## About Us

###### Centre of Strategic Mindset

## Who we are

We are a full-spectrum Growth and Transformation organization, with a mission to groom Strategic Minds, who can deliver Bold Business impact. We are a team of passionate professionals, driven by purpose, inspired by creative dissatisfaction; enthused by excellence and steered by ethics and integrity. For us, creativity, originality, and passion are three intrinsic motivators to be customer centric as well as customer relevant.

Centre of Strategic Mindset (COSM) is an ideology where the focus is on long-term and bold impact.

##### About COSM

### What we do

We enable individuals and organizations identify ‘Growth Possibilities’, visualize ‘Future’, strategize their ‘Vision’, develop ‘Strategic Capabilities’ and realize their ‘Potential’ in a robust manner, through Talent, Thinking and Innovation.

Our most conspicuous pursuits fall under following categories:

- Strategy & Culture
- Leadership Development
- Executive Coaching
- Design Thinking & Innovation
- Purpose & Transformation
- Mindfulness & Well-Being

#### Why Should we Exist

### We exist for Leadership, Change and Future through our Ideas, Inspiration, and Impact.

### Why should Customer Care for Us

Customer should care for us for our thought leadership, professionalism, commitment and deep impact. We put our skin in the game to ensure that the clients’ promise turns into intended outcomes. We can always be counted upon for Trust as well as the Results.

## Our Edge

##### In this increasingly commoditized world, retaining our niche is a continuous pursuit. COSM takes pride in creating, maintaining and retaining its edge through following levers.

##### COSM's Edge

### What differentiates us

##### Leadership Development Journey

### Nine Nuances of Leadership Development Journey

#### Art & Science of Professional Development & Personal Growth

## Our Ideology & Philosophy

#####

###### COSM is born out of a prolonged tryst with the challenges and experience of developing more than 10500 leaders across industries and context, that led to exploration of following questions:

- Why some organization become ‘built to last’, and others lose their way, enroute?
- Why some leaders are able to create an impact far beyond measure?
- What inspired and enabled them to think in a non-linear and exponential manner?
- What made their pursuits so relentless and decisive?
- What was their pattern of thinking and discipline of implementing?
- What were those stimuli that influenced leaders to change their thinking and the impact they could create?
- Is there a teachable pattern or a replicable algorithm that could transform potential leaders into strategic minds?
- What is the art and science of developing leaders, reinventing organization and repurposing future that can be taken to a larger audience in a global context?

###### The collective critical experiences from above pursuits led to three ‘Insights’, considered largely responsible for COSM’s ideology and Philosophy:

- Leaders are largely made, and a structured development process is as relevant today, as it was in ancient times.
- Ambition can be stoked significantly, and assumptions can be challenged actively, through a scientific, structured and intellect-driven examination.
- Context is king and decoding that requires a fair integration of timeless ‘Principles’ with timely ‘Interventions’ for renewal, relevance, and reinvention.

### What We Believe

###### We believe that bold thinking, bi-focal vision, customer centricity; continuous innovation and operational precision are five fundamental pillars of growth and impact. COSM thrives on following core beliefs for its relevance to customers:

- Purpose must remain at the centre as well as the forefront of whatever we do.
- Trust, transparency, and authenticity are the key drivers of any strategic relationship.
- Continuous Learning is the only permanent Competitive Advantage.
- Data is the ‘New Oil’ and Empathy is the ‘New Dollar’.
- No Credit for History – Only Premium for Future.

## What is our Context

We partner with Fortune 500 Clients globally, in envisioning their strategies, facilitating their purpose-discovery, developing leaders, coaching executives, shaping innovation and transforming culture. Whether our clients are multinational giants or entrepreneurial start-ups, our thought leadership, expertise, experiences and beginner’s mindset always come handing in rendering a new leaf of imagination and bold execution. In the past, we have successfully served clients across technology, IT & ITeS, Banking, Pharma & Healthcare, FMCG, Manufacturing, Financial Services, Automotive, Telecom and e-commerce sectors.

