00:00Hello everyone, I am Prapti Sahani and today we have here amongst us Professor Mukesh Sood
00:11who is a visiting faculty at IIM Ahmedabad and today he is here at Soil School of Business
00:15Design for his book launch of leapfrog six practices to thrive. So hello sir how are
00:21you? Good thanks Prapti, thank you for having me and a pleasure talking to you. We are very
00:26honoured to have you here. So we will be asking him a few questions. Sir you have an entrepreneurial
00:30bent of mind. So what can students do to improve or become entrepreneurs? I think Prapti the
00:36first thing is to start recognising opportunities. When you look at something, most people will
00:42look at it as a problem. But if you look at it as an opportunity to solve a problem, that's
00:48the first step of being an entrepreneur. That's very insightful. And how has the entrepreneurial
00:54landscape in India evolved since you started your career at IIT Delhi? Oh since completely
01:00because that was the early 1980s, 30-40 years ago and at that time for example the funding
01:07environment was very different. All you could do is get a bank loan probably. Today you have VC
01:13investments, you have angel investors. Entrepreneurship is taught today. At our time it wasn't taught at
01:20all. And VCs come into classes, they come and talk to students, they encourage them to put up
01:27businesses. And you can start a business today with virtually a very good idea and no capital.
01:34So it's changed a lot. Tremendously, tremendously. And how was your experience at Soil and how were the
01:40students? Oh I loved it. I enjoy talking to young people because I think you can mould them,
01:46you can give them new ideas. And even if one idea sticks, I think as an academic, as a writer,
01:53you feel very grateful and very honoured to be amongst them. And it gives you a lot of pleasure.
02:00And just tell us about your book Leapfrog. Could you elaborate on the six practices
02:04mentioned in your book and which one you find most crucial for entrepreneurs today?
02:09I think for entrepreneurs the last practice, things like an entrepreneur would probably be most
02:13relevant. But the book is much broader in its scope. We're not only looking at entrepreneurs.
02:19So we have a chapter on developing grit, where you have to deliberately practice something to improve
02:25and do well. We have a chapter on intellectual humility, where you need to recognise the limits
02:30to what you know. We have a chapter on curation, where you curate the chaos. Because there's so much of
02:37sound all around us and noise. We need to be able to identify the signal from the noise.
02:43So we have six chapters like this. I would urge readers to read the book. So I can't give everything
02:50away today. But broadly these are practices that will enable you to thrive both at work and in your
02:57personal life. Wonderful. And how important do you think design thinking is for MBA students?
03:03So I'm a big, very big fan of design thinking and I've been using it extensively in all my teaching.
03:09In fact, I teach entrepreneurship using a design thinking lens. All design thinking is doing is
03:15making you look in a very structured way at a problem that we call is a wicked problem. A wicked
03:22problem is one that is difficult to define, that has layered and parts to it that you can't really solve.
03:29And you need to look in a more holistic way. I use a framework. There are many frameworks in design
03:36thinking. I use what is called the EDIPT framework, which is you empathise, you define, you ideate,
03:43you prototype and you test. So for short form is EDIPT. And I think design thinking is a way to solve
03:50complex problems. So for an MBA student, design thinking is one more tool that they can use,
03:55one more framework that will help them settle down well in their careers.
04:00Thank you so much, sir. It was an honour to have you here today.
04:03Prapti, thank you for the occasion, for the opportunity and Anil for getting me over. And
04:10it's a long drive, but it's a beautiful campus. And I just enjoyed being here for the few hours with
04:16the students. That's wonderful. Thank you so much. Bye Prapti. Thank you.
