Interview of Shouri Mitra, Director of OPUS

Content Curator

Shouri Mitra is currently serving as the Managing Director at The OPUS Way, Kolkata. Having several years of working experience in different sectors across domains such as education, HR and investment banking, he is a passionate educationist providing training to students aspiring to crack the national level entrance tests for LAW and Design. He has been an integral part of many business firms and training institutes.

The OPUS Way

What key factors motivated you to join the education sector?

“Transforming and conceptualizing the education sector”

My primary driver to join the education sector has been to revolutionise the way students engage with their curriculum, become independent learners and become super efficient test takers with an uncanny aptitude to think laterally and efficiently. My aim has always been to inculcate crucial critical thinking skills and to build a foundation of concepts that would address any complex concept from its first principles.

What is your philosophy of leadership?

“To provide the team enough latitude and freedom to help ensure a sustainable growth mindset”

I believe that the primary objective of a leader should be to inculcate a free spirited environment in the organisation so that there are bursts of creative solutions to ensure a sustainable growth of the organization. An efficient team is the most important asset of any organisation and the role of the leader is to constantly engage with the team and to ensure a strong feedback mechanism which keeps us on track, given what the market needs. To have open communication within the organisation is a key driving force to grow a strong company with a solid foundation.

How does The OPUS Way ensure the best development of the students?

“An intensive and completely result oriented curriculum”

The OPUS Way has an experiential curriculum with extremely engaging mentors. Our mentors are selected from a pool of high-potential candidates from across diverse domains, each of which are super dedicated towards the student as well as the curriculum to ensure maximum impact in the student’s amazing journey to the top Law and Design Schools in the country. Our curriculum is designed to maximise a student’s potential with innovative approaches to complex problems. We are constantly developing key resources which are massive upgrades to the existing curriculum and our adaptive training techniques ensure that the sessions are not only super fun and engaging, but also effective in building fundamentals which will help them navigate through advanced problems with ease. Also, we ensure that every aspect of the curriculum is tested across levels and across topics that are a part of the curriculum.

What do you think your roles and responsibilities to the students are?

“Providing a really awesome learning environment”

My prime responsibility is to ensure a really fun learning environment where the students are free to question, develop critical thinking skills and ideate well. We help the kids to really focus on their strengths and realise their potential. We engage in healthy debates, teach them all the necessary concepts, but most importantly foster an environment where they are open to learning new and engaging concepts with very different approaches to traditional problems tested in the exams.

What do you think should be The OPUS Way’s top priority over the next 10 years?

“Investing in key technologies to ensure future readiness”

We are actively investing in new technology so that we are ahead of the curve in the ed-tech space. Our focus is on democratising education and cultivating community based learning so that challenging problems can be addressed through multifarious approaches that can be sourced from a diverse set of people across domains. Also, we have to prioritise individual focussed content delivery so that people from various strata of society with different learning styles can engage with the curriculum comfortably. We aspire to cater to individuals according to what they need. This is a huge lacuna in the education space across the globe, and we strive to develop solutions that will address this problem to help engage students more.

What do you see as your institute’s greatest strengths?

“A really adaptive curriculum that is both experiential and effective”

We have always envisioned an organization that is empathetic towards its students and to get them access to the best curriculum, mentors and technology that will bolster their learning potential. The mentors and the curriculum are our greatest strengths. Our reputation in Kolkata is driven primarily by these two factors. Along with that, our ability to constantly adapt to changes in the curriculum and other factors that lead to a student’s engagement with education adds on.

What are some of the biggest challenges you see for the coaching industry?

“Fighting mediocrity, misguided concepts and lack of regard for genuine trainers”

The coaching industry isn’t regulated and therefore it’s difficult to keep a track of quality coaching versus some random people claiming to be experts. Everyone is now a coach or a mentor in one form or the other, and the market is flooded by a milieu of mediocrity beckoned to doom the gullible subscriber. With the advent of growing popularity of youtube and other channels, the coaching segment is getting diluted rapidly with material and content being shared without any kind of accountability. Concepts are twisted, methods to solve at times are ominous that work only in a particular scenario but are generalised for the student, massive violations of copyright laws etc. This can’t bode well for the students in the longer run. Building a diverse curriculum that will cater to the needs of the kids in terms of their own unique learning pace and style. We need to develop technology and platforms which will use various tools to ensure efficient categorisation of specific content that is to be customised to the individual student’s learning curve. The coaching industry should make every effort to invest in technology that streamlines the curriculum in focus to be delivered efficiently. Categorising learner’s before they engage with the curriculum and help automate the learning delivery according to the student’s own intuitive pattern of learning is crucial to engage the student more efficiently and more effectively.

Any suggestions you would like to give to the current youth?

“Learn to have fun and experience and enjoy the world at large”

Life is not about constantly doing something, or achieving something or frying your brain over something. Life is meant to be lived. So go ahead and follow that hobby that you love, play some music, read some poetry, walk around a park, visit different places. If you find your passion, you will never have to work another day in your life. Balancing out academics and fun is the crucial test to a good life. Take things seriously, but with confidence. Have that amazing thirst to learn more. Go back to the basics whenever needed and rethink from first principles. Practice mindfulness and try to have clarity of thought and a vision for your life. Be fearless, take action, hit the road to get exposure, get excited to contribute to the world.

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