Youth Icon Manasi Kirloskar interacts with Young Indians
Manasi Kirloskar, Executive Director, Kirlsokar Systems Ltd. and presently working at Toyota Kirloskar Motors full time, on the Lexus project, was the Keynote Speaker at the Young Indians (YI) Speaker Session held on 18th August at Hotel Crowne Plaza, Pune. She was addressing the YI members (YI is an integral part of CII), and held the audience of 100 spellbound with her interactive session on how she balances work, her social initiative ‘Caring with Colour’, and her passions – as a painter, a deep sea diver, a mountaineer and more, and how each of them helps her from the business perspective.!
“My most important learnings are from art and that it taught me how to think. I learned to think divergently, accept failure, to be open minded and compassionate. Scuba diving has taught me to be calm and patient during a crisis and manage situations well. Hiking has taught me to never give up, especially when you are part of a start-up. It also taught me team work and adaptability”, smiled Manasi.
That’s not all – there was a sparkle in her eye, when she spoke about her pet project, ‘Caring With Colour’. “I had been wanting to set up a social impact start up right from the age of 14. I started teaching at government schools when I was 15. Finally this year I launched my own social impact start-up called ‘Caring with Colour’ – a Manasi Kirloskar initiative. There is research to show the impact of art and colour on the emotional development of poor, underprivileged, deprived children”.
She elaborated on how her initiative will focus on government primary and upper primary schools – from grades 1 – 7. “The idea of this initiative is to change the way we deliver education and make it a process of experience and discovery. We focus on curriculum-skill disconnect”, she added.
This was followed by a Q&A round with YI members Aditya Kale and Dhruv Agarwal who posed several interesting questions to her, which Manasi responded to, with much panache, grace and poise.
Great grand-daughter of the doyen, S.L. Kirloskar, Manasi, besides being the 5th generation Kirloskar, one of India’s oldest and most respected business families, she is today known as the Gen next business icon and an emerging youth icon!
Sole heir to Industrialist Vikram Kirloskar’s large business conglomerate, Manasi not only manages her inherited business, but she is also an entrepreneur with her independent ventures that include Real Estate and financial services.
The second guest for the evening was Madhuri Bhaduri, Pune’s renowned artist, who shared her views of art as an investment.
