Today, we are interviewing Mr. Subhasis Ghosh, a Business Leader, Start-up Mentor, and Angel Investor with 30+ yrs diversified experience in several sectors, with the natural ability for capitalizing on new opportunities and forging loyalty with stakeholders across geographies.
Please tell us something about yourself.
I have tasted success and failures as a business leader, an intrapreneur, an entrepreneur, an investor, and still continue to learn.
I benefited from the opportunity to deliver, working for the government on multi-country projects, transitioned to Information Systems consulting, and consulted MNCs. I upgraded to a Business Leadership role, built and scaled multi-location business units for Two Fortune-500 conglomerates. Then, I transitioned to the start-up ecosystem, where I have assessed, mentored, and invested in start-ups directly and through incubators.
The diversity of my experience in defense & aerospace, IS-IT Consulting, petroleum, retail, logistics, SEZ and maritime infrastructure in several countries and my ability to distill over 3 decades of experience, help stakeholders achieve clarity and relatedness in developing and executing strategies
At Apex Group, we help emerging businesses connected with supply chain and logistics infrastructure, services, and technology, increase their revenues through M&A and advisory services. We are always happy to help with: International Business and Product Development; M & A and Industry Partnerships; Business Incubation, Entrepreneurship Development and Scaling Up
How did you get into what you do right now? Please tell us more about your journey?
Transitioning from assignments with governments to a business leadership role and then into entrepreneurship. My failures have been spectacular, and so have been my successes. Over a period of time, with sufficient failures under my belt, I was able to connect decades of my experience with what I also see, read and listen to others, then distill and communicate the same. Achieving clarity enabled me to start re-building my business from a different perspective where my business and life goals converged for the first time. Having gone this far in my journey, I decided to share my insights and learning.
Who are your role models?
I am fortunate to have several role models in different roles. In my early career, I looked up to my father for his intellectual courage, humility, and patience, among other things. Later as I matured, I have looked up to Bill Gates on the way he built Microsoft, then shared his learning(s) as a best-selling author, transitioned to social entrepreneurship, and continues to contribute to philanthropy and society brilliantly. My role model to seek a purpose and pursue a path of giving back to society is Swami Vivekananda; a spiritual genius of commanding intellect and power, well known in India and America in early 20th century.
What inspires you?
Helping emerging businesses and ultimately the people behind them, to achieve more by shifting mindsets.
Please tell us about your book.
Achieving success in business and in life requires us to desire success with the same intensity as if we are hanging off a cliff by our fingers and the energy we will put in to pull ourselves up to safety. As if our life depended upon it. Once we get going and tune in, the Universe finds a way to support us. Just accept that experience and failures come by to help with learnings, where we mostly succeed and with lessons, where we fail. In my experience of 30 years in government organizations and in Fortune 500 Cos in several industries including defense & aerospace, consulting & IT, petroleum & petrochemical, shipping & logistics, where I had the opportunity to contribute to multi-country projects. I have tasted success and failures as a business leader, an intrapreneur, entrepreneur, and investor, and I’m now transitioning from success to significance.
This book outlines how I have been able to transition across sectors and domains and deliver challenges notwithstanding. This is also a collection of thoughts on what I learned, what worked, what did not. Where I succeeded and importantly, where I failed along the way. It is about things that I learned through my reflections and insights in hindsight. The journey to finding my purpose has been transformative for me. I know it will be transformative for the reader.
What’s your most memorable experience?
From a professional standpoint, I have several memorable experiences.
Planning and successfully executing an international tradeshow focussed on the maritime & logistics sector with the participation of over 2000 participants, 50 exhibitors, 80 speakers from 10 countries, without prior experience.
Building a Contract Logistics business from scratch to over 100 warehouses, spanning across 50 tows and cities and employing over 3000 people being another… I have shared my experiences and learnings in my book.
Which social media channels work best for promoting your work? What exactly do you do on the social media channel that makes it work for you?
My firm, Apex Group, has a good presence on LinkedIn, Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram with over 7000 unique followers, and I am personally active on LinkedIn, where I share thought leadership articles. My LinkedIn followers have grown to over 5000, which I think is also attributable to the insights and thought leadership articles that I share periodically.
What’s your greatest fear?
I make an effort to keep learning as I sometimes fear of getting complacent or distracted from my path of helping my clients achieve more.
Looking back, what’s one thing you wish you understood better before you ever got started?
To worry less about the final outcome -what we deserve and desire will come to us, so be bold in pursuing opportunities that come knocking;
What are the strategies that helped you become successful in your journey?
Curiosity and love of learning and Pursuing learnings and hunches ( the ones I did) with all sincerity and vigor;
Taking ownership of the assignment and the client; Ability to imagine and consider several perspectives ;
The ability to distill, share learnings and relate to people
What keeps you going when things get tough?
Finding the good in events and people;
Not blaming anyone or anything-taking ownership and responsibility;
Listening for clues in my own life, what is working-success always leaves clues.
Any message for our readers.
Yes. Do keep time for reflection in your daily routine to connect with yourself and identify what is working. Create a ‘not to do’ list. And, remember Knowledge converts to wisdom when you have failed more.
How can people connect with you?
To benefit from my learnings and perspectives, I invite you to read my book on Amazon – Achieving Success by Failing More: Reflections and Insights for Scaling Up and the India print edition is at https://pothi.com/pothi/book/subhasis-ghosh-achieving-success-failing-more
I am active on LinkedIn and Twitter.
You can also connect with us on these Instagram channel: apex_group_mastermind