Background and Experience

Athri was fortunate to attend a five day workshop on NLP by one of the founders of NLP, Mr. Richard Bandler. That was the decisive moment when Athri got obsessed with training. His background from 1967 to 1997, as a Medical Representative, Field Manager and Area Manager, gave him just the right climate and atmosphere for training.

In this MNC Pharma Company in which he worked, John Wyeth and Brother Limited, the emphasis and practice of training was practically a day and night affair. The area managers go to the HO (Bombay) every month and literally mug up word to word detail, the specific technical words, the sequence of the sentences, the display of the folder, the eye contact, the closing with pointed statements in order to get assurance of prescription from the doctor, was all practice so thoroughly that this extremely content and process specific detail is ground very thoroughly at the field managers meetings and then on to the medical representatives meeting. This cyclic intensive training literally got into Athri's psyche.

Soft Skills Initiatives and Career Path

Soft Skills Initiatives is a natural evolution as far as Athri is concerned. Before Pharma experience, Athri had the privilege of working in Avery India Madras. He worked as GM in 3 auto dealerships (Daewoo, Hyundai, and Tata Motors). He moved to ICFAI as Consultant trainer (soft skills). He worked as Marketing Manager in SD Pharmacy and GM in two Pan India Training Companies. He also worked as Marketing Manager (Overseas customers) and growing software developer and for a short while for ICICI Home Loans. This rich and varied experience helped him establish himself as a noteworthy and successful trainer all over South India.