Kanu Doshi: Importance of Effective Communication & Presentation Skills for Professionals

Excellence is not everything in life… it is the only thing! Great speakers are not born, they’re trained. - Dale Carnegie Communication is really all anyone ever gets paid for …and if you cannot effectively communicate… you will PAY…not get paid…. -Dough Firebaugh If I went back to college again, I’d concentrate on two areas: learning to write and to speak before an audience. Nothing in life is more important than the ability to communicate effectively. - Gerald R. Ford Courage is what it takes to stand up and speak. Courage is also what it takes to sit down and listen. - Winston Churchill Whether you prevail or fail, endure or die, depends on what you do for yourself than what the world does to you. - Jim Collins Sow a thought & you reap an act; Sow an act & you reap a habit; Sow a habit & you reap a character; Sow a character & you reap a destiny. A single conversation with a wise man is better than ten years of study. - Chinese Proverb Good communication is as stimulating as black coffee and just as hard to sleep after. - Anne Morrow Lindbergh Communication works for those who work at it. - John Powell The organization that can’t communicate can’t change, and the organization that can’t change is dead. - Nido Qubein If you just communicate, you can get by. But if you skillfully communicate, you can work miracles. - Jim Rohn Formal education prepares us to make a living. Self education prepares us to make a FORTUNE! It is not enough that we know our subject. We have to let the world know what we know. In our gujarati language there is a saying : ‘Je bole tena bor vechay; je jor thi bole tena thaliya pan vechay’. Translated in English, it means: Life is like a fruit market. ‘Whoever talks: sells his fruit; whoever talks smartly sells even the hardnut inside the fruit and also the skin outside the fruit’. However, we are not even for a moment, suggesting that by glib talk, we as professionals should develop skills to sell ‘fraud’ to our unsuspecting gullible clients. What we do wish to convey very clearly is that it requires a professional, while selling ordinary fruit, to highlight the nutritious qualities of even the nut and the skin of a fruit to enhance the quality of our life Productive work in general and professional work in particular as we know it today is being ‘reinvented’ and modified’ drastically all the time on an ongoing basis. In 1970, it took 108 workers 5 days to unload a ship full of ‘timber’. In 2000, it took 8 workers one single day. In 2012, it could need one worker one hour… It happened on the agri. farm, when the ‘tractor’ came. It happened on shop floor when ‘fork lift’ came. It happened in the ‘accounts department’ all over the world when ‘computers’ came. It happened in libraries when ‘internet’ came. It happened to fax machines when ‘printers’ came. It happened to telephones when ‘mobiles’ came. It happened to computers when IPAD came. It happened to…(!) when… came!! First revolution was agriculture (human legs); second was industrial (human hands);third is information technology or knowledge revolution. (human mind: Computers, Internet, World Wide Web, Paperless Office, ‘borderless world’ in which ‘geography’ became ‘history’. Forth revolution is already upon us, that is of ‘innovation’(human mind; heart, soul: imagination, creative out of box thinking, intuitive, robot, spiritual, outer space). Life of a professional can not be immune from the onslaught of changes taking place in everything that we are doing. A good professional gets respected and rewarded for his informed judgment. Informed judgment comes from being ‘informed’ of all that matters in human life. We as professionals are interesting, smart people. The problems we face are fascinating and different almost every day. We learn about many different businesses. We deal with many different clients. Because we deal with ideas even one idea can make a big difference. We deal with cutting-edge issues. As professionals, we do not have bosses. We have a lot of personal freedom. We do not have to be in a particular place every day at a particular time …… Our profession is a terrific way to spend time. We work in small groups of highly motivated, interesting people, addressing ever-changing, complex problems where there is a lot at stake. What could be better? Professional practice by very nature of things is ‘proactive’. It is more people driven than paper driven. It is more a performing art than a perfect science. Our profits come from ‘people’ (clients, client's people, our people) and not from ‘products’. It is no accident that knowledge activity through service industry is generating mega financial returns. Lists of the rich and famous now compared with similar lists of older times throw up a single message: triumph of the ‘human mind’ over the ‘matter’. Conclusion: Public speaking gives visibility, confidence, poise and sharpens thinking instantly. It is power. In our long life, we get only one opportunity to make the first impression. God has created Woman but Hemant Trivedi and Ritu Beri made her Miss World and Miss Universe. God has created man. Tailor has made him gentleman. Prosperity like beauty is in the eye of the beholder. Why not then look prosperous and dress well! Entry of women in business and industry, in offices, as clients, as professionals gives a huge competitive advantage to women over men. However, men need not lose heart. Good news is : 85% of success comes from positive attitude; 15% from domain knowledge. Let us be there fore positive. Success in life is not everything… it is the only thing… Authored by: Prof. Kanu Doshi Dean - Finance Prof. Kanu Doshi is a well known Chartered Accountant. He is also a Director on the Boards of leading companies like Reliance Capital Asset Management Limited, BOB Capital Markets Limited, Dalton Capital Advisors (India) Pvt. Limited and Edelweiss Capital Asset Management Limited. He writes regularly in Magazines and Newspapers on Tax, Investments and Corporate events, Budgets and has co-authored books "Tax Holidays", "Financial Accounting" and "Treatise on Special Economic Zones". With an academic experience of over 25 years, he teaches Corporate Tax Planning and Financial Management and is a frequent guest speaker on CNBC, NDTV for his opinions on Budgets, etc.