Embracing the Joy of Learning: In conversation with Vinod Krishna Kumar

A few weeks ago, I got the opportunity to engage in conversation with Vinod Krishna Kumar, the global HR leader for Sun King. For over four years, Vinod has been, and continues to be, a valued sponsor in our partnership with Sun King, and his perspectives have been instrumental to our shared success. In our work together, what has always stood out to us is Vinod’s passion for continuous learning and growth, and how unequivocally he champions the needs of the people his function serves.

That day, while Vinod joined the call from a bustling cafe in Dublin, I settled into the comforts of my study room in Bangalore. Over the following hour and a half, our interaction unfolded into a heartfelt exchange of stories and experiences…

Vinod: You mentioned earlier that you had plans to get into acting that didn’t quite end up going your way…I always wanted to become a musician. I don’t know if tomorrow I’ll be able to play at a concert — who’s to say? — but today, I play it for myself purely because it brings me joy and helps me learn and grow every day. I don’t know if you know this, but [the highly acclaimed Indian actor] Manoj Bajpayee once said in an interview that he wakes up every morning, takes a bath, says his prayers, picks up the phone and calls every single director in his directory asking them “koi kaam hai kya aapke paas mere liye (do you have any acting opportunities for me?)?” Don’t shy away from your passion and don’t sour on life. Sometimes life doesn’t work out the way we would have liked it to, but if you love something always find a way to carry it with you. 

This was only my second meeting — the first one being a brief introductory call that lasted for about twenty minutes — with Vinod. I had turned off the ceiling fan that had been rattling in my study room, in careful anticipation for our first client interview. I had everything planned out, from the structure of the interview to the list of questions. However, within mere minutes of the call, as Vinod shared his inspiring story of success through failure, the virtual space between us was filled with vulnerability and warmth. And, just like that, I was transported to a lively café in Dublin, engrossed in a candid conversation with an old friend.

Vinod is a human resources professional with over eighteen years of experience in three varied industries. From media to manufacturing, telecom, and now renewable energy, he has gained extensive experience in different aspects of HR — be it talent acquisition, engagement and management, organization development, performance management and communication.

In 2017, he joined Sun King to support the head of HR and today, six years later, he shoulders the responsibility of globally leading HR for the organization. While there was significant organic learning that facilitated his transition into a leadership role, Vinod recognised the need for structured learning in the organization to help people reflect on their journeys and continually enhance their growth and development.

Here’s a closer look into Vinod’s journey with his ever-growing passion for learning:

Can you tell us a little bit about your background and how it has influenced your passion for learning

I started working when I was quite young — at the age of twenty one. Growing up, I actually wanted to be a musician and, in some ways, I still am an aspiring musician. My passion for learning in the corporate world stems from music. When I was young, I used to get a lot of recognition for my music. I would take part in a lot of inter college competitions and playing there always made me feel great. It’s only when I heard others perform their craft is when I realized how mediocre I was. That’s when I understood the importance of practice and humility as a value. Coincidentally, these are core values at Sun King too. I think success has a way of getting to your head, and reaching that realization really helped ground me as an individual.

I’ve been learning how to play the tabla [a percussion instrument comprising a pair of drums] for the past twenty three years now, but it’s only in the last two years that I’ve been able to see incredible depth in my craft.

To be an expert in your craft you need to continue to be a student. Even today, I still learn tabla from my mentor — a renowned maestro. It has been twenty three years of structured learning. This is still a drop in the ocean; I have a long way to go.

Just as you champion learning in life, we have consistently observed you champion learning at work. What role do you think learning plays in organizational growth?

I think the culture of learning, in many ways, is set and defined by the leadership within an organization. It’s important for the leaders in an organization to be open to being vulnerable and demonstrate value in not having the answers to everything. By doing so, they create an environment where individuals are encouraged to explore new ideas and concepts without fear of failure.

Often, we feel pressured to wear this mask of ‘I know it all.’ But there’s immense value in admitting that we don’t know everything. Recognizing our limitations is the first step towards learning and personal growth.

At Sun King, two values that hold great importance for me personally are humility and inclusivity. These values foster acceptance and openness to feedback and criticism, and a desire to continually improve oneself.

And, I truly think that when the top leadership lives and breathes these values, it sends a powerful message to the rest of the organization.

What do you think are the biggest challenges facing organizations when it comes to learning and development, and how do you address them at Sun King?

In my experience so far, I’ve realized that learning is often looked at as an expense and not an investment.

Organizations spend most of their time over-evaluating and over-analyzing the return on investment when it comes to learning programs.

I think it is crucial for organizations to remain invested in learning, keep improving learning offerings, develop content that is best suited for participants rather than using some off-the-shelf program and most importantly, be patient. You may not always be able to see the impact of learning immediately — sometimes it may take two, three or more years to be able to reap the benefits.

