Revelations from a leadership conversation

Shantanu Rege was recently appointed as MD & CEO at Mahindra Rural Housing Finance. He and Manoj Agrawal had an in-depth conversation about leadership from multiple perspectives. Several interesting incidents and anecdotes take this conversation right to the heart:

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Manoj: Steve Jobs has said: “Simple can be harder than complex. You have to work hard to get your thinking clean and make it simple, but it’s worth it. Once you get there, you can move mountains.” This may feel counter-intuitive, but is a very powerful statement. In your own life, how has it been for you to move things from complexity to simplicity? What has been the impact, for yourself, your team, and your customers?

Shantanu Rege: If we are talking about the transition from complexity to simplicity in life then, we need to speak about both - the tangible and the intangible.

Let me start from an experience up close and personal to me. During my business school days, my peers and I thought that we would solve complex problems by say, working at a hedge fund that would involve working with very complex instruments. If not a hedge fund, then perhaps get a role with a consulting firm and work with the brightest minds. This is where complex dynamics are at play subconsciously. Quite often we end up following the herd. If we do not follow them, then we tend to believe that we are not as bright as they are. The same way we think, having an x amount of money will help us to do what we truly want to do.

However, during this time, I realised this is far from the truth. Only creating wealth for myself wasn’t what excited me. With a little soul-searching, it emerged to me that life was more about giving back to other people. All the education and all the money earned was for this. In that sense, a lot of the simplicity lies within – when you get in touch with your core and aren’t just doing stuff to show the world that you have outdone the rest.