Professor M. S. Rao’s Vision 2030: One Million Global Leaders

© 2015 MSR Leadership Consultants India. All Rights Reserved. This is a nonprofit blog to share Professor M.S.Rao’s passion and vision to build one million students as global leaders by 2030. The use of this material is free provided copyright is acknowledged and reference or link is made to the Blog http://professormsraovision2030.blogspot.in. This material may not be sold, or published in any form, or used in the provision of business services to a third party without permission.

Wednesday, 30 September 2026

Professor M. S. Rao’s Vision 2030: One Million Global Leaders : Why Should We Invest in Soft Skills Training for I...

Professor M. S. Rao’s Vision 2030: One Million Global Leaders : Why Should We Invest in Soft Skills Training for I...: Currently, soft skills are catching up, and their importance is being felt more than ever as employees are often fired due to a dearth of...

Why Should We Invest in Soft Skills Training for Indian Students in Today's AI-Driven World?—Professor M.S. Rao, Ph.D.—International Leadership Guru, The Father of “Soft Leadership” & 21st-Century Philosopher

Currently, soft skills are catching up, and their importance is being felt more than ever as employees are often fired due to a dearth of soft skills. Students find it difficult to get employed because they lack soft skills. Although Indian students are technically strong, they still lack the skills to present themselves to interview boards, thus losing employment opportunities. There is more of an unemployability problem than an unemployment problem in India.

Indian education—challenges and solutions

It is disheartening to note that the Indian education system is producing educated illiterates. It is here that the collective role of all stakeholders, such as faculty, recruiters, students, and directors of educational institutions, becomes imperative. There must be an integrated approach to handle unemployability in educational institutions. Educational institutions must understand the requirements of the industry. At the same time, the industry must understand the limitations of the educational institutions. As soft skills are directly proportional to employability, there is a need to tune the soft skills training programs as per the needs of the industry, not the other way around.

Both academia and industry cannot operate in different orbits. They have to be within the same orbit, leveraging their strengths to create productive people. People often talk about the interface between academia and industry. However, it should go beyond the interface and reach the point of a marriage between academia and industry to create employable and enlightened professionals.

The faculty must know the needs of the students from time to time and evolve their teaching styles to suit the learning styles of students. This leads to the right chemistry between the faculty and the students. It is not what you know that matters, but what you cater to the students that ultimately matters.

The academia must foresee the needs of the students through thorough research and prepare a flexible curriculum with flexible learning styles to get the desired outcomes.

Team teaching comes in handy to bridge the gap between the campus and the industry. In this method, both the educator and industry expert undertake the teaching session, while the educator emphasizes the theory and the industry expert focuses on the application of the theoretical concepts. It helps students eat the cake and have it too, thus paving the way for relating the real content to real-life events and applications.

Academia is under a theoretical perspective, while the industrial world is under a practical perspective. Both need to communicate, understand, empathize, and appreciate the compulsions and constraints, and work in harmony to produce students who are industry-compatible and employable. It also helps them in personality development and professional growth.

There is a strong need to develop human capital. No country can progress without the growth of human capital. It is always the individual behind the machine that counts, not the machine behind the man. Both management and engineering institutions are the backbone of any country, as they produce managers and engineers and collectively produce technocrats and leaders for industry.

The faculty should develop their soft skills content as they know the real pulse of the students. They should be exposed to corporate establishments to understand and appreciate their needs. This enables them to craft content to suit corporate expectations.

Both faculty and students should be open and receptive to promoting soft skills to survive and succeed in the corporate world. There must be a consensus between both the campus and industry in developing and delivering the content about employability skills. It is necessary to blend both soft and hard skills to produce successful engineers and managers right from educational institutions.

Educational institutions must emphasize experiential learning and blended learning in the classrooms. It is necessary to encourage industry experts to visit educational institutions often to bring awareness among the students about the industry's needs. In addition, finishing schools should be made part of the engineering and management institutions to connect students from the classroom to the corporate world.

