On the 10th of August, 2017, the Vinod Gupta School of Management, IIT Kharagpur had the privilege of hosting Mr. Vinay Shetty, Regional Director for India and South Asia at Asus, under its flagship guest lecture series ‘Vaarta’.
Mr. Shetty commenced the engaging session with a set of questions about brand Asus, an introduction about himself, and his professional journey till date. Even as he went about setting the tone of the session, he laid due emphasis on the undeniable importance of hard-work and sincerity in making it to the top of the corporate world. Mr. Shetty joined Asus in May 2006 as a Junior Manager, made substantial contributions to its success over the last decade and grew within the organisation to reach commendable heights. His current role in the organisation involves communicating with the Headquarters in Taiwan on Product Planning, Product Forecasting, Pricing Position, and Channel Strategy while also overlooking the entire Component Business operations in terms of Sales, Marketing, Service, Finance, HR, and Administration. He thoughtfully divided the session into two parts - one where he spoke about Asus and the other where he spoke on how to become an outstanding manager.
Mr. Shetty shared an interesting fact with the audience when he traced the origin of the name ‘Asus’ to the mythological winged-horse - ‘Pegasus’ and then furthered it by sharing a couple of details pertaining to the company and its financial success akin to the soar of a Pegasus over the past many years. The product portfolio of Asus comprising a range of cutting-edge and pioneering smartphones, personal computers, peripherals, and components was discussed in detail. Mr. Shetty attributed the engineering DNA of the company and its constant pursuit to outdo itself as one of the keys to its success. How Asus could achieve the ‘Pinnacle of Gaming’ through persistent innovation was explained by the guest in great depth for the enlightenment of the enthusiastic audience. Mr. Shetty underlined a few noteworthy strategic decision that Asus had taken on its path to success, one of them being the decision to continue manufacturing optical drives even as the others in the industry made an exit. This bold decision resulted in a positive growth in the market share of optical drives for 8 consecutive years for Asus. The esteemed guest also unveiled before the excited audience, the futuristic home robot - ‘Zenbo’ that could finally translate this science fiction concept into a reality.
The final half of the session revolved around how our budding managers could script their success stories on the canvas of the corporate world. Here, Mr. Shetty pointed out the crucial role of intention as he was a firm believer in the power of intention and zeal more than any other special skill. Talking about how organizations viewed prospective employees, he put to the fore his viewpoint of organizations hiring people for their attitudes and training them for their skills. Mr. Shetty listed the varying kinds of managers and leaders that our aspiring managers could face in their professional journey. Through an ‘Importance’ vs ‘Urgency’ matrix, he lucidly explained the way to prioritize tasks in a scientific manner. As the session veered towards its end, the honourable guest stressed on the indispensability of great communication skills and continuous self-improvement in accomplishing desirable feats in one’s professional career, especially in a hyper-competitive and dynamic world as of the present.
A round of questions and answers followed where Mr. Shetty answered numerous intriguing questions on Asus as a brand, a career in the sales and marketing domain, tips and personal experiences to take cues from before the session closed. Although the session officially drew to an end, the indelible insights and advice delivered to our esteemed guest are sure to travel ahead with our aspiring leaders as they tread through the corporate arena. Without a doubt, VGSoM looks forward to more such enriching interactions with the accomplished leader in the time to come.