1. What have you found most challenging as a CEO or executive of a large enterprise?

As an executive, our focus is predominantly on creating shareholder value through generating profits and revenues for our firms. we are also focused on creating competitive advantages for our firms. The biggest challenge I have faced is in building the right kind of talent and teams that can balance flawless execution, innovation and customer experience.

2. How did you become a CEO or executive of a large enterprise? Can you please briefly tell the story?

My path has been primarily laid by my passion for technology and transformation. I have been extremely focused on building my expertise across digital technologies and business transformation. Along the way I have taken some major risks in terms of changing roles and careers that have opened new doors for growth and success. I have also been continuously investing in my education - after 20 years of work experience and having a Bachelors in engineering with MBA, I went back to school to complete my Masters in Data science and analytics. I worked at GE for 5 years, then moved into consulting for 7 years and then switched back into enterprise leadership roles where I have progressed through 3 global firms.

3. How do you structure your work days from waking up to going to sleep?

When I am not on business travel ( during which times I have little control on my work day and it is primarily driven by office commitments), I try to balance between my work, family, and personal commitments. I usually wake up at 5 am and spend the early hours freshening up, exercising, and attending to important emails. During the day, other than attending meetings and emails, my focus is on developing strategy, networking and keeping pace with industry developments. I try to keep my evenings free for my family.

4. What's the most recent significant leadership lesson you've learned?

The most important leadership lesson is about empathy and self-realization. Understanding my strengths, weaknesses, behaviours and reaction patterns is the foundation of being a good leader. Performance and outcomes are an end result of being a good listener with a high level of emotional intelligence.

5. What's one book that has had a profound impact on your leadership so far? Can you please briefly tell the story of how that book impacted your leadership?

Good to Great: Why Some Companies Make the Leap...and Others Don't By Jim Collins

The book opened me to core concepts that help any firm make the transition from good to great. It doesn't require a high-profile CEO, the latest technology, innovative change management, or even a fine-tuned business strategy. At the heart of those rare and truly great companies is a corporate culture that rigorously found and promoted disciplined people to think and act in a disciplined manner. Peppered with dozens of stories and examples from the great and not so great, the book offers a well-reasoned road map to excellence that any organization would do well to consider.

6. How do you build leadership capacity in a large enterprise?

Leadership roles can broadly be classified at 3 levels. Team level, functional level and strategic level. At each level we have different approaches to build capacity that could vary from investing in tech skills, exposure to cross-enterprise initiatives, management training, sponsorships, mentoring and coaching etc

7. What is one meaningful story that comes to mind from your time as a CEO or executive of a large enterprise so far?

This story is about resilience and doing the right thing. In one of my previous roles, I was leading a shared service organization that was fraught with a lack of credibility, high costs, and poor value demonstration. Taking over this team was a major career risk for me. I saw tremendous value in taking over this role as it exposed me to new types of challenges and learning new skills. I had my bearings set on just two things - am I doing the right thing for the organization and am I ready to face the backlashes that come with my decisions. As I progressed in my role, I had to rationalize multiple technologies, lay off employees, establish a new vision and operating models and hire new employees in the team. Initially, there was a lot of push back from leaders above me as they didn't want to take risks and as well as my team as they feared we are moving too fast to adapt to the changes. As we progressed, our team demonstrated many millions of cost savings, grew by 300% in terms of size and investments while expanding into newer technologies. This experience has reinforced my thinking about "always doing the right thing" and "being prepared for any outcomes once we take decisions".