A curious mind is the most creative when it is diving into the infinite cosmos of knowledge to find the shining stars of wisdom. It is the most elastic one which stretches its boundaries endlessly to accumulate this ocean of intelligence and understanding.
The mind being at the core of every human achievement, Cavita Mehra, the Principal Founder, and Managing Director believes that the core of every business is its people. “And we at Mindskillz help you capitalize this potential,” she promises, adding, “This is one of our core values and what we strongly believe in, since our inception.”
Cavita spoke in an interview with Insights Success, conversing candidly on her own journey, milestones, and her future plans and goals. The highlights of the interview are given herein.
Please tell us about the saga of Mindskillz since its inception.
Mindskillz started with a single employee in 2008 and today it has grown to more than 200 employees and consultants, with a presence in 33 cities pan India.
In a country where the knowledge economy is booming, training budgets are estimated to be low and restricted to certain `progressive’ companies. Traditionally, Indian companies spend anywhere between 0.5% to 2 % of their turnover on training their employees. Though, no exact estimates are available, the country’s training industry, imparting both technical and non-technical knowledge, is now worth around ₹8,000 – ₹10,000 crore.
I feel fortunate that my career has helped in achieving vision in empowering people, adding confidence, and making them better at what they do, leading to a better quality of life.
We are happy to make an important contribution to advancing skills and talent in knowledge economy, in both the blue and white collared segments.
We strongly believe that we can make a difference in organizations by transforming their most important asset ‘Human Resources’ to achieve their goals.
Employees are the strongest pillars of a company and every organization across the globe wants to have a workforce that functions with an optimum level of productivity. Mindskillz true strength lies with its team, which stands steadfast through thick and thin.
We believe in weaving stories and touching lives of people, helping them to grow both personally and professionally in their lives.
What was your inspiration behind venturing into the business arena?
As a child I was truly inspired by Mother Teresa who had touched the lives of so many and I strongly believed with what she had to say. “It’s not how much we give but how much love we put into giving.” “I alone cannot change the world, but I can cast a stone across the waters to create many ripples.”
I feel, through Mindskillz I can make my little contribution through its services, as a solution provider I can help in making a difference in the lives of professionals. Getting the satisfaction of uncut diamonds being polished and being part of the journey with HR and L&D in finding a synergy between learning methodology and current business environments to help advance skills and knowledge among blue and white collared workers.
I realized that setting up my own business was my true calling, and I ventured straight into it with faith, strength from my family and the passion to prove what I am capable of in my field. The joy and personal satisfaction in making a difference in so many people’s lives were satisfying and rewarding.
I have come a long way in the last 14 years, overcoming a roller coaster ride of ups and downs along the way with no regrets and the desire to achieve more.
What were the initial challenges that you had to surmount to ensure your business’s success rate to reach greater heights?
Each day is a new beginning for me and comes with fresh challenges. However, I have faced them with renewed enthusiasm and with a positive spirit. I have always trusted my intuition and my self-belief in achieving the impossible.
Striking a balance between my personal and my professional life and financially setting up my business was my biggest challenge. I’ve also had situations where in my trainers would call in sick last minute, after I’ve made commitment to the client and not being able to show up for the sessions.
I have overcome these challenges because of the strength and support of my family. They were encouraging, understanding and eventually became very co-operative to the needs of my job and its demands.
I would personally go train instead of my trainers, not losing face with any of my clients, no matter the time and travel involved.
They say – “Don’t limit your Challenges, challenge your limits. Each day we must strive for constant and never-ending improvement” and I have challenged every obstacle that has come my way positively and with a sense of calm.
What professional values and qualities do you think your clients value in you and Mindskillz the most?
Since its inception, Mindskillz has had a single-minded focus in providing the best services. No concessions are made on delivering quality work, consistency in our methodologies and commitment in what we promise. We quickly moved with changing times from classroom to virtual. This agile adaptation to significant changes in business environments, including increased competition and digital disruption, gave Mindskillz an edge and enabled our survival in crowded markets and competition.
