Women Achievers
PIC: mudasir yousuf
Well, it is really difficult. I am a
mother of two daughters, one
is nine and the other is three. I
completely owe it to my husband,
in-laws and parents who have
supported me and helped me have
a career. They often come over
when I have to travel. By now, my
children have also realised that ‘a
working mom is a different animal
to tackle.’ My elder daughter has accepted that she has a working mom
and has come to terms with it; but
my younger one still hasn’t. I have
grown up with a working mother
as well and I think that has made
me more confident. It’s sometimes
tough when I have to travel for
work and also help my elder daughter finish her project work. It’s
quite a task then! So yes, managing
both fronts is difficult, but with the
right support system and the right
team you can do it. Just believe in
yourself, have the self-confidence,
and work hard.
‘One has
to fight
to make a
place’
It’s all about how you deal with
people, how people react to certain
stimuli, and so on
By Mahalakshmi Hariharan
W
e’ve heard of this
old Thai saying, “A
man is the foreleg
of the elephant and
the woman the hind
leg,” which means
that behind every
successful man is
a woman. Yes, we know and have
been hearing this phrase since ages
now. But, how about a successful
woman? Who backs her up? Well,
not surprisingly, behind every successful woman is also a man…her
father, her friend, her husband, or
her family.
Meet one such glorious woman— Anwesa Sen, Global Head,
Human Resources & Organisation
Development at Geometric Ltd, a
global engineering services firm.
Anwesa, now in her late thirties, is
a successful professional with over
14 years of experience in India and
China, working across multiple
facets of the HR function. Anwesa credits both her family and her
working team for her success. She
spoke to Corporate Citizen on the
various phases of her life, from the
beginning of her career, to the people-centric, open-culture policies of
her company, to maintaining the
balancing act between work and
home, as also offering some advice
to the job-hopping youth of today
You did your Masters in
Neurophysiology followed by
Post-Graduation in business
administration (Human Resources)…how did the shift happen?
I come from a background where
my dad was in the Ministry of
Defence and mom an Economics
professor. I have grown up seeing
both of them dealing with people…
both of them are people’s persons.
Looking at them, their lives, I too
decided that I wanted to deal with
people, be a people’s person and so
decided to do my post-graduation
in Human Resources. If you look at
it, neurophysiology deals with the
18 / Corporate Citizen / April 1-15, 2015
How difficult is it to manage both
work and home?
Can you take us through your
staff strength and expansion
plans
Anwesa Sen, Global Head, Human Resources
& Organisation Development at Geometric Ltd
nervous system of humans and in
a way both are interrelated. It’s all
about how you deal with people,
how people react to certain stimuli,
and so on.
Dassault Systèmes). I have also been
associated with the HR department
of Affar Think Tech Technologies
and 3P Consultants.
Take us through your education
and work.
My first job was in Mumbai, in
1999, in the HR department of
an IT Consultancy firm called 3P
Consultants, where I dealt with
recruitment. Life in Mumbai was
tough. I still remember travelling by
crowded trains to South Mumbai
from Powai for recruitment. Mumbai was a new place for me, it was
certainly challenging then…but
was a different ball game altogether.
I was born and bought up in Kolkata. I did my schooling from Frank
Anthony Public School and Masters
in Neurophysiology from Calcutta
University. Later, I decided to pursue
my post-graduate diploma in business administration (HR) from
the Institute of Business Management & Research, Kolkata. I joined
Geometric in 2007 from SunGard
Availability Services, where I used
to head the Central HR function.
Prior to that, I spent four and a half
years in China with the HR division
of Shanghai American School.
Before moving to China, I spent five
years as the HR head for 3DPLM
Software Solutions (a joint venture
company of Geometric Limited and
What was your first job like?
You’ve been associated with
Geometric since the past seven
years. How has your journey
been? Take us through the
different initiatives taken by you
at Geometric?
It has been a wonderful journey.
