What Is Needed For 21st Century Graduates To Excel In Any Industry?

Sridhar Ranganathan
Sridhar Ranganathan, Managing Director, Allergan India
Allergan India Private Limited, a joint venture between Allergan and Piramal Healthcare Limited, commenced commercial operations in 1996. Allergan India is a specialty pharmaceutical company. It has emerged as the market leader in the fast growing ophthalmic category with the successful launches of a series of high technology medication and devices for diseases such as glaucoma, dry eye, infections and inflammations.

Availability and accessibility of information in multitude has become the cynosure of 21st century which demands graduates of all branches to be equipped with certain skills, to be career-ready. In this era of 4G, people can't even wait for 4 seconds to skip a video. The Speed actually makes people grow impatient and intolerant.

With this scenario in the fast-paced information age, is it possible for young graduates to make value-addition? What are the skills required to make a difference? Gone are those days when graduates become employable with basic skills such as typing, shorthand and the like. These skills now-a-days have become non-influential though they have been made mandatory for any industry. Along with the much-explored skills such as creative thinking, leadership skills, time management, problem solving and cross-cultural understanding, what else one needs to acquire? What is the mantra for success for the Gen Y and Gen Z? What makes oneself excel in the world that believes in speed?

Here comes the ABC of Excellence! The following tested and proven "ABC of Excellence" determines the entire language of success in any profession now and the decades to follow.

Act objectively

Decisions always prelude results. Arriving at objective decisions plays the role of a forerunner in the arena where delivering the desired result comes only in the later part. One's ability to be firm, transparent and candid is valued and reciprocated with expect-ed outcome.

Taking objective decisions is the solute and solvent of success.

Be it leadership roles or executive ones, every position demands unequivocally the objectivity of action. In other words, every action commences from object-driven decisions, devoid of subjective opinions.

Being invincible doesn't matter; being convincible does.

It is an art to be firm and convincing at the same time. When all our ac-tions are perpetually determined by logical decisions which enhance the process, it is an achievable and acquirable skill.

Bring Solution-based Approach

Finding out and piling up problems never take the process or the person anywhere, while arresting them and arriving at solutions move the process and the person up the ladder. Every business seeks solutions, as there is always a room for amelioration irrespective of its level.

"Empirical Communication is in limelight now that values the receiver's need and shapes the interaction dynamically in accordance with receiver's pulse"

It is a not a herculean task to change one's attitude to move toward solutions, rather than embracing problems.

To find a way out is a skill and not a strategy.

Misleadingly, we treat solutions as a strategy which is used as and when problems arise. It is high time for the Gen Y & Z to turn the tables and look at solution-finding as a skill to be practiced at every stage of a process, even at the absence of problems. Only this approach yields all available possibilities which can be well-exploited as the needs arise.

Correlate Opinions and Data

Correlation of Opinion:

Communication is not anymore about Sender, Source and Receiver. There has been a dynamic shift which has affected the way the world communicates. Empirical Communication is in limelight now that values the receiver's need and shapes the interaction dynamically in accordance with receiver's pulse.

The purpose of interaction is no more to state 'what-I-have', but to understand and commu-nicate 'what-you-need'.

What makes conversations effective is the fact that the parties involved know each other's intention by the cues expressed through language. It is an acquirable skill, which must not be taught but trained. Even those who are well-versed in a language lack the nuances of effective interaction. Equipping oneself with empirical communication gives an edge over among peers and helps stand out.

Correlation of Data:

Similarly, as stated earlier, the world is being run, changed, evolved and managed by data now. Not so long ago, people were engrossed in finding a way to get information across platforms, which is not case now, as we have abundance of sources to cater the information we need in the format we want. 'How-to-get-information' is not the question anymore, whereas 'what-to-do-with-the-information' has taken the firm grip and become the prevalently-required question.

Collection, accumulation and categorisation of data must be followed by its analysis. That's when the inference skills come into play. Not pertaining to any single industry, data analytics plays a predominant role in shaping industries irrespective of size, topography and language.

Whether 21st century graduates wait for 4 seconds patiently for the video or not, it is so imperative to acquire the afore-mentioned ABC of Excellence.

Remember, Speed is not bad. Speedmakes people learn faster also. Let's use speed productively to acquire skills and build a world on excellence.

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