## Meet Our Team

### Himanshu Saxena

Founder & CEO

### Poonam Choudhary

Co-Founder

### Sakina Bharmal

Managing Partner

##### Himanshu Saxena

Founder & CEO

Himanshu Saxena is the founder & CEO of COSM. He is a C-Level Coach who has worked with more than 350 leaders across organizations and has nearly 10000 hours of coaching experience. He featured among the Top 100 Coaches in Marshall Goldsmith Global Coaches and was recently nominated to be among the leading 50 Coaches at Thinkers50, London. Formerly, he headed Strategy, Leadership Development, Innovation & Executive Coaching at TCS, where he was responsible for making strategy everyone’s job, strengthening organic leadership and driving culture of coaching. He instituted an integral coaching model based on Eastern & Western Philosophy. He successfully implemented Balanced Scorecard and won TCS, The Hall of Fame Award, for strategy execution. At present, he is working with two leading pharma businesses as an Advisor & ‘Coach in Residence’. Himanshu holds globally certified credentials in Balanced Scorecard, Blue Ocean Strategy, Innovation, Leadership Master Class and Hi-Potential Leadership Development. Himanshu has driven multiple & complex transformation, integration, global account excellence and scaled expansion leading to customer experience. As a change architect, he has the knack of ascertaining the hidden intricacies pertaining to people, processes and systems that impacts the productivity as well as operational excellence. His passion to manifest hidden potential led him to create COSM & build strategic minds. He is a thinker, writer and a sought-after speaker in the leading forums .

##### A.K. Viswanathan

Facilitator & Coach

A.K. Viswanathan (Vis) is an Executive Coach with COSM. He is certified with Marshall Goldsmith Stakeholders Centred Coaching, and is one of the MG India 25 coaches. As a retired Partner from Deloitte, he has over 35 years of experience building and coaching high performance teams across multiple geographies globally. Vis has a unique blend of business, technology and risk experience, having helped organizations understand and deal with their technology risk, especially in the cyber space. As a Partner for Deloitte both in Canada and in India, Vis has a key ability to communicate technical issues with business language, which has made him a trusted advisor to the leadership of Tata Group, State Bank of India, Barclays (Global), Canada Imperial Bank of Commerce, and Manulife Financial, amongst many others. Considered a leader at Deloitte (National Leader for Deloitte Risk Advisory Practice), he has built, coached, and mentored multiple teams, resulting in him being named National Talent Partner for Deloitte Risk Advisory Services in India. He has advised clients on IS strategy, governance, risk and compliance requirement. The advise encompassed full multi-million dollar solution provision from evaluation to architecting, implementing and where required sustaining solutions, spanning multiple geographies.

##### Ajai Lal

Facilitator & Coach

Ajai Lal is an Executive Coach and Facilitator, empaneled with COSM. Formerly, he was the Chief Business Officer at NIIT and has over 40 years of extensive transformational leadership development experience. Ajai successfully drove profitable business and market share growth in international geographies as the Head of Channel Management. He managed the entire franchisee channel operations and spearheaded the company’s expansion into new territories, positioning NIIT strategically over the long-term to further the global reach of the company. Ajai has vast experience leading P&L’s, business units and negotiating and collaborating with political hierarchy, education ministers and top bureaucrats for national educational agendas. Amongst his many accomplishments, Ajai was responsible for the execution of global initiatives that were awarded the ‘World Education Public Choice Award’ and was recipient of the NIIT ‘Global Leadership Award.’ He is a Certified John Maxwell Coach, Teacher and Speaker. He is passionate about developing global leaders, empowering individuals to realize their potential and live their lives with purpose and vision. He is a leading influencer and a powerful communicator. His passion for developing leaders inspired him to co-create COSM as a vehicle to incubate and foster strategic minds.

##### Amitava Pal

Facilitator & Coach

Amitava Pal is an Executive & Life Coach and a facilitator, empaneled with COSM. He is based in Mumbai. Amitava has been a senior business leader with over three decades of business experience across Indian and global firms in the field of finance and engineering goods. He expertise in business development and has been responsible for building entire echo systems for multiple start-ups or small-time operations, facilitated organizational transformations and put them to an exponential growth trajectory. Beside his technical skills, his key success factors have been strong interpersonal skills, empathy and individualization. He consistently nurtured and developed of high performing leaders. Amitava in his last corporate role was the Chief Operating Officer of Treasury in Edelweiss Financial Services with previous career stints in Fullerton India, CITI Wealth, Brics Securities, Shriram Finance, Kirloslar Oil Engines, TAFE etc. He is an engineer from IIT Kharagpur and is PCC from ICF and SP from EMCC. Besides, he is a certified master practitioner and trainer of NLP (from Richard Bandler’s Institute), Transaction analysis practitioner and Gallup certified Coach. Earlier he had also been leading seminars in Landmark Worldwide.

##### Champa Ganguly

Facilitator & Coach

Champa Ganguli is a Partner and Executive Coach with COSM. She is also a certified Executive Coach on the Marshall Goldsmith Stakeholder Centered Coaching Program, with a wide exposure to Operations in various roles. She has been a Business Process Professional since 1999. The processes handled span Collections, Customer Services, Banking, Insurance and Telecommunications. She has worked in organizations such as GECIS (now GENPACT), GE Money Servicing, IBM and TCS, in senior leadership positions with large teams, where coaching as been an integral part of her work. During her tenure with GECIS, one of her roles was the Training Leader for the Collections COE. The role involved the complete training function for the COE from Process Training to Professional Development courses, for, instrumental in developing programs for associates and Team Leaders to help them execute their roles effectively and develop them for future roles. She was also certified on the CLOE program on Management Skills for New Leaders and trained over 400 AVPs and Senior Managers in GECIS on this program. She has been the recipient of several management awards for her contributions to the training function. She has a management Degree in Finance from The Symbiosis Institute of Business Management. She started her career in 1988 with Kirloskar Consultants in Pune with Industrial Market Research, and then moved on to NBFCs such as Times Guaranty Financial Services and GE Countrywide in a variety of roles such as Equity Research, Merchant Banking, Fixed Deposits, HR and Back Office Operations for Bulk Loans, before moving into the BPO Space.

