5. IoT leader Manu Menon on hybrid working models, continual adaptation, and his lifelong friendships with fellow EDHEC alumni

Hello, bonjour, ni hao, and salut. Welcome back to the Impact around the World podcast. I'm Cassandra Pittman, EDEC's country manager for the UK and Ireland and host of the show.

On this week's episode, I'm joined by.

One of India's rising stars, EDHEC Master's in Management from 2016 graduate Manu Menon. Manu currently leads business development initiatives for the largest software division of Bosch, driven by a keen intellectual curiosity and steadfast vision to make a meaningful impact.

Sound familiar? Ed Eckers. Manu is one of the youngest candidates.

To have ever held his position at Bosch, or indeed any similar multinational company. Indian by birth, he has lived and.

Worked across nearly a dozen global markets.

Including Germany, France, Switzerland, the Netherlands, Hong Kong, Singapore, China and Mexico. Manu, thank you so much for being here.

Pleasure is absolutely mine. Thank you, Cassandra. And that was quite an introduction. Thank you.

You're very, very welcome. So where are you. Are you calling in today from India? Are we talking with you in India today?

That's absolutely right. So I am joining in from Bangalore. So it's in the southern part of India. That's where the headquarters of the software division of Bosch is.

Amazing. And I'm recording today from London.

I see.

And we are here. We're recording for those. For listeners towards the middle of August, and we are tentatively in our last phases of easing the lockdown. So we're able to go out now and eat and wear masks in most places indoors. But life is sort of returning to the newish normal, I guess, tentatively. We don't know what. We don't know what the autumn will bring. But how are things like in India at the moment?

Well, I'm afraid I can't say the same about India. Like, if you ask about life here, it appears as if it's going back to normal. The restrictions are slowly but definitely easing down. But if you look at the sheer number and the magnitude of the impact that Covid has had in India, it very, very unfortunate. And unfortunately, I think India has one of the highest growth rates in the world right now. So unfortunately, things are pretty bad.

And have you spent the entire period in Bangalore or were you able to travel? Is your family there with you?

No, my family is not there. In fact, my family is actually based in the Middle east, surprisingly as it may seem. I had just come down to France and also went to Mexico on business trips somewhere in the middle of February. And as soon as I was back, you had the whole Covid situation, lockdown happening in India, etc. So I think I was like one of the lucky few just to make it back on time so that, you know, I was back in the country before the lockdown happened. So I have been here in Bangalore for the, like, pretty much locked down, like in singularity of time and space, you know, it's. Yeah, yeah, that's how it is.

How are you? I mean, how are you holding up? How are you coping?

In the beginning, you know, it was quite amusing because, you know, you just had so much time. All of a sudden, all the time you spent on commute or doing other stuff, you suddenly had it all for yourself. So the thing I was, I have to be honest, I was like, quite excited. I started, you know, writing more, blogging more, vlogging more, started reading a lot more, and all that happened. Even got in touch with a lot of friends. I don't think I have ever talked so much to all my friends as much as in the last few months. But I think after a few months, I think things are beginning to take a hit. It feels quite boring now, you know, I had enough of this, you know.

Tell me about these blogs. Is there more than one?

Yeah, there is. You know, so I always been wanting to write more, but I guess the last few years, you know, you always think about it. I guess the biggest battle in your whole life is always the difference between thinking and acting. You always have thoughts and sometimes just don't do it or you procrastinate or whatever. So blogging for me was one of those things. But I think this lockdown finally gave me an opportunity to start writing about it. So surprisingly, first one was actually on working from home. And you know what? My thoughts were from a company's perspective and also from an employee's perspective. And then after that, pretty much on business and technology revolving around, like, blockchain or IoT and the likes.

So what are your thoughts on working from home? I mean, have your thoughts evolved or is now just the time for them to come to the forefront?

