I got a chance to watch Dr.Shashi Tharoor speak for the first time at the Gartner IT Expo in Goa today. Was mesmerised by the speech.
While I have heard a lot about his oratorical skills, experiencing it first hand was amazing.
The topic of his speech was ‘Pursuing a Culture of Innovation and Quality’. Shashi Tharoor used simple examples to show how India has its own style of innovation, which like in any other scenario is driven out of a necessity, but the simplicity with which it is done is remarkable. One example he brought out was the missed call concept, which is a feature available in the telecom world, but was never intended to be used the way Indians had started using it (one ring to call back, two rings for urgent etc 🙂 ).
He also mentioned about the fact that innovations are happening all over the world, but reiterated the fact that innovations from India are not always the ‘Jugaad’ style but are also world class. The Mars Orbiter launch done successfully in the first attempt at 1/10th the cost of the same done by the US was another example that he brought out.
Shashi Tharoor ended his speech with words of encouragement to the leaders in IT industry in India to continue focusing on the path of innovation and excellence with continued focus on quality.
A few things that are remarkable in his speech are:
- Clean: While Shashi Tharoor is a politician and belongs to a certain party, he did not bring up the topic at any point in time during the speech. Similarly, while he was also signing his new book during the symposium, throughout his speech he stuck to the topic of the culture and innovation in India.
- Depth of knowledge: He had done his home work on the topic and spoke with clarity and depth on the topic
- Organised method of delivery: He had a bulleted list of points he wanted to address in the order of sequence and the meticulous planning behind it was obvious in the style and ease of delivery.
Overall, it was a remarkable speech and hence I made it a point to search for his famous Oxford speech and watched it for the first time – it is in line with the style of delivery I found during the session at the symposium.
Also got a chance to get his latest book which is now in my reading list. Will write about my views on it very soon.
If you get an opportunity to watch him speak, I highly recommend you do not miss it. It is worth every minute of it.