Ashutosh Khurana: Building the Leaders of Tomorrow with Cognitive Skills Development
Ashutosh Khurana
Co-Founder & Director
Building Skills, Building Minds
The story of Ashutosh and Mind Edutainment is quite interesting. Things changed when he and Sangeeta A Khurana (business & life partner) were expecting their first child in 2002. “We thought to give something to our kid that will help him not make mistakes that we made, but rather make bigger mistakes and learn from them. We wanted the kid to have structural thinking process from quite an early age,” asserts Ashutosh. Hence the duo started spinning programs through out the globe and came across a couple of chess players in Israel who were training teenagers to become champions by using certain board games strategy. “Post training we realized that we can build mental process by creating game based situations where the game becomes the engagement for the child who wants to succeed in it,” he adds. Hence the duo formulated a game to make learning a happy method and started creating a program for their son. By 2006 when the program was ready, their son started responding to the modules showing better signs. This is when Sangeeta decided to let go her corporate job and wear an entrepreneur hat to take the program
to children across the country. “What started on a selfish note transformed to contributing to the society through the program. We are the only company that has taken the complete curriculum on higher order of thinking development,” claims Ashutosh.
The product was further moulded according to a child’s thinking, his ability to cope with social & emotional situation, express himself and become a part of the societal structure. But coming from an engineering background threw bigger client acceptance challenges as the education sector did not take him seriously. However, this self-made and resolute person knows no boundary. While every body were talking about developing life skills at 15 years of age, Ashutosh was on the spree to revolutionize the entire education sector by bringing this process to as low as 4 years kids in the Kinder garten to develop higher thinking from an early age. Hence the duo started it as an optional model and club activity for the first few years and the kids who opted for the program showed considerable improvement. Realizing that his dream is not to develop a certain number of kids but bring holistic change to every kid’s life, Ashutosh brought a significant change in the program to make schools offer the program in a mandatory format for all the students. More than 1.8 lacs students have been trained till now by the duo. Along side, he also has started quarterly workshops by the children for their parents. This ensures the parents know their kids mental skills development. In addition to that, the company organizes half yearly workshops which are conducted by the faculty members for the parents.
A People's Person
Age never defines Ashutosh. This people’s person gels well with his employees who are half his age, and encourages everyone to call each other by their name, even school kids call them so. Believing transparency is essential for people relationship for
While every body were talking about developing life skills at 15 years of age, Ashutosh was on the spree to revolutionize the entire education sector by bringing this process to as low as 4 years kids in the Kindergarten to develop higher thinking from an early age
The product was further moulded according to a child’s thinking, his ability to cope with social & emotional situation, express himself and become a part of the societal structure. But coming from an engineering background threw bigger client acceptance challenges as the education sector did not take him seriously. However, this self-made and resolute person knows no boundary. While every body were talking about developing life skills at 15 years of age, Ashutosh was on the spree to revolutionize the entire education sector by bringing this process to as low as 4 years kids in the Kinder garten to develop higher thinking from an early age. Hence the duo started it as an optional model and club activity for the first few years and the kids who opted for the program showed considerable improvement. Realizing that his dream is not to develop a certain number of kids but bring holistic change to every kid’s life, Ashutosh brought a significant change in the program to make schools offer the program in a mandatory format for all the students. More than 1.8 lacs students have been trained till now by the duo. Along side, he also has started quarterly workshops by the children for their parents. This ensures the parents know their kids mental skills development. In addition to that, the company organizes half yearly workshops which are conducted by the faculty members for the parents.
A People's Person
Age never defines Ashutosh. This people’s person gels well with his employees who are half his age, and encourages everyone to call each other by their name, even school kids call them so. Believing transparency is essential for people relationship for
personal growth of others and leading by example, he framed a policy to keep company’s balance sheet at the entrance of the office for anyone to check the current status of the organisation. Ashutosh has made it mandatory for every new joinee to under go mind developing training through a three day training program conducted by him. Full time residential training (one during summer vacation and other during winter vacation), and joint training program (conducted every month) helps Edutainers grow holistically in their professional and personal arena.
A revolution requires continuous self development. Hence even Mind Edutainment co-founders undergo various meditation process every three or six months to discover themselves and imbibe the discovery into further development of the modules for the children and trainers. Being a certified clinical hypnotherapist, Ashutosh understands that experienced people come with a baggage, hence he trains freshers to create new leaders for his organization under Leadership Innovation Program - a 24 months program. “The future is uncertain. The only thing that is certain is human being and hence imperative for them to develop mental, emotional, physical and energy skills. If we start working on these four aspects, we will see the future generations creating a value for each other and if we want to take India to that level where we become intellectual leaders, we should start developing mental abilities and we need to have a success approach on mental ability development of the nation,” says Ashutosh.
Winning over Challenges
The exuberant Ashutosh has high level of energy, can sustain days without much sleep and still be energetic and for every moment, he will have a smile and a joke to crack. But still he is stuck between balancing the four elements of meditation, family, business management and creativity. However, nothing could stop him from winning hearts and minds. In 2010, Mind Edutainment was awarded ‘Power of Idea’ for the best innovation in education in India, Asia’s Best Innovation in Education award in 2013 by WCR Consulting Corporation and in 2015, the company became the only education company to be awarded by CII for creating learning excellence in the classroom through innovative visual and environment design in the form of THOTS Lab.
In the future, Ashutosh wants to continue contributing to the society through his innovative mind development training programs to create future leaders. He plans to expand his unique offering THOTS to all the parents across the globe by creating various levels of licencing and servicing partners.
A revolution requires continuous self development. Hence even Mind Edutainment co-founders undergo various meditation process every three or six months to discover themselves and imbibe the discovery into further development of the modules for the children and trainers. Being a certified clinical hypnotherapist, Ashutosh understands that experienced people come with a baggage, hence he trains freshers to create new leaders for his organization under Leadership Innovation Program - a 24 months program. “The future is uncertain. The only thing that is certain is human being and hence imperative for them to develop mental, emotional, physical and energy skills. If we start working on these four aspects, we will see the future generations creating a value for each other and if we want to take India to that level where we become intellectual leaders, we should start developing mental abilities and we need to have a success approach on mental ability development of the nation,” says Ashutosh.
Winning over Challenges
The exuberant Ashutosh has high level of energy, can sustain days without much sleep and still be energetic and for every moment, he will have a smile and a joke to crack. But still he is stuck between balancing the four elements of meditation, family, business management and creativity. However, nothing could stop him from winning hearts and minds. In 2010, Mind Edutainment was awarded ‘Power of Idea’ for the best innovation in education in India, Asia’s Best Innovation in Education award in 2013 by WCR Consulting Corporation and in 2015, the company became the only education company to be awarded by CII for creating learning excellence in the classroom through innovative visual and environment design in the form of THOTS Lab.
In the future, Ashutosh wants to continue contributing to the society through his innovative mind development training programs to create future leaders. He plans to expand his unique offering THOTS to all the parents across the globe by creating various levels of licencing and servicing partners.