The founder and director of Cherryskillz Learning Private Limited, (https://www.skillzy.in/), Dr. Arpita Dutta, is a passionate and creative professional with ingenious expertize in her field of work. She has been delivering training programs on soft skills, sales, leadership, faculty development/ management development, talent management, learning and development topics for various sectors. She is having more than 19 years of industry experience having worked in Global Conglomerates and Indian companies/startup.
Tell us the facets & achievements about your entrepreneurial journey that you would like us to highlight in the article?
Having served prestigious companies in HR and L&OD space for close to two decades (continuing to service in various capacities as entrepreneur), what I realized is that Entrepreneurship is a completely different ball game. You will have to wear multiple hats as an Entrepreneur. What come on top of the order are Passion, Self-Motivation (drive), Perseverance and Commitment.
We have won recognitions and prestigious awards. However, entrepreneurship has taught me life lessons, these are the biggest achievements for me. I have picked up the following lessons that I apply : think short term and adapt, work hard, take time to help others and serve others (the act has to come from heart and be selfless), don’t try to be good at everything, keep yourself abreast of industry trends and practices, learn, unlearn, relearn..
Give us a brief detail about your educational and professional background prior to your entrepreneurial ventures.
She has achieved Honorary Doctorate Degree in HRM, Young Scientist University, CA, USA, EPHRM (MDP), IIM-Lucknow, MBA (Systems Management), IISWBM-Kolkata (Rank holder), BE Instrumentation & Electronics, R.V. College of Engineering. She has certifications from XLRI, Dale Carnegie, Oscar Murphy Assessment World, ABNLP. She has received best research paper award by CMR University.
She is currently the Founder of Skillzy and is a Facilitator, Trainer, Consultant, Mentor, Coach having trained more than 9000 working professionals and students. She is the National Council Member, Faculty, and Project Mentor, and PG Diploma Course Preparation Committee Member for Indian Society of Training and Development (ISTD). At ISTD, she provides precious inputs for their flagship L&D PG Diploma Program for working professionals. She is also associated with Registered Consortiums, Business Schools and Corporates.
Skillzy is serving Corporate Clients, Academia, Registered Consortiums, and Individuals and has collaborated with a “Google for Startups Accelerator 2020” company. Skillzy has empaneled experienced (certified) Coaches.
““Get up, dress up, show up and keep moving” to ensure that we make progress every day, even if the progress is 1 perecnt daily”
She was the “Talent Engagement Champion” facilitating people-centric programs with crosscultural interactions and thereby received recognitions in Companies she served. Her passion for skill development projects and assignments helped her bringing in transformational changes across many organizations. She had created Web-Based Content for Sikkim Manipal University that benefited over 2 Lakh students across the country. She was the “Case Study Champion” for Manipal Global Education Services contributing to top 15 real-life Human Resources Management business cases.
She was part of 3 Mergers and Acquisitions in her career. She had the privilege to serve prestigious corporate like ATOS, Schneider Electric Software, Manpower Global, Manipal Global, and two start-ups.
What inspired you to take-up entrepreneurship, especially in soft skill industry? And what were the initial challenges and helped you achieve the success that you had in the later phase?
We surveyed, spoke to individuals, and found the “Industry ASKs”. The competency/skill gaps needed to be bridged and hence Soft Skills, Behavioral skills, Leadership Programs became a significant part of our Agenda towards contributing in Transformation journey.
My industry experience helped me immensely. I am the first entrepreneur in my family. We learn more from the Failures rather than Successes. However, industry experiences have helped me shape up as a person and professional.
How has been the support from your family?
Initially, I had faced doubts from family members since it requires one to invest time, effort heavily, however, over time I started getting immense support from my family members.
As a woman leader, how are you influencing and inspiring others? Also how do you maintain balance between your personal and professional life?
Yes, the main point is “Get Up, Dress Up, Show Up, and Keep Moving” and to ensure that we make progress every day, even if the progress is 1 percent daily. This is what I believe in and share. Managing personal and professional life is difficult given that kitchen cannot shut down, cleaning and hygiene cannot stop, and hence, having a good support system really matters.
As a founder of the education company, what are the new strategies in coming years to improve performance of soft skillstraining?
We can have plethora of associated and correlated courses to the main courses or in-demand skills can be mapped tothe core skills under Softs skill,Behavioral skills,Professional skills and Leadership skills.
Some of the boutique offerings of Skillzy are(not limited to): Thinking (Analytical/Critical/Creative/ Logical), Problem Solving, Emotional Intelligence, Leadership and Social Influence, Self-management, Building high performance teams, Effective Delegation, Making more effective use of time, Root Cause Analysis, Change Management, Negotiation and the list goes on. We also provide Online Simulation, Gamification Workshops and Rapid eLearning.
Focus would be to create learner experience, learning impact through blended learning approach and methodologies to address VARK learning styles.
Dr.Arpita Dutta, Founder & Director, Cherryskillz Learning
Dr. Arpita Datta is a seasoned Human Resources, Learning & Organizational Development professional with over 19 years of excellent track record in HR & Learning Consulting, Leadership Development, Organization Capability, Culture Transformation, Employee Engagement, Performance Management and Talent Management practices.
