In Conversation with Dr Akhil Prasad, Director, Country Counsel India and Company Secretary, Boeing

Dr Prasad, would you please tell our readers what motivated you to study law? What were the initial formative years of your professional career like? 

I am a first-generation lawyer, though my grand-father had a law degree but never practised law, so like any fresher, I had to find my own feet into the profession. My tryst with law came much later,

My father was a very renowned Doctor at Meerut, had a huge medical practice and used to treat patients for free, he was known as a “messiah” for the poor. No wonder, it was a natural expectation from me that I should follow his footsteps, but he never wanted that I should become a Doctor! So when I came to know of it, I was very surprised and after some deliberations, I was allowed to sit for medical entrance examinations, knowing well that it will be my first and the last attempt. As luck, would have it, I could not clear any of the medical entrance examinations, with slender margins! 

So, after having studied Physics, Chemistry and Biology in Class XII, I enrolled for B.Com(H) at Meerut University and simultaneously prepared for MBA entrance. Again, I cleared most of the written examinations with premier institutions of that time but failed in interviews and group discussions. I was extremely low on self-confidence, having failed in both Medical and MBA entrance, so decided to take up a job at Mumbai with Essar Gujarat Limited as a Practical Trainee. I was placed under a Company Secretary, as Essar was coming up with a mega public issue of convertible debentures. I used to see the Company Secretary conducting Board and Shareholder meetings, dealing with Merchant Bankers, Advisors and Banks, so was keenly attracted to the CS profession and enrolled for the program. I was fortunate that I was able to clear all examinations in first attempt. Perhaps, law was my destiny, so my tryst with law started thereon. 

In the early 1990s, the Company Secretary would normally report to the CFO and legal matters would usually be dealt with by external firms. Then, as the Indian economy expanded, the concept of a General Counsel office started to develop. I started to think that one day we would be working in a large global law department, so it may be necessary to develop legal acumen with an international perspective. Love with law then blossomed and over next few years, I focused to develop legal acumen in India, UK and USA. It was a lot of hard-work but I really enjoyed the grind as studying while working on a full time basis, was quite enriching.  

As I expanded on my learning international and commercial law, the economy was expanding and so came the opportunities. My first job, in the year 1994, post becoming a Company Secretary was with Filaments India, which was a sister company of Parasrampuria Synthetics. Thereafter, I got opportunities to work for Xerox India (1993-2000), followed by Electrolux (2000-2002), GM (2003-2005), Disney (2005-2007), Fidelity (2007-2013) and currently with Boeing (since 2013). It’s been a fulfilling journey of 26 years so far. 

It is said that success is easy to achieve but difficult to sustain. What has helped you achieve and sustain success over a long period of time? 

I would think that for any professional, the most important thing is to give your best, every moment to everyone around you. Every profession demands a lot of hard-work and law is no exception. In fact, if you see the legal study today with a +5 curriculum, in terms of years’ study is at par with medicine and more than engineering or accountancy. Further, as businesses continue to grow cross borders and boundaries do not matter, it is but natural that same applies to law and we need to build an international mindset.  

A General Counsel, therefore, like any other business colleague in the Board Room or in a senior management meeting, has to have a global outlook and reach, so it becomes absolutely necessary that knowledge and support for your client is beyond local jurisdiction. It is very satisfying to witness that the expectations from a General Counsel have gone much beyond the realms of law, so it is essential to understand the nuances of your client’s business, develop the business knowledge and demonstrate strong leadership skills to become a team player at the very top of the organization. 

Success, to me, is comparative, what one needs to work on diligently and persistently is that you are problem solver, clients acknowledge your knowledge, value your contribution, develop trust and confidence and are comfortable reaching out to you for advice or guidance, not only for legal matters but also for the “gray” zones in business decisions, which you with strong logic and risk assessment, you are able to solve for them. If you are able to develop such rapport with your client, indeed you have been successful in your role. A good day was yesterday, do your best to make it better for your client tomorrow.  