Suggestions for faculty

Faculty must provide career counseling and mentoring to the students. They must nurture the talents and skills of students. They must organize soft skills training programs regularly and encourage students to interact with the industry. They must develop strong networking skills through alumni networks. They must conduct mock interviews, group discussions, and presentations regularly. Above all, faculty must teach students how to craft a good resume for a job as well as a resume of failures to help students learn lessons from their mistakes.

Suggestions for industry

Industry must regularly interact with educational institutions to raise awareness among the students about their expectations. It must emphasize employability skills more during induction programs, especially for freshers. Allocate an adequate budget to train and groom them as per industry standards. It must send volunteers to educational institutions to teach employability skills in the classrooms. It should invite faculty from the industry who are passionate about teaching soft skills to their students and training them. Industry (recruiters) will have to do the following to make students plug-and-play employees.

Develop internal training, development, and evaluation programs to ensure current employees are equally well-versed in the same employability skills requested for new hires.
Work closely with and communicate regularly with schools about what employability skills students will need.
Collaborate with schools to provide on-the-job learning experiences through internships and volunteer job opportunities that will assist students in developing employability skills.
Develop consistency in the design and format of job descriptions on a regular, preplanned basis.

The role of finishing schools

Finishing schools play a crucial role in connecting students from the classroom to the corporate world. They are the institutions that bridge the gap between the campus and the industry. Successful students, after their academic education, must undergo extra training sessions in job-related skills and abilities in the finishing school so that they will have a competitive edge and stand out from others. Finishing school is a type of training school that helps equip certain employability skills among the students, especially technical graduates. Finishing schools serve as a platform to polish the rough edges of the unemployable youth. They fill the gaps in academic education and help the students to be industry-ready by equipping the skill set expected by employers. Precisely, they blend both education and experience to enhance employability.

Share if you care!

“Things You Don’t Know about Professor M. S. Rao” http://professormsraovision2030.blogspot.com/2015/10/things-you-dont-know-about-professor-m.html

Read my ‘Vision 2030 One Million Global Leaders’ URL: http://professormsraovision2030.blogspot.com/2014/12/professor-m-s-raos-vision-2030-one_31.html

Note: I had a brain hemorrhage. I was in bed for five months. My right hand has been numb and paralyzed. I am recovering. Thanks for empathizing with me. With gratitude. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BFJrSRLHPUk&ab_channel=ProfessorM.S.Rao

Life is great!

Professor M.S. Rao, Ph.D.

Founder of MSR Leadership Consultants, India

Amazon: http://www.amazon.com/M.-S.-Rao/e/B00MB63BKM

Vision 2030: https://professormsraovision2030.blogspot.com

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/professormsrao

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See the Light in You: https://www.amazon.com/See-Light-You-Spiritual-Mindfulness/dp/1949003132

Thanks for reading!

Kindly share your thoughts and comments below. I’m sure someone out there will find your story useful.

This nonprofit blog will share Professor M.S. Rao’s passion and vision for developing one million students into global leaders by 2030. Please do not cut articles from my blog; redistribute them via email or post them online. The use of this material is free, as long as the copyright is acknowledged and a reference or link is provided to the Blog http://professormsraovision2030.blogspot.com. Without permission, this material may not be sold, published, or used to offer business services to third parties

Friday, 25 September 2026

Professor M. S. Rao’s Vision 2030: One Million Global Leaders : Why Is Drawing An Action Plan For New CEOs Essenti...

Professor M. S. Rao’s Vision 2030: One Million Global Leaders : Why Is Drawing An Action Plan For New CEOs Essenti...: When Tim Cook took over from Steve Jobs as the head of Apple, the expectations were higher, as his predecessor was a legendary innovator ...

