'The Right Attitude Is More Important Than Technical Know-How' - Mr. Jayanta Chatterjee, Executive Director - Supply Chain, Castrol India Limited

Here is how the poster looked like!!

Result: 

700+ views on LinkedIn but no luck

The winning approach

My love for showing my creativity was so intense, that I almost forgot that I should have started with the organisation where I had done my internship. I started looking for email IDs of the VPs who were empanelled for my final review during an internship, on LinkedIn, but couldn’t find one. My sheer biased “Bengali” eyes traced the name of the Executive Director -Supply Chain - Mr. Jayanta Chatterjee of Castrol India Ltd and yes, his email id was there!

The email strategy:

A personalised email, a hint of admiring the person for his achievements, showing eagerness to learn, and not to forget a touch of literature into it (Bongs do love it)

Result:

A reply in a day and finally the interview scheduled on the next day

The telephonic interview 

It started off with a weather chat on Jammu, probably to make me feel a little less nervous. I could relate myself to journalists interviewing a celeb for the first time ever!

 

The QnA episode

Q: One incident from your time in college/b-school that helped shape your professional life

A: Since my school days I had the love for quants and enjoyed analytics. I also enjoyed managing teams. I think, a combination of both, has helped me shape my career. When I joined Phillips at the beginning of my career, I had the opportunity to talk to the people from the management team to learn from them. This helped me understand that I would do better in roles which were more about leading teams. So, my eagerness in learning from others has always helped me shape my career.

Q: One passion of yours that helps you become better at your mainline career

A: The passion to listen to my heart provided I am ready to do it well. The day I joined CIL, I wished to be on the Board of CIL one day and I really enjoyed achieving it.

Q: When you are looking for people in your team, apart from specific skills, what kind of attitudes and approaches do you look for in candidates?

A: To me, right attitude is more important than technical know-how. With respect to that, following are the things I look for in my team members:

• Ability to work in team and work with various stakeholders – juniors, seniors, peers within the organisation and even the ones external to the organisation
• Openness and flexibility towards getting a solution to a problem
• Inclination to learn

Q: Many of the students these days end up choosing a wrong career. Your opinion on this.

A: Look for sustainable benefits and not the financial ones.

You should have a strong operational experience in your early career, which helps to build on to your subsequent professional life.

Q: You have been in the same organisation for almost 20 years. What is the role played by an organisation in building one’s career?

A: In my opinion, to have a meaningful experience in any organisation, be in a role for at least 3 years.

Exceptions to these would be rare cases when someone’s values do not match with the values and ethics of the organisation.

Is it that easy to change roles inside an organisation?

Changing role is also a matter of discomfort for an employee. If you are really ready for a new role, you will be identified and supported by the organisation. There will be an automatic pull from other teams to bring you on board.

Q: If you write a book some day on career, life and leadership, what would you name it and why? 

A: Haven’t thought of the name though. But I will write someday about the following:

• About identifying the weaker links in an organisation/a team and how to find a solution towards it.
• About life and how we manage life. I believe there is no such term called work-life balance. Life is not a see-saw, skewed in one way, but a circle!

Q: Since you are heading many projects outside India as well, according to you how differently they perceive career as compared to our country?

A: In Western countries, work is an enabler to lead the life I want to lead, but in India work mostly summarizes our life! There lies the difference.

Q: How can the budding entrants to the Corporate league add value to the organisation?

A: Learn as much as possible.

Show the keenness to do more than what the JD asks for; with a positive approach. This leads to a win-win situation for both the employee and the organisation.

Sincerity, diligence, engagement with all stakeholders are the three keywords.

 

Finally, the learnings

Our “PGDM” life is already full of a lot of Ps & Cs!! Let me add 3 more to those!

Perseverance

Passion

People

To have a fulfilling career, all the above three are extremely important.

• Out of all possible combinations of the 3Ps, remember to rule out any combination which lacks “Perseverance”
• In Frost’s words, we should always let our “avocation and vocation” meet. Better be Passionate today than never!
• To all the Fin lovers, who hate OB, start loving it, else you will lose on the third “P”. People management, if not done right can land you up in soup.