From model student to Managing Director for Pearson India and SVP for Pearson Southeast Asia, Siddharth Banerjee, shares his life in learning.
- Primary School: La Martiniere College, Lucknow, UP, India
- High School: La Martiniere College, Lucknow, UP, India
- University + major: MBA from FMS, University of Delhi
- Class/Personal photo and story behind it: Receiving prizes for academic performance sparked off a lifelong love affair with books for me.
- In school I excelled at: English Literature. We grew up on Shakespeare and Shelley.
- In school I struggled with: Patience
- After school you could find me: playing cricket with my childhood best friends, Rahul & Mayur
- Troublemaker or Teacher's Pet? Model Student
- You'd be surprised to learn that in school I... hated missing school days – La Martiniere was just too much fun – for everybody who’s read Harry Potter, my school was Hogwarts!
- In high school people thought I would grow up to be an Air Force Pilot. ( PS - I did qualify the exam solely because Top Gun and Tom Cruise were boyhood inspirations in those days.)
- Favorite teacher/professor and why: Mrs MacFarland who instilled in me a love for learning and invoked a lifelong fascination with etymology. “Word Power Made Easy” (by Norman Lewis) is still my go to reference.
- Favorite book: Atlas Shrugged by Ayn Rand. (Also because this beautiful girl from college and I bonded over it – and we still love the book, two decades plus post marriage!)
- First job: Selling antiseptic soap in the villages of India with Reckitt – the ultimate training ground for a sales job. No better way to know the diversity & complexity of the Indian consumer.
- If I could do any job, it would be: A full time author
- The course I'd most like to take today: A deep dive into the secrets of ancient Ayurveda. It is on my To Do List for 2022.
- If I could have any celebrity as a teacher, I’d pick: Bruce Lee. Physics & Philosophy Personified.
- Today I learn the most from: my wife, Eika (CEO, Executive Coach, Super Woman) and from my two daughters (our elder one studies Theoretical Physics and our younger child is an aspiring film scriptwriter, so you can imagine the discussions on our dinner table)
- Do you learn best by reading, listening or doing? Reading and then doing – and then figuring out how I can turn them into habits. I hacked this while researching my book, 52RedPills
- Best piece of career advice I ever received: From one of my mentors at Unilever – “Make Each Role That You Take BIG – Brave | Impactful | Gracious” (for your company, your people & you)
- My personal superpower is: My high Energy Levels (warning - can be infectious 😊)