Why Is Drawing An Action Plan For New CEOs Essential?—Professor M.S. Rao, Ph.D.—International Leadership Guru, The Father of “Soft Leadership” & 21st-Century Philosopher

When Tim Cook took over from Steve Jobs as the head of Apple, the expectations were higher, as his predecessor was a legendary innovator and leadership guru. When Jeff Immelt took over from Jack Welch as the head of General Electric, the expectations were higher, as Jack Welch was rated as one of the best corporate leaders in the world. It is a Herculean task for new CEOs to step into the shoes of CEOs, especially when their predecessors were legends. The job of a CEO is a highly challenging one. The position of a CEO appears to be easy and rosy for spectators, but it is not a cakewalk for participants. Although it is not a complicated one, it is tough to survive and succeed as a CEO in this cutthroat, competitive world.

CEOs who can make a solid first impression and deliver are destined for huge success. It is a great opportunity for these new CEOs to use this time to project an image—formal versus informal, hands-on versus hands-off. Hence, they must be careful during the first 100 days in office. The concept of the first 100 days in office is widely used in the world of politics. It is also known as the honeymoon period in some parts of the world. It is the period of 'make-or-break' for new CEOs. These are crucial and critical days, whether you are a chief executive or a politician. New CEOs must take precautionary measures during this honeymoon period to achieve leadership effectiveness and ensure organizational excellence and effectiveness.

A study shows that the most pressing challenges for CEOs are strategic alignment and speed of execution. Hence, new CEOs must address these issues earnestly during the first 100 days in office. If CEOs prove well initially, they succeed; otherwise, they fail miserably ultimately. All stakeholders refrain from criticism during this honeymoon period, as this is the grace time given for new CEOs to get adjusted and work at their own pace. The media will also refrain from criticism, but it observes everything under its microscope. Hence, the new CEOs must be careful to make use of this time wisely to connect with all stakeholders and create a great impression to survive and succeed in the corporate world.

Problems And Prospects For Insider And Outsider CEOs

Outsider CEOs encounter vastly different kinds of challenges vis-à-vis insider CEOs. Whether you are elevated internally as a CEO or hired externally as a CEO, you must take a series of action steps to achieve great success. If you are hired internally, you will have both merits and demerits. The merits include that you bring in your experience, your hands-on knowledge of the organization, and your already existing understanding of the pulse of the people and the organization. The demerits include a lack of experience as a CEO, and you have to get out of the perceptions of all stakeholders, which are challenging tasks. If you are hired as CEO externally, it takes time for you to understand the organization's climate and culture and get tuned to it, while the merit is that you are free from perceptions as people look at you on a clean slate.

A Blueprint For New CEOs

Do you want to do as the crowd does and struggle for a slice of life, or to bake your own pie and live on your own terms? If you want to bake your own pie and lead on your own terms as CEO, here is a blueprint for you:

The new CEOs must clearly focus on key areas aggressively. The crux of the issue here is how to spot the areas that need to be focused on. Hence, they must find out the key and core areas that need attention and energy and focus on them aggressively.

As a new CEO, you are always under the scanner of all stakeholders. Make sure that the first few days as CEO are highly organized and focused to create an everlasting impression as a successful CEO and leader.

The new CEOs must take lots of precautions to have clear-cut strategies and link them effectively with solid execution. At the same time, be cautious to present and project yourself professionally as a leader by blending your intelligence, trustworthiness, humaneness, courage, and discipline proportionately and judiciously. Also, blend your technical, business, and social acumen.

