Vikrant Vartak
In endless pursuit of knowledge and perfection
Author, Thought Leader, Advisor, Talk Show Host, Panel Discussion Moderator, Trainer, Entrepreneur, Animal Lover
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Author of two books – Guideposts and 50 Dilemmas – I am the Managing Director of The Senate Business Center and the Founder of Mavens.​
My mainstay The Senate Business Center is a coworking/business center chain founded in April 2013. Spread over 21,000 sft through its two centers in Erandwane and Wakad, and offering 350 seats, The Senate is one of the prominent workplace solution providers in Pune.​
My brainchild Mavens is a pioneer CEO Peer group. Mavens’ is engaged in fostering entrepreneurship through various initiatives like Talk Shows, Mavens Huddle, Mavens Good Read etc. Under an initiative called the Mavens School of Organization Development (MSOD), I conduct full-day workshops on business topics like Strategy, Innovation, Growth, Culture, Branding, Sales, and so on. These are followed by full-day advisory sessions on the same topics.​
I love conducting business interviews and moderating panel discussions. What started as a fun initiative almost a decade ago soon developed into not just a serious hobby, but also my parallel identity. I evangelize entrepreneurship and write in newspapers & magazines on entrepreneurship related topics. I am also a blogger.
A lesser known side of me is my love for animals and passion for animal care. I am strongly supported in this endeavor by my teenage daughters Tanisha and Siya under our initiative called Be PAWsitive.
Organizations
Founder
The Senate Business Center & Co-working Spaces
www.thesenate.in
Founder
Mavens
www.mavensindia.com
Advisory Board Member
Shandar Interior
www.siplprojects.in
Founder
Conferia Banquet Hall
www.thesenate.in
Writing
50 Dilemmas discusses fifty tricky questions that plague the mind of an entrepreneur. Across these fifty dilemmas, an attempt has been made to cover as many functional areas as possible to make the book a holistic read.
Guideposts, an essential management handbook for entrepreneurs and intrapreneurs, has been written with an objective to expose readers to a wide array of thoughts and ideas derived from 21 The Senate Talk Shows jointly hosted by Mavens and The Senate.
Hidden Gems celebrates fascinating business journeys and incredible achievements of a few select Mavens. Through this edition we wish to showcase the life & work of some of the Mavens who have made a significant impact.
Moderating
I love conducting business interviews and moderating panel discussions. What started as a fun initiative almost a decade ago soon developed into not just a serious hobby, but also my parallel identity. I started by hosting a popular entrepreneurship event called The Senate Talk Show in October 2014. Twenty One (21) The Senate Talk Shows have been conducted so far, fifteen (15) of which have been anchored by me.
The Senate Talk Shows are conducted in an interview format with successful entrepreneurs who lead large & successful organizations. The interviews are conducted by one or two successful entrepreneurs themselves. The host team researches well and meets the guest beforehand as part of their preparation. The questions are carefully crafted and are posed such that we learn from the journey, experiences and wisdom of our guest. The entire focus is on the takeaway for our audience in terms of the business learning that they walk out with. On the sidelines, these Talk Shows also provide the audience with a fantastic networking opportunity during hi-tea & post event.
First ten Talk Shows were held with first-generation, Pune-based entrepreneurs who built successful organizations from scratch. 11th Talk Show onwards, we started our PRIDE OF PUNE series with those iconic brands from Pune who have not only managed to hit the sweet spot with Puneites, but are also highly regarded across the country & beyond. Our first eleven (11th to 21st) Talk Shows under this series have already been conducted with Dr. S. B. Mujumdar, Ms. Meher Pudumjee, Mr. Prataprao Pawar, Mr. Kishor Patil, Mr. Atul Chordia, Mr. Satish Magar, Mr. Sanjay & Girish Chitale, Late Jagannath Shetty, and so on. I had the privilege of interviewing most of these guests. I aspire to grow The Senate Talk Show into Pune’s signature event for entrepreneurs.
I now regularly get invited by other forums to moderate panel discussions and talk shows. I was invited by YPO-Kolkata to Kolkata to moderate a panel discussion with Ms. Anu Aga & Ms. Meher Pudumjee. Another interesting panel discussion moderated by me was on ‘Women in Business’ with Ms. Anu Aga and Ms. Radhika Gupta of Edelweiss as the panelists.