I have always tried to achieve, follow and implement the above thought process for my clients so far in my professional career.      

Your legal career has been nothing short of an inspiration for many aspiring and young legal professionals. Who are the mentors you have looked up to and admired? How have they helped you in shaping your career? 

I am indeed grateful to everyone, who look up to me today but like an iceberg, we see the tip and not the bottom or hardships or challenges that one went through. I am not the only one and many of us who are reading this have gone through the same evolution cycle. Some people achieve success by taking short-cuts, where you are required to make compromises, often at the cost of self-respect. For me, it hard work that I preferred, which now has become a hobby and I would often get restless in a few months, if I don’t challenge myself to learn something new.   

Inspiration is always around us, we should have a mind to acknowledge that we have deficiencies and a desire to overcome them. Sometimes our ego, not self-respect, prevents us from taking feed-back and then act on it. For me, I frequently do introspection to analyse what I need to improve or develop and try and find a mentor or guide to prepare a plan and then follow that plan.  

I try to visit as many educational institutions as I can for visiting lectures or start-up sessions. I always try and do sessions, which are outside my comfort zone, for which I need to do a lot of preparation and research. Preparation for a three-hour class, with a leading management institution, requires detailed preparation and then when you deliver a lecture to young intelligent minds, you are there not to teach but to learn from them. Start-up sessions make you think at a 360-degree level than being siloed in your own area of work. This is so refreshing and when you receive feedback that is worth Gold and makes you better and enhances your capability. This is also true at work and it gives great pleasure and satisfaction to provide training sessions to colleagues and new joiners, as you gain by learning from their experiences. 

What peculiar challenges, governance and compliance complexities do aviation companies bring? 

As I see, achieving excellence in services is paramount for an aviation company. Aviation Industry is a backbone for every economy and nothing below excellence is acceptable. Let it be aeroplanes, airports, airlines, service and maintenance, e-ticketing portals and the like, everything needs to be a Gold standard or above. So we can imagine how robust governance and compliance need to be so that nothing less than excellence is delivered to the customer, every day. Aviation Industry comprises a huge supply chain, whether it’s an aeroplane manufacturer, airport operator, airline operator, MRO or others, each of these supply chain constituents have to deliver nothing but excellence.  

Another extremely important aspect is the safety of employees, products, goods and services. Aviation is the safest and the quickest mode of transportation and as businesses go transnational and via e-commerce, people travel more than ever before, the expectation from the Aviation Industry is only going to expand many folds. One thing which can never be compromised is safety and for the Aviation industry, it remains to be the highest priority. 

Therefore, to achieve excellence and safety requires a huge effort in developing compliance and governance standards, so products and services, of such magnitude and international level, are provided day after day to almost everyone across the globe. 

How do you see the corporate governance and compliance regime-changing during a pandemic? Do you see it evolving drastically post-pandemic?  

The most important aspect that the current pandemic has put to test is business continuity, resiliency and sustainability. I am certain that it is a huge learning opportunity for all organizations, who have suffered in this pandemic and how the business need to change so that the suffering is not repeated. As I see it, organizations that adapted well to technology like e-commerce, telecom, online media and the like were to a certain extent able to recover quickly and strongly. 

Therefore, compliance and governance programs will need to adapt from traditional forms to the ones that are focussed on identifying key business risks, which the organizations faced during the pandemic. The compliance and governance program need to have the right mix of cross-functional teams, which is a representative of an organization as a whole rather than being left to the domain of law and finance. Once a right team represents the compliance and governance, the focus should be to identify the major disruptions which impacted business during the pandemic and steps that controls that need to be implemented to avoid recurrence and make businesses more resilient and sustainable.  

How do you see legal compliance frameworks changing with the emergence of AI? 

AI is a huge enabler and will transform every aspect of the business, including compliance. I would like to see AI transform the compliance framework in a way that risk mitigation becomes measurable and predictive.  

