Motivational Events & Workshops

Mahindra finance decided to work closely with inspiring mantras to design a leadership program for their selected top potential future leaders. This Leadership Program or Inspirational tour was intended to build the developmental journey from Potential to Future Readiness as a Leader. It aims at developing the talents in executives to get equipped with the required skills and creating a succession talent pipeline for future leaders. Some teachings can only be adopted through experience. Stage, board room or offices can never provide that environment for Leadership learning.

The journey of leadership is very much different for an officer of the Armed forces than an executive in a corporate. This leadership program provided an insight how an officer of armed forces led their troops into most difficult operations like Kargil war, despite constraints of resources and material and still achieved victory despite being in a whole disadvantageous situation. These men in uniform did not think twice before they marched towards their death to defend the country, without any incentive or rewards.

These Leadership Participants were taken back, down memory lane to June 1999. The year of the Kargil war. When a battle took place in the far away mountains of Ladakh, it was this war that rejuvenated nationalism, pride in the nation and the pride in our soldiers that guarded our frontiers.

In the actual surroundings of Kargil, each participant was able to get into shoes of an actual combat leader having a nearly impossible task to achieve. Their perspective about life, competition, team and leadership changed and helped them evolved into a real leader, who will meet his objectives, whatever may be the market conditions or internal factors. The significant outcomes focused were developing Leadership Characteristics within participants, namely, Manage fear and leverage failure, Whole Brain Thinking, Mindfulness, Trust and Multiplier, that were achieved through ten sessions and visits.

It was a real transformation program and a unique one. It came out as an eye-opener and wisdom achievement for the participants. In their own words “A real hero of Kargil War demonstrating and working with us to understand about the core value itself is commendable and beyond the words.”

25 February 2017: Hotel Hyatt (Formerly Hotel Ista), Pune

The Confederation of Indian Industry (CII) works to create and sustain an environment conducive to the growth of industry in India, partnering industry and government alike through advisory and consultative processes. They celebrated their annual day on 25th February 2017 in Hotel Hyatt (Formerly Hotel Ista), Pune. It was all about Inspiring India and explore to learn, leverage and lead. A cross section of CEO’s attended this.

Captain Akhilesh Saxena was invited as a Keynote Speaker to the event. He took the session on “Inspiring India – Learn, Leverage & Lead”, which was appreciated by everyone present there. The talk was around two hours long. He spoke about Leadership in a difficult time and made a comparison between War and the corporate world. Attention was drawn towards the qualities a leader should bear. A leader should not take a human being as a tool, instead should always build a human bond with his team members. According to him, he still applies many lessons learnt from Army and Kargil war in his current corporate profile. He projected some traditions of Army, which weaves a strong net to develop a strong team. His talk was very motivating and inspiring.

March 2018: Amritsar

Kirloskar Oil Engines Ltd. (KOEL) which is a renowned and leading manufacturer of engines, Diesel generating sets and Agriculture pump set in India held its annual supplier conference in Pune which was attended by more than 350 suppliers from across India. Captain Akhilesh Saxena was invited as a speaker at this conference which was attended by CEO/owners/senior management. His thoughts about Strengthening Supplier Partnership for Business Excellence were appreciated by all the people who were present at the conference. Captain Akhilesh Saxena interacted with all the CEOs post session and received a lot of admiration.

8th December 2018 at Manekshaw Centre, New Delhi

The Directorate General of Resettlement (DGR), IHQ of MoD and Indian Institute of Foreign Trade (IIFT) Delhi in association with NHRDN-Delhi & NCR Chapter & Forces Network conducted a HR Conclave on Saturday, 8thDecember 2018 at Manekshaw Centre, New Delhi. Captain Akhilesh Saxena was invited as distinguished Speakers for the panel discussion. He share his views about ‘Re-Deployment of Professional Workforce: Opportunities & Challenges’. He was able to connect the missing dots between army and corporate. His talk was an eye opener to all the professional present there and was much appreciated.

1st December 2018: at Indian Oil Institute of Petroleum Management, Gurgaon

Indian Oil Institute of Petroleum Management organised a leadership workshop for their senior managers at Indian Oil.

Captain Akhilesh Saxena was invited to take this leadership workshop. He gave insight about leadership in difficult times. The workshop was much appreciated as the feedback emails reflected.

16 February 2016: Pune 

Captain Akhilesh Saxena was invited to take a motivational workshop for Tata Motors Annual Business Excellence Convention at Pune which was attended by external and internal assessors, as also the BE coordinators from all functions. The theme for this annual convention was “Excellence – Aspire, Align, Accelerate”. He shared his experience on Excellence beyond Industry and how the learning from the battlefield can be incorporated in our day to day working to achieve extraordinary results in a difficult situation. His session got a standing ovation from the audience.

