1. What does Leadership mean to you?

Leadership is all about accountability.

2. How do you keep your team motivated?

By adopting servant leadership with huge empathy.

3. It is said that a leader is as good or as bad as his/ her team. Do you agree? Why?

A leader can ONLY be as good as his / her team; NEVER BETTER. If the leader feels he /she is better, it is incumbent on the leader to make them as good or even better than themselves.

4. How do you delegate responsibility? What is your mantra for making your team accountable?

Accountability can be engendered ONLY if the team member takes total ownership of the responsibility delegated to him / her. Responsibilities, therefore, need to be assigned based on the capability and potential of the team member. There should always be an element of ‘stretch’ to make achieving the intended outcome aspirational.

5. Have you struggled with work-life balance? How did you handle it? How do you handle it even now?

Prioritization is the key to maintaining a Work – Life Balance. Efficient time management will help you achieve this seemingly impossible balance. I build my workday around my family’s routine, so that one can spend quality time with them. Another way is to mesh and converge the hobbies that you have with that of your spouse / children / parents. Like playing squash / golf together or going for treks together.

7.What are you most proud of in your organisation? How did you go about achieving it and ensuring it sustainability?

To be known as a 114 year YOUNG Company that is very ethical is something that I am very proud of in Alembic. Over the last 7 years that I have been with Alembic, we have worked tirelessly to ensure that. It does get difficult with a widely dispersed and largely unsupervised work force. However, with great diligence and commitment, one has been able to make sure it gets ingrained in the culture of the organization.

8.What matters to you the most – loyalty of your employees or loyalty to your customers/ clients?

Loyalty is an omnidirectional virtue. You’ve got to be loyal to the Company. Loyalty to employees or customers will automatically fall in line. Whenever in doubt, you have to ask yourself if the action is for the greater good of the organization or not.

9.How important is intellectual exchange for you? How do you seek it, and where?

Intellectual exchange is the very Oxygen for any professional. The quality of one’s perspective only gets deeper and more relevant with multi- disciplinary, cross-industry and multi-cultural exchanges. I participate in various fora, not just restricted to my current industry, but across all sectors, functions and roles. Regular interactions with students, academia and other professionals serves this purpose well.