The conversation
This meeting was based on the book ‘You Can’ written by Meera Shenoy and Prasad Kaipa.
Management gurus tell us there are lessons to learn from inspirational lives. And then we do not have to wait a life time to do better. We can integrate these lessons into our lives. The real life stories profiled in this book cover entrepreneurs on a wheel chair, paraplegic, blind, and yet they build their business with zest and energy. It looks at CEOs who hire youth with disability; make products for this market, because it makes business sense. By reading these stories, it calms our mind which is prone to incessant comparison, when it discovers, ”how lucky I am compared to the others”. And inspires us to stop whining about the vicissitudes of life. And expand our abilities to the utmost. And helps become Smarter and Wiser.
Dana
Dana means giving or offering, in the Buddhist tradition.
Everyone who came to the Manthan talk received a copy of Meera Shenoy’s book “You Can”, and the opportunity to practice dana.
Meera Shenoy, Founder & Chairperson of Youth4Jobs and Amala Akkineni, Co-Founder & Chairperson of Blue Cross of Hyderabad
Meera Shenoy
Meera is a pioneer in skilling underprivileged youth for jobs. She has worked in senior positions in the government, in private sector and multilateral agencies like the World Bank and UNDP.
Meera Shenoy is currently Founder-Chairperson of Youth4Jobs (www.youth4jobs.org) which focuses on helping companies build an inclusive workforce. She has spoken at the prestigious TEDxBerkeley and is the only person from India who is in the Happiness hall of fame, USA. She was chosen by World HRD Congress for the Woman Super Achiever award 2016 and as a global innovator by the prestigious Zero Project, Austria. The work has been profiled in HBR and SSIR blog. She is invited by management forums to talk on integrating compassion in business. She has worked in the corporate sector, print media and television, and integrates this experience in her current work.
Amala Akkineni
Amala is co-founder and Chairperson of Blue Cross of Hyderabad, a registered animal welfare organization working since 1992 for the welfare of animals in Hyderabad . She has extended support to other groups like wildlife protection,HIV awareness etc in the states of Telangana and Andhra Pradesh.In 2015, she was appointed ambassador for Swachch Bharat Mission by the Ministry for Urban development, GOI, and is an active volunteer. With her background of acting in over 50 films and her return to select cameos, she is currently Director of Annapurna International School for Film and Media. She is married to Film actor and producer Akkineni Nagarjuna. Her personal interests include connecting with animals and nature, reading and Vipassana meditation.
Comments about the book
This book is a mood elevator!’: KV Kamath, President, Brics Bank, Shanghai
You Can Be Smarter and Wiser is a low key title to what is an Inspirational book. It chronicles stories of entrepreneurs and leaders of business and society who have overcome personal challenges to be extraordinarily successful. Much of their success of course originates from their outstanding abilities and leadership qualities, but when set against the constraints of disabilities they had to overcome, their success is amazing; something for all of us to learn from, cherish, and applaud. But that is not all, in the second half of the book, Meera Shenoy and Prasad Kaipa provide instances of forward-looking companies and their leaders making the opportunity for differently abled individuals, that end up with great rewards for the business and the individuals themselves, the classic win-win. It is a fascinating book, with so much to admire and so much to learn from, by absorbing and reflecting on the inspirational stories.’ Prof. V. Kasturi Rangan, Malcolm P. McNair, Professor of Marketing, Harvard Business School
