Executive Vice President and Chief Digital & Innovation Officer, AVIS BUDGET GROUP INC

Ravi Simhambhatla on Guiding Beyond Corporate Boundaries | @TheIndiannessPodcast Ep.14 #India

🎥 Dec 26, 2023 📺 The Indianness Podcast ⏱ 0m 👁 29 views

In this video, Ravi Simhambhatla, the Executive Vice President and Chief Digital and Innovation Officer of Avis Budget Group Inc., ...

Watch on YouTube

About Ravindra Simhambhatla

In a September 2024 podcast appearance, Ravindra Simhambhatla discussed his career journey, including his roles at Virgin America, Tesla, and Avis Budget Group. He described Elon Musk as "the most determined human being I have ever encountered" and said Musk "never asked people to do what he was not ready to do himself." Simhambhatla also characterized Richard Branson as "a very astute business person" who licenses his brand. He reflected on his early struggles as a student at the Rochester Institute of Technology, where he said he was "physically sick and mentally despondent" before transferring to Richmond College in London, where he graduated with the best performance medal in computer science. Simhambhatla emphasized the importance of mentoring, stating that "people in positions of power should" mentor the next generation and that mentoring allows one to "pay forward" knowledge. He said he mentors both within his corporate roles and informally, adding that "if you don't bring new people into the fold mentoring them, then you also can never rise up." He advised that people should "work hard, listen to understand not to respond, be humble," and "have fun in life," adding that if an activity does not make one smile "once or twice a day," one should "probably do something else."

Source: AI-verified profile updated from Ravindra Simhambhatla's recent appearances. Browse all interviews →

Transcript (1 segments)

Ravindra Simhambhatla0:00

And yes, I do mentor. To me, it's probably the most important thing I can do at this right young age of 55. If I don't do this now, then I would not be paying forward. I would not be sharing the knowledge I have that might be beneficial to somebody else. So I consider that to be a very important facet of what people in positions of power should do. It's just very important because the next generation is waiting on the sidelines. You want the next generation to come and take what you do, amplify and make it better, perhaps you trash it if what you've done is not so good, but you have to bring new people into the fold. And if you don't do that, if you don't bring new people into the fold, mentoring them, then you also can never rise up because you're always in that same layer. And that's my thing. So yeah, I do mentor. I do a lot of mentoring, but in the corporates, every role I've had with these big corporates like United and Aer Lingus, and then certainly with Google and with Avis, I do mentoring, but I do a lot of mentoring on the side as well. And it doesn't have to be written up. It doesn't have to be something written on paper. It's just people ask for help, you help them.