After climbing corporate ladder, execs aim for Everest

Venkatesh Maheshwari, 46, has scaled several highs in his company occupation, however not anything compares to Everest. This year, he changed into the primary Marwari to scale the height, making him a celeb of sorts locally. But he is not alone. India Inc, which has had its share of marathoners, is seeing a new breed of leaders taking to mountaineering, and it's helping them grow to be higher managers.

In a complex industry surroundings, company leaders are required to surmount Everest-like challenges on a regular basis. "There are times you need to take a tough call and stand by it, like in the event of a storm you need to abort the climb. While you face such challenging situations in the business world too, the kind of mental strength you acquire in an expedition is something you cannot learn behind the closed doors of a corporate office," says Maheshwari, who works for Aditya Birla Group as senior vice-president, supply chain control, style division.

Vandana Trivedi, 40, who leads institutional gross sales for IDFC Asset Management Company, has accomplished a lot of treks within the Sahyadris and Himalayas. As a certified in a high-growth industry with steep industry objectives to meet, Trivedi says her time within the mountains is helping her "accept reality, pause a bit, and come back refreshed to start again".

Mountaineering is all about getting ready for the climb. Working on health throughout the year for that one big night when climbers make the summit try is significant.

"At the workplace, it is important to prepare well before meeting the client. You demonstrate that you value the client's time," says Trivedi, who has two small children. She started trekking 5 years ago, and her coaching regime involves power coaching, running and clocking vertical miles by means of hiking 100 floors in an hour on a weekly foundation.

For Maheshwari, the bodily preparation entailed hiking 50 floors with a 12kg backpack, dressed in a high-altitude masks which cuts oxygen consumption by means of 50%, and 4kg weights tied to his ankles. Mental preparation is similarly crucial. A climber has merely six oxygen cylinders to regulate with. "Can there be any better lesson in time and risk management? It teaches you to know your strengths, gauge the scenario, evaluate your resources and take a well-calculated decision," says Maheshwari.

Making essentially the most of restricted assets is another key lesson Trivedi has learned. "As you climb higher, the odds are against you-food rations come down, you sleep on glaciers, oxygen levels fall. Business wins are generally about achieving the maximum output with optimal input, and the ability to prioritise time, money and effort most productively. And that is something that has become second nature to me thanks to these expeditions," she says.


Vikas Dimri, director and head, SME, trade & running capital, at Deutsche Bank, who climbed Everest this year, says mountaineering has made him more conscious at paintings. There are other life classes too. "For example, one has to wait out the bad weather in the mountains to climb another day, just as you would have to wait out the market headwinds while still looking for growth." Also, he believes that once we do something atypical, it conjures up others to strive for a similar. "To me, this has helped bring perspective to the work I do and helped me get better at it," says Dimri.


The mountaineers say the temptation to quit is largest just ahead of the summit is reached. The ultimate leg of the ascent involves about 10 hours or more of walking throughout the night, hiking steep mountain faces, enduring freezing winds, while fighting sleep and exhaustion. The "ghost hour" is between three and 4am, when the body refuses to take yet one more step. "If you don't break at that point, you are almost sure to make it to the summit," says Trivedi.


Business deals are no different. "The key is to be resilient to rejections and persistent in your efforts." Team-building and humility are some traits mountaineers imbibe. "When you have to survive on canned food and limited water and oxygen for days, humility is the only thing that keeps you going. While we scale the corporate ladder, we need to become better human beings, and mountaineering has inspired me to be one," says Maheshwari.


After climbing corporate ladder, execs aim for Everest After climbing corporate ladder, execs aim for Everest Reviewed by Kailash on August 20, 2018 Rating: 5
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