Yeah, my thoughts have definitely evolved. So in the beginning I was like, yeah, this is the best thing ever. And this can give you so much more productivity. And, you know, it was right. If you look at our own company, the Bosch Digital company, where I'm working at, the productivity levels have actually shot up, despite the fact that most of the people are actually working from home. In fact, the first week of lockdown, all that the company did was essentially to sort of distribute the lab equipment and so on and so forth, because a lot of testing kind of requirements happen in the headquarters here in India. So all these were shipped to associate houses and they were, you know, expected to join from their houses. But the productivity levels surprisingly were quite high. But as we peaked towards, let's say, two to three months, what we also noticed was that the productivity levels were also going low. I think fundamentally because in the end, people realize the importance of those informal chats, those conversations you had with colleagues and so on. It just helps you get through the day better. You know, I think that's. That's one thing I'm definitely missing at the moment.

Yeah, yeah, I agree. I think, I think it's like anything. This whole situation has made us realize that we probably need to hybrid most of our models, that being completely remote is not how human beings work best. But also maybe we overvalued needing to go to the office every day.

That too.

And that's true for almost everything we were talking about this in terms of. At EDHEC alumni, we've been so highly reliant on physical events to spur our feeling of community. And those are wonderful. But we've had to get a little bit more creative. And that's part of what this podcast is about, of course, is helping people have connection to the community when they aren't able to do physical events. And that makes us be more creative. And so we'll probably, when we emerge from this period in lots of ways, think about where is it most meaningful to have these in person connections throughout our lives and throughout our work, and where might we need to rethink things a little bit?

Right. Absolutely right. And you know, what you just said is in fact the model being adopted by the IT industries in India as well. So the IT industry in India is about a$200 billion industry. Like. Sorry, $200 billion industry. So when you think about it, number of IT majors are actually headquartered in Bangalore and many of them have taken active decision that about 50% plus of their workforce will actually be permanently working from home, although they'll be expected to go in from a periodic basis.

Yeah, yeah. I think that a lot of the. Well, certainly the big tech firms globally are looking at a similar model. Right. Many. What year did you graduate? What year did you graduate?

2050, 2015.

Okay, so not long ago.

Not long ago, indeed. Yes.

What attracted you? I mean, had you been living in France prior to that or had you had a desire to live in France? What attracted you to Edeck in the first instance?

Oh, not at all. In fact, like, I probably didn't even speak a word of French except for monsieur before coming to Edec, you know, and it was so bad that I remember my first day in Lille and I was trying to read out the railway stations names in Lille and I go like, Gare lil Flanders. There's that bad? Yeah. So actually what attracted me to EDEC was I was definitely interested in applying to a top business school in France. So I was applying to a couple of them. And from EDEC I got a good scholarship as well. And overall, it seemed like a school that is very much focused towards strategy and marketing and all these factors, you know, sort of weighed in. And I was talking to a couple of alumni as well, had a very good feedback also. Ultimately, I think that I decided, you know, Eric, it is. And I have to admit that was a very positive experience throughout my student life.

And do you spent a year in Nice, is that right?

Actually, nil. So Lille, I would. Yeah, Lille.

Okay. So it's a little bit colder there than on our Nice campus. Did you fall in love with France in your year there?

Well, you know, like living in France, in the beginning, I think it was like, you hear about the place a lot, and that was actually my first time in Europe, if you don't count my trip to Istanbul, a part of which happens to be in Europe. So it was like my first journey. So in the beginning, for sure, it was exciting, but I think you always have that curve of dip every time you go to a new country. So I have that somewhere after a few months. But I think the campus life in EDEC and the kind of friends you meet in a deck, and what was amazing, particularly about the school, was that you had people from all around the world. So it was not just unlike many US schools, actually, where you have a lot of people from China and perhaps India, and that's about it. I think one great thing about Eric has been that we have had people from all over the world. India, China, plus all the other countries all across. And that unique atmosphere most definitely gave me a good backdrop, understand more about cultures or even discover myself more. I would say for me, like, France was an interesting experience, although it had its difficult part in the end of it, I think very positive.

