Hi, my name is Archana Krishnamurthy. I have overall 50+ years of life experience and 30+ years of professional experience.
I grew up in small towns, in and around Bhilai, which is part of Chhattisgarh State in Central India. Did my schooling in many different schools, since my father had a transferable job. Made loads of friends everywhere, but sadly did not make many long-term childhood friends. Due to my family situation, I had to do 3 years of degree course (B.Sc.) in 3 different colleges in 3 different towns! So, my achievement was still I managed to get through!My first move to a big city was to Mumbai, where I went to do my post-graduation. It was a life-changing experience with loads of exposure to life per se.
Throughout my student days I was pretty active with extra-curricular activities like dance (Bharatnatyam), singing (learnt light Hindustani and Carnatic music), drama, sports (badminton), debates, NCC, machine knitting, clay sculpting, playing piano and harmonium, etc. Participated in as many events as possible with enthusiasm and even was selected as a NCC cadet for the Republic Day Parade!
In 1991 moved to New Delhi where I joined my first job as a trainee at The Associated Chambers of Commerce and Industry (ASSOCHAM). I was the first science graduate (I was given to understand) to join a Chamber of Commerce and Industry. Coming with science background I got the opportunity to get started with a trending topic of Environment Management which then kept me in the loop of trending topics like Energy Conservation, Total Quality Management, Telecom and IT. Over a decade of this awesome service opportunity, where I got to work with the visionaries, industry tycoons, Government officials from India and overseas, I grew to being the Deputy Director and was in-charge of overall membership coordination. Had a lot of mentors including Late Sri B. P Gunaji (Secretary General, ASSOCHAM), Late Sri. R. Parthasarathy (Dy. Secretary General, ASSOCHAM and my first reporting officer), Late Sri K.C. Mehra (Tata Group and Chairman of my Expert Committee those days), Sri. P.K. Sandell (Ex- Dept of Telecom Expert and Chairman of Telecom Committee those days), Sri. L Lakshman (Chairman, Rane Group and Ex President of ASSOCHAM), Sri. Shekhar Bajaj (CMD, Bajaj Electricals and Ex-President of ASSOCHAM) and many more who were responsible for helping me discover my own strengths and sharpen my tools. I will remain indebted to them and so many other members that I had the opportunity to work with. During this time, I also got to become an official Compere and was also on the panel to compere programs which had the Hon’ble President and Hon’ble Prime Minister of India preside over.
In 2001, I quit ASSOCHAM to join AMAI (Alkali Manufacturers’ Association of India) as the Executive Director. My first CXO position. Loads of learning, especially about my own values and principles that I wanted to live by.
2002 was the year I launched my own Management Consulting Firm and since then there has been no looking back. I soon became a serial entrepreneur. Every problem with no solution in sight became an opportunity for me to set up an enterprise. So, most of my ventures were first of its kind and we were the pioneers in our area. Had the opportunity to grow most of my enterprises from one woman show to being one of the leaders in the international/global marketplace. Corporate Event Management, Retail, Media and Entertainment, 100% EOU were some of the many areas I ventured into as an entrepreneur.
I was also instrumental in co-founding NASMEIT (National Association of Small and Medium IT Companies), a few foundations and charitable institutions focussed on skilling and employment support for underprivileged youth, education and food for street children, training and marketing support for artists, etc.
Set up and led few industry associations, was a part of school management for one of the well-known chains of educational institutions, set up and led the CSR Foundation for one of the multinational corporations, worked with over 200 educational institutions in rural and urban India, through the CSR initiative.
All this got me into being an author, a motivational speaker, start-up mentor, trainer, counsellor, educational consultant and so on.
While I continued with my consulting and advisory services, I felt the need to take a different approach to help my clients in becoming self-reliant and independent of continuous support and that lead me to becoming a Leadership/Executive Master Coach and got certified from Franklin Covey in 2013.
My journey of learning continues and love to upskill myself which may help me be the best in my profession. Some of the recent ones include Child and Adolescent Counsellor Certification from Udemy, Design Thinking Practitioner and Co-Creator from IBM and I am currently enrolled for the Google Start-up Classroom! Last but definitely not least, I have been a student of spirituality since last 20 years under my spiritual master.
In 2012, I got introduced to my calling and started on my mission of saving precious lives. I realized a lot of young bright lives were either lost to suicides or wasted due to lack of proper direction and clarity. I started speaking to my audience about the importance and benefits of leading a conscious life and soon could see the difference it made in the lives of my audience. Some were small and subtle and some were drastic.
In 2017, I registered Conscious Living Center (CLC) as my brand and Mindful Living (OPC) Private Limited, as my company. Published one book about my own life and within 3 years of the book hitting the book shelves, I had 10-12 individuals in the age group of 9 to 75 who connected with me when they were on the verge of giving up their lives literally and just one conversation between us has got all of them happily and consciously leading their lives. This is when I knew I was meant to do this. This was my life purpose. Everything I was gifted with and everything I learn from life can be put to this use by me. When I got aligned with my purpose, I see how the Universe is aligned with me too and things have started falling into place on their own and it’s magical to experience this alignment. My mission is to help others get aligned too and feel this magic as well!
Since 2017, I have dedicated myself totally towards this mission and am working with my associates in co-creating a conscious society. We work both with individuals (B2C) and organisations (B2B). Some of our flagship programs include Conscious Leadership, Conscious Parenting, Conscious Facilitation and Find Your Calling. We also offer Life Skills, English Language Skills and Technical Skills training tailored to each one’s need. We have certified coach’s, counsellors and mentors to support our clientele.
Our USP is that all our facilitators are leading a Conscious Life and we are focussed on enabling and empowering our customers and clients not just with our professional expertise but also through our philosophy of life we call L.A.G.S. – Learn, Apply, Grow and Share!
I can be reached on archana@consciouslivingcenter.in and the activities of my company can be viewed on our website www.consciouslivingcenter.in. You can find us on Facebook and LinkedIn too. My LinkedIn profile is https://www.linkedin.com/in/coacharchana/. Have a wonderful conscious life!
