What does professionalism look like today?

An automobile engineer, Suraj Bhalla took to his passion of restoring vintage automobiles and bikes instead of a conventional career with a motor brand. Today he caters to the who’s who from the Indian film industry and the rich and famous from all over India. Karna Timbadia collaborated with his partners to create restaurants and lounges like Bonobo and eateries like JamJar Diner and Café Nemo. His vision to offer food that reflects the spirit and taste of Mumbaiites, helped him create a profiting hospitality business. Bhalla and Timbadia belong to a league of men who know their passion and have found their calling. Men, who are dabbling in vocations that they identify with, either full time or as a leisure pursuit.

Today, we have restaurateurs, stand-up comedians, photographers, animation artists, musicians, clay-modeling artists, even social media experts or adventure junkies who are as respected as a doctor/engineer or a white-collar professional. We have more examples to match up the likes of Architect and Artist, Arzan Khambatta, and Chef Sanjeev Kapoor, men who have created their own spaces and set their own boundaries. And this has made 21st century an interesting period to be in. As different as they may be in terms of their interests and skill sets, all of them seem to share similar traits – earnestness, an appetite for taking risks, experimental attitude, and belief in doing things differently. Such men, who no more conform to the archetypical template of 9-to-5 jobs are giving a new meaning to the term ‘profession’ and professionalism. Does this mean we have a new recipe for success? A new marketing mantra perhaps? In fact, on the contrary, this new generation of working adults has been reinforcing the values of professionalism to unlock success. Early examples are young iconic faces like Mark Zuckerberg of Facebook, Larry Page and Sergey Brin of Google, who won over the world with their earnestness, honesty, ingenuity and forward thinking. In India, we have professionals like Vijay Anand Menon who have been making a cut to such list of everyday heroes. Menon was a sales manager at Nokia when he was hailed as one of The Economic Times Young Leaders in 2011. At the age of 33, he is now the CEO and MD of a digital marketing agency called Simpliti and an inspiration to young Indians. Another such name is Binoy Job, chosen as the “Young Global Leader” by the World Economic Forum in 2012, at the age of 37. Job has served two terms in the Prime Minister Office as Director (Media and Communications) since 2009. Evidently, one of the key trends in the recent times is that there are more doers than thinkers - leaders and managers challenging traditional work cultures and leaderships. We can see a constantly evolving work culture that is driven by traditional values like honesty, trustworthiness, responsibility, self-motivation, commitment to excellence, in organisations that have embraced millenials as managers and leaders. So be it marketing an FMCG company, negotiating with a client on the colours of a car being customised, ideating on a lounge menu for pub-hoppers or devising a social media strategy for the Prime Minister, new-age professionals are relentlessly innovating, inventing and working harder with a more progressive approach driven by traditional code of ethics.

And this is the new-age professionalism for you! With our series of #TheProfessional, we will be celebrating the spirit of these new age professionals, we will be bringing to you conversations with the likes of Bhalla and Timbadia to answer the question what is professionalism today? Keep watching this space for their take on the corporate world, a business and a creative leader’s assets and values of professionalism. This is an advertorial.