Interview With Dr. Prasad Medury, MD, Odgers Berndtson India

Dr. Anurag Batra greeted Dr. Prasad Medury and initiated the conversation on touching upon the latest survey that has been done by Odgers Berndtson named as The Odgers Berndtson Leadership Confidence Index 2020. The Odgers Berndtson Leadership Confidence Index, based on data from 1,890 senior executives, managers, and board members, using a methodology developed by Odgers Berndtson with Harvard Business Review Analytic Services

Dr. Medury explained that “The whole idea was to understand the confidence level of leaders, what are the expectations of the organization from their leaders, and what are the attributes that are requisite for successful leaders in the times of disruption.

He stated that “If you see the overall results; 85% of respondents believe that the CEO has the most critical role to play and 40% of the respondents express doubts that the person in the top role can deliver amid disruption in the next five years.”

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Dr. Medury shared his observations on how leaders and businesses are changing shape due to this recent disruption.

“You cannot go with the traditional way of business plans which is becoming obsolete now. Leaders must look up to a new approach. The leaders and the top management have to be really proactive and they need to know all the answers. The leaders are becoming more resilient because they are dealing with the unknown they are dealing with uncertainty and eventually they are dealing with people. We have observed along with all these observations that leaders must have a very balanced emotional quotient.

Senior managers have their own experience; when the difficult time arrives people look back at their experience to solve their problems but unfortunately as we realize today in the phase of Corona the experience is not relevant because we have never encountered this type of pandemic or disruption.

He firmly said that “New age economy companies will sail through this because the younger the leadership perhaps the more the confidence would help them to cope up with this pandemic while in old age economy companies the leadership are more aged and people are used to older business conventions”

Looking at the practical aspect of giving a solution, Dr. Batra asked; How leaders can motivate themselves and then can pass on the motivation to other people?

The leaders actually can do two things, that are;
 1. Talk and consult with each other to understand what others are doing in a sense of developing best practices.
 2. The leaders have to communicate- The only way to manage or handle the fear is by communicating and communicating effectively, so be transparent and be trustworthy.

His Prediction for future

In the next 12 to 18 months, we will see many organizations shut down because of bankruptcy, run out of cash, total sellout and at the same time, old economy businesses would survive and they will get back to the normal business by August or September.

While making a prediction he mentioned about the change that can happen at the workplaces and said that if this continues to be a constant problem we will see more and more automation at the workplaces

One powerful message in these testing times.

Being optimistic Dr. Prasad Medury said; Be patient these are hard times really hard times. Look at the positives and things will improve soon.