Learning and satisfaction are the biggest achievements: Chandra Kishore PrasadBy- Aryaan Parwez

Born and brought up in Korba (earlier a tehsil but now is considered a district) which earlier used to be in Madhya Pradesh but now is in Chhattisgarh, Chandra Kishore Prasad is the head of RailTel Corporation of India’s southern region.

Prasad was always an exceptional student, securing top positions and ranks in everything he does. He secured the No. 1 position in the Korba district during his Higher Secondary exams and has worked with multiple companies throughout the years. Some of them include Tata Telecom, SBI Bank, Scotia Bank, Singruali Super Thermal Power Station, and more.

He has always been an extremely hardworking person who loves to learn and inspire others. Even from his earlier days, he was into social work. Teaching kids and adults so that they can fend for themselves in this technological and digital era gives him immense pleasure. “Whatever gives me immense learning and satisfaction, I feel they are the biggest achievements in life,” he adds.

Early life
On being asked about some of his fun and motivating stories from his school days, he shared that when he was in the 9th, he underperformed in physics during the half-yearly exams. His physics teacher was from the south and due to his different accent, it was a little challenging for him to understand his lectures. However, as he always secured the top position, getting fewer marks in physics bothered him. After a few days, Prasad gathered courage and went up to his physics teacher and told him that he’ll study harder and secure the highest marks in physics, which he did, and since that day the physics teacher became highly appreciative of him.

Prasad did his schooling at Beacon English Medium- a missionary school and then completed B. Tech in Electronics and Telecom Engineering followed by MBA with IT specialization from Sikkim Manipal University. His father was too was an engineer by profession and was the Managing Director of MP Genco.

During his college years, Prasad was mischievous and had many instances where he and his friends could have been very well caught but always managed to escape.

Prasad, after his graduation, did not want to study anymore and wanted to work under a company and so, secured a job during the campus placements, working for Tata Telecom.

Leadership lessons for everyone
During his time in Bombay, the roads that led to his workplace were hour-long journeys which he covered with the double-decker buses. Mumbai helped shape Prasad as a person.

Learning and satisfaction are the biggest achievements: Chandra Kishore Prasad“You learn a lot of things. The first one is doing things right on the first try- One thing which I learnt was that doing it right in the first time itself. When you’re doing something, plan it and do it correctly in the first time so you don’t have to rework” he said. According to him, and rightly so, it is inefficient and wastage of time if one proceeds to work without planning. So plan and do it right.

He got to know about six sigma which made him realize and understand the importance of doing it right the first time. The second thing he talks about is experimentation. “You cannot be a perfectionist. If you try to be a perfectionist, you’ll never experiment with things” these were his words. He talked about being resilient and flexible with work and not follow a linear path to completion as it will result in average outcomes.

Prasad believes that humans need to do things out of the box and experiment with things from time to time. This helps in learning newer things and brings about the third lesson he talked about- creativity. He talked about the differences between creativity and standardization- “Creativity and standardization are 180-degree opposites to one other. Creativity means to create something that sets it apart from the earlier products. Standardization means setting standards for a product so that their features match, like length, height, width” he exclaimed.

His sense of achievement is different from others and motivates many to do better in life. “Especially when you have a lot of challenges and criticalities, you face them, push all your energy into it and succeed in that. Even if you are not recognized, I feel that type of achievements is the biggest one for me. Whatever gives me immense satisfaction and learning, I feel they are the biggest achievements in life” he adds.

Learning and satisfaction are the biggest achievements: Chandra Kishore Prasad“As much as one wants to inspire and teach the teams in the government sector, managing them is difficult because they do not want to change their mindsets. They are not willing to learn more as it requires more energy,” Prasad says. He always wants to motivate, inspire, and teach the people around him to work harder and efficiently but it is challenging to bring about change in the people from the government sector as they have a laid back mindset and not want to learn anything new as it would require learning and implementation. He believes that it is easier to control robots than to manage these people.

Photography buff
Prasad loves to take photographs of nature and wildlife. He enjoys the natural things that life provides and always wants to capture them on his camera. He owns cameras from all generations and keeps them all in his house. At other times he enjoys most of the outdoor sports which include badminton, tennis, golf, cricket, football, and box cricket.

He has played in various tournaments with his employees and has won most of them. Other than that, the one thing that he loves the most is teaching. He loves students and wants to impart as much knowledge to them as possible. Prasad has been giving lectures in various universities and IITs and has also helped various students in building a future for themselves.





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