Shining Consulting brings together top CEOs of India Inc for the world's first-ever CEO Painting Exhibition

Bangalore - March 11, 2010: The world's first-ever CEO Painting Exhibition was formally inaugurated today amidst a power-packed gathering of top league CEOs of India Inc. This thrilling art exhibition is the culmination of an idea conceived by Shombit Sengupta, international Creative Business Strategy consultant to top management, who founded Shining Consulting in Paris 26 years ago. From interacting with CEOs, MDs and Chairmen in his 35-year consulting business career, Shombit, a painter himself, found that Shining's client leaders have an extreme sense of creativity. Shombit believes that his firm's "Creative Business Strategy" has been able to productively bring tangible differentiation for the business success of his client enterprises worldwide because of the ingenuity exhibited his élite clientele who carry 'a high value management palette' in their minds.

It is with this conviction that Shombit undertook the surreal action of approaching CEOs to paint. These top managers overwhelmed Shombit with their responsive spontaneity. They all surprised him with their passion, concentration and perseverance. Shombit came away convinced that his mission was proven, that their success as top managers was because they possess a creative genius that gives expression to the way they handle different things in life and work.

Inaugurating this world premiere, Keshub Mahindra, Chairman of Mahindra & Mahindra, said, "I am always intrigued by the manner in which Shombit gathers his thoughts, and while appearing unassuming, is clear and forceful in his objectives. To get us all to paint was an extraordinary achievement by him, and I must confess it was rather enjoyable."

"Both art and business have to be unique to be successful, and both must have 5 fundamentals intact: thought, subtlety, elegance, loudness and sustainability," said Shombit Sengupta. "To make sustainable growth and high net worth for their organizations, CEOs need to create a lot of intangibles, from team building into the final delivery, which requires the generation of emotive factors. This idea of making CEOs paint to articulate their inner thoughts and uniqueness, something that is hidden where their success as top managers is uncovered, was to expose them to such as emotive medium of expression. In this uniform, digital world of business, CEOs require a divergent atmosphere where they can think in an unlimited way to create differentiation," he continued.

Western art has had several collective movements beginning with Realism, and after the advent of photography, from Expressionism, Impressionism, Cubism, Surrealism, Abstract, Pop and Graphic Art to street graffiti. As no globally renowned contemporary movement of painting has emerged in India so far, "CEO Thinker Painters can represent a new, collective, first time effort and movement that can be taken forward to become part of global art history," said Shombit Sengupta.

People in the world of business know that Shombit continues to paint professionally, so the CEOs were happy to paint for him. The artworks of 26 Painter CEOs, MDs and Chairmen will be on view from 7 to 12 March 2010 from 12 noon to 8 pm at the National Centre of the Performing Arts, Mumbai.

CEO Painters have acknowledged they were totally engrossed while painting. Azim Premji, Chairman of Wipro Corporation said, "It was fun to paint. I thoroughly enjoyed myself." Chairman & MD of Marico Ltd, Harsh Mariwala, said. "It was a crazy exercise, but the process is more important, very calming and spontaneous with broad strokes."

"In the office everything one does, one is answerable to someone. Here my whole approach was there is no winning and losing in painting, it's the confidence of being able to just do something for oneself," said Naina Lal Kidwai, Group General Manager and Country Head of HSCB. "I just enjoyed putting on the fabulous colours."

R Gopalakrishnan, Executive Director of Tata Sons said, "This is the opposite of what I do at work where I am always breaking things down analytically. Here I am trying to construct things holistically. Synthesis, no analysis, that's the difference." Kalyan Ganguly, President & MD, United Breweries, said, "It's a wonderful idea to get an opportunity to think out-of-the-box. It's not something one is used to, but when you have an empty canvas you have a strong desire to put your creativity to work."

Kiran Mazumdar Shaw, Chairman & MD, Biocon, suggested how to take this further, "You can ask CEOs to conceptualize certain business aspects like growth, challenges, globalization, and focus on expressing them in different ways that come to their mind in the form of art."

"It was a fantastic, creative and very relaxing exercise, it takes your mind away," said Ashok Soota, Executive Chairman, MindTree Ltd. "This could be my new hobby." Gunender Kapur, President and CEO, Foods Business, Reliance Retail drew "The radiance of the Om, the beginning of everything. It's a fantastic experience."

"As I was putting paint on the canvas, I was thinking that everything you do, whether in business, government, social work or a journalist, unless you are driven by sense of core integrity and values, you are never going to reach your aspiration, vision, or fulfill your full potential. We have to have to somehow resist pressures and keep to the central focus to reach the blue horizon," opined Vikram S Mehta, Chairman of Shell Group, India.

Harsh V Goenka, Chairman of RPG Enterprises, said he painted elements of management, "Hung by a clothes line we are slaves to time, the branches show how deep rooted we are; the chair is all about 'kissa kursi ka' signifying responsibility, the bulb is innovation, the kite soaring is growing to become a leader. Painting this was very relaxing, I enjoyed it all."

"Painting was almost orgasmic, a very thrilling experience!" exclaimed Pranab Datta, Vice Chairman & MD, Knight Frank India. "Accounting is analytical, but has a different type of creativity that's clinical creativity. This creativity allows you to run abandon, trying to get meaning out of virtually nothing to put into a picture you visualise in your mind."

