With a strong belief that everyone has tremendous hidden potential within, Dr. Mukta Kamplikar helps people and organizations to liberate human potential through leadership , people and organizational processes. Dr. Mukta Kamplikar is a facilitator and a coach working passionately in the area of Human Capital Development and the Founder of MUKTA- Liberating Human Potential (a boutique consulting firm that operates out of Pune). Prior to starting her own firm, she worked for over 20 years in various capacities in Indian and Multinational organizations including the Tata Group, Cummins, Bajaj Auto, RPG Enterprises and so on.

Dr. Mukta Kamplikar engages in an exclusive interaction with the Women Entrepreneur Magazine.

Take us through your early educational journey and prior industry experience. Tell us about the motivation and underlying idea behind establishing the firm.

I graduated from Indore; I was born there. I hold a master's degree in Business Economics, a Ph.D. in Marketing Management, and a Post-Doctoral Research Fellowship supported by the Commonwealth Nations. After teaching at my University for a couple of years, I came into NIBM as a faculty in Pune. I was twenty-three then, this is where I got my first exposure to real consulting predominantly for public sector banks. Then I moved to the Tata Group in 2005 and that gave me an opportunity to work across industries, in the people and services space as I worked with TMTC and with multiple group companies like TACO, Tata Fiat, Tata Capital, Tata Motors, and Croma, to name a few ­ with some as a consultant and with some as an employee. I also worked with the RPG group, Cummins, Bajaj Auto, post my Tata stint. I had the good fortune of working with and learning from senior leaders like Satish Pradhan, R Gopala krishnan, Dr. Arvind Agarwal, Rajiv Bajaj, and Pradeep Shrivastava ­ I observed them keenly while they made decisions about organizations and people. I also was lucky to be able to learn diagnosis, design and pedagogies from professors like Dr. C K Prahalad, Dr. Das Narayandas, Dr. Prashant Kale and Dr. Jochen Wirtz. I got significant international exposure working with JVs like Tata Fiat (Turin, Barcelona and Geneva) and multinationals like Cummins (Indianapolis).

"Use change to learn, grow and evolve to be the best version of yourselves. Happy to help"

Being able to see the impact of your own work through consulting projects and facilitation drove me to establish MUKTA- Liberating Human Potential. Apart from that, of course getting a variety of industries and sectors to work with, picking up interesting projects and clients to work forkeeps me super energized and motivated. Creating differentiated and creative offer-ings of course is the icing on the cake.

What constitutes your role as the founder and chief consultant at MUKTA and what are your current focus areas in terms of leading the venture?

When you are a solopreneur, you are your brand! And that is why the entire cycle of Prospecting to Business development, Networking, multiplicity of approaches, Strategy, project design, content, execution, quality, innovation most definitely and ultimately sits with you. Constantly upping the ante, competitor analysis, proactively anticipating changes and trends, managing relationships are my responsibilities. Constantly devel-oping new knowledge, new needs in the learning space, planning, and supporting clients with dynamically emerging needs when they want you to step in remain  my focus areas.

Tell us about some key challenges that you have faced in your journey and how you overcome them.

One - the inherent lumpiness of the business during some periods is challenging. Like many other businesses, commoditization and price sensitivity have entered this business too where we struggle with lookalike offerings that do not deliver as much as they promise. Apart from that, mundane tasks like managing taxes and paperwork take away time from the actual val-ue-creating activities. To overcome the problem of busi-ness lumpiness and to learn from like-minded peers and to be able to pick pieces of large-scale projects, I collaborate with large consulting firms like Heidrick & Struggles, KPMG, and so on. by being empaneled with them. Also, cultivating long terms relationships with select clients and continuing to support them on their journeys to become better and larger helps my own journey. Fortunately, working consistently on self with ISABS helps face challenges with resilience.

What has been your most remarkable achievement so far and what is the driving force behind your success?

During my stint at the Tata Management Training Centre, I was chosen to manage the first international program in collaboration with Michigan University in Ashornehill, United Kingdom. I was later selected for the Wharton Accelerated Development Program which I completed in about a year. I then got through the 10K women entrepreneurs program sponsored by Goldman Sachs through IIM Bengaluru in 2020. Well, evenstart-ing MUKTA ,was a courageous step that I took in 2017 after 21 years of corporate career. Setting up a business, (given that I had zero exposure to entrepreneurship) getting my first set of clients and learning a new meth-od of dealing with the corporate world now as a vendor/partner I believe was a significant achievement by itself and of course unparalleled learning.

Since I paint, write poetry and do some theatre oc-casionally, I integrate these creatives into my program/project designs and facilitation and that distinguishes some of our offerings at MUKTA. I believe integrating disciplines and innovation is the way forward.

The way my work can touch lives and businesses to help shape, create, generate, produce, and realize is fascinating. To see oneself and others transform and change to be the best versions of themselves is my driving force.

What is your vision for MUKTA in the days to come and what would be your advice to young women who also aspire to become entrepreneurs?

I would love for MUKTA- Liberating Human Potential to have a significant international footprint and an impact that makes client businesses succeed through capable people developed by my enterprise. I would like to touch as many lives as possible to unleash human potential through whatever we do ­ talent development, painting or writing.

I would say that every woman must learn to make difficult choices and not make compromises when life challenges her; she must learn to bounce back with strength, not be ashamed to ask for help and affection when she needs it, not be afraid to speak her mind. I believe one must travel the world and challenge the status quo because that is how progress ever happened. Never lose faith in yourself, perpetually question your assumptions, explore and experiment with the "new". Life is short so Carpe Diem. And most importantly look after yourself, stay fit and healthy, and always remem-ber to love yourself.

Founder & Chief Consultant, Mukta

Dr. Mukta kamplikar helps in liberating human potential through her boutique consulting firm mukta. Before starting her own firm, she worked for over 21 years in various capacities in organizations like tata services, cummins, bajaj auto, rpg enterprises, and so on.