Mr Om Prakash Bhatt (OP Bhatt) is the Chairman of Tata Steel Limited and a Board Member at Oil and Natural Gas Corporation Limited (ONGC), Hindustan Unilever Limited (HUL) and Standard Chartered Bank. He started his career in State Bank of India (SBI) as a probationary officer in 1972 and retired as the Chairman of SBI in 2011. I had first met him when I was participating in the Director’s Club programme conducted by Hunt Partners, designed to prepare individuals to be effective Board Members.

In our conversation, we spoke about how leaders should think about whether Board roles is something they should consider and his thoughts on what it takes to be an effective Board Member. More specifically, he talks about the distinction between the skillset and the mindset required to be an effective Board Member. He dwells on how leaders often need to build new muscles of influencing that their corporate career that they may not have built during their career. We also discuss the critical role of a Chairperson and how he/she can get the most out of the Board Members.

This conversation is likely to be of specific value to individuals who are considering getting onto Boards and are curious about whether it is the right thing for them and what it takes to be effective in a Board.

Published in Oct 2018.