MVP - THE MASTERS' VOICE PODCAST - MEDIABRIEF - Exclusive | Ronnie Screwvala - Chairperson & Co-Founder - upGrad: Fixated on Building to Outlast. On MVP - The Master's Voice

Exclusive | Ronnie Screwvala - Chairperson & Co-Founder - upGrad: Fixated on Building to Outlast. On MVP - The Master's Voice

05/24/22 • 56 min

MVP - THE MASTERS' VOICE PODCAST - MEDIABRIEF

The 56th episode of MVP – The Master’s Voice Podcast series, features Ronnie Screwvala - Chairperson & Co-Founder of upGrad, and the wonderful first-generation Indian entrepreneur, philanthropist, opinion leader and author and a truly remarkable and inspiring, visionary enterprise leader who exemplifies the MVP acronym of Most Valuable Player in our podcast series title.

Along with upGrad, which zeroes in on the massive Online Education market and the fact that Learning for every working professional is now a lifelong commitment, Ronnie also co-founded The Swades Foundation (along with his wife Zarina), which is committed to empowering one million lives in rural India every 5-7 years through a 360 degree model spanning Water, Sanitation, Health, Education and Livelihood, to help lift them out of poverty permanently.

These initiatives stemmed from Ronnie’s desire to deepen his commitment to making India a better place through a focus on two of the largest sunrise sectors - Online Education & the not-for-profit rural / social space.

In this episode, which will benefit startups and investors alike, Ronnie shares rich insights on a gamut of areas, from a beautiful mid point between investor and startup owner, but that’s just the point he speaks from. Ronnie’s words, as anyone who knows him, are pure, direct, plain-speak, sans any mincing.

From the perspective of someone who has built and is scaling a global enterprise like the remarkable UpGrad, Ronnie speaks about the macro picture in the EdTech space, and shares his views on whether he believes money talks during the phase of building a business when investors and capital seem to be the most important thing.

On his clear vision and plan for upGrad over the next 3 to 5 years, and whether he will merge, sell or list, Ronnie says he is absolutely fixated on Building upGrad to not just last, but to outlast. That is a total and complete commitment, and while listing might be an option, he says selling never was, and never will be.

On the fact that India has crossed 100 unicorns, Ronnie speaks of the need to be balanced between the champagne of celebration and the deep thought of introspection. He believes it is incorrect to assume that for K12, which has been the darling of everyone from investors to media to consumers, the honeymoon is over because the K12 model built by companies so far is under stress -- purely because there is a massive opportunity for K12 in India.

Ronnie shares how, despite having raised the least amount of cash, UpGrad has scaled very well with only a little capital. He shares his vision and approach, and his view on if, w

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Ronnie shares how, despite having raised the least amount of cash, UpGrad has scaled very well with only a little capital. He shares his vision and approach, and his view on if, w

First, follow us on Facebook, Twitter, Linkedin, Instagram.
Then, write to us at pavan [at] mediabrief dot com and alliances [at] mediabrief dot com, and also share links to your profiles that are following us.

Connecting socially is something we believe in and advocate. So go ahead. Reach out. We're happy, social souls.

Previous Episode

Dr Mukund Rajan – Chairman ECube Investment Advisors: Profit with Purpose, Trust, Integrity on MVP - The Masters Voice Podcast

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Dr Mukund Rajan, Chairman at ECube Investment Advisors Private Limited, is in conversation with MediaBrief.com Founder-Editor Pavan R Chawla in this, the 55th Episode of the award-winning MVP - The Master's Voice Podcast series.

Mukund's firm ECube Investment Advisors Private Limited focusses on Environment, Social and Governance (ESG) issues in India. Mukund also enjoys the distinction of having been the First Brand Custodian of the Tata Group. Till 2019, he was Chief Ethics Officer and Chairman, Tata Global Sustainability Council. In 2007, the World Economic Forum honoured Dr Rajan as a Young Global Leader.

