Executive Interview
Executive Interviews
An Interview with
Soundari
Tvameva Solutions Overseas Limited
Co-Founder & Director
Publish Date:
18 October 2019
Hong Kong
Location:
Tell us about your background, and how you came to found your company?
I have had the pleasure of working with Unilever and ANZ in India and sharpen my skills in functional and business areas like Finance, Operations and Banking. I am a Commerce Graduate, a Cost Accountant and an MBA in Finance.
After a career break from Corporate, the ability to be excited about challenge and change provided me the impetus to pursue Entrepreneurial goals. From the Middle East, when I moved to Hong Kong in 2006, it became very clear that the environment was conducive and supportive of people who could adapt and grab opportunities that presented themselves. So, instead of waiting for everything to settle, waiting for the right moment, I started jumping headlong into opportunities that came my way.
My business partner, Arunanjali Maria had set up Tvameva in India along with two other directors and when she moved to Hong Kong, the time was ripe to combine our skillsets and thus TSol was born. The strategic business narrative gained from Unilever and ANZ came in handy with the realization that my strength lies in Connecting people and potential.
We are a Learning Solutions firm working with diverse organisations on Behavioural skills programs.
What is most important to you and your organization – mission, vision, or core values? Why?
A quick introduction about our purpose and vision at TSol (Tvameva Solutions Overseas Limited) - we are a Learning Solutions firm based in Hong Kong and India, covering APAC, focussing on custom designed programs around Skills, Behaviours, Attitude, Strategy, Storytelling For Leaders, Data Storytelling, Future Work Skills, Employee Engagement, Assessments, Diversity & Inclusion, Mind Over Matter Quiz for Corporates and Schools and more.
We work with businesses, to help them find the right learning solutions for their employees - interventions which are intuitive, engaging, interactive and practical.
Our why is to help restore humanity back at the workplace by harnessing the Power of Stories to engage, influence and inspire.
When we worked in organisations, we would go for training sessions, they would be interesting and fun. Coming back to work it would be BAU again. So one thing at TSol, we have been mindful of, is to ensure we design our sessions in a practical and experiential way so that learning can be applied back at work.
Can you explain briefly how your service(s)/product(s) works?
Tvameva is a Sanskrit word which means Only You - so to say, all our programs are custom designed and client specific.
Our signature program is Storytelling For Leaders - how to use the power of stories in a business context to engage, influence and inspire.
WE ALL NEED BETTER WAYS TO INFLUENCE, BUILD ENGAGEMENT AND INSPIRE PEOPLE TO TAKE ACTION. From Leaders to Project Managers, salespeople to consultants, trainers to sourcing professionals, we all need to get our ideas to stick.
The sharing of stories orally is a powerful way of cutting through. When we tell stories, people ‘get’ what we are saying – and they remember it.
Organisations are changing quickly. Structures are flatter and reporting lines more complex. Your people and Clients are spread around the world. And everyone is deafened by the ‘noise’ of information inundation. Yet the modern leader still needs to be able to influence and persuade in this constantly fluid environment.
Our STORYTELLING FOR LEADERS program develops participants’ story skills to do exactly that.
How has the industry been changing in recent years?
Digital transformation has been the norm for all industries. So Learning is also impacted by it but I must say, in a positive way. Today, with online learning, learning has become democratised and is accessible to everyone.
One of the trends that has been happening in the last ten years is the move towards more modular learning, blended learning, learning in the flow of work, co-creation of content etc. What used to be referred to as soft skills are now core or keystone skills.
Organisations are also moving away from Instructor led to learner led training. AI today identifies an area where a person need to up-skill and the inbox today has relevant learning material to address the gap.
Scott Hartley says "If machines keep getting better — and they will — humans must become better versions of themselves. Being a techie is not the antidote to redundancy in tomorrow’s economy; being more human is". Focussing on core skills like empathy and storytelling will help us do that.
Organizations are working towards creating a learning culture with employees adopting a growth mindset - as Satya Nadella says moving from a know-it-all to a learn-it-all attitude; so gaps are not seen as shortcomings instead as a developmental areas.
What makes you different from what’s currently available in the market?
As Directors, we bring in more than 20 years of experience in Structured Business roles as also in designing, delivering and facilitating programs. We focus on experiential learning and deep pre-engagement with the Clients. So when we deliver session or engage in consultancy projects, we walk in the Client's shoes and solve for their problems.
Specifically, we are certified to run the Storytelling For Leaders program, using stories as a medium to achieve different business outcomes. For e.g. in a practical context how we can harness power of stories to lead transformation, culture change, create an inclusive workspace..
We work with clients on building an empowered and equipped workforce that will lead companies that win in the VUCA work environment.
Our clients trust us for our ability to design and deliver bespoke solutions based on extensive experience across geographies and businesses. We stay with the client end to end till the business outcomes : quantitative metrics and qualitative changes are achieved.
All of this is achieved because we work with clients on deliberate and systematic post program interventions to ensure there is applied learning, peer learning and iron out challenges all in a safe Coaching space.
What does the future hold for your company?
According to analysis from LinkedIn, employers are looking for a combination of both hard and soft skills, with creativity topping the list of desired attributes. The findings are in line with the World Economic Forum’s Future of Jobs report, which concluded that “human” skills like originality, initiative and critical thinking are likely to increase in value as technology and automation advances. We are well placed in the cusp of that action.
We are working towards expanding our geography as also engaging with more local companies. We will continue to restore humanity at workplaces through our Storytelling For Leaders program and work on practical tools for Inclusive Leadership.
To move forward, you have to give back, said Oprah Winfrey. We would like to continue our mentoring work to create the "moment of lift" for others while learning from them.