Leadership Style
A strong leader combines the different skills inherent in each team member into a whole and drives the team toward the organization’s goals. A leader should be the glue that holds the team together to accomplish a variety of big and small milestones. Good team leadership often means being reasonable, fair and direct. I listen to members of my team and their individual opinions, coming from different people with expertise in different areas. Then, I use my own judgment to draw conclusions about various aspects of the business. It is important for people to recognize the importance of results over process. Therefore, I evaluate my team based on results, which goes a long way in energizing an organization and building a performance-oriented culture.

A basic tenet of my management style is to ensure ample communication before working on goals. Proactive and regular communication is something I have learned is indispensable in a good leader. I have also learned that candor and honesty, especially when delivering bad news, help to establish a leader’s credibility with people, as does following-up on commitments consistently and reliably. Finally, I strongly believe that decision making and being decisive are key traits of a leader of substance.

Evolution of Leadership Style
As I moved from technical to marketing to business functions in the past twenty plus years, I faced different challenges at each stage. Even though my leadership style remained the same, the challenges required different resources and approaches to solutions. At times, I may not have understood all aspects and details of a problem, but I always worked to meet any knowledge deficits. I am pragmatic by nature and often found myself breaking down a large issue into smaller units in order to quickly identify solutions.

Essentially, leadership is all about people. A leader should not just lead, but also cultivate and encourage others to take initiative and lead. My experience has been that every good leader evolves under other leaders before reaching the top – there is much to learn about leadership by observing others. I have used regular team meetings to ensure there is communication between myself and team members, as well as to ensure team members are talking to each other. These meetings are effective in solving problems and discussing issues as a team. As the team collaborates regularly, they become more cohesive and aligned toward a common goal.

As a leader matures, responsibility inevitably accelerates and with that comes accountability for results. In the past decade, my experience in business management has been excellent and has made me a more confident and decisive leader. Whether in forecasting market trends or predicting customer reactions to technology, I am able to use a combination of existing knowledge and inherent business intuition to arrive at my conclusions.

One major initiative in which I was personally involved was the development of our GeoMedia® technology in 1996, which eventually became our flagship geospatial product released in 1997. This was a turning point in my career. The development of GeoMedia required an open and in-depth evaluation of customer preferences. Its creation was very different from our previous philosophy of proprietary data and information.

The premise paid rich dividends for the company while also demonstrating Intergraph’s role as a thought leader in the market. We faced some major challenges, internally and externally. We trained our worldwide team to sell and support this new technology. It was very different from anything they had seen before. We took a risk by making huge investments in the new environment.

The results were positive, although the processes to achieve them were not without pain.

Choosing the Right People
I believe strongly in not only getting the best talent, but also employees with the right attitude. I pay attention to one’s problem-solving capabilities and approach during the interview process. I ask questions that enable me to see the fit of a candidate within the existing organization. I also probe to see what new ideas and approaches they would bring to the company. I believe in a mix of old and new that yields good and positive results. Other important attributes are domain expertise, evenhandedness, clarity, a direct approach and a person who is unafraid of making informed decisions.

I have changed course a few times during my career, the most significant being when I moved from software development to the marketing side of the business. The moves were not planned; rather a result of taking advantage of opportunities that happened to open up. When such opportunities open up, either internally or externally, my strong advice to people is to be honest with themselves on whether the new role is the right one for them. Carefully research the role and the expectations before jumping in. Ensure your experience and expertise is a good match and that you are indeed setting yourself up for success, rather than the opposite.

The Road Ahead
My current position as the President of Intergraph’s Security, Government and Infrastructure division was created earlier this year during major corporate restructuring – combining three vertical business units into one. There is a lot to learn and much to accomplish.

I am excited about working toward successful results from all the hard work of restructuring. Months from now I hope to look back with satisfaction on accomplishing the company’s goals and growth of both the top and bottom lines of the business. The focus is on execution to meet significant exciting market opportunities in the areas of security, government and infrastructure. To this end, having strong leadership, a great team and corporate support is essential. This creates a solid foundation for success. Fundamentally, however, it all finally goes back to the people and the team. Always.


Preetha R. Pulusani
President – Intergraph Security, Government & Infrastructure
Preetha Pulusani joined Intergraph in 1981 as software engineer. As Senior Technical Manager for Product Development, she led the development of GIS analysis products and key CAD-based analysis products. Initially starting on the technical side, she worked on programming, innovating and architecting software technology. After a decade at Intergraph, Pulusani moved into marketing and climbed the ladder of responsibility to reach where she is today. Pulusani holds an M.S. in computer science and business administration from the University of Alabama at Huntsville, and a B.A. in accounting and computer science.

Intergraph is a global provider of spatial information management software. Headquartered in Huntsville, Alabama, Intergraph employs 3,700 professionals in 60 countries and is traded on the NASDAQ market under the symbol INGR.