Under the Companies Act, it is mandated that a Company shall ensure compliance with “all” laws and thus it imposes a huge challenge on the Risk and Compliance team. It, therefore becomes essential that Companies are required to stay on top of changing regulatory requirements in order to ensure that their organisation remains compliant with the rules and standards of the business and political environment in which it operates. Due to multifarious rules and regulations and fast-changing legal and regulatory changes, makes it very difficult for an organization to keep pace with the change and comply with the same… so adapting to AI remains to be the only alternative.  

The advanced AI platforms with sophisticated technology make it easier to go through vast volumes of data, identify standards and deviations, and therefore flag anomalies, which are potential risks for the organisation. With risk management being a central aspect of corporate governance, effectively harnessing AI allows organizations to not just identify risks more astutely, but also to strengthen the organisation’s overall capacity for risk management.   

What are the unique challenges Covid 19 has brought in terms of managing operational and compliance risks? What do in-house legal departments of the future look like? From LMS to document management systems. Is there a tech toolkit every company can adopt? 

I would think that Covid-19 has accelerated the need to have better systems and processes to manage operational and compliance risks than ever before. It is necessary that organizations, make provisions to make greater investments in a compliance and risk programs, lack of which could have adverse consequences as the legal landscape is looking at harsher fines and penalties for who are in violation. As mentioned earlier, a stronger focus on business continuity, resiliency and sustainability are a must-have in a compliance and risk program for which it is necessary to have the right resources in the team. 

One of the positive effects that I see is that nations across the world have issued an immense volume of data on tackling pandemic, lock-downs, un-lock and a large number of guidelines and standard operating procedures, which in itself is another form on international treaties to tackle similar situations if that were to happen in future.  

There cannot be a one size fit all approach for a compliance tool kit and every organization need to identify what is needed and the General Counsel is a key decision-maker in this regard. In future, a General Counsel office should be ready for greater expectations from a business on supporting complex issues, especially in the area of compliance, risk and business continuity. Manpower and resources will always be a constraint, so collaboration with other functions and making them a part of the “larger picture” is what a General Counsel would be expected to do proactively. 

What is your take on the notion of Work-Life Balance? What keeps you busy other than work? 

Work-Life balance, needs to be achieved. You have two families, at home and at work both need the attention of the same nature. You have to love your family and work, often in the same measure and that is what the term “balance” to me is. For me both family and work is a 24x7, 365. 

I always try to pursue my hobbies, which change every now and then. Covid-19 enabled me to focus on tennis, golf, Indian classical music and key-board. I have also tried to catch up with popular shows on the OTT. I try to be a multi-tasker to the best of my ability. 

Do you still get time to pursue your hobbies? Would you please recommend any movies or books that have had a profound impact on you? 

Absolutely, hobbies keep your mind fresh and must be pursued come what may. I am more of an outdoor activity person, so when lockdown started, I tried Yoga, tennis and late-night walks with my wife. However, during Covid, I have tried to be regular with my vocal classical and key-board classes, with my two Gurus.  

I am an ardent Amitabh Bachchan fan and his ability to excel in his profession even today motivates me a lot. His films on the 1970s and 1980s are still my favourites, including dialogues from his films. I must confess that I do not have an attention span to stay with a book, except for academic programs, for a long time, so cannot boast of having read very many. However, for inspiration, I try and watch a lot of documentaries of eminent personalities, who have brought to the change to the world we live in. 

What to your mind has helped you get to where you are and what advice would you have for others who want to achieve success in the legal profession?  

For me, the focus has always been on constant learning, which I see will continue for the remaining part of my life. I try new things, whether in a legal domain, work-related or otherwise, it is important that one is on a constant learning curve. The learning may be by acquiring additional qualifications and in my case learning has also been through teaching and mentoring startups. A couple of years ago, I even enrolled with IIT Delhi, where I tried to blow-glass, and it is a dream that one day I will try and learn glass-blowing in Italy!! A good legal professional will always be the one who is always learning, doing hard work, never gives up and is a good business enabler. Also, it is time that legal professionals have a global mindset and go beyond a jurisdiction.  

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