Ravi Sekhar Kasibhatta - Successful Career Is Not an Overnight or Single-Time Achievement (Senior VP - Lupin)


Formal education in India is almost obsolete nowadays and many academic institutions have become more R&D oriented and adapted to have an advisory board with private and public professionals for the improvement of curriculum.


Tell us about your background, journey, and upbringing.

I was born and brought up in a Taluka HQ – Chirala, AP. We are from a humble and middle-class family that belongs to a remote village in Andhra Pradesh. He worked as a secretarial assistant to a Factory Manager of the ILTD Division of the ITC group. I had been brought up there until my graduation from Andhra University.

My first twist in the tale was landing in Hindi speaking Raipur, Chhattisgarh (the then MP) from the core Telugu speaking location of South India to do MSc in Life Sciences with specialization ‘Parasitology & Immunology’ from Pandit Shri Ravi Shankar University. 

The initial 3 month period was a struggle yet exciting to learn and transact in the Hindi language locally but thanks to my nuances with Sanskrit helped to be fluent with elevated confidence. Thus, my struggle for existence was with such hard work to prove myself to be there for 2 years of my PG course. 

I was the first of our family members to accomplish the post-graduation. Though I thought of pursuing my Ph.D. in RSU, Raipur but another twist due to the insistence of my parents took me to Hyderabad in search of a job. 

Though I had joined Biological E Ltd (a biopharmaceutical) company for about 6 months learning to work as a QC trainee but jumped to grab a miraculous opportunity to join as Senior Analyst in Clinical Pharmacology & Medical Research unit of The Nizam’s Institute of Medical Sciences(NIMS), Hyderabad (An Autonomous Body under State government of AP).

It has led to another sweetest memory of nuptial knot with my beautiful wife, Madhavi to start my family after 2-years of a secured government job. While my family needs due to the expansion of my both kids, I have had plenty of opportunities to develop my skillsets in medical research thus, able to go for publishing articles in various journals (both national & international repute) as co-author along with other associates of NIMS. 

A dreamy twist was taken me to fly within the country from Hyderabad to Chennai and to the beautiful country - Singapore for a weeklong academic trip to attend a key instrumentation training. 

Then, I had started my long pending dream of doing my Ph.D. from NIMS, Hyderabad while on the job. I was doing a balanced pursuit of academics, job, family, and theatre / TV / Radio artist. 

I worked there for about 12 years in NIMS. But, a day came where I had decided to pursue my career in clinical research by moving out of Hyderabad to joining Lambda Therapeutic Research, Ahmedabad followed by Aurobindo Pharma & Dr. Reddy’s Laboratories in Hyderabad and currently have been working with Lupin Pharma, in its R&D center, Pune establishing and heading the Lupin Bioresearch Center, Pune for more than 15 years. 

Throughout this journey, I saw the growth of my kids and got my both Son – Hemanth Karthik to pursue his career in the US as a technical support engineer of SalesForce after his MS from the University of Florida, US, and daughter – Srinikhitha to complete her Masters in Public Health in Deakin University, Melbourne, AU and shifted to the US to continue her family after the marriage.

This journey of life has been enriched with lots of learnings, moments of excitement, service orientation, and scientific pursuit at each stage throughout my career with support from my colleagues, mentors, and associates.

I take pride in my current clinical research profession which is all about effective project planning and management, teamwork, excellent engagement, and celebrations of the team achievements. 

I believe that my childhood reading of various books including Ramayan, Mahabharat, and Bhagavad Gita and other mythological discourses I used to attend with my parents / reading patriotic stories, etc., had also created many a chance to be a strong believer of the Indian value system in a broad manner and my theatric talent/sports I played helped me to be a more social and responsible citizen of the country for the service of society with my individual social responsibility (ISR) work.


What made you interested in this field and how did you narrow it down?

I was regular to the classes to develop my skills of learning during my school and college days. I was good in Telugu & Sanskrit languages since I used to write poetry published in college magazines.

