Rohit Himatsingka - I Personally Believe That Actual Education Happens through Practical Knowledge (Senior VP - M&A and Corporate Planning & Strategy, AGC Networks))

 

I personally believe that actual education happens through practical knowledge, i.e. on the ground and no formal education can match that.  While you are working in a company, the amount of learning you get while doing the actual work is unparalleled to any formal education offered. In my opinion formal education gives you direction and ability to process the learning in the right manner.

Tell us about your background, journey and upbringing. 

I was born and brought up in a low-income middle-class family in a very small town in Jharkhand. My parents while not being very highly educated, were clear that education is a key requirement and there is no excuse for that. I completed my graduation from Kolkata while using Chartered accountancy. As an early foundation to my life, I was taught the value of education, hard work, patience and money and that has stayed as my four pillars through my journey.

My Journey has been unplanned. My decisions have been driven by few principles -  is there potential to learn, is it challenging enough and yeah does it pay well. 

There have been times where I have felt that “learning” element goes missing and that challenges me. This pushed me to go for my Executive MBA from INSEAD in December 2019. It gave a whole new perspective to the world and elevated the way I think and operate. I strongly believe that it is my formal education which along with the practical knowledge has shown me the right direction in both my personal and professional life.

How did you rise to the highest echelons in your career? 

As I said my journey was unplanned, however, what was important was to give in over 100% to everything I pursue. I have always had the feeling that “I can do more” and that has always kept me on the edge 

My cross functional experience and ability to keep things simple has helped me move forward. Another very important success factor has been belief in one’s team - It is never one individual that drives success, it is always the winning team that helps one achieve one’s aspirations. This has helped me deliver the goals which I carve out on a day to day basis.

It will be unfair for me to not mention the support of my mentors who saw the spark in me and allowed me the opportunity to take on the challenging tasks. In fact, I will credit them more than myself for the high echelons in my career.

What does your typical work day look like? 

My typical work-day is split between a list of planned activities and a lot of unplanned activities.

The day normally starts early with calls with Australia and New Zealand; then moves on to Europe discussions during the day and at times to USA interactions during my night hours. These are business conversations across domains – Business entrepreneur, Board members, bankers, lawyers etc. across geographies thus, being sensitive to different cultures. 

In the midst of all this chaos, I try to keep myself organized with simple list of “My To Do’s” and “Key takeaways/ actions”. 

There is still a whole lot of unplanned activities that require, immediate thinking, problem solving and decision making. While this takes a lot of my bandwidth and adds more madness to the existing chaos, this keeps the excitement going.

It seems onboarding, even in 2021 is a long drawn out process behind the scenes. How do you envision this changing in the future?

Onboarding although being a critical aspect in any organization still takes a lot of time. It can actually make or break an organisation. To elaborate, during acquisition of companies, I have seen that unless the onbaording of the employees to the existing company is done in the right way, there can be a vacuum which eventually leads to the employees leaving the organization which at the end is a loss for the organization.

I am seeing that experts and companies with the support of technology are doing good work in this area. Although the acceptance has been low, it is expected that with the enhancement of marketing they will be able to capture the eyes of the companies and will become an essential part of all the organization.

Several global companies have come out and thrown their support behind not needing a formal education. What is your opinion about this? 

According to me education is important, it is not important whether it is formal or otherwise. Home schooling is a concept which has been prevalent in the western countries for a long time. Is it formal, well not really?

I personally believe that actual education happens through practical knowledge, i.e. on the ground and no formal education can match that.  While you are working in a company, the amount of learning you get while doing the actual work is unparalleled to any formal education offered. In my opinion formal education gives you direction and ability to process the learning in the right manner.

Now instead of formal education if platforms are developed to offer learning across functions in an open manner, then why not? I think it will give every individual an option to explore and learn a lot of things which he would not have otherwise learned in his formal education.

I still feel that there should be some bit of formal education required to put in perspective the right approach.

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What is the best piece of advice you would like to give to those who want to rise in their careers in the corporate world? 

My advice would be to believe in your abilities and always try to excel in what you do. Have patience as Rome was not built in a day. 

Additionally, don’t stop learning. Look for a mentor who will support you and guide you to understand and learn. Please be real and always aim higher.

How are things changing in your domain, what role will data and information play in the future? 

The change has been constant and I would say it has been more drastic during the last 18 months primarily on account of COVID and lack of travel and in person meetings. 

My role is Mergers and Acquisition where data and information play a very critical role. Even a small piece of information / data can make or break a transaction. In the last 18 months, the manner and approach of doing acquisitions has changed quite a bit. The learnings from B School around negotiations have to be changed now to include virtual negotiations. The softer aspects of negotiations are taking a back seat and it is data and information which are becoming very critical.

I expect the data and information and more importantly the quality of the same will change the way business is done in future. The decision making is becoming faster and will continue to accelerate further. There will be a lot of automation to help drive speed and that would be driven by the access to historical data . We are actually in a very interesting phase where we will get a chance to witness the change on how data and information can drive better and faster decisions.

Which is your favourite book and why? 

My favourite book is Shoe Dog. The book narrates the story about an entrepreneur who makes his passion his business. Every time I read the book, it pushes in my veins a sense of charge to excel and follow my passion. The struggle and the hard work and at the undying spirit of “keep going” gives me a sense of push to go on. For me the best quote from the book is “Life is growth. You grow or you die.”

I will strongly recommend everyone to read the book and thus will not divulge too much details about the same.

Rohit Himatsingka

Senior VP - M&A and Corporate Planning & Strategy

Rohit Himatsingka is known for his financial expertise specially around Mergers and Acquisition. He has in the last years acquired companies in US, Australia / New Zealand, Dubai and in Singapore. He has also been involved in various monetization across BPO, Real Estate and Insuretech.

Rohit has more than 15 years’ experience across industries and functions. He has worked in the financial sector, manufacturing setup and IT. He believes in working both as a leader and in a team. He is a tough task master and a timeline oriented person. He encourages his team to think of ideas outside the normal course and allows room for them to excel.

Rohit’s deep knowledge of finance and corporate structure has earned him the respect of his peers. He recently graduated (December 2019) from Insead and completed the Global Executive MBA. He also has a chartered Accountancy degree.

He is married to Namita, and has one son, Advit. Rohit is also a passionate connoisseur of music and is a keen half marathon runner.