Book

Book Cover - You Can Lead YOU CAN LEAD

Rajnish Virmani brings with him over 30 years of experience in multinationals like TCS, American Express, Aviva, Reliance and Colt Technologies. An Engineer and MBA by background, Rajnish has worked for about 30 years with large multinational brands like American Express, Aviva, Colt Technologies, Tata Consultancy Services and Reliance. He has played the roles of a CIO, COO and CEO over the last 12-15 years and brings that experience to bear as he coaches corporate leaders to lead business in an ever shrinking and diverse world. Voted as a Role Model Leader a few times across cultures, he has achieved many a turnaround in his career as a line leader – turning around performances of employees, departments and organizations – and is now helping spread that knowledge base to the current leaders in the corporate hierarchy.

“Work hard, Play Harder, Party Hardest”. That has been the guiding force for Rajnish.

A truly global leader having lived and worked across the USA, UK, Europe, Asia and Australia, he has led large teams of over 10,000 staff within India and over 1,000 across Europe, UK and USA. Rajnish shares with you a multi-cultural diverse perspective of running a business across geography.

Life & Times Rajnish Virmani

  • Honours Student consistently during Schooling, as also B.Tech and MBA at Delhi University
  • Represented Faculty of Management Studies (DU) at University level in 9 different Sports
  • Has been in the top 10% performers virtually right through his career
  • Risen through the ranks to hold CXO positions for over 12-15 years
  • Has addressed NASSCOM and other prestigious Global Seminars regularly over the years.
  • Has handled the largest BOT (Build-Operate-Transfer) contract in the IT and IT enabled services industry
  • Has been covered by the media in UK, Sri Lanka and India over the years

Awards & Nominations

  • Has won numerous accolades in Science and Maths at School
  • Has been voted as the Role Model leader in various organizations
  • Has won “Chairman’s Award for Quality” at American Express nine times
  • Recognized globally amongst the Top-3 Leaders at American Express technologies world-wide in 1999
  • Has conducted Leadership Development programs across the world including USA, UK, EU, Singapore, Australia and of course India
  • Has conducted programs on Operational Excellence and Continuous Process Improvement techniques and is a certified Green Belt in Six Sigma
  • Has been his school and college team captain in Cricket and Gold Medallist in Badminton at college

You Can lead – Bloody Simple Rules that you don’t learn from Text Books! The title explains the intent of the book in demystifying the concepts around Leadership. Peel away the complications introduced by theoretical models and the management jargon used by consultants, and what you have remaining is really simple concepts that budding leaders can use in the corporate world. Just simple techniques that even tenured leaders can use at work and play. Execution is the Key!!!

Over the 30 years of my career, the last 12-15 years being at a CXO level, I have learnt a lot of lessons in leadership, some by hands-on mistakes I have made, some by reading and listening to other leaders, some by reflecting on achievements of others around me. I have compiled this learning periodically as scribbled notes and shared it with my sons as they grew up from being bubbling boys to young men. During the many trips around the world, accumulating a zillion or so travel miles with airlines, I got time on flights and airport lounges to ponder, and I packaged these scribbled thoughts as notes and letters to my boys. Further I also realized long ago that the messages I am giving to my boys at home are very similar to the motivational messages I give to my team leaders and managers at work. This book is a compilation of such thoughts and messages.

I have been extremely lucky to have contributed at the leading edge of change that India has seen over the last couple of decades. While I heard of India being “the land of elephants and snake charmers” at the early stages of my career, more recently Corporate India has got much more respect globally and has developed into an “IT hub” and “Back Office to the world”… However, having said this, I believe we are still just Instruction Takers – good ones no doubt, but not really standing on our feet as Leaders in the ever shrinking Global Corporate World. I hope with this book I am able to ignite the learning spirit of at least a few young leaders, who gain from my experience and contribute to the India of tomorrow. Corporate India is standing at a Cusp today and needs the Youth to count as Global Leaders. We are not there yet. We see some signs with the knowledge industry growing and the Indian investment globally growing, but Indian leaders at large still have to step up to the plate and lead globally. That’s the cusp we are standing at, and that’s the gap that I passionately want to bridge!!!

Leadership indeed is a 360 degree phenomenon – You Lead Up, Lead Down, Lead In and Lead out… This book dwells initially on leading In. Leading yourself. The message is quite clear – Take charge of yourself before you take charge of others. The initial chapters talk of taking charge of yourself… linking behaviour displayed on the sports field with behaviour displayed in the office environment; playing the game within the boundaries displaying integrity; managing your finances appropriately, and so on… Later in the book, we deal with leading others, being flexible with your leadership style based on a given situation, handling diversity of cultures across the world, understanding communication and being innovative in your approach to business.

I am sure you will find value as I discuss the common mistakes I have seen leaders make at work. How are perceptions formed? How are reputations built? I also discuss what makes a great leader. What do you need to do to build your own brand in the marketplace?
The book shares a “No Nonsense” approach to running a business influencing teams of employees and contractors to over-achieve. No theoretical models and no complicated jargon – just bloody simple examples demonstrating bloody simple guidelines…