11 November 2017: Symbiosis Institute of Operations Management, Nasik

The annual summit of SIOM which focuses on operations was held in Nashik. The focus of this summit is always on providing fruitful direction to the people in the industry so that they can follow a path of progress and growth. Captain Akhilesh Saxena was invited as Keynote Speaker on this platform which is a forum for innovative and revolutionary ideas about operations. Just like every year, there were phenomenal discussions, and numerous renowned personalities & industry leaders came together to discuss new creative ideas!

April 2017: In Campus

IIM Ahmedabad had organised a leadership development programme for the top performers of the industry on this campus. Here Captain Akhilesh Saxena was invited as a speaker to take a motivational workshop and share his thoughts about Leadership Development. The keynote session was held within the campus premises as a part of the ‘Leadership Development Programme’.

21 March 2017: J W Marriot, Pune

Kirloskar Oil Engines Ltd. (KOEL) which is a renowned and leading manufacturer of engines, Diesel generating sets and Agriculture pump set in India held its annual supplier conference in Pune which was attended by more than 350 suppliers from across India. Captain Akhilesh Saxena was invited as a speaker at this conference which was attended by CEO/owners/senior management. His thoughts about Strengthening Supplier Partnership for Business Excellence were appreciated by all the people who were present at the conference. Captain Akhilesh Saxena interacted with all the CEOs post session and received a lot of admiration.

2nd February 2019: Army Institute of Management & Technology, Greater Noida

Invited Captain Akhilesh Saxena as an esteemed panellist in International conference on “Business Dimensions in Digital Era: Challenges & Perspectives” 2019 held at Army Institute of Management and Technology on February 02, 2019.

The panel discussion was very informative and interactive. The session and the content were highly appreciated by the students, professionals and the faculty present there.

J.P. Morgan invited Captain Akhilesh as a guest speaker on 30th April 2014 for their Leadership Speaker series. The audience for this series was the managers and the site leadership team. They invited him to talk to their target audience on the skills and attributes required to be a great leader. Captain Saxena took session on how the leadership skills that are used in the trenches of war can be applied in the corporate life. Also how the army environment imbibes the kind of passion that out soldiers exhibit on the war front.

The session was highly appreciated by their top leadership team. Captain got lots of email from their managers and leaders that “It has been the most real and eye opener session for all of us as how can we transform ourselves by thinking from heart rather than only working from mind……”

SKF had an Annual meet with their top 60 leaders at High Places in Garudmachi on 16th Jan 2014. The goal of the meet was to have their leaders reflect on the year gone by but with a greater focus on looking out into the future. They designed the session to cover reflections on behaviors that will be imperative to their success as a team in 2014. One such behavior was the need for Leaders to “Lead Vs. Manage:”Capt Akhilesh Saxena was invited to the session as a key speaker and to share specific anecdotes or stories from his experience during the Kargil war (and other encounters), where Leaders have come forward and lead, shown conviction, courage and determination. He related this to the corporate world to impress upon the team the focus of leading behaviors in corporate settings. They appreciated and found session very valuable for their team & His story was truly inspirational for the participants.

Captain Akhilesh Saxena was invited as a key speaker on their “Annual Day Event” on Fri. 18-April-14 at Pune. He was requested to conduct an inspirational session on Kargil War Experience. The session was successful to motivate their leaders and employees and received a lot of appreciation. The series of emails that followed afterwards was enough to prove the success of the course.

FMS tradition of hosting thought leaders from the worlds of business, social work, public policy, academia, was being organized by the name “Artha Shastra” – FMS Leadership Talk Series on 15th July – 31st August 2016.

It was also marked as the 62nd year of FMS and the 25th year of India’s journey along the path of economic liberalization. In this context, Captain Akhilesh Saxena was invited to this Leadership Talk Series and to talk regarding his experiences to the students. He shared his experience of Kargil war and connected those experience with corporate world challenges.

At the Universities, Annual Quality Conclave 2013 – Academia-Industry Synergy for Quality Assurance Captain Akhilesh Saxena was invited as chief guest and motivational speaker. Even though the entire conference was focussed on achieving quality in both the professional as well as academic life, his session was highly appreciated.

On 15th August 2016, Captain Akhilesh Saxena was invited at Chief Guest at Army Public School Dhaula Kuan, Delhi. Here he shared his Kargil war experiences with the students. He also spoke to the students about the Indian armed forces and motivated them to become brave and honest citizens of this country. The students were thrilled to interact with a real-life hero from the Kargil war. He even stressed the need for and relevance of communication & security in this country. Throughout the session, he urged the young minds to practice, drill and work hard towards achieving their life goals. Students also became aware of the various career prospects in the army as well as the corporate world.