‘The world has acknowledged women in the leadership roles’
Published on : Monday 30-11--0001
How adventurous has the journey to success been so far?
My Automation journey of 22 years from an Electronic Graduate in the year 1996 to being a Branch Head today has been exciting and I kept unfolding my potential at every step. “The journey of a thousand miles begins with one step – Lao Tzu”. My small step was to start a career as an Automation Engineer at a well know automation company in Pune. I was determined to be in India and pursue my career in the core field rather than shifting to IT and computers, which were booming in those times due to Y2K.
The automation industry was male dominated at that time. I was the first women employee in my first automation company. I am grateful, for being chosen as an automation engineer at that time, and it opened many doors for me.
The adventure started, having to be amongst men almost all the time from working in office to shop floors. Having to do my first project where, I was granted permission to work on the shop floor after several discussions. Women, machine and operators were not meant to be together. Shop floors and assembly lines had only male employees. Travelling to clients all over India became a routine and something I enjoyed as imbibing the cultures of various regions. Convincing family for working late night into 3rd shift to commission a machine, as a programmer I wanted to see the machine working as per my code, that’s when I could sleep well.
B&R Automation welcomed me to a more open environment, with technology being at the forefront. B&R offered me multiple opportunities to work on field projects. There was great emphasis on training, learning and emerging technologies. All through the journey, nothing was taken for granted. I had to work hard, was given the toughest of tasks and no work was qualified as cannot be done by me. I was entrusted with key roles like heading the training department for B&R in India, to key account handling for key customers, to application management for B&R, to sales and being a responsible for a complete region.
All along my husband was always supportive helping me pursue my career, passions and until today is my biggest support. Being a parent brought in its own problems of not being able to go for long commissioning work or project development at clients place. I was fortunate enough that B&R accommodated me into a trainers job that involved less travel and I relocated from Bangalore to Pune. Setting up the Automation Academy at B&R India was quiet challenging and I have received appreciation and acknowledgement for my training from several customers and till about 2013 most employees of B&R were trained by me.
Two major events etched in my memory, which I can never forget was my trip to Austria to update myself. I had to travel when my son was 4 months old and the second memory was to gain more field knowledge I had to travel for some months to Ahmedabad to a commissioning site when my son was just about a year old. It was a big challenge on my personal front. I would say this was the turning point in my career. So unexplored careers like that of automation will bring up many challenges and as women, you need to be committed to your work while balancing your personal front.
The journey has been exhilarating with a lot of hurdles, challenges, excitement and hardships but at the end, I have many stories to narrate. Today, I take this opportunity to thank my family especially my mother and my husband who supported me at every single step and not to forget my son who is in his teens now & is so mature to understand me and always be by my side.
I would like to thank Mr PV Sivaram then MD of B&R India for his constant support and mentoring throughout my career. I would also like to thank my colleagues who were both supportive as well as instrumental in making me a tough woman.
For a country where women have joined the workforce decades ago, there are few in leadership positions. What are the possible reasons?
In today’s fast-paced and dynamic environment, woman leaders are donning multiple hats. However, earlier women had faced many challenges but today have overcome them in order to be at leadership positions. Today she is career oriented and playing a crucial role in socio economic growth of the country. Parents are recognising the importance of their girl child being educated in order to be self-sufficient and independent. Various fields like banking and finance, health, medicine and information technology are led by women. The automotive industry and many tech giants have been recruiting and promoting women workforce on a large scale. Today, industry is recognising the vital role that women play in building teams and creating strategic decisions at leadership positions.
I have a list of minimum 25 to 30 noted business-women in leadership positions who have made the world recognise women as equals. Women need to stand united, be helping hands to each other, get as many support lines as possible in their run to leadership positions. It has not been easy to climb up the ladder for any of the women, neither for me.
There is always a glass ceiling and it is not always gender-based. But how difficult is it for a women to enter the corner office?
With the ability to switch on and off from personal to professional to personal lives, women are dealing with children at home, preparing for board meeting, taking care of parents. Having said this, most women these days are finding all the support they can gather to handle both ends. The world has acknowledged women in the leadership roles and the industry has promoted many women employees to leadership positions. One of my role models is Indra Nooyi , Chairman and CEO of PepsiCo and others like Kiran Mazumdar-Shaw, Chairman and Managing Director of Biocon and Mrs Sonali Kulkarni, President and CEO of Fanuc India, have shown the world that to enter the corner office is difficult but not impossible. Women need to focus on right strategies to get the work done and more importantly help other women achieve success in various fields.
In recent years we have had some successful cases of Women CEO’s in banking and finance, but not many in engineering. Will this change in the coming years?
Banking and Finance has clearly good leadership positions, they have empowered women to take top positions, make strategic decisions and they have helped banks and financial market to make commendable progress. This could form an example for all other sectors to imbibe the safe and comfortable working environments, the process of retention for women employees, being sensitive of their needs, etc. The engineering sector has more women in R&D as compared to core manufacturing, but there are a few women like me, who would love to venture into these unknown sectors, explore and capture new heights. The industry must acknowledge the steps like TWIN (TAFE Women Innovation Network) led by Mrs Mallika Srinivasan. With most Engineering Industry changing their mindset and making women inclusive environment, advances in technology and digitisation, improved education system and most important increasing number of women users in the Engineering Industry will definitely bring about a change in the coming years.
Final Question, do successful women deliberately avoid limelight?
It is always important for individual to share technology and knowledge for further enhancement. B&R has offered me at several occasions to represent the organisation at events, seminars and different forums. As a company, B&R has never limited me from conquering the horizons and my representation could be found at various levels. At the end I would like to spread a positive message to women who aspire to climb up the ladder, that there could be many hurdles to overcome, do not stop as these are the steps that make you strong and influential.
(This is part of a series of interviews conducted by Industrial Automation on the eve of the International Women’s Day 2018, to celebrate the success of women entrepreneurs and achievers in the industrial automation domain)