enhances your life.
Speaker 2:And that's right. So that is. That is what we all believe and we thrive on.
Speaker 1:I love that okay, if I Think one of the things that I'd like to make sure that we close on to is, if people are inspired To learn more about shirm in your part of the world and how you guys can help their business grow or help them grow In their own professional development, what's the best way for them to do that? Yeah, how to reach out to you guys in in shirm, india, if they want to learn more about what you're doing and how Shirm can help them grow their business or grow their career.
Speaker 2:Okay, they can just reach out to shirmorg and it will come to us. We are all available through our conferences and events, so it is very easy to reach us because we are very well known brand in this part of the globe.
Speaker 1:Great. So so we'll put shirmorg on the video portion of this so people you know know it. But it's pretty easy, shirmorg.
Speaker 2:Absolutely in. Is would be better, because then it will come to India. Oh, so say it again shirm, I am yeah, shirm that shirm dot or shirm dot or G dot, I am. There would be a drop down menu which will come down when you go to shirmorg or G. There would be drop down. I am, and then it comes to us.
Speaker 1:But shirm, not for G is what it is, that's where I think you do a lovely job of representing both your country and your organization. I've learned a ton today. I'm sure that people who are watching and listening to this did as well. I just want to give you a very sincere Thank you for your time today.
Speaker 2:Thank you so much.
Speaker 1:Thank you, everybody for taking a few minutes out of your day. I hope that you were inspired and educated on the things that I'll try to share with us today. I know that I was and we appreciate it. If you are listening to this on your favorite podcast platform, a Little bit of a rating and review always helps. If you are watching us on YouTube, subscribe like comment. We always appreciate that. But mostly we just thank you for spending a few minutes with us today and hope you enjoyed the rest of your day with that, thanks. Thank you so much.
Speaker 2:Thank you so much.