The Future of Work with Subbu Iyer Giggr Technologies Inc. / Giggr Technologies Private Limited

Welcome to the first episode of  The Future of Work with Subbu Iyer. The Topic for this episode is “Education and The Future of Work”. 



Education shapes societies and we are excited to bring you the first two episodes from India’s Premier Education Institutions; IIT, Madras and IIMB. 



This episode examines the interconnectedness of the Future of Work with Education where the Future Workforce will be shaped.



Our guest for this episode is Prof. (Dr.) Mahesh Panchagnula, Dean, Alumni and Corporate Relations, Indian Institute of Technology Madras. 



Please write to FOW@giggr.app with your Comments, Feedback and Perspectives. Send us Video Clips that we will be glad to incorporate in our Future Episodes. 

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India celebrated Ganesh Chaturthi last week and this edition uses the backdrop of Lord Ganesha who symbolizes wisdom as it pertains greatly to the Capabilities we need to acquire to stay relevant. This is the essence of Human Capital.

Please follow the link (bit.ly/3qeCkKN) for the story on Ganesh Chaturthi.

Capital must first be understood as the Sum Invested in Growth. Usually understood in the context of money alone, it is now clear that Money will not meet the requirements of growth; from now into the future. The three fundamental Capital required will be Human, Intellectual and Value Capital.

Prof. Vasanthi Srinivasan, Professor, Organizational Behavior & Human Resources Management
Chairperson, Digital Learning; who is the Featured Guest on this episode brings not only a deep understanding of the subject of Human Capital but also actively addresses it through her Professional and Social engagements.

Let us understand the connection:

Human Capital is the Capability that Humans bring to the equation of growth. Where Capability is a dual word; representing the Capacity for Transformation and the Ability / Skills for Execution. It should be crystal clear that without Transformation any execution or Performance is meaningless. That Capacity we talk about is the Willingness of Humans to engage with ambiguity and find Clarity or Purpose to which they need to pair skills.

We are in a digital age where there is a great need for every human on the planet to understand the emerging Challenges and Threats and prepare themselves for education.

1. Are we Extracting and Exploiting or Enabling and Empowering?
2. Do we see the Capacity to Transform and the Ability to Perform mutually inclusively?
3. Are we seeing Humans as the Engines of Growth or mere appendages of work?

Hope this episode enables us to engage and create a society that underpins Learning & Capability as a Continuous mechanism to drive sustainable growth in our societies.

One of the most abused words in the English Dictionary is the term ”Innovation”. Through ages, it has been branded as the ”Eureka Moment of Archimedes”. Nothing could be far from the truth. My special guest for this episode, Prof. (Dr.) Prabhu Rajagopal, IIT Madras, calls that history is laden with many such ordinary moments that we have come to recognize as Innovations such as the falling of the apple or the accidental discovery of Penicillin and so on.

Innovation does not occur by accident. It is deliberate, first in its thinking followed almost instantly in action. To bring a greater Value to Life in terms of Solutions and Applications. There is no innovation unless an application is commercialized. And there are far more greater priorities than just consumer durables commerce that needs to find expression in life.

In this episode, we dialog on the need for the discipline in Innovation and how it is important for more people to participate inclusively and immersively. IIT Madras is doing a great job bravely fighting the odds. How can an institution such as this produce greater contributors to society? By getting endowments and research grants on the scale of MIT, Harvard and Stanford.

Please share your perspectives with us so that we can bring about a systemic change in our societies. Made in India will be possible when a majority of the people become Contributors more than Consumers. When the current 10% of IITians increase substantially to participate in the drive to find the next generation systems that will reshape a better planet.

Are you able to challenge the Status Quo? If not, you can safely assume you are not a Leader. Because, a leader is someone who cannot find peace with it. You are someone who is constantly looking for challenges.

But these challenges are not Explicit or Outside. They are within. You are constantly looking at the relation between your life and the life outside. And searching for answers. That not only benefit you but the planet itself at large; of which you are a very fractional element.

So instead of arrogating upon yourself with achievements, you are making an effort to accomplish Goals and Objectives that align with a Mission and Vision that is commonly understood as the direction of Progress.

Aspiration is the foundation of societal success and Ambition the foundation for regress. Look at history and you won’t be disappointed with the examples it brings through time immemorial. The former Empowers others while the latter Powers the self. And it goes without saying goes; Power corrupts and absolute power corrupts absolutely.

These are extraordinary times and call for a great amount of Leadership that shows Agility, Anticipation, Authenticity and Ability crowned by Aspiration. Without Aspiration any of the other four dimensions of Leadership are irrelevant. To be even more precise, these will not be evident characteristics in a Leader but the PR machine is not stopped. Making a Measurable difference to life is the hallmark of Leadership.

In this episode on Leadership, we use the lens of Santhosh Babu to peer into the topic of Leadership. He is the Founder & CEO of OD Alternatives and Orglens. Over the years from being a teacher in the North East to being a facilitator of Change for all types of organizations worldwide, Santhosh has seen them all. A silent observer of human behavior, he has institutionalized Leadership Coaching and now working on understanding and course correcting Adaptive Behaviors in organizations.

This episode brings forth the landscape of the Rural and Urban divide through the lens of Suhas Ramegowda, Co-founder, IndianYards who personally transformed not only himself but his wife and son as well to live a life committed to simplicity. Living a simple life is about paring back so that you have space to breathe. It’s about doing with less because you realize that having more and doing more doesn’t lead to happiness. It’s about finding joys in the simple things, and being content with solitude, quiet, contemplation and savoring the moment.

And as a gradual process, they have discovered the joy of participating in community development without the associated tags of Rural Development, Employment and Entrepreneurship.

There is a great lot to learn here and the most important one is the Enrichment and Empowerment of Lives. How can we make people feel valued anywhere and hence begin to Contribute more than they Consume is the Challenge of Sustainable Growth? We must engage in a dialog as Societies and Communities to resolve this Conflict between Exploitation and Empowerment through the shift in the Structures, Synergies and Systems. At its core, we must find a way to orchestrate Value, Intellectual and Human Capital to progress life; be it in a rural or urban setting without creating dysfunction to the settings that are unique to both. We must evolve a balance in the spatial distribution of the population that is conducive to Social Justice.

Culture is nothing but a collective of Human Behavior. Values, Beliefs and Assumptions have defined it so far. In that Beliefs have to be Transformed into Convictions; given the fact that Digital Technologies can create a human ecosystem where every individual on the planet will be able to register their own impressions not with a belief that is based on hearsay but rather the conviction of their own engagement and experience. 



We need to see the use of Artificial Intelligence which is currently used to a large extent to alter human behavior and multiply the biases to being a Probiotic Culture Generator that increases the Human Ecosystem Value. 



Giggr -The Future of Work is striving to create an Intelligent Infrastructure As Service (IIAS) Platform that becomes the engine of a collective Glocal Culture where humanity engages and experiences sustainable growth.