Women Leader Series by Ms Ramyaa Ramesh

VOL. XXXXVI NO.4

OCTOBER 2020

CONTENTS

CHINA: Business, Technology & Economy in 2020

The Art & Power of Nudging M S Narayan

Partnerships in the Age of Covid Panel Discussion

Transforming India & Indian Businesses Pradeep Deshpande

Women Leader Series: Policing in Covid Times & Beyond

Lakshmi Venkatachalam

Panel Discussion

EDITOR Gp Capt R Vijayakumar (Retd), VSM EDITORIAL SUPPORT Gp Capt Dr R Venkataraman (Retd) LAYOUT EXECUTIVE D Rajaram

MADRAS MANAGEMENT ASSOCIATION Management Center, New No.240 Pathari Road ﴾Off Anna Salai﴿, Chennai 600 006 Ph:044‐2829 1133 Email:mma@mmachennai.org | mandate@mmachennai.org www.facebook.com/mmachennai

RAMYAA RAMESH

T

he

career

of

Lakshmi

Venkatachalam is riveting and fascinating, especially her

uncanny

ability

to

embrace

opportunities that comes her way. It is not easy to forge a career in the US, especially when one does not graduate out of a university there; Lakshmi seems to have managed it very effectively.

It would be interesting to follow the journey of this typical ‘Mylaporian’ girl who did her schooling in Rosary Matriculation and then completed her B.Com in Ethiraj College. She later completed MBA and ICWA and was all set for a great career in India with her first job at Pond’s. It was a job that was doubly exciting for her—as it was in Chennai itself, a city that was her greatest love.

But matters of the heart took priority. Marriage to her classmate, who wanted to pursue his career in the US, took her to Silicon Valley, California. A finance and operations career in an all­ tech Silicon Valley seemed a difficult prospect for young Lakshmi as she began her career search. However, she believed in herself and has strived hard to see herself as a Vice President in the $40 billion technology giant, Oracle Corporation today.

“Believe in yourself, work hard, do

Business Mandate fountainhead of excellence

your best and you will be successful,” summer internship at Pond’s. I ended

to connect remote villages to ensure

she says with conviction. “It was not all

up getting my final placement in the

information on crops, illnesses, and

that difficult to decide what I would do

same company and that too in my

natural calamities was circulated so that

after my B.Com. I love numbers—I

hometown Chennai, an icing on the

the villagers could be better prepared,”

relate to them and understand the story

cake! It was my dream job; the most

she said.

they tell me. With my father being a

coveted place to work for and I was

Chartered Accountant, doing CA seemed

ecstatic to land this opportunity. Now,

The crossing

a natural choice. However, the challenge

as I look back, age just does not matter

Lakshmi met her husband in IIM (B), an

of getting into an IIM led me to take

as long as you enjoy doing what you are

engineer at heart, who went on to the US

CAT. Luckily, I got calls from both IIM

doing, but I was 21 when I got my job

for his grad studies and wanted to stay

Bangalore and Calcutta and I decided to

offer and it was an incredible

there. Marriage in 1997 took her literally

accept Bangalore as it was closer to

achievement for me at that time!” said

kicking and screaming to the shores of

home!”

Lakshmi. She believed Pond’s was home

the United States.

—a company that challenged her,

“We set up home in the Silicon

The lure of Chennai

pushed her, and also cared for her at the

Valley where almost everyone was a

“My new adventure of an MBA excited

same time. She joined the company as a

‘techie’ and very few really understood

me but I faced the rude shock of having

management trainee, and for 18

what finance and operations were,” she

to live away from home. I spent my first

months, she worked across various

said. “I would remember my initial

six months figuring out how to get home

functions and locations.

months in the US as one of the worst

every weekend. I found myself on

“One of the most interesting

periods of my life in terms of my career.

projects for me was working around the

I still remember sitting in a coffee shop

villages of Etah, UP, as part of our social

with a recruiter who looked at my

responsibility assignment. There were

resume and said, ‘If you get a temporary

villages with no electricity, yes, in 1994.

job paying even $20, I would be very

We spent our days interacting with

surprised.’ I went home extremely

villagers,

grassroot

dejected that day. My husband probably

problems and helping find solutions.

remembers the day even more vividly

Organizing child immunization camps,

for the amount of grief he got! I realized

Over the years, she learnt that

talking to the women about health

two things, a job rejection or failure is

everything is a transitionary phase and

issues or addressing cattle care—we did

not the end of your life. One failure does

one will go through many difficult

it all. The village doctor even indulged

not evaluate you, you just need to get up

phases in life and evolve to become a

me and allowed me to inject medicines

and keep going.”

stronger person.

for a buffalo. As part of a project, my

Brindhavan Express or Bangalore Mail more often than I was on campus. I learnt a lot of management principles during the two years in B­school, but I also learnt the important lesson of how to live by myself, knowing that home and Chennai were not far away,” said Lakshmi.

