Interview

Exclusive Interview with Mandar Satpute, CEO , 24x7 learning

In this issue, we are extremely happy to publish interview of Mr. Mandar Satpute, CEO at 24X7 Learning, a company involved in delivering comprehensive learning experience across the globe. Mr.Satpute, an alumnus of IIM- C has been instrumental in development in some of the core areas like Banking Operations, Risk management, Business Process management etc. Mr.Satpute has been involved in spearheading a cross section of business in India for some of the renowned organizations like Tata Consultancy Service, Citibank, Asian paints etc.

Origiin: It is a great pleasure for us to interact with you and publish your thoughts in this interview.

Mandar Satpute: Thank you for this opportunity to share my perspective and thoughts on learning and development.

Origiin:You have nearly 17 years of rich experience across banking, IT and FMCG industries. Your latest association happens to be in the area of learning, reaching across the world by creating suitable courses for talent enhancement needs.How do you feel to be involved in such diversified areas?

MandarSatpute: Firstly, it’san honor and a privilege to be part of the talent enhancement industry. Secondly, in previous organizations that I worked for being a part of such diverse roles was challenging and exciting.I was involved in different roles and departments, across banking, IT, ITES, and FMCG. Now, at 24×7 Learning I am involved with helping of learning and developing organizations of various verticals to help their talent enhancement efforts of their employees.

Being closely associated with these industries has given me a deep understanding of the importance of learning and development within organizations – no matter which industry or vertical. The perspective gained from my wide experience provides me with a great platform to contribute to talent enhancement in organizations.

Origiin:The Company of yours, 24X7 Learning offers a vast learning platform for organizations including Manufacturing, Retail, Pharma to IT. How does innovation plays role in devising learning platform for strategic visions of the different clients?

MandarSatpute: 24×7 Learning is an online learning solutions company that provides learning solutions for large, mid-sized and small businesses of all industries across the globe. But we have to keep in mind that every industry is different. Every organization has a different vision. Every organization faces different challenges. The training challenges faced by one industry are not the same as the training challenges faced by another. Take the Finance industry for example, the biggest challenge faced by this industry is making sure that its employees are up-to-date with the various schemes and policies keep changing ever so often. The biggest challenge for Oil & Natural Gas industry would be compliance with safety regulations. For the Retail industry it could be customer satisfaction. The biggest training challenge faced by the Pharma industry could be training a mobile workforce. Then again, within each industry, each organization may have its own training challenges. While one organization has a lack of training funds, another may suffer from a lack of space to train its employees.

Innovation is the key. At 24×7 Learning, we create innovative solutions with the help of technology. We build our products to be versatile and adaptable. E.g. “LearnTrak” LMS provides ability for an organization to deliver learning on any mobile device, any browser, where there is no or weak internet connectivity, learning that transcends geographical boundaries and languages, just-in-time learning, learning that can take place anytime and anywhere. It has features to provide personalized training, social learning and knowledge collaboration, instant access to knowledge and assessments that are created as per the requirements of the client. Besides these, for managers and administrators we make tracking of the learning of employees easy. We provide analytics and reports to enable decision making. If required we can customize the product to meet a particular organization’s needs.

In our Custom content development we work with the client to understand the objective of a course, the profile of the learner and the purpose the organization for taking up the project. Based on this, the creative team comes up with an approach that will best suit their needs. It’s only then is the course taken up for development.

To say the same things in short, staying connected with the client and its industry is a key input which drives our innovation.  We keep review our position constantly and change or adapt the product to meeting ever changing needs.

Origiin:The product like Learn Track LMS of your company seems to be a breakthrough in e- learning industry. Tell us how the idea was conceived and put into execution.

Mandar Satpute: In the last few years we have seen a transformation in the Learning field. Computer and mobile ownership with internet accessibility is growing exponentially, access to newer technologies is providing us a platform to transcend traditional barriers, and so workforce is increasingly dispersed geographically. Today, training is made simple, precise and very muchsuccessful with eLearning. There is a need for a robust and dynamic scalable training solution that can scale up to the ever increasing demands of organizations.We are in the midst of a global shift. Embracing the new paradigm of eLearning is going to take us to the future faster. These were some of the drivers which we at 24×7 Learning looked at and were inspired to create an anytime, anywhere learning solution, which is  easy to use and easy to deploy – LearnTrak LMS.

Once the idea was conceived the organization focused relentlessly on the execution. The development team faced many challenges on the way.  Thanks to the efforts put out by them and the guidance received from seniors for whom you are seeing the product in its present shape and form.

Origiin: By looking at the present trend, enrolment for online study has grown by over 40 to 50 percent in recent years, whereby people choose to upgrade qualifications or commence a carrier by online learning. What is your say on this?

Mandar Satpute: This is just the beginning and we will see exponential growth in the coming years. The online learning industry is set to go through a big boom.

Firstly, today’s workforce is a mobile workforce. Nobody is sitting at a desk anymore; employees are on the go and don’t have the time to undergo traditional training. Organizations find it impossible to conduct classroom training sessions because their employees are out. The solution to this is online learning.

Secondly, due to the competitive pressure on organizations productivity cannot suffer during training – the solution is again online learning.

Thirdly, for immediate answers and for knowledge at your fingertips – which is important for industries like Insurance, Pharma and Health – the solution is again online learning.

There are those who want to upgrade their skills or educational qualifications without letting go of their present job – its online learning once again.

Additionally with higher incomes people want to pursue different interests or even get proficient say in a hobby – with limited time availability the solution to all of these is on line learning. L&D departments need an easy solution to all their training woes – An LMS which supports them in meeting the challenges faced by them is required.

Origiin: What are your vision and growth strategies for 24 X 7 Learning in the coming years?

Mandar Satpute: Until today we have provided a successful learning solution to our clients. We have not just kept up with training challenges and training needs, we have also kept ourselves one step ahead of the game by preempting and perceiving what organizations will soon need. Learn Trak LMS is an extremely successful product and our aim for the future is to build on that success.

We are expanding globally as well and want to establish ourselves as ‘the company’ for meeting requirements of a corporate learner. My vision is to keep 24×7 Learning at the cutting edge of online learning innovation to best serve our customers.

Origiin: Thank you so much Sir for your valuable inputs.