##### Narayan Kamath

Facilitator & Coach

Narayan Kamath an Executive Coach and Facilitator, empaneled with COSM. He has over 25 years of functional and general management experience in large and small companies. He has led large and diverse, multi-cultural teams in India, Singapore, Malaysia, Hong Kong, Philippines and Thailand for well known companies like Grasim, MRPL, SRC and Shell An engineer by training, Narayan has worked in a variety of technical, commercial and strategic roles in various functions such as Business Development, Project Management, Process Design & Engineering, Operations and Supply Chain Management. He has served as faculty on in-house Leadership Development Programs for Middle and Senior Management and as assessor/interviewer for Senior Executive recruitment Narayan is a Certified Executive Coach (Marshall Goldsmith SCC) and Associate Certified Coach (International Coach Federation). He is also trained and certified in administering and analysing 360 and Psychometric Assessments. He has a Masters in Chemical Engineering (IIT Bombay) and is a Master of Business Adminsitration (NUS Business School, Singapore) As a Leadership Coach and Mentor, Narayan helps successful leaders take their leadership to the next level, by being more productive, managing more effectively and leading inspirationally. Narayan has worked with small businesses and larger companies on assignments covering top team alignment, leadership transitions, and developing high-potential talent. His clients include leaders in Automobile, Banking, E-Commerce, Energy, Engineering, Finance, IT, Retail and Telecom Sectors. Narayan’s mission is to make positive and significant impact in the lives of at least 100,000 people by 2020 - by helping them unleash their true potential to achieve greater success and fulfilment - at work, and in life.

#### Punam Choudhary

Co-Founder

Punam Choudhary is a Managing Partner and Co-Founder at COSM (Center of Strategic Mindset), a Thought Leadership and Consulting organization, focused on advising boards on Strategy, People, Culture and Risk. As a Marshall Goldsmith Certified Coach and facilitator, she helps young and emerging leaders deal with their FANS (Fears, Assumptions, Notions and Self-Limiting Beliefs), effectively. She has been personally groomed as an executive coach on COSM’s coaching methodology by Himanshu Saxena, Founder & CEO of COSM, one of top 100 coaches in the world.

Punam heads Research, Content Strategy, Finance and Human Resource. She has played a big role in creation of COSM’s Knowledge IPs, Frameworks and Assessment tools. She brings a keen sense of observation in crafting behaviours w.r.t assessment tools.

Prior to COSM, she was in academia, leading content, curriculum design and research. She has been keenly involved in CSR and has actively contributed to the welfare and well-being activities. She brings those experiences in understanding the human psyche to curate insights, which provide the basis for conceptual and cognitive frameworks at COSM.

She holds a Masters in Zoology and B.ED. Her accreditations include:

- Marshall Goldsmith Certified Executive Coach
- Certified in Search Inside Leadership Program, a Google pioneered leadership program
- Certified Process Lab Facilitator by Academy for Human Context (Sumedhas)

She is an avid reader and keeps her interest alive and updated in Strategy, Organization Development, Life Coaching. Her core interests include travelling, music, and exotic cuisines.

##### Ram Gopalan

Facilitator & Coach

Ram brings decades of first-hand senior executive experience to his coaching, having worked across the gamut of organizations, from start-ups through to global MNCs. Having served as VP and Country Manager for SapientNitro, Ram’s corporate experience covers executive responsibilities for every area of business from marketing and sales to regional capability development. He has managed leaders across the spectrum: from technical engineers, sales staff through to creative teams, as well as across cultures. His track record for building successful teams, including an award-winning digital agency that supported global clients such as Coca-Cola, Seagrams, Taco Bell and Citibank, gives Ram both credibility with his clients as well as real understanding of the challenges they face.

