I don’t exist without failure: Ravinder Pal Singh

Highlights

• Favorite book: The Five Dysfunctions of a Team: A Leadership Fable by Patrick Lencioni
• Role Model: Parents
• Most dreamed-about vacation destination: Trans-Himalayas
• Stress buster activity: Flying single-engine over the Mountain and then climbing it.

Singh started his journey of livelihood as an entrepreneur. He built a cross-compiler and sold it to one of today’s world’s largest technology companies. He recalls that his friends and professors thought he had given it away cheaply but for Singh, it was fun and he was happy. That’s how his journey started.

He has held various senior positions and worked with companies like Wipro, Accenture, Air Works, Nike, Carrefour, and Microsoft. But failure has been his best friend. It is something that Singh feels he’s learnt the most from.

“I design and build things, hence, experimentation is mandatory and thus failure too. Challenges excite me except sometimes I struggle with humans with camouflaged human nature and its dark attributes like lies, deceit, vengeance, spitefulness, greed, sadism, narcissism, psychopathy, and Machiavellianism. I just avoid them and escape from the crowd – sometimes escapism is wise, it keeps me balanced and I’m always filled with positive energy. Wisdom to focus on good Karma is central to my existence,” he adds.

Pal not just works for an aviation company, he’s a pilot himself and likes to use that skill to help out in crisis situations. Being an experienced pilot, he has also served various international agencies by flying several hundred hours as emergency response expeditions ranging from covid to floods to earthquakes. Recently, he also served as a frontline pilot in Europe and India.

Coming from an army family, Singh always believed in giving back to the society and that’s also shaped him as a person.

“It is a popular saying that children of defense services personnels don’t have childhood friends but remarkable childhood stories. My stories are a remembrance of mountains, deserts, plains and islands across Indian geography and interactions with inhabitants in multiple human and sign languages,” he recalls.

Learning from nature

Singh likes to see nature as a big mentor for him, learning from small little things that are all around us. “My journeys and its interactions with nature are source of mentorship, my mentors are farmers from whom I have learned beauty of growth; undertakers at Varanasi who have taught me elegance of ‘let it go’; endurance from my fellow mountaineers who have climbed several peaks with me; teachers at Harvard who have made me see a bigger picture of the world,” avers Singh.

He has learnt leadership skills from multiple sources. Being extremely ‘disciplined’ and fiercely ‘independent’ is something he learnt from his parents. And having great friends around has made him admire loyalty.

Inventing for humanity

Inventing for humanity and uplifting civilization is something which gives Singh some sense of achievement. And that he feels is a bigger achievement than anything he’s achieved in the corporate world.

Creating four types of Respiratory systems ranging from ventilators to oxygen concentrators; Seven types of affordable robots for healthcare, hospitality, aviation, automotive and citizen services; and a multipurpose drone for security & civil services are some of the examples of his creations which he is proud of.

In fact, post retirement, Singh sees himself morphing into a fusion of a generous ‘Monk’ and a ferocious ‘Rishi’ – a Teacher and Nomad both.

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Words of wisdom for aspiring corporate leaders

Singh feels one needs to learn fast and reflect continuously. “CEOs need to strategize in their heads and act swiftly like quarterbacks in American football. CIOs need to lead the think-tank components and paint the next normal, i.e. the future operating model,” he says.

He feels we should always keep commitment above corporate politics. Intelligent companies will change their structures, flatten their decision making and recognize the eternal truth that in times to come, only unbiased and merit-based organizations have a chance to survive and achieve greatness, he feels.

“In the last decade of corporate culture, perception and politics played a pivotal role in most companies. This perception and networking driven culture needs transformation into a high performance and outcome-driven culture for organizations to survive and thrive.”

Finally, he sees technology as the driver and not only the enabler. “CEOs with myopic thinking of survival from quarter to quarter will struggle to lead their respective organizations. Reluctant CIOs who are non-technologists and who lack intrapreneurship (at least - if not entrepreneurship) will not survive in great companies,” Singh said.


Click here to read how Ravinder Pal Singh, Chief Information and Innovation Officer at Vistara is leveraging the power of multiple technologies ranging from AI, Robotics, Bigdata and Blockchain to enhance the airline's critical business functions.

Click here to read how cutting-edge technologies, especially which are in commodity zone, play an important role in defining Vistara's digital agenda.