Mohali, September 20, 2019: The Indian School of Business (ISB) kicked off its two day ISB Leadership Summit (ILS) 2019 at the Mohali campus today.
The theme for this year’s leadership summit is: The Leading Edge: Ideas to Impact’ – with the vision to celebrate individuals who have expanded the edges of yesterday through their transformative actions, to pave the way forward for generations to follow.
Farah Khan
The summit started on a high note with the ace Choreographer, Film Director, Actor, Producer Farah Khan. Farah Khan engaged in a candid conversation for the first session titled ‘The commerce behind the art’.
The conversation touched upon several notes ranging from how the business behind cinema has evolved to how Farah, as an individual, has come to personally love and learn the art of film making.
As for her time as a choreographer, she attributes her big break to a factor of being in the right place at the right time. When asked about the age-old debate between ‘commercially-acclaimed’ and ‘critically-acclaimed’ cinema, Farah took a stance of her own saying that for her things had been slightly different.
On being questioned about the kind of legacy she wants to leave behind, she proudly hopes to be remembered as the first female director to have broken the glass ceiling in terms of women making big commercial movies that are crowd-pullers. She enthusiastically answered the numerous questions from the audience – urging them to go after their passion and find a job that they would enjoy putting their heart and soul into. As one would expect, the talk ended on a high-note with Farah teaching her dance steps to audience.
The second session for the day, titled as an ‘Unconventional Leadership’ talk entailed a conversation with Sudhanshu Kaushik (CEO of Young India Foundation) and Shobhit Mathur (CEO of Vision India Foundation) on the theme of youth in politics and the vision forward.
On being asked about their thoughts on the reason behind millennials switching jobs so frequently, Shobhit Mathur highlighted that the issue lies more with the youth of the country not taking enough time to take a step back, introspect and understand where their strength really lied and what they would enjoy pursuing as a career.
Sudhanshu Kaushik added to this discussion by saying that a lot of the problem is also attributed to the fact that the term ‘Millenials’ is grossly misunderstood in the country. He believed that the idea is not to look forward to the future but to “Build the future together.”
Dr Indu Bhushan
The tempo of the event was built further by the second half of the day when Dr. Indu Bhushan, the CEO Ayushman Bharat – Pradhan Mantri Jan Arogya Yojana (AB - PMJAY) and the National Health Authority (NHA), Government of India gave a keynote on ‘Wealthier Nation through Healthier Citizens’. He gave a comprehensive snapshot of the healthcare ecosystem, the problems plaguing us and the way forward.
Taking about the Ayushman Bharat scheme he said, “People say Ayushman Bharat is a game changer. If we implement it well, it will change the picture of the health sector and the healthcare ecosystem”.
He explained in great detail the three fundamental issues that are taking center stage at this point in time: the inequitable expenditure on healthcare, the inefficiency in the healthcare ecosystem and the amount of designated expenditure itself.
Dr. Bhushan gave audience a closer look at inspecting the role that the private sector can play in improving the effectiveness of the public sector, in terms of outreach and resource allocation.
For the conclusion, Dr. Bhushan ended on a high note with an emotional rendition of patients who have benefitted from the scheme, talking about the impact of the AB – PMJAY with more than 10.2 crore beneficiaries verified and 9 treatments administered every minute.
He also said the people should keep in mind that the scheme is just a year old.The talk drew engaging comments and questions from the students and audience with everyone wanting to know more about what we can do for this pressing concern.
Lt. Gen Syed Ata Hasnain (retd)
Another highlight of the day was the next session on ‘Crafting a Narrative Kashmir’ by Lt. Gen Syed Ata Hasnain (Retd). He took the audience by a storm in the session that dissected Kashmir, Terrorism and the Article 370.
Spirited and passionate, the General went into the fundamentals of the recent abolition of Article 370 and 35A by analysing the responsiveness and modus operandi surrounding the move.
Furthermore, the General delved into the dynamics of a hybrid war, the different elements it entails, including human resource, procurement of material, financing and ideology.
He spoke some important lines of his time like, “My most important initiative was training the men to be more sensitive to Kashmiris, especially the women. A woman is the wife, the mother, the sister. Empower her, teach her, motivate her and you will see a difference.” He also said “When a Kashmiri person will come and say Jai Hind, that is the day you should celebrate”.
The discussion took on some tough questions including Indo-Pak relations, Kashmir’s response and the relevance of political integration in the times to come.
Ultimately, the overarching question “What does the future hold?” was comprehensively evaluated via a political, social, economic and psychological lens, with the ultimate aim of international acceptance and integration at the forefront.
The audience was left spellbound at this 360 degree view of psychological warfare, the role of culture and ideology in gaining competitive edge and political consensus.
Apart from these there were business sessions and panels on entrepreneurship by various Ceo’s, founder and senior directors.
The theme for this year’s ISB leadership summit is: The Leading Edge: Ideas to Impact’ – with the vision to celebrate individuals who have expanded the edges of yesterday through their transformative actions, to pave the way forward for generations to follow.
At ILS this year, we aspire to learn from the leaders of very domain in a world that’s always looking for the next big disruption. We explore the stories of firms and individuals who’ve broken every barrier and come to the forefront, right from their ideas to the impact they’ve created.