TEC On Campus - Introduction and September 2008 roundup

Everyone needs support with pressing issues in their personal and professional lives. CEOs and Presidents, leading small or big organizations, are no exceptions to this fact. While a normal person can find support in their superiors, where can a top leader of an organization find similar support without compromising his/her position ?

Enters The Executive Committee (TEC), now Vistage International, which provides a platform for CEO-s of non-competitive industries to interact. TEC is really about peer-to-peer relationships that byfar exceed the realms of abstract ideas and go deep into the real lives and issues of the people involved.

[caption id="attachment_94" align="alignright" width="448" caption="HEC TEC On Campus 2008 Group with Bernard Bismuth"][/caption]

The HEC MBA operates an on-campus version of TEC which tends to replicate the same model with 12 selected MBA participants. The program is led by Gary Brinderson, Founder (1965) Chairman & CEO, Brinderson Inc who chairs one-on-one and group sessions every month with the participants. Effectively, the purpose of this program is to mentor and guide the students in their career, business and life issues.

On 17th September I had my first one-on-one session with Mr. Brinderson. The 45 minute session was well spent on topics which I generally never spoke about aloud. We spoke about my family, relationships in life, how I valued them, fears, drivers etc. The point which my mentor was trying to drive home was that decision-making becomes easier when we make our thoughts explicit. Of course we need to do so in a confidential setting and, I thought, probably TEC is going to provide me with that platform.

My thought came to life with what I experienced at our group session on Friday, 19th September 2008. The whole day session was held at Ritz in Paris and we were introduced to our guest for the day - Mr. Bernard Bismuth who is the General Manager of CCI Eurolam, President of FIEN and holder of more such titles. The interaction we had within the group, with our mentor and with our guest proved to be an intense experience. The day was filled with real life stories, hard lessons of life, their connotation with business principles and how, with a positive attitude towards their future, individuals have garnered courage to overpower the challenges encountered. I learnt a lot. The importance of having a support group, the necessity of gaining financial independence, the skills required to be a successful entrepreneur, the value of maintaining work-life balance, etiquette and much more. Knowing what the On Campus TEC alumni have to say, it seems that the first sessions in September 2008 are only a pre-cursor of the immense value this program provides to all its participants.

The experiences shared by others have helped strengthened my existing beliefs and opened me to new perspectives. I am so glad that my family, especially my mother and wife, supported my decision to obtain an MBA at this juncture in life.

Aside, it was also a chance to see Paris again. Ritz is afterall not a bad place to visit every month :-) and the Column at Place Vendome definitely marks well the victory of Napoleon in Austerlitz battle of 1805.

Signing off.