Guest Lecture by Mr.Rajesh Nair, Head – Markets and Pursuits, Ernst & Young

The Industry Interaction Cell of IIM Kozhikode in collaboration with Hriday, the human resource interest group of IIM Kozhikode organized a talk on “Branding Oneself” by Mr.Rajesh Nair, Head – Markets and Pursuits, Ernst & Young on 7th August, 2012 as part of the ongoing leadership series. Mr. Nair’s professional experience covered various roles and responsibilities in his current organization as well as in previous organizations namely Accenture, Tata Motors, ECS Ltd and now Ernst & Young in the field of organizational strategy, organizational change management and post merger integration.

The talk on branding oneself was to give the students of IIM Kozhikode a perspective of how to portray their personality in front of others such as prospective recruiters, colleagues and other audience. He spoke about how branding oneself and differentiating oneself was very important in a competitive world. He mentioned that every person needed to be explicit about his achievements in life.

Mr.Nair used his experience to share how famous personalities also use this method to improve their portrayal of themselves. Adding further, he emphasized the importance of adapting oneself to any situation that he is faced with. According to him, every individual had different aspects attached to his personality that he portrayed when he was with his family, friends or colleagues.  He used HR concepts like the Johari window to drive home the point that self actualization is very important in life.

Mr.Nair used this platform to insist that each and every student reflect upon their strengths and weakness as an exercise and write down how they looked at themselves as it would be beneficial for them in the long run. Overall, the students appreciated his method and believed they would do their best to implement it as soon as possible.