I got interested to pursue the science stream during my school days due to my science teacher Mr. Satyanarayana Sir. I was fascinated by seeing the results when doing chemistry experiments and thus, I pursued to do my PG course in life sciences.

Family, relatives, and friends to that matter known and unknown directly or indirectly helped to build my analytical/scientific character with lots of opportunities to lead my career and of course to face many challenges including the current Pandemic situation in anyone’s lifetime. 

I defied the defeat by learning the technique of accepting and moving forward instead of being stuck there. And, I have a habit of keeping the failures very close to my chest while improving the tasks by not repeating any such errors and have never rejected any challenge to reach the goal i.e., for the benefit of the team, family, and friends. 

I believe in this character of continuous learning and bettering zeal by converting any challenge as an opportunity. One should see the opportunities as ‘miracles’ and it is good to accept the ‘miracles’ to do best for one’s family, friends, team, and society at large with the help of Science, I strongly believe.


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What does your typical workday look like?

I always get up early to spend my time doing good exercise, plan to do activities for the day, and of course healthy breakfast before the start of the day. 

Mails/messages connected with the work is well-taken care keeping the ‘self-development time’ for reading the subject / scientific material for bettering the clinical research of the company programs while people management is thoroughly taken care of with the administrative, HR, and other support teams engaged with me. 

All these activities are well managed with proper distribution of allocated activities under the RADAR system and following a ‘1-minute manager’ attitude in a very positive way.


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

Formal education in India is almost obsolete nowadays and many academic institutions have become more R&D oriented and adapted to have an advisory board with private and public professionals for the improvement of curriculum. 

However, minimal qualification is a must for getting into the clinical research field. I strongly believe our education system should be revamped/revised with a more pragmatic rationale for the holistic development of brains in the studies with the implementation of ‘right to education for every child to be in the school despite the class/strata of the families. 

Since the typical classroom sessions would not take you to achieve your dream but, one’s attitude and passion for creativity are allowed it would instill a propensity to excel in anyone’s chosen field.


Google, Adobe, and most MNCs have a strict policy around sharing ex-employee data. How can one approach background checks in this situation?

Minimal data points are needed to understand for decision-making of any probable hiring by HR since revolutionary ways of accessing social media and other professional groups would help to retrieve the relevant data of the employee’s previous role and character. 

Many detective agencies are put on the job and would also be helpful to access such data. Additionally, the world is so small, and in which the healthcare industry is very easy to explore to get feedback and background checks.


How has your field evolved over the years and what future changes do you predict?

This clinical research field is seen a sea of changes in terms of speed, race, and tools it used before to now. The automation and AI tools and digital transformation have led to revolutionary KPO, B2B platform creations thus, making the K-base enhancement for quick interpretation and resolution of the issues. 

The real-world problem i.e., the current pandemic situation has seen a very quick turnaround for vaccines being from R&D to roll out to the reach of human use within a short span, thanks to the KPO platforms. 

Thus, the advancement of science can be seen surprisingly surpassing the old school of thoughts of time-taking processes to make every step with upgraded skill sets and quick learnings to do the best for human life.

                         


What advice do you have for those eyeing this career?

Be aware of what is happening around in the world, be quick to propel the data analytics in hand, and be passionate with great learning zeal since a successful career is not an overnight or single-time achievement in clinical research but a strong and persistent commitment for the welfare of humankind.


Which is your favorite book and why?

For me, Bhagavad Gita is an all-time favorite book as it gives every possible solution to every problem related to human life. It is everyone’s troubleshooter for every problem you face since human life is a journey on the earth to drag you crazy due to many more relevant or irrelevant issues but, this book drives you on a path of light, freedom, wisdom, and selflessness, detached yet attached. 

Thus, since my childhood, I have been attracted to this book as you can do a passionate and excellent job while engaging with no strings to the situations around. Thus, your approach drives you in the right path of how you perform and transform yourself as a leader of your life if not others disallowing external factors too much to influence you on. 

Your EQ will take you to achieve what is important with good insights to make the right decisions at the right time for the betterment of everyone you are associated with.