“Being Humble means recognising that we are not on earth to see how important we can become, but to see how much difference we can make in the lives of others” – Gordon B.

If I have to say one word about how I felt when I entered into the hallowed campus of Mahindra & Mahindra, I can sum it up in “Humility”. Humility is engrossed as one of the major components of the RISE philosophy of Mahindra, to which I was introduced during my induction of Mahindra GMC program of 2019.

My GMC internship journey started with the induction of GMC 2019 batch at the sprawling campus of Mahindra at Worli. We were welcomed with the sumptuous breakfast (Well, believe me, if I start talking about their culinary welcome, this article will take pages to end). We entered into the induction hall, received our welcome kit and took the designated seats at the round tables at which our name tags were already in place. We received the agenda of the day and the profile of the speakers beforehand only at the Konversations app.

After the cool introductory session that was filled with some sporting fact spilling moments of the fellow interns, we were introduced to the senior leaders from the diversified range of sectors of the Mahindra Group. Dr. Anish Shah – Group President of Strategy, Mr. Sunil Sharma – Vice President of CRM, FM & Marketing division, Mr. Hemant Luthra – Chairman at Mahindra CIE, Dr. Prince Augustin – EVP Group Human Capital & Leadership Development at Mahindra and Mr. Parthasarathy V S – Group CFO and Group CIO Mahindra Group.

The whole day with these dignified business leaders was truly insightful and inspirational simultaneously. They shared their business insights with the GMC interns and answered their queries in a one to one interaction with the students with so much enthusiasm and zeal that I am sure that none of us had experienced it before in such a close fashion.

The second day of the induction started in almost the same manner and began with the introduction of one of the most inspirational leaders of Mahindra Group, Dr. Pawan Goenka – MD of Automotive and Farm sector. It was truly a mesmerizing session filled with some really stimulating interactions.

After that, we had some more sessions with other senior business leaders followed by the lifetime event of the day to which I believe each one of us was waiting like anything. It was the leadership talk session with none other than Mr. Anand Mahindra himself at his Gateway office. Yes, we had the chance to meet him in person and were awed by his very presence. He has such a rare combination of charismatic leadership and humbleness in behavior which I believe that we as future leaders should definitely aspire for. The interaction mainly revolved around the leadership qualities, Indian Politics, and Life’s Purpose.

On the final day of the induction, we scheduled a visit to the Mahindra office in Kandivali. Here lies the heart of Mahindra Group, the “Automotive and Farm Sector” division. The whole day, we had some really insightful discussions with the senior leaders from the AFS division.

The one most fascinating thing was how the philosophy of RISE was embodied in every single leadership talk we had during our induction program. It was truly awe-inspiring to see how every employee of Mahindra walks the talk of their RISE philosophy.

The next day we joined our respective business sectors and had a sectoral induction in our respective offices. We also had board games arranged for us by the Board Game Co. as fun events for team building exercise. The induction concluded with the Design Thinking workshop by Dr. Suranjan Das from SPJIMR. It was a very enriching and thought stimulating session which I believe that each one of us would definitely be needing in the next two months to get some out of the box ideas in our respective projects.

Kudos to the Mahindra GMC HR team for their relentless effort and making the start of our Mahindra journey worth memorable.

Now looking forward to having a memorable summers ahead.

Ready to RISE!

Divyank Rastogi

The Beginning Of My Journey At Mahindra - Ready To Rise!