Dip Prakash Panday completed his Bachelor’s degree in Commerce from St Xavier’s College, Kolkata and Masters in Business Administration from Tribhuvan University. Upon completing his MBA, Panday joined Everest Insurance as their Finance Chief and later served as the Deputy General Manager of the company. Having been active in the insurance sector for his entire career, Panday is now the Chief Executive Officer of Shikhar Insurance. In this interview with the Post’s Alisha Sijapati, Panday talks about management in the insurance sector and some of his management mantras. Excerpts:

You were hired as a finance chief for your first job; did you think you could take on such responsibility having had just started out?

I had just completed my MBA at the time and getting a job in such as esteemed position was overwhelming. I had a lot of responsibilities to fulfill and it was extremely challenging. I didn’t let success get to my head though because I knew if I gave my 100 percent, I would grow. And now looking back, I feel happy that I passed those initial hurdles. That experience taught me a lot and helped me grow.

Your company commands a large workforce. What are the keys to managing a large number of employees?

When I joined insurance sector about two decades ago, insurance was something new in Nepal. There was a shortage of manpower and the situation is still the same. Insurance is a challenging field but it provides you with a lot of wonderful opportunities and space to grow professionally, as well as personally. Currently, Shikhar Insurance has about 285 employees and we make sure that the staff goes through proper training sessions and we as employers mold them per requirement; that remains the key to managing the large workforce—getting them off to great starts.

As a company grows, how important does the role of proper delegation become?

For every single company, proper delegation is important and essential. As a CEO of the company I have to make sure that needs of all the employees are being catered to. I also have to make sure that the entire company works as a team. As an employer we need to see if the department heads have the proper skills to lead his/her group members. The company does expect employees to become accountable towards their jobs. I think motivation is a key to success and I am thankful that I have great employees working with us who performed consistently.

How important is trusting your employees with their tasks as opposed to micro managing?

The insurance sector in itself is all about trust. Likewise, we need to build trust with our employees too. We have our own system of monitoring, auditing, and providing rules and guidelines. If we don’t trust the employees, they may become insecure, which is a disadvantage. 

We need to trust our employees and it’s a two-way process. I believe that many people do not fulfill their jobs when they are micro managed. There is no fun in it and it is counter-productive. 

What are the prime qualities you look for in a candidate applying to your organisation?

Having a good educational background is always mandatory. I would say that if anyone plans to join an insurance company, they need to have both inter and intra personal skills. A candidate needs to have a strong personality and should be able to maintain personal relations. Also, I feel they need to have the ability to market themselves and have a knack of learning on the fly. 

In your experience, what are some skills a leader must possess?

As a leader, you don’t demand respect, you have to earn it. You have to be a trail blazer. As a leader you need to stay calm, positive and create a proper working environment and spread positive vibes at work. 

What are your management mantras?

When we started our company we said, ‘Trust us we will deliver’. Our management mantras are simple: Be positive, responsible and accountable towards your work.