My clients mainly value me for my timely responses. Two, I am very accommodating, empathetic, and patient with my clients. I listen well and ensure that I cater to their requirements to their satisfaction, no matter the number of times they change their requirement.
I have been known for building and maintaining strong business relationships with all my clients, since the inception of Mindskillz. One of my biggest strengths is ‘valued client relationships’.
What are the USPs that highlight Mindskillz’s uniqueness in the industry you are catering to?
What sets us apart is our ‘onion peel approach’. Conducting mystery audits, on the job training and our post training analysis is one of our key strengths. Learning is interactive and experiential, and we bring in theatre, gamification, music, painting and experiential case study and role play scenarios in our trainings to make learning fun and meaningful, and simultaneously cater to each kind of learner.
One of our biggest strengths also lies in the ability to adapt easily to the ever-changing times and situations. We don’t believe in complaining, we focus on the solutions and not harp on the problem. We are quick, accommodative, and hands-on with the current demands of the business.
Our prescient approach, Mindskillz is known to be proactive in the way we function, be it sending business proposals, following up with clients or anticipating requirements. We strongly believe in running every project as our project and treating the success of our client’s business as our very own. We work with passion and dedication to fulfil requirements of our diverse industries by implementing training solution in Retail industry, Healthcare, IT, ITeS, Banking & Financial, Manufacturing industry, Real Estate & Infrastructure, Telecom , Education and Logistics. Managing diverse industries is a challenge on account of various factors, which Mindskillz has successfully achieved by adopting customer centric approach rather than traditional product centric approach.
We have offered Customized training programs across industries, to name a few Accenture, Deloitte India, Zensar Technologies, KPIT, Sasken Communication, TietoEVRY, Robert BOSCH, Timken, Vacmet, Schaeffler India, EIL, ONGC, Enercon India, Jockey India, FABindia, Titan India, Morae Global, Birla Sunlife, Prestige Group, Biocon, Beetel Teletech Ltd, Carl Zeiss, MAGE, Apollo Hospitals & Clinics, Motherhood, Medica Superspeciality Hospital.
As an experienced professional, what would you like to advice the budding aspirants willing to enter the business world?
Always believe in yourself, have set goals and a have a plan in life. That’s what I would want to tell all the budding aspirants. Self-discipline, commitment, and a positive attitude.
As women, we are in a constant battle to “manage and balance”. So often, women entrepreneurs usually find themselves torn between commitment to the family and business. Now, how do you handle such a situation? The answer lies in time management and delegation. These two keys are essential to balancing your act and building a successful home alongside a family.
Running a business can be intensely satisfying but also hugely challenging. As Business Owners we face a multitude of demands on our time. It is imperative to be planned and organized, have long term and short-term goals and work towards it, keeping the larger picture in mind.
To quote Richard Branson, “Few first ventures work out. It is how at the beginning an entrepreneur deals with failure that sets that person apart. In fact, failure is one of the secrets to success, since some of the best ideas arise from the ashes of a shattered business.”
How do you envision Mindskillz’s operations with the emerging technologies and automated tools that are revolutionizing the business world by enabling innovations?
Adapting to change is the key! We have been agile and have been changing with technology and new innovations with time. Need of the hour clients are looking at scaling up their teams in Critical thinking, Complex communication, Creativity and Innovation, Design Thinking, Emotional intelligence, Flexibility and Adaptability, Agile way of Working, Collaboration leading to productivity and accountability.
Keeping with changing trends we look for growth and have the hunger and thirst to acquire new businesses and be in the game throughout. We adopt change, we learn new traits and are in sync with the current trends to meet our clients’ expectations.
We have a never give up attitude and embrace challenges and roadblocks with maturity, solution centric and problem-solving attitude. We envision ourselves as a successful company, no matter what obstacles come our way.
“We believe that when the right talent meets the right opportunity in a company with the right philosophy, amazing transformation can happen.” –Reid Hoffman