For a new CEO who undertakes this challenging role, there are certain dos and don’ts to stand out from others. Here is a template containing action steps new CEOs must follow to create a positive impact in the minds of all stakeholders:

Understand various aspects of the company, including its vision and mission.
Meet all stakeholders to find out their expectations and aspirations. If you are an outsider CEO, you must travel widely to connect with them. Get the big picture right.
Speak less and listen more to list out three major changes you would like to bring out to improve the company's bottom line.
Be transparent to build trust among all stakeholders.
Don’t follow the strategies of your predecessor, as what worked for him/her might not work for you.
Conduct an organizational assessment after taking inputs from all sources. Create a CEO template within your mind that must be flexible to execute.
Craft your own vision and use diversified communication vehicles, including email, memos, videoconferences, and face-to-face meetings, to articulate it effectively.
Identify the priority areas to improve the company's bottom line. Create an action plan, dividing them into short-term and long-term goals.
Create a winning formula based on your recreated vision.
Be a team leader. Build a strong team, capitalizing on their strengths and engaging team members effectively.
Make sure that the employees are rightly placed in their roles and responsibilities to leverage their strengths. At times, good employees are wrongly placed in the organization. Spot and place them properly.
Integrate the informal and formal elements of the organization.
Align people, plans, and practices with organizational goals and objectives.
Encourage innovative ideas among employees.
Provide input to your employees regularly, guide them, and inspire them.
Anticipate both internal and external threats and create contingency plans accordingly to counter them effectively.
Reorganize business lines to enhance operational excellence.
Accelerate the pace, but don’t be in a hurry to cut costs quickly, as you will not be able to know where the real problems may lie.
Be flexible and customize your leadership style as per the company’s vision and mission and the people around you.
Seek early wins and build momentum.
Analyze how you like to be remembered ultimately. Do you want to be remembered as a soft or hard, flexible, or situational CEO, or a CEO with a blend of both task and people orientation? And create your own CEO brand accordingly to stand out from others.

Whether you become a new CEO of a company or a leader of an industry or political party, you must follow these steps meticulously to achieve your goals and objectives. Manage internal organizational dynamics and external environmental threats effectively. Take your feedback regularly to bring about behavioral changes within yourself. Learn lessons from your own experience and from the experience of others to enhance your leadership effectiveness and soar like an eagle.

A good CEO must be a judicious blend of strategy and execution, as well as a proportional blend of business, technical, and social acumen. Hence, the new chief executives must proportionally mix all these qualities; meet all stakeholders; listen to them; create a corporate culture connecting them on one common thread; build effective teams; craft their vision; articulate it effectively during the first 100 days in their office to achieve everlasting success in the corporate world.

Reference

http://www.amazon.com/21-Success-Sutras-Ceos-Rao/dp/162865290X

Share if you care!

“Things You Don’t Know about Professor M. S. Rao” http://professormsraovision2030.blogspot.com/2015/10/things-you-dont-know-about-professor-m.html

Read my ‘Vision 2030 One Million Global Leaders’ URL: http://professormsraovision2030.blogspot.com/2014/12/professor-m-s-raos-vision-2030-one_31.html

Life is great!

Professor M.S. Rao, Ph.D.

Founder of MSR Leadership Consultants, India

Amazon: http://www.amazon.com/M.-S.-Rao/e/B00MB63BKM

Vision 2030: https://professormsraovision2030.blogspot.com

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/professormsrao

Substack: https://professormsrao.substack.com

X: http://twitter.com/professormsrao

YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@ProfessorMSRao

Meta: https://www.facebook.com/Professor-MS-Rao-451516514937414

See the Light in You: https://www.amazon.com/See-Light-You-Spiritual-Mindfulness/dp/1949003132

Thanks for reading!

Kindly share your thoughts and comments below. I’m sure someone out there will find your story useful.

This nonprofit blog will share Professor M.S. Rao’s passion and vision to develop one million students as global leaders by 2030. Please do not cut articles from my blog; redistribute them via email or post them online. The use of this material is free, as long as the copyright is acknowledged and a reference or link is provided to the Blog http://professormsraovision2030.blogspot.com. Without permission, this material may not be sold, published, or used to offer business services to third parties.

Monday, 21 September 2026

Professor M. S. Rao’s Vision 2030: One Million Global Leaders : Why Staying True To Your Values Matters—Professor ...

