Is Goodness the Key to Disruptive Innovation? SOIL Students Learn From Honchos & Social Experiments

The School of Inspired Leadership (SOIL) hosted the 6^th edition of the Inspired Leadership Conference (ILC 2014) in Gurgaon on 12^th-13^th December.  The conference was dedicated in the memory of Dr. V Kurien, the father of the White Revolution in India who worked endlessly towards development of the agriculture sector. The theme for the conference was ’Is goodness the key to disruptive innovation?’. 

Thinkers, business leaders and entrepreneurs such as Harsh Mariwala, Chairman – Marico Industries; RS Sodhi, MD, GCMMF (Amul) Ltd. Anand; Naveen Narayanan, Global Head Talent Acquisition- HCL Technologies; Rachna Mukherjee, Country Partner- VP HR, Schneider Electric , participated at the conference which debated the role of goodness in fostering innovation.

The two day conference saw a host of discussions and deliberations around the topic and also saw SOIL students undertake some rather unique experiments to understand the value of goodness and share the importance of being good with the common man.  

Cover Image: The first prize winning photograph at Chanakyan, by Afroz Haider. Above: Second Prize winning photograph by Sourav Karmakar

Commenting at the conference, Mr. Harsh Mariwala, Chairman -Marico Industries, said, “I believe goodness works at two levels : one is corporate and the other is at personal level. On a personal level, if each person discovers a strong purpose in life, they give back something to the society. To me this is goodness. For corporates, if the stakeholders do something good for their employees, it will reflect in better motivation, better results and will help the corporate. Innovation, on the other hand, is on top of the agenda of all global CEOs and unless you innovate, you will fall behind.”

Students learn to appreciate the importance of Goodness in everyday life

As part of the conference, SOIL students took part in activities that helped people understand the importance of imbibing & appreciating goodness in their day to day life. Some of these were:

Circle of Giving – SOIL students did a social experiment, Karma Rasoi , to understand whether Goodness can help create  an innovative experience.

Inspired by the global Idea of Karma Kitchen (http://www.karmakitchen.org/), students ofSOIL went to a busy restaurant in Gurgaon during lunch hours  to see the results of the experiment unfold . The Students paid the bill for the lunch eaters. At the end of the meal the students greeted the unsuspecting guest  with a” your meal is free” message and asked them whether they would keep the chain going by opting to ‘pay-it-forward’. Irrespective of the bill, the recipient could walk away paying nothing at all or pay whatever he felt was befitting. SOIL students footed a bill of INR 14,000 and received pay-it-forward gift money of INR 10,000

Chanakyan 2014-  As part of the Inspired Leadership Conference , SOIL organized an online photography contest where students submitted an original piece of professional photography on the theme of “ goodness “ The contest received an overwhelming response with  105 enteries from across the country and overseas . The first & second positions were backed by budding photographers, Mr. Afroz Haider & Mr.Sourav Karmakar respectively.. A special award People’s choice was given to Mr. Simar Pal, alumni of SOIL, for the most appreciated photography by the audience.

Yuvah 2014 –  The Inspired Leadership Conference provided a platform for students to showcase their talent through a street play  The event saw participation of teams from the NGO, Saksham and IMS Gurgaon

One of the most awaited and exciting section at the Inspired leadership conference was INQUIZIT, a QUIZ hosted by Mitesh Aggarwal. INQUIZIT drew participation from 36 teams.

Speaking on the occasion, Anil Sachdev, Founder of SOIL, said, “SOIL aims at creating value driven leaders who can restore the balance in the Indian corporate landscape. The Inspired Leadership Conference was an attempt to get diverse minds together to discuss critical areas of creating t leaders who can serve as social change agents. We truly believe that goodness is the pivot around which innovation can be driven”.