The conversation with Dr Mukund Rajan

In this episode, Mukund, who has been doing stellar work through ECube (scroll down for a bit of a deeper dive on ECube), speaks about his varied, rich and enabling experiences from years of working with the Tata group, and most notably, directly with the great Rata Tata himself, right from Day One. (Mukund got picked even though he said to Mr Tata he was an IIT engineering graduate with a PhD from Harvard, but had no MBA, and Mr Tata's reply is extremely interesting). We go through the excellent story of Mukund's experiences, learnings and growth from management trainee to Managing Director, and the group's first Brand Custodian.

Mukund also speaks of how values and purpose were inextricably, naturally, hardwired into the Tata Group's DNA, with Mr Rata Tata himself leading and inspiring his entire mammoth team on that count. "I don't recall any public address by Mr Tata that began with anything else," Mukund says.

We speak about his first book, Global Environmental Politics - India and the North-South Politics of Global Environmental Issues, published by Oxford University Press in 1996. This, I believe, was possibly the first book on India’s policy on the issue of global warming and climate change and environmental challenges that, clearly, are now very relevant.

We also discuss Mukund’s second book, The Brand Custodian, about his work as the first brand custodian at the Tata Group. Those years, Mukund says, were amongst the most enjoyable of his working career.

Mukund also speaks about his transition from telecoms to the world of private equity, to set up the Tata Opportunities Fund, the largest debut private equity fund out of India at that time.

And we speak of his move from Tatas in 2018 to start his own firm, ECube, in the ESG space.

We round up the chat with his recently authored book, OUTLAST – How ESG Can Benefit Your Business, and Mukund shares why he wrote the book and shares some important lessons f

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Then, write to us at pavan [at] mediabrief dot com and alliances [at] mediabrief dot com, and also share links to your profiles that are following us.

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Next Episode

Paritosh Joshi responds on TRAI’s NTO 2.0 Consultation Paper: You are doing a public disservice. It’s time you cut our losses

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This, the 57th episode of the award-winning MVP – The Master’s Voice Podcast, features industry veteran Paritosh Joshi- Principal at Provocateur Advisory, in conversation with Pavan R Chawla, Founder-Editor of MediaBrief.com. and we disuss TRAI's 'regulation of the broadcast sector in general and its most recent consultaion paper on the travesty called NTO 2.0 in particular.

The TRAI report card, says Paritosh, has been a litany of failure right from the first mandate it received, till today. Across its 25 years so far, Paritosh says what TRAI has -- unlike the OfComs and other bodies of the world -- is authority without responsibility.

We discuss TRAI’s ‘regulation’ of the broadcast sector in general, and its most recent consultation paper seeking inputs and guidance on the travesty called NTO 2.0. The straight-talking, richly experienced ‘Provocateur’ Paritosh, who has been helping empower industry bodies like ASCI and the Media Research Users Council MRUC, and has been President and Head of Sales and Distribution at India’s top network, the Star Network, brings to our discussion knowledge and insights from a rich and proven professional career.

At this point in time, after a quarter century of its deleterious misadventure with broadcast regulation, the industry too would likely want to repeat Paritosh’s words as a message to TRAI: 'You are now doing a public disservice, and it is about time you cut our losses. Please don’t do any more disservice... Ab to jaan chhordo yaar! (at least now, spare us, please!)'. That, says Paritosh, is basically what nobody has been able to tell TRAI in as many words so far

We discuss TRAI’s performance as a broadcast regulator, and Paritosh responds to some of the questions in the consultation paper. And shares several thoughts about TRAI’s ‘capability’ and multiple failures across 25 years of intrusive ineptitude as a regulator of the broadcast sector.

TRAI, Paritosh says, has failed the broadcast sector because it is a regulator that was designed for working on a commodity style of product, telecom, and not a highly differentiated style of product which is what Broadcasting is all about. And which is utterly alien to TRAI’s vocabulary. TRAI tried to force-fit the telecom regulatory style to the broadcast sector, and they failed it.

In fact, even the very first job TRAI was tasked with by a judicial body – that of implementing CAS in India, TRAI failed in, in spectacular fashion: CAS never happened. It is instructive, Paritosh says, that after more than two decades of being the ac

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Then, write to us at pavan [at] mediabrief dot com and alliances [at] mediabrief dot com, and also share links to your profiles that are following us.

Connecting socially is something we believe in and advocate. So go ahead. Reach out. We're happy, social souls.