My biggest achievement this year

It's a hard topic that Jonaki has set for us for this week. For many of us, there have been so many achievements, on both the professional and personal side. It's tough to highlight any single one as the biggest achievement. What was yours, Jonaki?

I am merely the sponsor of the prizes, not the judge, so I thought I'd pitch in and try to answer. I also have lots of time on hand, as I sit at Delhi airport waiting for the fog to lift. Yesterday a bunch of us were trying to get to Chennai, and we sat in the aircraft for 5 hours before we aborted our trip. With naïve optimism or utter stupidity, I am trying it again, this time trying to get to Bombay.

Actually there is one project I had hoped to close within the year, which might have qualified, but I couldn't close it in time.

So for me, if I have to sum up my achievements for the year in a single sentence, it would probably be : I didn't mess it up! This was my first year as a CEO, in a new company and a new industry. In retrospect, the chances of making big errors (of either omission or commission) were huge. But I think we had a good year. We performed well, we have set ourselves up for continued success, and we had fun.

Thank you, everyone at Pearson, for helping me (and us) get to where we did. Having such a great team makes my life so much easier.

We are blessed to be working in an economy and an industry that has so much potential. I know that 2009 will be even better for all of us, and I hope that you all have a wonderful start to the New Year, surrounded by people you love.

Enjoy yourselves, and see you back at work on the 5th.

Vivek Govil
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