Guy Goves, Chief Executive of Khet-Se Agriproduce painted the beauty of nature saying, "With the problems related to sustainability and impacts on our environment, unless we handle things well going ahead, our children and their children may not have enough of the beauty of nature to enjoy. So keeping nature intact is of paramount importance to me today."

Adhiraj Sarin, Managing Director, Bunge India, declared his love, "I have tried to paint my wife. I am not sure I do justice to how beautiful she is in real life. I love her intensely." So did Pranab Barua, CEO, Textile & Apparel Business, Aditya Birla Group, "I love to paint and I like women, their beauty. You can see the evidence in my painting of my ideal woman."

Suresh Vaswani, Joint CEO, Wipro IT Business, became confidant after painting, "I think I could be a painter. The flow came to me so easily." Saugata Ghosh, CEO, Consumer Products, Marico India, "thoroughly enjoyed doing this. I like splash of colors, brightness. It drives your creativity into imagination and is also relaxing. I enjoyed it."

Sumeet Mehta, CEO, Zee Learn, said he painted the life of a person from childhood to an old man, "I found it extremely refreshing and relaxing, very different from how my day has been since morning." Vineet Agrawal, President, Wipro Consumer Care and Lighting, said he last did this in class 6, "Here I was trying to pack in too much in typical CEO style. I am happy to paint, we're not evaluated for it, once in a while we should do it."

Vineet Taneja, CMO of Nokia India, enjoyed the fact that, "The effort is visibly reflecting some change in front of youy. This is my expression of life and the happiness I'll leave behind. Playing with colours was joyful and de-stressing." Gordon Watson, Vice Chairman, Worldwide & Chairman & CEO, Asia of American Life Insurance Company said, "Every CEO needs a place to be alone with their thoughts and express them in the purest of forms. I lose myself to the painting moment."

Vinita Bali Managing Director of Britannia Industries, said she enjoyed herself, "I have never done this in my adult life so this actually is quite interesting, different. These are brush strokes of my imagination, it was fun to play with colors."

Sudip Banerjee CEO of L&T Infotech professed, "This is a great stress busting activity in office time, and good use of a CEO's time. It refreshes the mind, makes you feel young, like a child, brings back good memories. It's a fun activity to do." Nayan Mani Borah, Chairman & MD, Oil India Ltd said, "Life is full of problems, puzzles, but don't forget the sun is shining all the way. There is hope at the end of the day. That's what I had in my mind. There was plenty of space for me to think, and I really enjoyed it."

Subroto Bagchi, Vice Chairman, MindTree, said he has painted Shombit and his colourful tie. "Among the many things in life I am grateful for is my relationship with Shombit. I have learned so much from him, he is always pleasantly surprising people around them. He will challenge you with his ideas, thoughts, colors, jokes and his vulgarity. That's essential Shombit for you. He's been life's gift to all of us."

Jacques Vincent Vice Chairman of Groupe Danone, found the exercise difficult, "I've not painted in 40 years. You get inspiration when you put the brush in the water, from the colours you see and don't see. It's exciting in the first 15 minutes, then there is anxiety, and creativity rises again. I felt serenity, like I was creating or disturbing never ending infinity, the crush of atoms, you can may be see flames here."

The 26 CEOs who have splashed their creativity on canvas are:

1. Vineet Agrawal, President, Wipro Consumer Care & Lighting,
2. Subroto Bagchi, Vice Chairman, MindTree Ltd.,
3. Vinita Bali, MD, Britannia Industries,
4. Sudip Banerjee, CEO, L&T Infotech,
5. Pranab Barua, CEO, Textile & Apparel Business, Aditya Birla Group,
6. Nayan Mani Borah, Chairman & MD, Oil India Limited,
7. Pranab Datta, Vice Chairman & MD, Knight Frank India,
8. Kalyan Ganguly, President & MD, United Breweries Ltd,
9. Harsh V Goenka, Chairman, RPG Enterprises,
10. R. Gopalakrishnan, Executive Director, Tata Sons,
11. Guy R Goves, Chief Executive, Khet-Se, Agriproduce India,
12. Saugata Gupta, CEO, Consumer Products, Marico India,
13. Gunender Kapur, President and CEO, Foods Business, Reliance Retail,
14. Naina Lal Kidwai, Group General Manager & Country Head, HSBC India,
15. Keshub Mahindra, Chairman, M&M,
16. Harsh Mariwala, Chairman & MD, Marico Group,
17. Sumeet Mehta, CEO, Zee Learn,
18. Vikram S Mehta, Chairman, Shell Group, India,
19. Azim Premji, Chairman, Wipro Corporation,
20. Adhiraj Sarin, MD, Bunge India,
21. Kiran Mazumdar Shaw, Chairman & MD, Biocon Ltd.,
22. Ashok Soota, Executive Chairman, MindTree Ltd.,
23. Vineet Taneja, CMO, Nokia India,
24. Suresh Vaswani, Joint CEO, Wipro IT business,
25. Jacques Vincent, Vice Chairman, Groupe Danone,
26. Gordon Watson, Vice Chairman, Worldwide & Chairman & CEO, Asia, Alico

In the next step, Shining Consulting will create a permanent art gallery in their Bangalore corporate office to express the extra curricular talent of CEOs who think differently in the banality that exists in the business world today.

Source : Equity Bulls

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