Deloitte India executive Rakesh Barik exhorts students to embrace change

 By A K Sahoo

Bhubaneswar, Sept. 24:Senior Deloitte India executive Rakesh Barik on Saturday exhorted the management students of KIIT School of Management (KSOM) to focus on skill upgradation on a sustained basis as technology has penetrated into every aspect of the corporate world, making jobs and workplace evolving at a faster scale.

Addressing the 13th National HR Konclave, Rakesh Barik, partner, leader for technology at Deloitte India said that the main challenge before him these days is to make his team “future proof and future-ready”.

The theme of the Konclave was ‘The Re-skilling Revolution: The Vector of Transformation”.

“Technology is pervasive today — every company is a digital company, digital workplace.The way we deliver our work has significantly evolved that is agile and co-creation,” he said, emphasizing life-long learning the new mantra. “Embrace change, foster skill-based organization and continue to evolve,” he added.

The digital workplace, he said, is continuing to reboot at a faster pace and change is the only constant now.

Besides, living in a connected world is transforming the way we engage – be it social or mobile convergence. A global, diverse new age at work has different and changing priorities and aspirations.

The mantra, therefore, is creating a skill-based organization to facilitate a focus on skill building to navigate the future. It is imperative to institutionalize it within the foundations of the organizations, Mr Barik underlined.

He said that human Resource executives can play a more influential role in global organisations than they have in the past by targeting key focus areas and ensuring employees are skilled to navigate the changing landscape.

Director of KSOM Dr S K Mahapatra said the Konclave provides critical exposure to the students to upskill their knowledge through thoughtful and productive engagement with the captains of the industry and learn from their perspectives about the evolving corporate sector.

KIIT Pro Vice Chancellor Prof (Dr.) Saranjit Singh asked the students to strive towards re-skilling themselves to meet the upcoming challenges of the corporate world. Dean of KSOM Sumita Mishra proposed a vote of thanks.