We commend Mr. S. Ramprasad for his remarkable achievements in cultivating a culture of entrepreneurship and innovation, accelerating growth, and mentoring the next generation of leaders in the tech industry.
Pragati Leadership is the trusted people development partner for corporates, assisting them in building inspirational and effective leadership that achieves organizational goals. Launched over three decades ago, Pragati Leadership has been at the forefront in many areas of Leadership Training Programs in India. Some of our training solutions include Emotional Intelligence Training for Leaders and developing a Culture of Management Coaching, helping discover people’s inner potential, which ultimately translates into an efficiently run organization with a healthy bottom line.
Pragati Leadership instituted The Inspiring and Successful Leadership Awards with the objective of celebrating the best leadership qualities and inspiring more people to emulate them. In September 2024, the third edition of the awards were conferred to the chosen winners.
On this occasion, Mr. S. Ramprasad, President of UST Product Engineering was selected for the ‘Exemplary Leader’ award for his extraordinary leadership in fostering an entrepreneurial culture. Over the past two decades, he has empowered several clients, many of whom have reached unicorn status, while nurturing long-term relationships with them. His vision for delivering exceptional value has seen his teams thrive in innovation, enabling successful mergers, acquisitions, and independent operations for clients. Under his leadership, the company has consistently demonstrated excellence in sustainable growth, data privacy, and client-centricity, while also fostering leadership within his team, with many employees going on to launch their own successful ventures. His contributions extend beyond business, with a strong commitment to thought leadership and social responsibility, including key roles in industry associations and initiatives for community development.
The Traffic Jam of Life: Lessons in Perseverance
Mr. Ramprasad likened his journey in the Mumbai traffic to the 30 years of his life’s journey. Every so often, he thought that the traffic had cleared up but just then some obstacle would come up and the traffic would just stand still. This led him to think of the whole notion of perseverance and hope which gives us the adrenalin rush that we’re going to succeed. He learned some invaluable lessons of life, sitting in the traffic for the last two and a half hours and realised that some things are beyond our control, like the rain and the traffic.
A Moment of Honor: From Giving to Receiving
He considered it an honour to be at the ISLA 2024. Being in a leadership role, he felt that one is usually on the other side, giving away trophies so for him it was interesting to be at the receiving end this time. Earlier, while walking down the podium empty-handed, he always wondered how would it feel to be on the other side. So, he was grateful for the privilege today. He didn’t wish to say much as there was a phenomenal crowd of very experienced and wise people present in the audience. He opined that picking out winners from so many inspiring leaders must have been quite difficult. He humbly accepted that he was going to seek inspiration from all the speakers including learning from Prashanth who had just shared his experiences.
Empathy: The Key to Lasting Relationships
He shared a few things that he learned during the last 30 years of his working life, especially from his parents, his family and most importantly from his team at work. He learnt the power of tolerance as his team tolerated working with him for so many years! Gleaned from his learning over the years, he extolled the virtues of three things. The first and foremost was empathy. In recent times, he felt empathy had taken on different avatars. He explained his point of view with an example. He’d been a sales guy for many years, so over time, he realized that it’s not about what you sell but what matters is what the customer wants to buy. So, that’s when he realized the power of empathy. Each time, he put himself in the customer’s shoes to understand why they even wanted to buy what he had to offer. Quite often he realized that his offering may not be of value to the client. At such times he just walked away. Having said that, every time he made a sale, those customers became customers for life. Most of his sales were through referrals from existing customers.
He compared this to his teams and the people he met early in his career. He worked towards making the best use of the team that he worked with. Later, he realized that’s probably not the right way to look at it but rather to look at what is going to make those teams successful from a career standpoint, personally and professionally. So, when he started engaging with teams from that point of view again, he built teams for life because it was no longer about how to make the best use of them. It became all about how they could make the best use of the facility and build a career around it. So, empathy has been a very important part of his professional journey.
Grit and Perseverance: Navigating Challenges with Determination
Secondly, he mentioned grit and perseverance. Again, using the traffic as an allegory, he shared that he wasn’t sure whether he’d be able to get out of the traffic jam but the driver was extremely enterprising. He drove the car for one kilometre, in reverse and made an entry through the exit door. This goes to show that anything is possible, even in Mumbai! Had he given up on the first day of his career, it would have not taken off at all. Every single day, you either succeed or you learn. And for most of his career, he’s been learning. So, the power of perseverance and not giving up is important.
The Power of Integrity: Making Tough Choices in Leadership
And, finally, the power of integrity. According to him, in business as well as in personal life, one has to make some tough decisions and invariably one needs to choose between right and wrong. As they say in the movies ‘The right is usually tough, and the wrong is usually easy’. He opines that in real life when you do things right, you always end up getting it right. However, it’s not easy for a leader as they sometimes need to make tough calls. He realized that every time he took a tough stance, it helped both the organisation and him in particular.
After these great insights, he thanked everyone for the opportunity and the award.
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