Lakshmi Pratury from American India Foundation give us a talk about her personal experience from a young girl trying to figure out what she wants to do with her life to answering her calling to run a NGO that provides computers for children in India. She starts with a statement: “Changing the world is a lifetime endeavor – if you are lucky.” Her life experience tells her that “you come to term with what you have and make best of it.” I think there is great wisdom in it.
Three themes of her talk:
- Communication at all levels at Intel. That was such a good practice that everyone’s voice get heard.
- Learning from doing. Intel realized the power of branding only after a desasterous mistake. Sometimes, the biggest mistake is blessing in disguise.
- Her decision to leave Intel and started American India Foundation to provide education and IT to children in India.
She shared several insightful perspectives: the poor wants the same thing we want for the same reason; giving to what matters to you that can make a difference to someone else life.
This is one of the enjoyable seminars we have had.