All the world is a stage, said Shakespeare. Kaustubh Bankapure couldn’t agree more. He uses theatre to teach executives on the various nuances of managing people, situations and organisations.  He does this through his organisation Theatre Resource, which works towards developing Human Resource with a whole new approach. Kaustubh Bankupure, a trained applied theatre practitioner explains the concept of his enterprise thus - “Theatre Resource is basically an idea to implement non-technical training for industries and corporates to develop people. We use theatre or drama as a medium of training. This is not just something unique – but is also very effective, as post workshop results show.”

When asked how it all started, Kaustubh reveals, “From childhood I have been working in theatre. I then did my Masters in Business Administration followed by a Masters in Applied Theatre from the University of London. For a while I was teaching at a private university in Pune and at that time I started exploring the possibility of combining theatre and management practice. I realised that there were parallels to be drawn and soon started conducting some small workshops that helped participants understand management concepts through the use of theatre techniques. It was received very well and I decided to introduce it to more corporates, by giving it my complete attention and starting my own company.”

Kaustubh has a passion for theatre and a firm belief that theatre holds the key to resolving many human resource issues in an organisation and enhancing team relations. He believes a non-theoretical approach is the best way to change habits and behaviour patterns. Kaustubh states, “In our training programme we don’t use power point or lectures. We put all the employees through certain exercises in these workshops. We use their past experiences for raw material, process it with the help of different kinds of theatre exercises. The result? Actual learning happens.” He adds, “In the context of learning and development, what happens in other programmes is that during the training, people learn something but its development and application happens later, i.e. after the programme. In our workshops, learning and development happens concurrently.”

The feedback to Theatre Resource has been wonderful and they have a growing number of clients. Kaustubh proudly shares, “Overall feedback everywhere is absolutely great. Most people have not experienced anything like this before. They feel like they are in school and enjoy themselves tremendously. Apart from that, theatre is able to even address issues that are taboo, such as gender bias and sexual harassment at the place of work.”

Kaustubh believes that creating awareness about his novel idea is his biggest challenge. His refrain is that, “Industries are not aware that training in theatre is available. Moreover they do not realise that training is a very important part of running the industry. What is happening is that high end machinery is being installed but there is not enough thinking for the person behind that machinery. Unless that person is holistically connected to the industry, neither the industry nor the person will thrive. I take a very long time to talk to people about this and to convince them. To do that first programme is really challenging.”

Kaustubh is extremely happy that he has been able to combine his love for theatre with his management background. His message to others wanting to plunge into the field of human resource and training is very positive. He opines, “There is unlimited scope in training in India and abroad. India is growing very fast and people need this kind of training and unfortunately we do not have many people working in this area. This is a great field. You just need to have patience to see results and grow in this field.”

At GlobalLinker we believe that creativity, passion and hardwork is a winning combination for successful entrepreneurs. Kaustubh Bankapure possesses these very qualities and we wish him the best in pursuing this dream of his.

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