##### Rani Desai

Managing Partner

Rani Desai an Executive Coach and Facilitator, empaneled with COSM. Formerly, she has been the Chief Learning officer, Partner Matters, Deloitte Shared Service Ltd. India. She has been a Marshall Goldsmith Stakeholder Centered Certified Coach and has been an internal coach with senior leaders. She brings with her wealth of diverse, multicultural, national and international corporate leadership experience at various senior leadership levels in human resources strategy, leadership development, change management, organizational transformation, and integration of organizations. She has been a member of executive committee of various business leadership teams, and has sound understanding of businesses. She held the position of Vice - President & Global Head Human Resource & Organization Development, before joining the Big 4. Rani is on the committee of multiple industry and professional associations like Confederation of India Industry (CII), Western Region, Bangalore Chamber of Industry & Commerce, core committee member of United Nations Global Compact Network India (UN GCNI) for India’s 1st. Gender Equality Summit to be held in March 2018. Thus, contributing to industry, profession and professionals, and to society at large, touching upon most of the stakeholders including academia. Member of National HRD Network. Accreditations include

- Certified Independent Director from Directors Club
- Certified C-Suite Executive Coach including Marshall Goldsmith Stakeholder Centered Coach Certification
- Certified in Hogan Assessments

##### Sakina Bharmal

Managing Partner

Sakina Bharmal is a Marshall Goldsmith Certified Stakeholder Centred Coach. She was a part of the prestigious Management Trainee Programs in Unilever and has handled a diverse set of roles from Industrial Relations to Leadership Development in organisations such as Unilever, L&T Infotech, Aditya Birla Group. During the course of her career, she was responsible for initiatives such as enabling succession planning for the direct reportees of the MD of a 45 billion dollar company and enable leadership transition.
A Masters in Human Resources from the University of Mumbai, she has been exposed to various nuances of development such as Assessment Centres, Human Process Labs, Psychometric Instruments, Instructional Design and Facilitation. She is a certified Applied Theatre Practitioner, Transactional Analysis, Yoga Instructor from The Yoga Institute and Mindfulness Practitioner. Sakina is driven by the quest to enable people to grow personally and professionally. As an experiential facilitator, she has worked with a diverse set of audiences ranging from shop floor employees to senior leadership. Her expertise lie in working for Mid to senior leaders on themes such as Building Successful Partnership, Innovation, Influence, Dealing with Ambiguity, People Leadership, Executive Presence, Execution Excellence and many more. Keeping in mind her philosophy, ‘If you touch the lives of individuals, they will in turn create a sustainable organisation’, her vision is to impact individuals and corporates to observe, adopt and experience humanistic contemporary and ancient sciences.

##### Suchitra Bhaskar

Facilitator & Coach

Suchitra Bhaskar is an experienced People Leader and Talent Development Professional with over 20 years of experience having worked across multiple industries ranging from Banking and Finance, Healthcare, Petrochemicals and Retail. In her most recent role, she was the Country Director for Talent and Organisation Consulting practice for Abbott in India. Her previous stint was as Senior Vice President, Talent Management and Diversity for Reliance Industries Limited. where she established Talent Management Centre of Excellence and a flagship Women in Leadership program for the entire RIL Group. Suchitra is a Professional Certified Coach (PCC), having gained her accreditation from ICF USA. She has over 2000 hours of coaching experience having worked with senior leaders and high potential talent across industries. She leverages her knowledge of people dynamics with strong understanding of business context having spent over two decades in grooming leaders in her expansive role as a Talent and succession planning lead for companies like Abbott, RIL, CRISIL Ltd, DCB Bank etc. She blends her deep domain understanding of application of psychometrics tools like MBTI, Hogan etc. in high potential development and accelerated role transition for best organisational results. Her passion includes sharing her Industry knowledge with academia by delivering sessions on OD and Talent Management in leading B-schools. She also is a believer of continuous learning currently pursuing an Advanced Diploma in Transactional Analysis from ITAA to further deepen her understanding of human psychology and its application to bring the best of human potential especially in leadership roles.

##### V.K. Raman

Facilitator & Coach

VK Raman (VK) is an Executive Coach and Facilitator, empaneled with COSM. He is an experienced professional with finance, operations and Six Sigma background. VK has been engaged many start up initiatives in established Global firms such as Citibank, Digital Equipment (acquired by Compaq/HP), GE Capital and TCS. He is currently advising start-ups focused on e-Commerce enabled by Technology. VK formerly headed TCS's Business Process Services (Now a 3 Plus Billion Dollars Business) and established it as an industry leader. Before that he was the CEO of a Commercial Real Estate Analytics start-up (eventually merged with Accenture), helped start GE Capital's consumer finance business in India, establish GE's outsourcing business at Hyderabad and Digital Equipment's finance architecture. VK straddles Finance, Business and Technology comfortably and has successfully harnessed the power of technology to grow profitable businesses manifold. VK believes that without understanding and harnessing the potential of people, there is no question of building a sustainable and successful business and has demonstrated over many roles the ability to build a cohesive team while building businesses. VK is an avid long-distance runner and has interesting stories to narrate about the power of running marathons in life.