Professor M. S. Rao’s Vision 2030: One Million Global Leaders : Why Staying True To Your Values Matters—Professor ...: “Never give in. Never give in. Never, never, never, never—in nothing, great or small, large or petty—never give in, except to convictions...

Why Staying True To Your Values Matters—Professor M.S. Rao, Ph.D.—International Leadership Guru, The Father of “Soft Leadership” & 21st-Century Philosopher

“Never give in. Never give in. Never, never, never, never—in nothing, great or small, large or petty—never give in, except to convictions of honour and good sense. Never yield to force. Never yield to the apparently overwhelming might of the enemy.” ―Winston Churchill, Never Give In!

Character and career are things that you should not put into somebody's hands. Character should be according to your convictions. And a career should be based on your passion.

A person who compromises on everything will never succeed in his life. S/he will not have any identity for herself/himself. The person who sticks to his principles and convictions through thick and thin will forever be remembered in the history of humankind.

Abraham Lincoln is remembered for his anti-slavery policies. Martin Luther King is remembered for his struggle for the equality of blacks along with whites through his non-violence methods. Mahatma Gandhi is also remembered for fighting for independence through truth and non-violence. All these three leaders never gave in despite assassination threats and ultimately were assassinated. Another leader, Nelson Mandela, is remembered for fighting against apartheid in South Africa. He never compromised and gave in despite being jailed for many years. What made them stand apart from others was not giving in.

Unfortunately, a few people lose so much for so little due to a dearth of principles and values in their lives. Sometimes it is also due to the dearth of tenacity and resilience. The initial enthusiasm for preserving principles fades away with the passage of time and the kind of experiences one undergoes during one’s lifetime. When people are subjected to severe trials and tribulations, they tend to shift gears away from principles, thereby giving in. Ultimately, the difference between an ordinary and extraordinary person is not giving in at any cost.

The road to conviction is not a bed of roses. In contrast, it is a bed of thorns. If it were easy, everybody would tread the path of convictions. What is required during the journey is faith, not fear. Don't have fear, but have faith in your abilities and capabilities. Only when faith overtakes fear can you wholeheartedly stick to your convictions and principles. When you are pretty sure that the path you are going is good and great, then this faith alone is sufficient for you to keep you on track. Lord Jesus was crucified on the cross as he did not compromise with his convictions.

Some people compromise a lot to sustain relationships. But it is not proper. Any relationship requires a kind of 'give and take' attitude, where there is a need for flexibility to maintain relationships. People need to strike the right balance between relationships and principles. It requires extraordinary courage to balance and sustain relationships with mutual dignity and self-respect.

Never compromise with your core values and beliefs. Core values are the basic pillars and the foundation of your personality. Core values can be compared with infrastructure, while superficial values can be compared with superstructure. There should not be any compromise on these fundamental principles. However, you may compromise on some superficial values. It all depends on the situation and occasion when to bend and blend your superficial values. As every man changes with the changing times, there is a need to change some of our values and principles superficially for the sake of survival.

Never Give In

Don't allow yourself to be browbeaten by others. Don't yield to pressures. Hold on to your guns firmly. Be a die-hard person. Face the fight and fight on to the finish. It does not matter who wins or loses at the end. But ultimately, what matters are the principles and values in waging the battle.

Don't allow others to override or dictate to you. It is your life, and you have to make decisions. Don't become a puppet in the hands of puppeteers. The day you become a puppet, you lose your independence, individuality, and originality and remain like any other average individual. Giving charge of your life to others is like insulting yourself. Never, never, and never compromise, even if it involves risking ridicule and rejection. Ultimately, it is not the destination but the journey towards life that matters in the end.

Share if you care!

“Things You Don’t Know about Professor M. S. Rao” http://professormsraovision2030.blogspot.com/2015/10/things-you-dont-know-about-professor-m.html

Read my ‘Vision 2030 One Million Global Leaders’ URL: http://professormsraovision2030.blogspot.com/2014/12/professor-m-s-raos-vision-2030-one_31.html