I think France, as somebody who is also not French and lived in France for a number of years with going there with extremely poor French like you. I mean, I maybe could say more than one word in French when I moved there, but definitely not more than 10. It can be a difficult country to move to. It is, you know. Yeah, the bureaucracy and the language is very important there. So I think if you don't have that, it can be a challenge. But I also just grew so much as a person and learned so much, like you said, kind of about myself and just developed this really deep appreciation for the culture and of course met wonderful people. I think one of the unique aspects of an MBA is you usually have some experience going into an mba, so you're just that little bit older and it's a really unique time. I can't think of anything else that mirrors it. To take a year off or so from the need to work and really just focus on your intellectual development and your personal development and really think about what you want for the next phase of your life, not just your career. What do you think your EDHEC experience brought you outside of the career opportunities that it might have presented?

Right. So I think, you know, when I made my decision to get into a business school, fundamentally I was looking at development of three aspects. The first and foremost one was the skills, second one, the network that I could create, and finally the brand. So I think if you look at the EDEC journey overall from a skills perspective, there was such a good grounding across a number of subjects from like and people who have actually been in their professional lives, consultants, partners and so on. Coming to the school and teaching, that proved to be a game changer because you realize the big difference between academy year as well as real life work. And I've noticed that in business schools throughout the world that is not something that you see very commonly. Like in many places you do have a lot of focus on studies, you do have a lot of focus on academic oriented studies. But at the same time that connect that industry experts can bring in into academia, that's even more appreciated in a deck. For me that was a big learning. So even on top of like career development, for me to realize that how is industry life or consulting life much different from let's say an academic life? That was one second in terms of the friends and the, you know, at the end of the day, as they say, we don't know like you can, I mean, especially today, like what's going on right now, thanks to digital technologies, you have access to information pretty much from anywhere, be it in, you know, anywhere in the world. You can always have courses online. But I think the biggest difference that you can really expect from any sort of a master's or an MBA or any kind of a program, especially in a business school, like is from the kind of people you study it with. So I am still in touch with my close friends from edhec and I think ultimately some of my close friends are from across the world. Ultimately that peer group and the surroundings and the critical thinking, the lateral thinking, the creativity, all of those factors we were exposed to along with the peer group that proved to be a game changer, I would say.

Yeah, I think that's something that a lot of MBAs, when they're applying to MBA programs kind of might have in the back of their mind, but potentially don't realize that it's, it's one of the most valuable aspects of Microsoft MBA to you personally, but also to your long term development in your career. You know, having your own essentially your personal advisory board that you can, that you can tap into for, you know, career decisions, et cetera. And the. I'm so impressed with the edict community specifically. I think there's something about the size of the program which is not too large. So you get to know, you know, a lot of the people on the program maybe in a deeper way. And then also the fact that most of the participants on the MBA program are from somewhere else. So everybody's coming into this kind of needing a new social group. Right. Like they can't just. They're not just commuters, by and large. They're not commuters and already with already a social network there. And so these bonds form and I've seen this in the classes, it's so impressive. Just very quickly and really super strong bonds. And I think that's a. Yeah, it's something that, that really can't be overstated, actually.

Yeah, yeah. Talking of which, you know, like one of my close friends from a deck, Hippolyte, he just, he's getting married tomorrow and we're supposed to be there in France for the marriage. Yes, unfortunately. Yeah, yeah. There is not much of travel allowed and especially as a tourist, you know, there's no travel allowed. So I had to settle for a video call and join the celebrations with the friends there.

What's his name?

Hippolyte Lua Hippoly.

Okay, well we'll send him a congratulations as well on the podcast. Quite brave of him because I didn't think, I mean, I know that it's really difficult to even have a wedding, I think in. I don't know what the regulations are in France. Here I think you're allowed to have up to 30 people potentially at a wedding.

Right.

I wouldn't quote me on that, but it's quite small, so.

It is quite small. I'm Uncertain. Yeah, yeah, I think, yeah, no, please go.

No, please go ahead.

No, I think there's sort of like a limited size celebration. So I take the number of people in the wedding are quite limited. In fact, I think it had to be downsized, keeping in mind the new restrictions. So I think they're taking all the precautions but they decided to go ahead, you know.

