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They
are all trendsetters in their own right. Women who have carved a
niche for themselves in what is believed to be predominantly a male
domain. Having started their career when IT was still a nascent
industry, and women in the field very few and far between, today
they are the first generation of team leaders who shatter the glass-ceiling
myth.
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Aruna
Jayanthi
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“In
the tech industry the glass-ceiling does not exist, you see a lot
of women tech heads. If there is a ceiling it is in the mind of
the women themselves and not in the industry,” says Aruna Jayanthi,
principal, Cap Gemini Ernst & Young (India). Aruna has been
in the industry for 17 years and had started her career in 1984
with TCS. A decade later she joined Aptech to head Hexaware’s
India division for starting new units and lines of business. Today,
she heads Cap Gemini’s two lines of business in India —
Advanced Development and Integration, and Application Management.
After hands-on technology for the initial three to four years of
her career, she moved on to account management, sales, business
development and quality.
“Right
through my career, even at the time when I was with TCS, I never
found being distinguished because I was a woman,” she says,
adding, “As a team leader I have never had any problems. The
main factor is to guide them, it should be leadership by example.”
Aruna however points out that she is very cautious about the word
“boss”, because then one cannot deal with the team efficiently.
The industry itself, she believes, being young, has always been
very open and more than gender it is leadership capacity that matters.
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Lydia
Lobo
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Currently
heading a team of 250 people, large-scale recruitment is in the
pipeline to almost double the number. For someone who always nurtured
the dream of running an independent business and building it into
a large organisation, well known and recognised internationally,
Aruna is happy to be on the ‘right track’. “I have
got where I wanted to be but there is a lot more to be done and
things are moving in the right direction,” she concludes with
a smile.
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Saadia
Lobo
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Lydia
Lobo, chief technology officer, Aptech, is a teacher turned techie,
who also represents a minuscule number of women in the industry
who decide Boardroom strategies. Acknowledging that she had always
thought she would remain a teacher, Lydia confesses that she enjoys
today the managerial capacity of being in the front. “I outgrow
every job very soon and look out for new challenges,” she says
matter-of-factly. And this is obviously something which her present
job provides in plenty. “Being in training we have to be the
first. Is anything more challenging?” she asks. Lydia concedes
that at the time of starting her career there were limited roles
available in the IT profession, today the situation is very different.
Domain expertise and multi-skilling gives women in the industry
an opportunity to seek their own mould. “Maybe in hardware
there are not that many women, but not so in the other fields, particularly
training. In Aptech itself many women are in good positions. There
are two of us who take Boardroom decisions and policy making,”
she says, adding however that women heads are there in specific
fields, on the business side the percentage is less. “There
are more technology than business heads probably because it requires
more ruthlessness which is not present in women.”
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Gayathri
Parathasarthy
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A workaholic,
she confesses her love for technology but finds the techno-managerial
role much more exciting and she looks forward to greater international
exposure. “After a little bit of hardcore technology anybody
with some ambition would like to do something different—as
a project leader, project manager or client interfacing,” she
points out. Lydia’s current assignment includes diversified
operations—from keeping track of technology trends and products
in market to implementation of training programme course design
and strategy to ensuring quality.
Like
Lydia, Saadia Lobo, director, Knowledge Services Group (KSG), SAP
India, finds setting up new opportunities the greatest challenge
that keeps her motivated. “I like doing new things and doing
them different—going head-on into any issue, taking calculative
risks and coming out successful,” she says emphatically. All
set to leave for a global assignment to be based out of the SAP
headquarters in Walldorf, Germany, Saadia manages a line of business
in the KSG which provides knowledge-based products and services
to help corporate clients in their learning processes. With 16 years
of experience in the IT sector, Saadia’s portfolio includes
sales, business development and management process. She had started
her career as a marketing executive with Computer Point, and today
has her forte in profit centre and product management. Ask Saadia
the formula for success and the response is a bit unexpected. “I
never looked at what I wanted to be but what I wanted to do. I always
took up any assignment that appealed to me,” she adds, candidly
admitting that she never had fixed career goals in mind. While agreeing
that there are not many women who make strategic organisational
decisions and maximum are in the software development field, Saadia
reminds that any segment or industry goes through this kind of trend.
Gayathri
Parathasarthy is head, Development Integration Services,
a Strategic Business Unit (SBU) for the IT services division at
i-flex solutions.
Starting
her career one and a half decades back, this Mathematics graduate
from Chennai University leads a team of 190 professionals in Mumbai
and Bangalore. “We handle various types of projects, onsite,
offshore, turnkey development, maintenance and enhancements in various
technology areas with main focus on corporate and investment banking.
There are three project managers working under me who handle these
projects out of our development centres and customer locations,”
explains Gayathri.
Attributing
the reasons for success to solution-oriented approach, complete
understanding of customer needs and determination to make things
happen, she says, “Aim for the best in everything and definitely
you will keep on setting bigger goals and achieving them.”
Her goal as a professional ranges from making every customer happy
to motivating the team members to achieving zero defect in deliverables.
A tall order! Well no, not for Gayathri who has always set very
high standards for herself. Strongly believing that it is performance,
honesty and commitment to the organisation and the potential to
handle bigger business that takes one to the right position (not
whether one is a man or a woman), she remarks, “ I have grown
in the last 15 years of profession from a programmer to a business
unit head today and responsibilities have increased every year.”
Pointing
out that there are many organisations where senior management consists
of a sizable number in India, she reminds that each individual has
the responsibility of managing the personal and professional life,
the balances that need to be put in place and the priorities. “I
have never felt that being a women I am restricted to grow...cannot...If
I want to I will and nobody can stop it!”
Whether
man or woman it is positive thinking, commitment and business intelligence
that charts the way to the top. “These are individual traits
and young professionals can be trained/groomed to think on these
factors which every senior in any industry who are responsible should
take it as an additional responsibility and do it. That will be
the contribution to the future of this country and the industry.”
Inspiring words for wannabe women techies who have no dearth of
role models to find their place under the sun.
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