At Sun King, we’ve always looked at learning and development as an investment in our talent and not just as an expense item on the P&L. We spend a lot of time evaluating our learning offerings and continuously try to improve them by making them relevant, relatable and impactful to and for our people.

Our partnership with Glow Worm Consulting has really helped us build a strong foundation of learning in the organization. The amount of time we spend working together to develop and discuss the design of the content isn’t funny. We don’t run learning programs simply because they are on our calendars, we run them keeping in mind the best interests of all our learners. The Glow Worm team has been extremely patient as our learning partner and designed content for us.

Vinod in the field, with colleagues from Sun King

Can you share an example of a particularly successful learning initiative in your organization?

In 2018, we did a comprehensive learning needs analysis and rolled out the Leadership Foundations program in 2019 in conjunction with Glow Worm. That’s how we embarked on our journey to introduce structured learning programs at Sun King. We designed the Leadership Foundations program for emerging leaders in the organization after a lot of in-depth conversations with the co-founders and the leadership team.

The reason we decided to have such a program in place is because we observed and realized that a lot of our leaders had organically taken up larger roles in the organization. From an organization standpoint, we did not really have a structured learning plan for them. Leadership Foundations really helped us build leadership capabilities within our people.

This year we will be launching the fifth year of the program. Every year, 14-16 people get admitted into the program after going through a rigorous interview assessment process. Each cohort comprises cross-functional leaders from different teams, and throughout the nine months of the program they all go through this experience together. The program is designed to improve their self-awareness as an individual, help them manage conflict in the workplace, look at business challenges as an opportunity and not a problem, and improve cross-functional collaboration at a global level.

This diverse group of participants gets to learn with and from people they may not have worked with before. The participants also form buddies within the program who are likely to be from a different team or country. A participant from Nigeria gets to collaborate and work on projects with one from India, China, Kenya. The program is very intentionally and thoughtfully designed to encourage peer learning.

I also consider this as a program that supports succession planning. Most of our senior leaders who have been a part of this program a few years back are already managing expanded growth. And, I personally feel that they’ve become much more well-versed with our values and more aligned to our mission. In a span of just 4-5 years, we’ve seen them truly mature as leaders in the organization. So, I think this program is easily one of the most premium learning offerings we have at Sun King.

Can you share some examples of how you have personally pursued learning opportunities and applied this knowledge to your role as the head of HR?

When I was given the opportunity to globally manage HR for Sun King, I had experience in HR but I did not have leadership experience. And yet, the founders at Sun King placed their trust in my abilities and empowered me to learn and grow in my role. I think I have tried to demonstrate the same in my role as the head of HR.

My team at Sun King is extremely talented and diverse — some of them come with years of experience in HR and the others are still in the early stages of their career. Regardless of where each one of them is in their journey, I consider it my role as a leader to trust them and empower them to experiment, fail, and learn.

How do you encourage employees to take ownership of their own learning and development?

Here’s what is generally believed about learning and how I personally connect with it too: 70% of learning happens on the job, 20% is a result of our interaction and collaboration with others, and only 10% of learning is educational. Needless to say, we will always have offerings in place for our people, but it’s important to understand that ultimately we’re all accountable for our own growth.

So, I would encourage employees to learn from their daily experiences and not look at their work just as an administrative activity. It’s important for us to have a big picture perspective and understand how our role contributes to the larger organization. It’s important for employees to observe others, learn from their own mistakes and that of others, become more self-aware, take feedback constructively, and of course, continue to learn from structured learning programs.

More than anything, we need to take a moment to pause and reflect on our journey so far and do course corrections. At Sun King, we’re a fast-paced, growth-oriented organization. The speed at which we operate makes it simultaneously challenging and crucial for us to pause and reflect.

Reflection is a great practice we have learnt from Glow Worm. Every time members from the Glow Worm team co-facilitate a session, there’s always a feedback round to discuss what went well and what could have been better. It’s something I have consciously picked up and adopted too. It is also an important part of all the programs we design. Take, for instance, the Manager Development Program that is designed for all the people managers in the organization and is facilitated by leaders and managers who are trained by Glow Worm. When participants do this program there are case studies and activities that encourage them to reflect on how they have been managing people and how they can do it better.

At the end of the day, you can’t just teach people concepts and frameworks and expect them to learn without creating a space for them to reflect.

Vinod along with Radhika Thakkar, VP Corporate Affairs at Sun King; and some of us from the Glow Worm team

Our conversation with Vinod created space for us to reflect as well. It reminded us that while embracing theories and frameworks are fundamental to learning, refining one’s artistry requires active engagement, experimentation, embracing failures and the opportunity to make new mistakes.

One crucial takeaway stays with us: Learning is a lifelong journey, and organizations that prioritize and invest in learning and development create an environment where individuals can thrive, contribute, and achieve their full potential.

Thank you, Vinod.