For kids from Shimla, moving out of the city is the only option to achieve professional success. But 28-year-old Oshin Goel loved to beat the odds. Her five-year integrated programme in management from IIM-Indore was a good setting ground to carve out a promising role in any multinational or corporate giant. But she chose to be different. She used her learning skills and entrepreneurial spirit to become a travel and training entrepreneur in Shimla.
Oshin believes her venture Vibrantdots is an example for those youngsters who believe in their ability to create their own market, rather than waiting for some miracle. “I could have easily picked up any high-paying job through campus placements. But I wanted to do something where I could be master of my own destiny and decisions, apart from being a leader charting out my own path,” she says.
Vibrandots, which was set up in 2017, imparts out-bound learning programmes to youth from schools, colleges and management institutes across India. The programmes are designed to build leadership skills apart from imparting practical training in administrative functions. Her MBA course has come in handy for this. Her father, Dr S.K. Goel, who retired from the Indian Institute of Advanced Study, Shimla, joined her in the venture.
She has conducted a series of programmes for students from Delhi-NCR region, Bangalore, Indore and IIM Kashipur (Uttarakhand), to name a few. She also keeps experimenting with her travel destinations and tailors them according to the needs of the programme.
“We organise residential camps and travel. The youth, both boys and girls, from the educational institutes and colleges are taken to out-bound locations in Himachal Pradesh where they interact with experts from various fields. These interactions can be in the form of open-house, games and some practical experiences,” says Oshin. Spelling her success mantra, she points out that the joy of travelling to Himachal Pradesh is an attraction for many institutes and their students.
She believes her unique leadership development programmes impart skills through experiential learning methodology. It enhances the capacity of an individual to lead the self, the team and the organisation well. The focus remains primarily on developing essential leadership skills like communication, planning, organising and people management, which are needed for developing new leaders.
Oshin admits that the Covid pandemic was the only tough period for her venture as it hampered travel and educational tours. Educational institutions were closed and everything was happening remotely. However, things have picked up again, she adds.
Asked what real-time skills she has been able to impart, Oshin claims these programmes have helped her clients in building a common vision, values and team spirit, besides developing team strategies, enhancing creativity and handling of complex situations, and maintaining work-life balance.
Taking a cue from her daughter’s venture, her father has now started a separate venture for training school children in personality development and outbound learning. “I became a role model for my father,” she quips.
