Devdutt Pattanaik – Keynote Speaker

Devdutt Pattanaik is an Indian physician turned leadership consultant, mythologist and author. He is the Chief Belief Officer at Future Group in Mumbai, helping managers harness the power of myth to understand their employees, their companies and their customers. He is renowned for bringing the wisdom of Indian mythology into Indian business, especially in human resource management. He is a storytelling consultant for Star TV and Epic TV, and advisor to the shows ‘Devon ke Dev Mahadev’ and ‘Mahabharat’. His radical yet accessible views on leadership, management, governance on TV shows such as ‘Shaastrath’ on CNBC Awaaz and ‘Business Sutra’ on CNBC have made him a popular speaker, lecturer and consultant for many corporate houses.

Trained in medicine, he spent 15 years in healthcare and pharmaceutical industries first as a freelance content provider, and then in organisations such as SIRO clinical research, Goodhealthnyou, Apollo Health Street and Sanofi Aventis, before joining Ernst & Young as a Business Advisor. For over 15 years, Pattanaik spent his spare time studying mythology and writing extensively on sacred stories, symbols and rituals and their impact on culture.

Since becoming Chief Belief Officer of Future Group in 2008, Pattanaik has focused on mythology and management, and is currently leadership coach and inspirational speaker to many organizations besides Future Group. He is working to create a ‘Retail Religion’, to build deep, lasting ties between customers and brands. He writes and lectures extensively on the relevance of mythology in matters related to leadership, entrepreneurship, branding, management and governance. His audiences have included TED, IIMA, the Indian Council for Cultural Relations, GIA Leadership Summit, Strategic Growth Forum India, NASSCOM, and the Entrepreneurship Cell IIT-Bombay.

His columns on management and culture, appear in the Sunday Mid-day, Tehelka, the Hindustan Times, and the Times of India. He also writes a column called ‘Management Mythos’ for the Economic Times, that juxtaposes myth onto modern leadership challenges.

Devdutt Pattanaik has written over 25 books for everyone from business executives to children. Pattanaik is the author (and often illustrator) of several works on aspects of myth, including ‘Business Sutra:A Very Indian Approach to Management’; ‘7 Secrets of Shiva’; ‘7 Secrets of Vishnu’; ‘A Handbook of Hindu Mythology’; ‘Sita : An Illustrated Retelling Of The Ramayana’; and ‘Jaya: An Illustrated Retelling of the Mahabharata’. He is also the author of a novel ‘The Pregnant King’.