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

The most challenging job is to keep all the associates motivated and positive at all times. Especially in times like these, when life itself looks dicey, keeping people positive in their thinking is a key.


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

Well, my journey has been a roller coaster. Started my career with teaching to corporate L & D, I realized that connecting with people came naturally to me along with creating larger ecosystems and partnerships. Got an opportunity to be part of the Alliance team in a large GSI as enablement manager due to teaching experience, and kept moving towards larger roles due to Alliance Acumen. People say that I am a natural matchmaker and I say, Cu me and I will bleed Alliance.


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

The iPhone and Outlook calendar helps me plan my day. Being in a Global role, working hours are long. Start with a small prayer to checking emails and jump straight into early morning calls. I do keep some "me" blocks and breaks in the calendar. Long walk with the missus in the evening, sometime in the backyard, and an hour with kids and TV. Back to evening calls. Weekends are for family and learning what I want to do in future


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

Ah. I learn something new every day as I work with a lot of smart folks. The latest two I learned are, " Don't step in with a solution too soon". It hinders the thinking process of the team and does not let them come with better solutions. 2nd being, Be genuine in your concerns about other's personal issues, especially Covid times. Lots is happening in everyone's life and few genuine words go a long way.


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?

An offbeat book, Mentor leader helped me change my perspective on how I see my team members. Growing up in the corporate ladder, initially, some leaders are worried about smarter team members and see them as competition. The line," your only job is to make your players better" now makes me lead my team with the idea, "Grow your team so that you are redundant" and that has helped me create future leaders and help me grow too.


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

People for the role and role for the people is my mantra. I focus on leading by example and every year, I evaluate the roles and people I have in my group. Evaluate roles and get the right people for the same along with evaluating people and get them the right roles.


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

While there are many, one that touched my heart so much and moved me to tears is when my organization started the "back to work" initiative for women who have taken breaks to take care of family, kids, etc. Every time someone joined through that program, you could see in their eyes how much they appreciate the program and the meaningful change it brought to their life.