As ExperiencePoint’s new Global Head of Sales, Mihir Andrei Mukherjee brings a wealth of experience and expertise to the team. His impressive resume boasts an array of executive and consulting positions at top-tier organizations such as SAP Canada, Salesforce and Blackberry, as well as a myriad of first-hand experience with the application of human-centered design.

An active MENSA member, a player of many instruments and a proud father, Mihir has joined ExperiencePoint on the heels of its most challenging year to date. Here are his thoughts so far:

Congratulations on your first month as part of the ExperiencePoint team! What has stood out to you or made you excited about the company thus far?

Thank you! The month has absolutely flown by!

And as for your question, two things come to mind: The first one absolutely is the people. These people care about the business more than I have ever seen in any other business I’ve worked with. If people are truly committed and passionate about their work, especially after the year that most businesses have come through, it can only get better from here. Their resilience is a testament to the culture of the organization.

The second thing is that as an organization, I think we’re on the cusp of something special. Our approach to design thinking and to changing organizations is very different from some of our peers in the industry who deliver the same standard toolkits and processes. We believe in people first because we are a workforce transformation company. Based on that, some of the new product capabilities we’re developing, where we see design unfolding as a business is an exciting place to be.

Can you tell me about an example of a time that you personally witnessed human-centered design in powerful action?

I’m lucky to have seen it happen a number of times in my career, but I think for me, the time that stands out most is when I led a large design thinking session for the Government of Canada at Blackberry. We had 50, if not more, senior level participants from all different parts of the Government of Canada in a room. They had never really met each other or talked to each other because they were in different departments.

The collaborative design thinking exercises we did with them really pointedly emphasized how easy it was for them to be in their own little silos and their own little worlds. But when we started putting some context around what each of them were trying to do for the greater good, all kinds of synergy was ignited and processes developed that would have never existed otherwise.

What’s something you’d like people to know about you as a leader?

That I care about my people deeply and will go to bat for them 100 per cent of the time. That means that if my house is not in order that’s on me to solve. I have a deep respect for my team and I ask a lot from my team, which is why trust and transparency trump all else.

Looking towards the future, where do you foresee the Learning & Development industry heading? What does ten years from now look like, for example?

Ultimately, Learning & Development — with a focus on building and scaling new skills — is the fuel that will ignite the engine of business transformation in a company as it focuses on its greatest asset: its people.

Workforce Transformation is here to stay and it’s becoming more relevant in an accelerated way. My thought is that anything that is done for the sole sake of Learning and Development is going to go away. As we become a different economy — a hybrid economy of virtual and in-person with a stakeholder expectation of innovation, growth and new capability — the human element is going to be considerably more important when companies decide where they’re going to spend their dollars.

To be more specific — people will want to know that these engagements are adding tangible value and skills to their business. They will want to know that they’re not being carried out solely to meet corporate objectives for people development.

In the past, a manager might have had to go through different learning modules — they would go through them and then return to creating and working the same way they always did. I don’t think that luxury is going to exist anymore — it’s either going to change the way you work or it becomes obsolete. This is where cutting-edge and human-centered Learning and Development platforms, such as those we’re developing at ExperiencePoint, are going to be essential catalysts for driving impact and workforce transformation in the new world.

Anything else you want to add?

The only thing I would say is I truly believe EP is a special place. I truly believe that the work we’re doing here is meaningful and impactful and with the right kind of focus will continue to deliver considerable value for clients. This is why I’m here in the first place: to help us realize that future. There’s a lot of support internally to do that, people are motivated and passionate and they’re willing to do any job that it takes to help the business. Honestly, there’s nothing more you can ask for as a leader than people who love what they do.