The Hindu Business Line : ‘Choose to achieve’

Her answer to the question why she left Amex, where she was doing so well, will gladden the hearts of many a career woman. “It meant my husband changing his job the third time for me. The first time he changed when we got engaged, the second was when we got married. And I didn’t think it appropriate to demand this a third time in a couple of years… saying ‘I am moving, so you pack your bags and move too’.”

Anju Talwar, now a Senior Vice President and Training Leader at Genpact, had begun her career with American Express, in 1983, where she stayed for 13 years and held seven different positions, from sales to operations. Her most exciting stint was “the first-ever Indian rupee card launched in 1993. I was expecting, the launch was in the first week of July, we were having our first review and I rushed from it to meet my doctor, little realising that I would not return to work; I delivered the same day.”

All went well till 1996, when Amex decided to set up its Asia consolidated centre out of Sydney, and sought her help in doing so. But her son was only three years old, and not wanting to ask her husband for a third change in job for her sake, she moved on to join GE Capital International Services (GECIS) in 1997. “They wanted to do exactly the same thing that Amex planned from Sydney — set up a consolidated back-office centre which eventually came to be known in the market as BPO, a virtually unknown industry then.”

Anju recalls that she opted for operations because she enjoyed the work and “thought it would allow me adequate time with my child and family. But guess what? Within 15 days of joining, I was on a flight to the US because my boss said ‘what operations can you run till we sell to somebody and bring in some operations’!”

But with the growth of the business in the first couple of years taking a little longer than expected, she worked on the SBI-GE joint venture and focused her energy on the launch of the first credit card in India by the SBI.

In 1998 came the post of Vice-President, Transaction Processing, and in 2000 she became VP - New Ventures, where she put the China project on the ground. In July 2001, she donned the mantle of CEO, GECIS Software. Next came her role as global process management leader for GECIS, with the additional responsibility for driving transitions across India, China, Hungary and Mexico. Currently, she is senior VP, Operations and Head of Hiring and Training.

She also leads Genpact Women’s International Network (GenWIN), an initiative aimed at fostering the professional development of women employees, by encouraging diversity at senior leadership levels, getting more women in leadership positions and fostering women’s development through this network.

On the glass ceiling and the challenges women face when it comes to reaching senior management levels, Anju says that while quite often the home-front remains a challenge “a big recognition for me is that the home-front counts for men too. Things are changing on that front.”

She also believes that very often “women don’t push the envelope themselves and that slows down their growth. Having learnt ‘change management’ in the corporate world, women need to drive change even within their home lives and make choices all the time.”

This, she says, is beginning to happen, “but I wish it could be more and faster. That is why one of the biggest pillars of what we do in Genwin is informal networking and coaching and guidance through other senior women leaders.” She thinks such networking is crucial because the “way a young woman would open up to a senior female leader is different from the way she opens up to a male leader.”

Good news

The good news, as far as Genpact is concerned, is that 45 per cent of its employees are women; 30 per cent at middle management level and 20 per cent in senior management. The numbers taper off at middle and senior levels, adds Anju, because “one of the biggest hurdles in the way of women’s growth is our own mindset.”

For example, when it comes to promotions or senior positions, women don’t even make an attempt. “Sometimes when I talk to them and say, ‘Did you think, you wouldn’t need to relocate and could have done the job by staying put in one place and travelling?’ And they said: ‘Ah, it never occurred to us’. Or when I ask, ‘did you ask your husband and he said ‘No’ to the new position’, they tell me they didn’t think it was appropriate to even ask him such a question. This tells you they are not pushing the envelope,” says Anju.

But she does not believe that women are not good negotiators when firming up job offers or at promotion time. “I don’t think this is true… maybe I had the luxury of working for two very large organisations that have existed for 100 years.

Also, they have seen and respected diversity and have put up frameworks of policies and practices in place which talk only of meritocracy. The system does not allow for any bargaining or negotiation irrespective of whether you are male or female. If it’s due to you it will come to you; you can rest assured.”

She adds that even at entry level, salary guidelines are in place. “I run the hiring for all of Genpact globally and I know that irrespective of whether I hire a male or female, the salary guidelines are the same, and employees get equal opportunities.”

On sexual harassment, she says Genpact has a special cell with 2-3 senior leaders, including a legal compliance person. “In all our training programmes we very openly talk about this, so women know that we take action and very quickly. We do get complaints and these are addressed.”

On what else Genpact does to maintain an equitable female ratio in its workforce and not lose trained female employees, Anju says, “We give women flexible work-hours, extended maternity leave and also encourage work from home. When I am hiring I pay my vendors more to bring more women profiles, and ensure we get the best talent. All our new sites have a crèche facility.”

She clarifies that flexi-time or work from home are allowed only for a specific period of time; “a few months, maybe a year.”

Strengths, weaknesses

She believes a major strength women bring to the workplace is emotional quotient; “it’s not a cliché, it’s actually true because the way they connect with their teams, it is very easy for us to talk about family and work in one breath. Men are not like that”.

On the other hand, their “biggest drawback is that they don’t sell themselves very well… putting up their hand to say ‘I can do this’. They always wait to be told, and this has a little to do with comfort zone, and the fear of having to learn something new.”

She has an interesting response on how she relaxes. “I and my son (15) go gallivanting around the city very often. And what he wants to become changes with what I am doing in life. I was working on a deal with a large automobile company and he wanted to become an auto designer; when the client was a bank, he wanted to be an investment banker, and so it goes on.”

She travels “like crazy” and the most difficult thing is to leave him behind. He calls during the interview and she explains: “I came back from the US last night and I haven’t met him yet, and I’m travelling again next week. I’ve lived in China and Japan for 18 months (1999-2000), and Hungary for a year but I’ve never shifted my family.”

"Timeless"

We’ve begun to raise daughters more like sons... but few have the courage to raise our sons more like our daughters. -- Gloria Steinem