#PokingNose : In-conversation with Asish Mohapatra, the Co-founder & CEO at OfBusiness

It is very rare to find your CEO a little free, and you take advantage and disturb him with your own not so unique thoughts. This happened a day before, when I saw Asish Mohapatra, our Co-founder and CEO- OfBusiness, breaking for 3-4 seconds, and giving me space to say hello! or allowing me to ‘Poke My Nose’ in his world.

Obviously, he was happy !! Was he ? It’s alright. One generally doesn’t get time to speak to Corporate Communication people.

Well, today was my day ! So randomly, just to initiate conversation, I asked him – “Do you watch movies ?” He looked at me as if asking me – “Do you ever watch movies?” I simply said, I am more into OTT nowadays.

He looked at me smiling, as if I had touched his old memories, rather very old memories.

“I have been a movie-buff and could remember not just the names of the movies, but also their director, writer, lyricist, story-writer, music director, and names of even some junior artists”, he said.

Up-came his question now – “Which old movie do you remember – give me a name.”

It was like a Jasprit Bumrah full-toss ball to a batsman who has only been in the stands in all the matches.

For a few seconds, I forgot even my own name. Recollecting my senses, I replied – “Dev Anand’s ‘Guide’. And his next question was – “Who was the Director?”?

Now that was very unfair of him.

By now, I had realized that, no matter what – you cannot win from a #CEO who is also a Co-founder.

So, I changed the topic and asked the most common question, to which I received a very uncommon reply. My question was – “If you had to write about something - what would be your ?favourite topic ?”

And then the CEO began explaining - "Generally, I write about culture a lot. How should we promote culture ? ?What do people like ? ?How should organizations provide people with what they want? ?- ?I think people want tangible growth in terms of money and remuneration. People want power with time, authority with time and also fun. Without fun, power, money and authority, a person is not complete and may start finding these things elsewhere. If people are getting these 4 things with time, or know that eventually they will, it brings out the best in them. All these 4 things are very important - #money, #power, #authority and fun.”

The combination was indeed quite different. But then how should a #Leader drive these values or who do you see as a Leader - ?was my next question.

This is what he explained :

“A leader should know what people want, and he should be able to provide it. The second most important thing in leadership is that you should do things on your own instead of making people do it. You can only make people work and listen to you when you know about that certain thing yourself. You have to be the best person in the team for that task so that you can command your respect by doing it.

The third thing is that a leader is a person who can build resources out of thin air. A manager is a person who will play around whatever resources he has and will bring output. However, a leader is someone who can create or extract resources from a person, team or a situation where there was none, i.e. to create value out of nothing. Leadership is also something in which people blindly follow you - without requiring any reason. People listen to leaders not because they have authority, but because they want to listen and have confidence and blind faith in the person. A leader is a person that can invoke blind faith in people, to the extent that they follow without rhyme or reason.

Leadership is also about the fact that it can engulf not just your own development but the development of your entire ecosystem. A leader should focus on the entire development of the ecosystem instead of just focusing on an individual’s professional life.

A leader has to stand for innovation, not necessarily in business, it can be in any aspect of life. But the way the leader thinks should be innovative and outstanding to set an example for the people regarding how things should be done in an innovative manner.

A leader should be able to create his team and make sure that the whole team delivers. A leader should also be a visionary. At least for the next 20 years, he/she should be clear about the goals and the targets. The roadmap can change with time, but some ideas regarding the direction they want should be there.

A leader should always be able to set directions and be very clear about the same.”

I realized how much what Asish said was making sense to me. When I reach home, my family finds me very relaxed and calm. There is no stress, or anxiety or complexity – neither on my face, nor in my body language. I am happy with what I did during my day. Wondering, after 90 minutes of morning traffic jams, working for almost 8 hours in the office and then returning home, travelling through equal minutes of traffic jams; if one is still happy & relaxed, then the reason could only be in the work culture of the organization.

He was about to leave, and I promptly asked him ?– “Do you think I am a Good Leader ?” ?to which he smiled mysteriously and went to his seat, which is right in the middle of all the employees. He wants to remain with the team, which has 70% of first-time job-owners.?

Forgot to tell, Asish doesn't have a cabin, neither he likes to sit in the ones that are there.

Would soon write how I poked my nose in someone’s work again.