As the sun crept upon the window pane, I thought I was waking up to yet another routine work day, in fact an excruciatingly boring one. I was supposed to attend a coffee talk by some CIO guy whose name I never cared to remember. I have always wondered about the point of attending such talks where the presenter would be some CXO I can no way relate to. He would walk in with a bunch of suited up people, all huffing and puffing under their suits, thanks to the scorching Indian summers.
Predictably, the CXO guy, red faced from the chilli cheese sandwich he had for breakfast, would open up with a desi touch, commenting on the spicy Indian food, pretty looking women or the snake charmers. I should then sit through an hour of serious stuff that will hardly sense to me. And then the Q&A session, for which a bunch of people selected in prior will recollect the questions memorized the previous evening and all the blah blah blah goes on and on before one kills oneself brooding over his/her fate.
Cursing myself, I walked into the hall. Notwithstanding all this, my team of hyper-actives insisted on sitting in the first row! Argh… In a few minutes, a tall guy probably in his mid-forties, casually dressed in a cool blue T-shirt and a black trouser and a pair of white shoes, walked in and stood right in front of me. The next couple of hours, the entire auditorium was spellbound.
His candidness and clarity of thought were what impressed me the most. There was one team in the auditorium which was fuming with rage, as the project, for which every member had worked 18 hours straight for more than 100 days, had been abruptly put on hold by the business. A programmer from that team began throwing very dicey questions right at the CIO, something which is rare to witness in India. Saum handled this guy, in a very sensitive and dignified manner, patiently answering every point of concern… Impeccable!
The highlight of the whole episode was when he revealed he had no MBA degree and that he was a Marine Engineer by profession!! 😀 Listening to this, I stood absolutely speechless and totally in awe!!
When I consider...... 