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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.

June - 2009 - issue > Woman Achiever

Hardwork & Passion—The only Mantra to Success

Vimali Swamy
Wednesday, June 10, 2009
Vimali Swamy
As she quickly grew to a project manager at her first organization, Madhavi Singala was presented with another exciting, but more challenging opportunity to move up the corporate ladder. Recognizing that the job prospects offered by Keane, was in sync with her long term career plans, she was quick to seize the opportunity that was beckoning her. Today, Madhavi is the Vice President of Insurance and Banking vertical at Keane.

An MCA from REC, Warangal, Madhavi always had an inclination towards computers and decided to follow her dreams in this field. “Those were the days when a job in the public sector, Medicine/Engineering was looked upon, but I was keen on joining the IT sector,” says Madhavi, who can not be much more content with what she has achieved today.

Madhavi who started her career with TCS says, “It was at TCS that I learnt my initial lessons and tricks of the trade in software engineering and project management. From understanding different domains, projects and technologies, the exposure there was quite beneficial”. She worked on different types of projects and various domains, especially in Insurance, Financial Services and Transportation. The opportunity to have closer interaction with customers and gain an understanding of what the users were looking for had a profound impact on her work. She also considers this, the turning point in her career. After five years with TCS, Madhavi joined Keane in 2000 and has been with Keane ever since. Due to her hard work and dedication she has grown consistently in the organization from a Project Lead to a Vertical Head handling multiple accounts, marking a 100 percent growth in the last 2-3 years, through organic and inorganic means. She, currently, not only heads a team of 600 in India but also deals with an equal sized team onsite across the accounts.

Completely a people’s person, Madhavi enjoys interacting with her team and believes in hard work, teamwork and ‘leading by example’. Nevertheless, she is a hard taskmaster who expects commitment and focus from her team. She has a simple rule that holds true for everyone in her team, who wants to grow in their career, ”I believe that a result oriented approach, integrity and discipline at every individual level with a desire to excel in their respective roles will automatically bring success in to one’s career”. At the same time she believes in keeping one’s work interesting and enjoyable. “Apart from personal growth, whatever one does must also add value to the organization and contribute to the growth of people around oneself. This will be possible only if one has the desire to bring about a change in what every one does”. This is why she emphasizes on developing a flavor for the business along with technology. “For a customer, more than the technology that you use, it is the value that you add to his business which is important”. She attributes her growth and success to following these principles.

Looking back at her career, Madhavi feels, it is her ability to work with people and maintain a keen eye on learning new things that have been her greatest strengths. “Being in the software industry people are the most important asset of our organization. I have always noticed that people respond with positive energy and commitment to bolstering their strengths, where as we’re bound to face resistance if we try and eradicate their weaknesses. So, by creating a positive environment where people are passionate about their work, they are more than willing to go beyond the call of duty to help achieve the goals of the group and in turn the organization. Throughout my career, I have had the opportunity to work in diverse roles and responsibilities. From handling financial service accounts for customers operating in the areas of wholesale banking, retail banking, investment management and mortgage processing to heading multiple verticals like Insurance, Banking, Financial services and Public Sector, I have explored many challenging situations that have well rounded my knowledge of the business domains as well as the customer perspective across the industry. During these years, by interacting with customers in India and overseas, I also learnt a lot about handling cross-cultural environment. This opportunity to communicate across various geographies and technologies not only increased my knowledge but also helped me enhance my people skills, allowing me to head a large onsite team,” Madhavi explains. Though she attributes all that she has learnt to the various opportunities that came across, the main drive has been her zeal to learn new things.


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