Women’s week marks a time for us to recognize and acknowledge the amazing progress made by strong women and celebrate their determination and success. Their relentless efforts in their professional life have played an extraordinary role in changing the future of their companies and served as an inspiration to countless others.
Today, we have the pleasure of sharing the story of one such strong leader, Ms. Niranjana Neelakantan, Operations & HR Head at TESSOL.
#HeRstory
Niranjana is a specialist in organizational design and the life cycle of start-ups. She is an industry veteran with experience spanning several industries including pharma, telecom, logistics, education, social enterprise, and IT. Some other areas of her expertise include performance management, organizational capability building, leadership development, and the design of competency-based frameworks & development centers.
With such a varied work record it is no wonder that the list of her achievements is equally impressive. When asked about her milestone achievements, she humbly replied- “The greatest achievement has been helping TESSOL successfully manage many of its challenges over the past few years.
In my role as Operations and HR Head of TESSOL, I have helped streamline processes that give strategic and operational direction to the firm which has, in turn, helped TESSOL significantly improve its bottom line and margins. Further, steering the organization during the pandemic crisis has been a great achievement in itself.
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Navigating the business in such uncertain conditions, simultaneously safeguarding business as well as employees’ interests and successfully coming this far is personally and professionally a great achievement”.
It is no secret that every road to success has its share of bumps. This is doubly applicable when women visionaries try to implement change in their work environment to steer the company in the right direction. We asked Ms. Niranjana about the hurdles she faced when she started her journey and how she overcame them, to which she confidently replied- “Leading the Operations function in the manufacturing industry came with its own unique set of challenges.
Professionally, I had no formal training nor experience in Operations and in order to effectively lead, I learned everything from scratch. It was undoubtedly a great challenge but I think I was successful because I never shied away from accepting that I had a lot to learn. I prepared a plan to induct myself into the function and very diligently followed up on it.
Also, I proactively reached out to colleagues and mentors both within the organization as well as outside to help me get up to speed on the nitty-gritty of the function. I would say that reaching out to and taking guidance from mentors and colleagues along with my willingness to take up any challenge that came my way has been instrumental in helping me overcome any hurdle.”
Read also – Arpita Dasgupta shares HeR story | Women’s Week 2021
When it comes to leading a company, there is no one-size-fits-all. Leaders like Ms. Niranjana Neelakantan take a focused and determined approach to lead their company to success. Their innate ability to concentrate on problems, develop and follow through with the solutions plan, and effective communication with the team when required are just some of the reasons why we are #InspiredByHer.
