Guest Lecture by Mr. Nikhil Kulkarni || Co-founder and Director || Darwin Travel Tech

It was the 8^th Session of Business Communication subject of the first module. We were informed beforehand by our professor, about the guest lecture that he intended to conduct in the upcoming session. The speaker was Mr. Nikhil Kulkarni, Co-founder and Director of ‘Darwin Travel Tech’.

It must be something unique when Prof. T Prasad has arranged a session. I was looking forward to it.

The session started at 9:00. Precisely at 9:26 AM, due to some technical glitches as we are forced to adapt to the online platform of learning. So, it started with Mr. Nikhil introducing himself and talking about his start-up named – ‘Darwin Travel Tech’. They have come up with an idea of integrated planning / booking of our itinerary. So, you don’t have to have any headache about planning your itinerary when you go on a business trip. One more thing, they are a B2B company and will soon be into B2C as well. The concept sounded cool and grabbed my attention. I became more attentive and wanted to listen to more of what he wants to say.

         

After giving a brief about this cool start-up, he shared his agenda of the lecture. Which included

• ·         Business Communication in Consulting
• ·         Structuring your content – Pyramid Principle
• ·         Create impact – Tips and tricks
• ·         Creating a ‘Personal Brand’ – Why, How, When ?
• ·         Ask me Anything !

Business Communication in Consulting :

He shared his own experience while pursuing a career in Consulting. He shared the little incidents of gradual improvement and learning he had on his journey from being a Consultant to Assistant director at KPMG. He stressed on the importance of business communication in the world of consulting by giving a statistic – 80-15-5. Where 80% importance is given to communication, 15% to building relationships and 5% to research.

The importance of tools like excel, power point and word was also discussed.

         

Structuring Content – The Pyramid Principle :

In order to communicate our thoughts to someone, we need to have proper content and along with that, an organized structure. Be it discussing a new business plan or a detailed project report with the client. The data we share should be well structured to make it easily understandable. The type of structures can be a Hierarchical Structure. Where the flow of information is like : Key message, Supporting arguments, Idea / data / fact / logic supporting the argument followed by the summary. Moreover, the Supporting arguments need to be MECE (Mutually exclusive, collectively exhaustive).  

In order to make it more presentable and comprehensive, we should address situations, complications, questions and answers pertaining to the argument independently. 

          

To make an impact :

When you are addressing a group of individuals, be it clients or any gatherings, here are a few tips shared by Mr. Nikhil to leave a mark and seek people’s attention.

•  Give a startling statistic or image
•  A quote from someone famous, which should be relevant to the topic of the meeting
•  A video clip
•  Ask a question
• Arrange some engaging, fun activity

In the presentation, try to convey more information through pictures as they prove more impactful. This is known as ‘The Picture Superiority Effect’.

Creating a Personal Brand :

Creating a personal brand is not just about being a celebrity. It means, being recognized for our USP. It helps add value to our overall personality. And most importantly, it helps getting things done. And how to do that ?

• Writing blogs
• Creating a YouTube channel
• Using Twitter to express your ideas
• Using Instagram / Facebook to convey your thoughts to the world

All in all, it was an informative session. And all the qualities of having good communication skills, being able to express well, structuring you thoughts and making an impact reflected throughout the session when Mr. Nikhil was speaking.

 #NITIEMumbai #1/12MandiSir