She has traversed multiple domains in multiple locations, executing and excelling in different roles. Geetha Ramamoorthi, Managing Director, KBR India, has a fascinating career graph, and behind that is the story of single-minded focus and the drive to push boundaries.
In an interview with Avtar Insights, she recounts her journey across domains and the need for women leaders like her to drive the agenda around Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion.
Tell us about your journey. What are the milestones, and what lessons did they offer to you as a woman professional?
My career has taken twists and turns over the years in some ways which I hadn’t foreseen when I had set out to be a part of the corporate world. Whilst I qualified as a CA and CMA, and started in Finance, every two to three years I found myself unintentionally reinventing myself and breaking new ground. Starting my career with United India Insurance Bangalore as a freshly-qualified CA, in six months, I switched to a Finance role in Ashok Leyland in Chennai. Moving from Sales Finance to Corporate accounting, I also had a stint in Treasury in Leyland— these gave me a good grounding in different facets of Finance. The first big milestone occurred when I decided to shift from manufacturing to the Financial services industry, and this was a time when IPOs and bought-out deals were the buzzwords, I joined Empire Finance in Merchant banking. From then for the next four years, I got a taste of financial services and depository services in a few companies which sharpened not only my understanding of business finance but also honed my business development skills. The next big milestone was joining CH2M Hill Singapore as the Regional Financial Manager for Asia Pacific. This proved to be the turning point in my career in many ways in terms of broader global exposure, and exposure to different cultures and languages, something I hadn’t been exposed to earlier.
The third milestone was my move from Finance to business leadership. This happened in WS Atkins where I spent a good 14-plus years doing various roles across Finance, Operations, Business Management, Business Change, and Digital. The diverse roles and moving out of my comfort zone instilled greater confidence but also enhanced my appetite and ability to take risks, a learning I have always carried with me since then. Leading a large team of 600 Engineers in the transportation domain comprising Rail, Highways, and Aerospace for global clients proved to be a huge stepping stone in my career which honed my stakeholder management skills and prepared me for the next bigger milestone of heading overall India operations.
My next role was to lead Business Change and Digital transformation, which in some ways, rounded off my overall capabilities and prepared me for a bigger country leadership role in KBR.
Who have been your role models, and why?
For several years, Kalpana Morparia was my role model and I admired her for how she carved out her career from being a Legal head at ICICI to becoming a Joint Managing Director there and then taking the mantle of CEO of JP Morgan.
I also admire Arundhati Bhattacharya, who after a long stint with SBI and after retiring from there, scripted history when she was appointed as the Chairperson and Chief Executive of the India division of Salesforce. What inspired me in both these women was their willingness to take risks and challenges head-on and turn those into excellent opportunities. Moving out of my comfort zone and having a growth mindset are aspects I have learnt from them.
As we still strive for a gender balance in leadership roles across domains, what do you think are the factors that have enabled your success?
The road to reaching gender balance has been and still appears to be long and uneven. While statistics point to a decent upward swing in the percentage of women in Board rooms from 15% in 2015 to 19% in 2022, the representation in leadership roles is low at a mere 4.7%.
I don’t think I have fully arrived. Yet, I am grateful for the journey and my current destination. A few factors have helped me break the glass ceiling, albeit after some struggles.
Moving out of my comfort zone: Some of my bosses and male allies were instrumental in encouraging me to move out of my comfort zone and trusted me with stretch responsibilities.
Learning never stops: My drive and desire to keep learning and acquainting myself with new and relevant areas such as Digital, Design thinking, and climate change positioned me better to expand my horizon and grow in my professional career.
Taking inspiration: I have benefited from people around me, mostly women who have broken barriers to succeed in male-dominated industries, and some who have shared their experience in navigating arduous journeys of moving up the ladder, and the hints they shared are life lessons I will always cherish and carry with me. Dr. Saundarya Rajesh (Dr. Saundarya Rajesh | LinkedIn) is a huge inspiration. Also, there are super achievers amongst people with disabilities who inspire me with their positive and can-do attitude, like Sumit Agarwal (Sumit Agarwal | LinkedIn). Small drops of water make an ocean!
Family support: I received strong support from my spouse and family to help me pursue my goals by sharing my responsibilities and motivating me to keep going towards my goal post, despite challenging circumstances which they continue to handle with composure.
What do you think is different and unique about women leaders?
Women leaders are generally more grounded, more empathetic, more emotionally intelligent, more collaborative, more practical, and more humble when compared with men. I firmly believe these are great traits that make women more successful and effective leaders.
We have been seeing reports about how women in leadership counter challenges like biases and stereotypes. According to you, what is missing in the broader scheme of things, causing the hurdles?
I feel there are yet very few women role models in senior leadership roles that other women can try to emulate and learn from, especially in a country like India. We are still a very patriarchal and male-dominated society with a backlog of untapped human capital, which has remained dormant owing to years of societal conditioning and suppression, waiting to be unlocked. The issue of discrimination and underrepresentation of women in the workforce needs to be addressed at the grassroots level starting from childbirth, sex determination, and discrimination against the girl child, to literacy for girls in schools, supporting girls in higher education and universities, to opening up equal opportunities in employment. All of this has to be backed by a robust support system at home and work to create an environment that nurtures and develops human capital to include more women in the workforce.
You are also a DEI champion. How do you think leaders can drive the impact of DEI?
Leaders need to first believe in the value of driving DEI and not try to do a few things as a tick-in-the-box exercise. They also need to lead by example and be bold to take actions that can cause some temporary discontent but will result in demonstrable outcomes. I always believe in a carrot-and-stick approach when it comes to DEI. Till it becomes second nature, leaders will have to use incentives and recognitions coupled with measurable KPIs to be able to track, report, challenge, and drive DEI in their organizations. Besides, they need to shine a light on women who are contributing and delivering to the business, by consciously giving them more visibility and recognition. While mentoring and development programs do yield results, I believe removing the obstacles to women’s progression and career growth can make an impact.
While doing all of the above is essential, celebrating male allies who are committed to the cause of driving DEI can be valuable and powerful in encouraging more males to follow suit.
Sharing success stories of women who have broken barriers and risen in their careers via events and platforms will also help inspire other women to aim high.
Do you think the impact can differ with gender? Share your experiences of being the voice of DEI within your organization.
I believe the impact of an organization’s efforts in driving DEI will be visible if members from both genders take the lead. However, it can be amplified multifold if you have a woman driving the agenda. I will take my example as a case in point. I have seen a marked shift in leaders embracing DEI, implementing the right policies, and demonstrating the right behaviors to bring a visible difference in the workforce mix shifted gears when I took the lead as a woman. I feel the pain and identify with the challenges women face while rising in their careers, and I am duty-bound and empowered to drive the agenda with a single-minded focus. I realized that unless you take bold steps to drive the gender diversity agenda you can’t expect disproportionate outcomes. I took some measures to drive better diversity and inclusion– better gender balance in graduate hires, connecting with returning women to understand how we can provide an enabling environment in KBR, improving the support system for young mothers with flexible working, daycare support, advocating for women to be given opportunities for challenging assignments, making them visible on social media, celebrating their success via events, etc. These are yielding good results, but the road ahead is still long, and we need to keep the momentum on and accelerate the efforts to see lasting change.