A dream job in a company that was ‘home’

fellow management trainee and I designed a walkie­talkie network across the villages. It was the pre­mobile phone

“I was extremely excited to do my 52

understanding

OCTOBER 2020

era and it was considered the best way

At the right time, right place “Is everything orchestrated? I wonder at times. I was in a temple one day when I heard someone calling out my name.

Business Mandate fountainhead of excellence

It turned out to be a senior from school.

management processes. We just took

She told me that Bearing Point

over the entire finance operations and

Consulting was recruiting. I expressed

helped prevent insolvency and brought

interest, and thanks to her referral, I

the company to a cash positive state.

found my first job four months after I

We also set up e­commerce stores for

moved to the US,” she said.

companies, because the Internet had

This

first

job

of

hers

in

management consulting helped shape

gained prominence and was opening new channels for them.”

her in many ways. She, along with her

Though work was very interesting

team, working directly with CXOs, was

and exhilarating, after four years of

looking to solve problems that were

constant travel, and waking up some

cross­organizational and sometimes

mornings wondering where she was,

global. It trained the mind to quickly

Lakshmi decided it was time for a

filter down to the problem and make the

change.

changes required. She travelled from one end of the country to another and

My time in a startup

was exposed to multiple industries and

Change came in the form of an opening

cultures.

with a startup called Veloz Global

While most of her projects were interesting, a few stood out. She

“My first project was for a company that sold musical instruments and was looking for a plan to expand their stores across the country. We made a proposal for the probable locations based on census data, demographic and economic profiles of the areas. We also set up complex mathematical models that stock

holding

and

transportation costs and optimized warehouse locations. Another project was for a food co­op that made canned food. Though very popular and successful, they were on the verge of bankruptcy

due

to

poor

workflow automation solutions.

“It was local, a known team and an

enthusiastically spoke about them.

minimized

Solutions, which focused on creating

cash

opportunity for a stint that could make it big! We were less than 20 employees and I had the opportunity to do everything from process design to office space hunting to hiring to VC presentations. The founder and I have continued to share a great personal and professional bond—but I learned that I was not best suited for a start­up life.”

Lakshmi went on to explain. It was also the time when her son was born and she decided to take a year’s break.

Career after a break “When I was ready to go back to full­ time work, I started the job search OCTOBER 2020

53

process. It was deja vu all over again.

After several rounds of interviews, I was close to joining Infosys in the US when I received a call from a recruiter

about 40 to 250+ in a year and it is a key

exceptional people. And for you to

contributor to our consulting capacity

succeed, do your best and do better than

globally. It was new, challenging and

your best the next day!”

very gratifying for me personally. And of course, the attraction of visiting India

The best is yet to come…

and working with teams there cannot be

“My biggest achievement? That is yet to

missed. Having worked both in India

come. I cannot look back and think of a

and in the US, I was able to balance both

single achievement and say that it has

work cultures well. The work I did and

been the most important and valuable.

the lessons I learnt from my consultancy

I believe that at every stage we set a goal

days also came to my rescue. I have been

and achieving that goal seems like the

deeply involved in multiple acquisitions

biggest challenge at that point in time.

The Oracle sayeth...

and have integrated them into our

Then you realize there is a next step that

“Oracle is where I have spent more than

business. Every acquisition brought

you want to reach.” she says. So, what is

14 years of my career. I was part of the

unique needs and challenges which

Lakshmi’s next big goal—to become a

core team that managed the acquisition

required equally unique solutions.”

COO of a global company.

one day. I did not make much of it initially but on his persistence, I went to attend the interview at Portal Software and ended up with an offer letter. It was meant to be,” she said. It laid the foundation to her career with Oracle; Portal was acquired by Oracle in 2006.

and the integration of Portal into Oracle

Recently, she has taken on a new

As a woman who had the ability to

initially and this helped me build key

role in Oracle. As Vice President of

dream big, take up challenges as they

relationships within the company. I

Operations for the Communications

come without being overwhelmed by

work with a wonderful bunch of people

Applications Business Unit, she heads

them, we have bigger hopes for this

and have had progressive opportunities

end­to­end

including

Chennai girl—that she joins the ranks of

with global exposure. I understand how

strategic planning, sales, engineering

Indian­born CEOs of global companies!

the company works and have a deep

and consulting operations and learning.

Best Wishes, Lakshmi! 

network that sets me up for growth and success. In terms of assignments, I ran operations for the consulting business and as part of that, I got to build an offshore delivery center across four cities in India. We grew the team from

operations.

“I am often asked if there are differences between working in the US vs. India or in different companies. Probably, yes.

But the fundamental truth remains that all successful companies in any country are driven by strong processes and

Ramyaa Ramesh, author, had interviewed Lakshmi Venkatachalam for this series.