Yeah, sometimes you just, you know, when you know, you know, you want to do it.

True, true.

Absolutely not.

Not even a pandemic can stop you.

Nothing can stop love, Manu.

Indeed. Absolutely.

So, switching gears one more time here, we obviously have a fairly significant cohort of Indian nationals across all of our programs. Some pre experience, some post experience. I've been asking every guest in this series this because something that does keep me up at night these days is the challenges, particularly our pre experience graduates or those with little experience in our master's degree programs. They're entering a really tough job market. Tougher for sure. And the financial crisis, probably the toughest in my lifetime. And we don't know quite how bad it's going to get. But it's some mixed messages. Now. Do you have any words of wisdom, any advice potentially for, for those who come as well from India or, or also further afield?

Right, yep, for sure. You know, in fact, I have to be very honest. So when, when I joined edec, the number of Indian students were quite low. I was one of the few Indian students. But increasingly, as I understand from our country manager in Malaysia and the teams in edec, the number of students coming from India have sort of skyrocketed, you know, and I can understand why, because you have like in absolute size next to China for sure. But at the Same time, about 9 million students graduate in India every year. You know, and if you look at the Indian economy, even at the like, it's not a good year this year, nor was the last year the best year. So even with the full steam of the economy at, let's say 7, 7.5% growth rate for a 2 trillion plus economy, India is not able to make enough jobs for all of those 9 million, maybe half of it at the math. So in a sense you have a lot of people in India who are either underemployed or let's say unemployed, not in the right place, doing the right kind of job. So in places like India, competition unfortunately has been a way of life since our childhood because we've been sort of being used to it. And as a result, for any person from India, I think they become Clear on those basics. Right? And I think for me also when I reflect on my ADEC journey, what helped me better to leverage and go to different parts and be completely open to taking those risks. And every single time has been that open mindedness. But at the same time being completely driven to your core purpose. Like why do you want to come to the college? Or what do you want to come to the studies? How do you make the most of it? So to that end, my biggest advice to all the recent graduates or all those of you who would like to come to EDEC will be that find out that unique inner journey of yours, what really drives you and let it drive you every single day. But use that unique journey to network more, build as much skills as you can and above all else, be very open minded to take those risks, to, you know, dream as much as possible. Because I think the fundamental part is about dreaming. Next part is about acting on those dreams. So I think that's the sort of a wisdom advice that I would have. But I think that's what really has helped me too because throughout these journeys I had no idea where I'm going to be or what I'm going to do. The one thing that's totally helped me is that firm belief and working on it every single day.

Manu, I love that and I think that is the perfect place for us to close. If people want to learn more about you, about your thoughts on business, technology, working from home. Home, where should they go?

For sure, they, I would love to connect with them on LinkedIn. In fact, a lot of students, I think most of them from India have been, you know, reaching out to me as well, on and off on edec, on, on our campus life on academics, etc. I would love to keep in touch with potentially students or EDEC alumni through my LinkedIn or even Twitter. So it's Manumenonpedia, like Wikipedia Menonpedia.

Great. And we'll also link to your blogs in the show notes so people can check those out as well.

Sure thing. For sure.

Thank you, Manu, so much. Have a wonderful evening in India.

For sure. I mean, thank you so much, Cassandra. It's been, I think this whole, you know, podcast series is quite a unique and bonding initiative. I'm sure that alums all over the world will reminisce their old days hearing all these talks. So thank you very much for the initiative.

Thank you.

Impact around the World is an initiative of the pioneering edhec delegations team and EDEC alumni. A huge thank you to my fellow country managers Patricia in California, CC in China, Nilesh in India, and Joyce in Singapore for helping to make these interviews happen. We're committed to building a community beyond the classroom for you, our 46,000 alumni in over 125 countries. Follow us on Twitter at edecalumni or visit the alumni website at alumni.

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Edu to find out more about how you can connect with the EDEC community close to you and and around the world. Thanks for listening.