The Greatest Boss Contest Honorable Mention
Nithya Ramkumar
Chief Technology Officer
Wipro BPO
Bangalore, India
For-Profit Organizations Category
Nomination Essay
Is fun:
- Has a funny bone. Is the loudest on the floor; no points for guessing 'who' when you hear roaring laughter. HR is contemplating conducting interviews on our floor, people wonder if this lady actually leads 300 members!
- Direct reports argue with her like hell broke loose but most arguments end up in genuine smiles.
- Never makes notes but keeps account of every grain in a status update; blinking straight in your face
- A work related conversation and you don't come to the point in 10 seconds - it's over
- Questions her seniors in one liner emails if they make an unreasonable demand; example: a new product demo in a day
- 'Love me hate me but you can't ignore me' is quite about her. 20 years at Wipro Technologies and having held many leadership roles; it couldn't have happened without stepping on a few toes but how does it matter; it was always in the best interest of the product or the people!
- Will not give away her secret learning easily but expects you to watch her craft and put it to practice; ASAP is key.
- It's never 'my way or the high-way; its 'my way and you will love it'. 300 people seem to be enjoying the ride! Guess it's a quintessential quality in successful leaders…
- A direct report suggested that we nominate Nithya for this award; her reply 'what happened, appraisals are not yet round the corner?'
- Can take a joke on herself in equal spirit
Is steel:
- Calls a spade a spade
- Has set up this 300 member team from scratch
- The team is a cost center to Wipro BPO, but one of the most revered teams for the value it brings to customers. It's been an uphill climb to get the team to this stature
- Believes in team work; is trusting
- Reinventing the wheel is not her style; encourages people to play on their strengths
- Takes the word 'dead' seriously out of the word deadline
- Glass ceiling is not a concept in her dictionary. Her bosses are always convinced about why her role needs to get bigger each year. She is always on the create-value-for-customers path.
- Was ranked among the 'Top 10 Women Achievers in IT in India' by Techplus Media in Sept '11.
- Under her leadership Wipro BPO won industry awards for enabling customers to realize business value through technology:
1. BPO Excellence Award 2010-11: Use of Technology for Operational Excellence - Base
2. Outsourcing Center Service Provider Excellence Award 2010-11: Best IT Enablement in BPO
There are no specific instances to quote; she can always crack you up no matter how grave the situation. The one thing that will stay with most of her people is the way she takes on each day
- Fresh
- A crisis is not the end of the world; we can always turn it around
- No penalties for a few creative failures
- Do your best at what you do best
- There's no need to skip lunch
- Let's follow a few rules; pun intended
- Her approach may be incremental, but her tenacity to see things till the end is commendable
