StepUp Leadership

Hear Anupama Kylash define how Art moulds leadership, sharing valuable insights on talent, fluidity, and the effort of finding clarity. Anupama Kylash is a renowned Indian dancer and choreographer known for her expertise in Vilasini Natyam and Kuchipudi dance styles. She began her dance journey with Bharatanatyam under the guidance of Guru Jayalakshmi Narayanan, later advancing her skills in Kuchipudi under Guru Uma Rama Rao and Vilasini Natyam under Padma Bhushan awardee Swapna Sundari. Anupama earned her Bachelor's, Master's and Ph.D. in Dance from prestigious universities in Hyderabad. She has performed in various national and international dance festivals and also teaches the Masters Program in Kuchipudi at the University of Silicon Andhra. Anupama has also authored content for the Kuchipudi dance style syllabus for the Central Board of Secondary Education and curates 'The Thinking Cap Series' for promoting research and interaction in fine and performing arts.

In this interview, Vinutha Raja, a seasoned HR professional with over 20 years of experience in the industry, narrates her challenging journey of becoming compassionately curious towards her team members. Currently, she is the Senior Director- Human Resources at Sony India Software Centre in Bangalore, where she has been working for 11 years. Before that, she held various HR management positions at Samsung India Software Operations and Samsung for almost a decade. With her extensive experience, she has developed expertise in HR strategy, talent acquisition, employee engagement, and organizational development.

Professor, Digital Strategy, Brand Communication and Contemporary Marketing at S P Jain School of Global Management, Dr. Smitha Ranganathan has over 24 years of experience as an advertising and brand communication professional. She has donned various hats in advertising agencies and currently teaches Digital Strategy, Brand Communication and Contemporary Marketing at S P Jain School of Global Management. Dr. Smitha serves among the Board of Governors at IIM Kozhikode Laboratory for Innovation, Venturing and Entrepreneurship. Gain valuable insights on defying trends, authentic storytelling, and personal branding from the eminent Dr. Smitha Ranganathan.

Nidhi Jain is a global HR leader with over 21 years of experience, currently serving as the Global Head of Human Resources for EY Client Technology. Previously, as the Head of Corporate HR for EY India, she worked closely with the leadership team to define and implement talent strategies for all businesses within EY India. Nidhi's expertise lies in talent transformation, organization development, culture and change, DE&I, employer branding, performance and rewards, and building high-performing teams.

EY leader Hensie Bommanahal talks about how everything starts with women understanding who they are as a brand, especially in today's competitive environment. She talks about being inspired by Brene Brown's theory of vulnerability and how she thinks it is an integral power tool for every leader. "Being in the arena versus sitting on the sidelines and passing judgment is a critical part of leadership," says Hensie. Hensie Bommanahal is the Business Management Lead for the Engineering team in Client Technology at EY. Client Technology drives revenue growth and enables market differentiation for EY through asset-powered solutions. In her role in Client Technology Engineering, Hensie is responsible for financial management, portfolio and performance management, resource management, etc.

Hear EY leader Mary Nisha Thomas talk about the superpower of empathy that every leader needs to have. Mary talks about the rare leadership quality of remaining calm amid the storm and reminds us to focus on what we accomplished instead of what we didn't achieve. Mary Nisha Thomas, a Global Talent Development Leader in EY Client Technologies, keeps learning to help people get better with the way they treat themselves and the way they treat others through relevant pedagogy and behavioral and organizational transformation. With 22 years of leading talent and organizational development, she has assessed and applied behavioral science through real-time implementation to achieve organizational goals. She seamlessly works with global teams across EMEIA, Americas, and APAC for various organizations that specialize in telecom, insurance, shipping, manufacturing, technology, ITeS, and professional services.

In this interview, Master Coach Vijayalakshmi S talks about the real ways of finding our purpose in life, slaying her inner demons, focusing on fitness and occasionally keeping her inner child alive in our own ways. She tells us how one should remember that "Success doesn't require specific qualifications or experiences -- you can define success on your own terms.” Vijayalakshmi S is a Management Consultant, Master Coach & Mentor (MCC from International Coaching Federation and MP from European Mentoring & Coaching Council). She has over 20 years of industry experience across Coaching, Management Consulting and Human Resources with a background in Law. She is an accredited Mediator. As an experienced coach, she has expertise in partnering with businesses, teams and individuals.

Tech leader Neha Monga believes that the journey from having an identity as a leader to creating that relevance is a long one. Authenticity is a very important virtue in this process because if someone isn't their authentic self, they may appear irrelevant and that may not be long-lived. So sustainable leadership comes from creating authenticity. She shares her beautiful perspectives on how she lives by the motto of "First deserve, then desire" to build her deservability, challenge boundaries, create relevance and be humble in a space where things are constantly evolving. Neha Monga is the Area Business Group Leader - Cybersecurity, Data Governance, Risk and Compliance, Asia Pacific, Microsoft Corporation. Neha has earned the well-deserved “Gold Club“ recognition for her consistent high performance within her organization. Neha strongly believes that there should be no limits to one’s ability to aspire and grow.

In this interview, Janani Prakaash, Global Head of HR for Quantela Inc, talks about building a fearless organisation, evolving with the times, being accountable as an individual and also leading a focused life. She tells young women to work towards nurturing their inner drive and find ways to ask for support.  A human resources leader with an Engineering background, a leadership development coach, a certified yoga instructor, a trained vocalist and veena artist as well as a teacher, Janani Prakaash is currently the Global Head of HR for Quantela Inc. At Quantela, she is responsible for all aspects of HR including but not limited to Talent Acquisition, development, engagement, retention, culture building, and change management owing to business model changes and mergers and acquisitions.   

In this interview Rajasekharan shares some coaching anecdotes and how he coaches across the different layers of the organisation. He provides his perspective on internal coaching and how he wishes to contribute to the future of coaching. Rajasekharan or Raj as he likes being called is the Founder and Chief Consultant of BusinessClinique, an organisation that helps solves business problems with the help of renowned experts. He is also a certified coach for senior management and business leaders and a mentor for entrepreneurs at the IIT Incubation Centre. Raj worked with ITC Ltd. for 32 years before retiring as the CEO of the Matches & Agarbatti Division in 2018. Additionally, he was also the Chief Executive of the Safety Matches Business since 2010. He modelled and ran both businesses on the principles of lean management and aggressive market expansion. Raj was also the Chairman of the CSR committee of Madras Chambers of Commerce for two years from 2016. He was instrumental in promoting sustainable development projects in collaboration with several State Governments.