9 - Re-inventing self and playing to potential - Nandan Nilekani on Leadership and Transitioning across Infosys, UIDAI, Politics and more

Nandan talks about how he organizes his time currently and more importantly, the design principle behind how he prioritizes his time. He also talks about his journey through Infosys and Aadhaar to the current portfolio of initiatives that includes India Stack evangelization, EkStep, Philanthropy and Investing & Mentoring.

The first few years often shape a big part of who we are. Nandan talks about the significance of having spent 6 years in a small town in shaping his independence and cultural adaptability. He also refers to the role of his family in terms of shaping his choices around social service.

These days, personal branding is something that gets talked about a lot. But what is it and why is it important? More significantly, how do you go about creating a personal brand? In this nugget, Abhijit shares four vital aspects of personal branding that you should think about.

Culture is often seen as something that large organizations need to worry about. However, if a start up tackles the challenges of culture from the very beginning and clearly defines its competencies and values, it could be a significant competitive differentiator especially during the scaling up phase. Hear Abhijit elaborate on the startup ecosystem in this nugget.

Nandan talks about one of the seminal choices that entrepreneurs often have to make – Selecting a Co-Founder. He provides his thoughts around what they should bear in mind in this process. He also talk about what it takes to make the relationship work over a prolonged period of time.

In a start-up how do you think about setting a goal post. It is a tricky question when there are several unknown unknowns. Nandan talks about how he thought about “What good would look like” in 5 years for the Aadhaar project.

Nandan talks about how the Government is fundamentally different from the Private sector in terms of how financial and human capital decisions are made. He talks about he thought about navigating these constraints to drive to the outcomes he had committed. He also talks about a couple of mistakes leaders often make in transitions.

All of us have had situations where we step way out of our comfort zone. Nandan talks about his experience from contesting the elections in Bangalore and why he moved on from Politics after that experience.

Given the VUCA world we live in, Re-inventing oneself every now and then has become a necessity. Nandan talks about the mindset with which he has approached the various re-inventions has made in his career and shares his perspective on what it takes for people to play to their potential