AVIS Viswanathan: Bio
AVIS Viswanathan, 49, is a Life Coach, an Inspired Speaker, Happiness Curator, Author and organizational transformation consultant who leads change management, culture and leadership development mandates in the corporate sector globally. He is currently a Principal Consultant at a v initiatives, a Specialist Consulting Firm that inspires Workplace Happiness.
AVIS is a well-known and acclaimed speaker whose Talks invoke soul, provoke thought and inspire action among the audiences he addresses. In the past, AVIS has been ranked among the Top Ten Motivational Speakers in India by The Week magazine.
AVIS says he always lives inspired by Life! He is greatly influenced by Osho's philosophy of "living dangerously in a complete let-go" and by Eknath Easwaran's awesome book, "Gandhi - The Man". AVIS is also a mega fan of MegaStar Amitabh Bachchan and loves Hindi film music (particularly the R.D.Burman-Gulzar-Kishore Kumar combination). Every Sunday he hosts a quirky QUIZ on facebook that's insanely popular among his friends world-wide!
AVIS lives in Chennai, India. He's married to Vaani, his soul-mate and business partner. They have two children - Aashirwad and Aanchal - both of whom are young adults now who have set out to explore Life and this beautiful world!
AVIS is a well-known and acclaimed speaker whose Talks invoke soul, provoke thought and inspire action among the audiences he addresses. In the past, AVIS has been ranked among the Top Ten Motivational Speakers in India by The Week magazine.
AVIS says he always lives inspired by Life! He is greatly influenced by Osho's philosophy of "living dangerously in a complete let-go" and by Eknath Easwaran's awesome book, "Gandhi - The Man". AVIS is also a mega fan of MegaStar Amitabh Bachchan and loves Hindi film music (particularly the R.D.Burman-Gulzar-Kishore Kumar combination). Every Sunday he hosts a quirky QUIZ on facebook that's insanely popular among his friends world-wide!
AVIS lives in Chennai, India. He's married to Vaani, his soul-mate and business partner. They have two children - Aashirwad and Aanchal - both of whom are young adults now who have set out to explore Life and this beautiful world!
Here's how AVIS describes himself:
"Student: Learning from Life...
Coach: Awakening People to the Right Way of Thinking, Living, Working and Winning...
Speaker: Inspiring Happiness...
Author: Sharing Life’s Lessons with those who pause to reflect…
Consultant: Specialist in Individual and Organizational Transformation"
More Background Information:
AVIS confesses that he did not make it to B-school. In fact, he barely scraped through college__thanks only, as he says, to save his parents embarrassment. He invested the first 10 years of his professional career in the media as a firebrand civic, investigative, political and business journalist in India working with The Indian Express, India Today, Business World and Business Today. He then briefly ‘touched and felt’ Life in the corporate sector, with global assignments, over two years. Those were highly eventful though considering that he was the globe-trotting EA (Executive Assistant) to Sterling Group Chairman and maverick entrepreneur, C.Sivasankaran. In 1996, AVIS, set up imagequity+®, with his soulmate__friend, wife and business partner__Vaani. It was Asia’s first reputation management consulting Firm based out of Chennai, in south India. The Firm went bankrupt in end-2007 plunging AVIS’ family and his business into an unimaginable crisis.
Pennilessness, law suits, threats to Life from irate creditors, mistrust among family and friends, insecurity and fear followed. But the couple braved all these and more with faith and patience, blessed as they were by the compassion and ‘the milk of human kindness’ of several people that came into their Life! Over this time, they learned to trust the Universe and were witness to, what AVIS calls, ‘the inscrutable, miraculous ways of Life’. He and his wife are still to put their business back on track, though they try relentlessly, plowing on with true indefatigable spirit, and are, therefore, yet to repay their over million dollars in debt. But they have followed their bliss and stayed rooted to a business model that gives them joy __ which is to awaken people to the right way of thinking, living, working and winning. Vaani and AVIS have since re-branded their Firm and call it a v initiatives (www.avinitiatives.co.in), which is a Specialist Consulting Firm which inspires Workplace Happiness! Their learnings from this tumultuous phase of their lives have become the leitmotif of all the work that they create and deliver in corporates across the world. They inspire managers to be happy despite their circumstances.
AVIS confesses that he did not make it to B-school. In fact, he barely scraped through college__thanks only, as he says, to save his parents embarrassment. He invested the first 10 years of his professional career in the media as a firebrand civic, investigative, political and business journalist in India working with The Indian Express, India Today, Business World and Business Today. He then briefly ‘touched and felt’ Life in the corporate sector, with global assignments, over two years. Those were highly eventful though considering that he was the globe-trotting EA (Executive Assistant) to Sterling Group Chairman and maverick entrepreneur, C.Sivasankaran. In 1996, AVIS, set up imagequity+®, with his soulmate__friend, wife and business partner__Vaani. It was Asia’s first reputation management consulting Firm based out of Chennai, in south India. The Firm went bankrupt in end-2007 plunging AVIS’ family and his business into an unimaginable crisis.
Pennilessness, law suits, threats to Life from irate creditors, mistrust among family and friends, insecurity and fear followed. But the couple braved all these and more with faith and patience, blessed as they were by the compassion and ‘the milk of human kindness’ of several people that came into their Life! Over this time, they learned to trust the Universe and were witness to, what AVIS calls, ‘the inscrutable, miraculous ways of Life’. He and his wife are still to put their business back on track, though they try relentlessly, plowing on with true indefatigable spirit, and are, therefore, yet to repay their over million dollars in debt. But they have followed their bliss and stayed rooted to a business model that gives them joy __ which is to awaken people to the right way of thinking, living, working and winning. Vaani and AVIS have since re-branded their Firm and call it a v initiatives (www.avinitiatives.co.in), which is a Specialist Consulting Firm which inspires Workplace Happiness! Their learnings from this tumultuous phase of their lives have become the leitmotif of all the work that they create and deliver in corporates across the world. They inspire managers to be happy despite their circumstances.
