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The Smart Techie was renamed Siliconindia India Edition starting Feb 2012 to continue the nearly two decade track record of excellence of our US edition.

October - 2008 - issue > Woman Achiever

A Desire to Keep Learning

Vimali Swamy
Wednesday, October 1, 2008
Vimali Swamy
On a fine morning, Vaishali Vaid, currently the Associate Vice President (AVP) for the Manufacturing Line of Business (LoB), KPIT Cummins, was called by the company’s CEO and was entrusted with the responsibility of streamlining the operations of a large project that was critical to the growth of the company but was going through difficult times.

At stake was a long standing relationship with the customer where past diligence showed excellent ratings on the Customer Satisfaction (C-SAT) Index. Over a period of six months company’s ranking on the index had started dipping and became a cause for concern. And comprehensively it needed someone like Vaishali who took quick stock of the situation at hand. She started off with a complete analysis based on extensive discussions with senior delivery team members and customer counterparts. She prudently and quickly highlighted the recent change in the model of engagement with the customer. The company had earlier been working with the customer onsite and when the operations had been moved offshore, the delivery process had not undergone much transition from the customer side. She then went into multiple rounds of strategic deliberations with the customer and explained the reason behind challenges faced in the delivery model.

Additionally, Vaishali also was facing resistance from the internal team that handled the customer’s business, since the leadership change was sudden and they did not know Vaishali. Patience, understanding and perseverance helped Vaishali align the team to the business priorities. She led the team to understanding the significance of ‘teamwork’, showed them the larger picture and the goal to focus on. It didn’t take long for the team to look upto her leadership. Her guidance has graduated many Tech Leads to competent Program Managers, and the customer ratings have grown from average to very good on the C-SAT Index. All the more, Vaishali has also successfully managed to motivate and retain the team members and the team has now grown from 15 to over 150 and still growing.

A clear demonstration of commitment and will to succeed brought to fore Vaishali as a person to watch out for. Her ability to be proactive and practical towards challenges turns them into worthwhile experiences.

Currently, Vaishali, as the AVP - Manufacturing Line of Business (LoB) is handling one of the largest business units of KPIT Cummins with a global team of 1800 employees. She is the operations controller for the LoB and focuses on operational excellence and profitability. Over the years, she has set up offshore development centers for a number of existing and new customers. She has also conducted multiple workshops on ‘effective offshoring’, for CXOs, VPs, and senior managers across customer organizations. Under Vaishali’s leadership her team has received the Outstanding Customer Team of the Year Award at KPIT Cummins for 2005-06, prior to which she had also received the prestigious Cummins Chairman Award for Innovation.


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