The Henley family in Finland has a bunch of fresh alumni from the Boardroom Skills programme. One of those, who received the certificate in early June is Asim Shaikh, an Indian native, living in Finland. Asim shares the highlights of his studies, which contained lots of self-reflection – the thing that Henley is known for.
Asim was born in India and has been living in Finland since 2011. He is responsible for leading the business of ground engineering company Geobear as a Managing Director for Noridc and Poland business units. He also sits in a supervisory board of another business which led him to Henley Business School.
“I wanted to learn and understand about board dynamics. What sort of skills your fellow board members should possess? What role and skills should one enhance to be a successful chairman of the board? These types of questions made me to take on the Boardroom Skills programme”, explains Asim.
Asim lifts up an angle, which actually comes up every time when talking with someone who is or has studied at Henley Business School: self-reflection.
“The Boardroom Skills programme was extremely personalised to create a deeper understanding of oneself. Apart from the Myers-Briggs assessment, also TKI and 5Q assessments were conducted to understand your own self and skills better and compare those with the skills that an ideal board chair would possess”, elaborates Asim.
A highlight in the programme was the visit by expert guest speaker Kaisa Hietala, a member of the board in the multinational oil & gas corporation, ExxonMobile. “The sustainability topic presented by the brilliant speaker Kaisa, brought a whole new business transformation angle to the Boardroom Skills programme”, says Asim.
For Asim, the programme offered a unique opportunity to widen his networks and to interact with people from completely different industries and solve some complex cases together.
“The programme encouraged me to work on certain skills, which would be extremely essential if I intend to chair a board of any business myself”, says Asim.
When asked, what it requires to succeed in today’s working life and in one’s own career, Asim thinks there is no black and white answer.
“Success is a relative term and different people may have different end outcomes defined as success. Personally, for me some key elements to success in today's work life and career are to follow the principle of CANI (Constant and never-ending improvement), measure what actually matters, embrace & drive change and humility.”
Asim points out that his Indian roots have taught him to be humble since early childhood. He takes it very seriously and strongly believes that great companies are built by great people with great character.
Asim’s favorite quote sums it all up: “How high I aim, how much I see, how far I reach, depends on me!”
Read our other Alumni in the Spotlight interviews