Thanks to my team who have
helped me come so far. We are
focused on employee engagement
programmes at all levels, thereby
giving our people a healthy, fun
and learning environment. We are
not only engaging with employees, but also reaching out to their
families through various events and
celebrations. We organise annual
gala nights with families, Kids’
Day @ Work, Cricket Tournaments where families come out to
cheer the teams. We also have an
annual global painting competition called, ‘Little Geometrician’
wherein the kids of employees send
in their paintings to us. We follow
an open door policy. You can go
up to anyone in the organisation
and talk/give your views. We give
our employees a lot of flexibility to
work on other domains as well. We
have had employees who have gone
from pure techie roles to operations
to becoming HR heads; or from
operations to sales to finance. These
endeavours ensure that we remain
an employee friendly organisation.
We just celebrated our 20th anniversary last year. We have our
offices spread across Asia Pacific,
North America and Europe. In
India, we recently opened an
office in Hyderabad, about nine
months ago. We will soon have
offices in Bangalore and Chennai
as well. We hire individuals as and
when required, depending on the
business demands. Typically, we
go to campuses, use job portals
or referrals for recruitment. In
India, currently we have 2800
employees.
What has been your experience
as a woman in the corporate
world, especially in this so called
‘Macho’ IT sector?
As I come from the defence
background and having studied in
a co-ed school, I have grown up like
a guy. I have always understood that
one has to fight to make a place.
I have always believed in myself
and that’s what I keep telling my
daughter as well. There’s no difference between a male and female
employee, ultimately it’s the role that
“
oung professionals are put to
Y
test after a thorough selection
process and the ones coming
out with flying colours become
directly eligible for management
level positions in the company”
gets paid. We follow this culture at
Geometric as well.
What are the various programmes for employees?
We keep coming up with various
development programmes for
employees. We have this two-year
programme called the Accelerated
Techno Management programme
(ATM) where we have tied up
with the University of Virginia.
ATM focuses on creating technical
domain experts with management
skills within Geometric. Young
professionals are put to test after
a thorough selection process and
the ones coming out with flying
colours become directly eligible for
management level positions in the
company, which otherwise would
have taken them four to six more
years to achieve. Participants here
undertake a number of assignments, understand business from a
closer perspective, and work with
the leaders of the organisation.
How do you define your moment
of glory?
I still remember when I was interviewing for Geometric (3DPLM). I
was to be interviewed by someone
else but then suddenly was asked
to meet the CEO instead. I was so
nervous that I goofed up by mispronouncing his name in the first
few minutes of the meeting itself.
I was sure I had lost my opportunity here, but as I was walking out
I was told to wait and collect my
appointment letter! That was truly
a moment of glory. Even today, our
CEO teases me saying he wanted
to appoint a senior person for this
role, but he chose me even though I
mispronounced his name.
What is your idea of relaxation
and holiday?
Work is hectic and I am travel-
ling most of the time. But given
a chance I would love to watch
a movie or a game of cricket or
football. I am a die-hard fan of MS
Dhoni. Once a year, if my husband
and I are both in town, we do a
family trip to maybe Goa or some
other destination. We used to catch
up on all the latest movie until a few
years ago but now it’s difficult. But
I still try and catch up on movies
while travelling.
Lastly, what do you think is the
general trend of youngsters today, in terms of their capabilities,
attitudes and willingness to stick
on to a job?
Well, today’s youngsters get bored
very easily. Hence, it is important
to keep coming up with innovative
ways to keep them engaged. We
also come across many youngsters
who keep changing jobs for money.
They want to do interesting things
& explore new areas. Social media
plays an important role for most
of them. Youngsters today need to
be more stable and not changing
jobs frequently. The grass is always
green on the other side of the fence,
but one must also see priorities and
opportunities available for growth.
Patience is the key.
[email protected]
India’s
CC
tadka shame
Education statistics at the pan
India level are appealing. Eight
crore children of India discontinue their education at school
level. Whats more distressing
is that 80 lakh eligible children
don’t go to school at all.
April 1-15, 2015 / Corporate Citizen / 19