Vikesh Wallia & Board Stewardship -Pioneering Services for Indian Board Community
Brief Profile
Vikesh Wallia is Founder MD and Editor of Board Stewardship Inc. He is also Honorary Zonal Director (West), Institute of Directors, Mumbai. He is the author of “Titans of Fair Business Practices”
Board Stewardship Inc, Mumbai, India is a boutique research and advisory firm, serving individuals and boards in their journey from Shareholder Directors to Stakeholder Stewards through the values of board stewardship. Under the leadership of Vikesh, Board Stewardship team has pioneered many India’s firsts:-
- first Advisory organization for aspiring Independent Board Directors
- first community for Board Directors & aspiring Board Directors
- first e-magazine for Board community (read the e-magazine here)
The Story
Childhood Memories
An experience of over four decades, helped me master the art of wisdom and hope. I followed my passion since childhood and never ran after monetary happiness. The peace I get through making a positive impact on the society is above any financial advantage.
My childhood has been an amalgamation of memories from different parts of India. My life started in Mumbai, then Bombay. My father’s transferable job gets the credit for my travelling and experiencing so many different cultures at a tender age.
I had fondness for Indian Cinema since childhood. In school, I took part in cultural activities, and showcased my talent through mimicry and stand-up comedies. I am blessed to be part of schooling where movies and books were reviewed routinely. We had regular sessions on life and school, and every student had to share their experience related to any walk of life so that others could imbibe valuable learning. It was a transaction phase as I was involved in a lot of activities but did not understand what values they added to my life. Shuffling time between school, games, hobbies and academics taught me time management (techniques) which I wasn’t aware of. However, I realized this few years later in retrospect.
Unity in Diversity
Starting my career with a leading FMCG company made me experience a lot of cities across India. Shifting job roles and locations were challenging. However, the teachings of my early life, guided me how to float, and not get washed away. I experienced life in metropolitan cities as well as hinterlands. Juggling between multiple cities like Delhi, Kolkata, Guwahati and Silchar, I had to pick up the respective native language to survive. The work-life balance became toilsome. The one thing I encountered was “Diverse India”. Different religions, different languages, different cultures acquainted me with so many unseen dimensions of India. I had to add egg diet in my meal to sustain myself as my food habits did not match in many rural areas.
With supportive friends and colleagues around me, I overcame the challenges. I actually started seeing these challenges as teachings. I developed a fondness towards different languages and cultures. I learnt many languages and adapted myself to the demands of the location where my profession took me. I was fortunate to travel different countries also including Bangladesh, Bhutan and Myanmar (then Burma).
Right Place at Right Time
I believe I am more lucky rather than talented. Focusing on growth of the organization I have signed up for is more important to me than material possessions. Success to me is to deliver more than what is expected, build trust and satisfaction. Just like how, the delectable food we cook makes an everlasting yearning, similarly, the work we do, the assignments we solve should give memorable experiences to customers.
I have an ability to identify opportunities (with my gut feeling) and can analyse any situation for opportunities rather than problems. This probably propels me to be at the right place at the right time. As I said earlier, “I am more of lucky rather than able”. Or maybe I am gifted with a strong intuition.
My professional journey started with Modi Group in 1975, and later continued with Shaw Wallace, Balsara and Imperial leather in FMCG companies. Working closely with different sales team and cities, made me realize the strength of linguistic abilities. The most difficult experience was selling products in Kolkata.
I stepped into the media industry in 1998 with Times Group at Mumbai. It was the sunrise period of print media, and it helped accelerate my growth and hone my skills. Starting my career with The Times of India and becoming one of the board members (as well as senior VP-Circulation and Exports) gave a sturdy growth to my professional as well as personal lives.
Never Work Only for Money
I never regretted changing more than 5 jobs, often at a lower pay scale than the previous.
I never rejected an assignment where I expected to get job satisfaction. Better work opportunity mattered to me more than the fiscal satisfaction. Giving more than what we get is the mantra to happy life. Today’s world runs after money rather than quality of life. Joining one organization with 10% lower pay and another with 30% lower pay than the previous one did not turn out to be bad decisions. I always grew with the organization I served.
After my Senior Executive assignments with top corporates in FMCG and Media, I moved to Non-Executive/Honorary/Volunteer roles at multiple Non-Profit/NGOs/Consulting organizations for past 5 years. The honour of being the Regional Director of IoD (Institute of Directors), Mumbai has made me serve a lot of people for a good cause. I am also a board member of Council for Fair Business Practices and a volunteer in Narmada Kidney foundation, besides an Advisor to Bloggers Alliance.
Having trained more than 600 existing and aspiring board of directors across India, taught me great insights of corporate governance and board practices. “Top Deck Conversation” is one to one sessions I conduct for corporates and officials. I be the ear to whom they can share the loneliness at the top. This has given me insights about Boards Stewardship right from board entrance to excellence and eminence.
The sole reason to shift to corporate governance and board member training was because I had realised the impacts of New Companies Act. My genres revolves around board member training, women on boards, sustainability, risk management, board evaluation and corporate social responsibility.
I have been a guest speaker for IIMs, IBS, and SP Jain Institute of Management. Being a part time faculty has been a tough task, however I served at Rizvi Institute of Management for some time and developed a course also.
I got the opportunity to mingle with students as well as corporate leaders. The students reflected energy, idea, hope, hunger for innovation; while the corporate world taught me wisdom, judgements & decision making.
Learn and Unlearn
The moto of my life has always been to not chase satisfaction and not something which won’t give me fulfillment. Doing work with perfection without focusing on money but the growth of organization attracts personal growth too. Just like the way we format the hard disk of computers and reload it with data, we need to learn and unlearn things at every step of life. This is the secret behind favorable outcomes.
Life will give enough opportunities to us to grow but we need to make wise decisions to overcome the thorns on the way to achieve the highest of victories.
(As narrated to Dr Amit Nagpal and Shreya Chatterjee)
