Friday, November 27, 2009

Message from Anil Sachdev, Founder & CEO SOIL


Ethics, diversity, mindfulness, compassion and sustainability are the five pillars of "Inspired Leadership". They truly create lasting value in the true sense of the word and build organizations of consequence. The School of Inspired Leadership (SOIL) is being founded to develop leaders who live this vision.

We are creating a business school that is attempting to respond to some questions given below:
  • Can business schools truly develop leaders who care for the planet?
  • Is it possible to build "character" in higher education?
  • Do we know the challenges we are likely to face tomorrow and can we build competence to face
  • these ahead of time?
  • How do we build enthusiasm in our hearts when there is so much "bad news" screaming at us from every form of media?
  • Can a business school help students to know themselves, realize their "purpose", discover their gifts and learn how to leverage their strengths to create maximum value?

We are experimenting with many innovative approaches. Our Social Innovation Program (SIP) entails every student spending one day a week working with a NGO that is striving to improve the state of our world. Each student would be mentored by a Business leader. This would develop leaders with compassion who truly "care". We plan to teach ethics by leveraging the power of theatre and performing arts. We will simulate live "cases" in which students would attempt to play the roles of real life characters when they face ethical dilemmas. This will develop leaders who realize the consequences of the choices they make.

We are designing a "wellness" program covering physical, emotional, psychological and spiritual well being. This will teach our students the virtues of a good living and a balanced healthy lifestyle.We are forming a Consortium of role model companies to participate in shaping SOIL at every stage- from selection of students based on multiple intelligences to design of relevant curriculum, review of quality, participating in the Social Innovation Program (SIP), teaching relevant & live case studies on their companies and the placement of students. This will make our school truly exceptional and impactful.

We are all excited about giving birth to SOIL. We feel "blessed" and have a deep sense of gratitude of being given this opportunity to build an Institution of consequence. Join us in this journey and help us to create the SOIL in which the right seeds are planted to grow talent that our world needs and deserves!