Mr. Chandrashekhar Mukherjee the Chief People Officer of National Stock Exchange intoxicated the students of International Management Institute, Kolkata, with his atypical wisdom on the corporate life that awaits the would be management graduates. The session was a vibrant one extending its frontiers beyond the academic niche. Many interesting insights were impeccably put forward. A session which began with a probe into the nucleus of the financial infrastructure provider, made the students realise the importance of dealing with people from all spheres of life. “Technology and people” have helped NSE become a humdinger and match orders in Nano seconds. With 85 percent of market share, NSE has always been vulnerable to cyber security threats from those who may want the Indian economy to crash. It is here that technology comes to its rescue and helps it Zen like handle crores of treasuries. This competitive environment needs dynamic and enthusiastic people now who bring something new to the table. He miraculously introduced the aha moment by a hyperbole that despite having a “chip” on our shoulders one must respect people with experience. The hidden truth is that people respond to incentives, but getting hooked to compensation will do no good. The mega bucks can be achieved only by the skills one hones in the organisation one is a part of.In the yo-yo of life, one must be “well read and well bred”. The finesse that the corporates are looking for is the psyche. He harped on the importance of networking in the present era, certainly not the wrong way. Many of life’s decisions are hard. The dilemma of being a specialist vs being a generalist was resolved, despite having high stakes, one must be “master of few and jack of all”. Only minuscule percent of corporate leaders who have done well are uni-dimensional, all successful people who go up the ladder are multidimensional. It is vital to have the appetite of moving out of the comfort zone and explore the unknown to be able to climb the ladder of success. Taking aid of the performance-potential graph, and doing the math he surmised that “one may be the best performer, but only potential will get one promoted”. The caveat lay in understanding the core competency and differentiating between the functional and behavioural competency. The buzz word today being “start-up” deprives one from the learning from processes, which can only be achieved from a well-established institute. Hence, it is of paramount importance that one makes a right decision for he may not get to practice them often. The chain of free-spirited erudition led to a cumulative advantage for the spectators and showcased the deeper realities of the corporate world with fiercely rational arguments.