Conquering the Man’s World Date:   Tuesday , March 02, 2010 For someone who claims to have struggled with mathematics, Sangeetha Phalgunan has got all her calculations right. Starting from the time when she began her career as a Student Counsellor to making headway into the information technology industry and foraying into sales and operation, the calculated risks Sangeetha took have proved to be fruitful. Today, as Managing Director of Serena Software’s India operations and armed with more than 15 years of experience in sales, marketing, and operations, Sangeetha is a success story personified. As she walks into the room exuding confidence, she radiates strong determination and commitment while narrating her career journey. So, it is surprising when she confesses of being shy and quiet as a child, having had to shout her way to being heard. As she rightly puts it, “When faced with a challenge, you become stronger and eventually overcome it.” Her stupendous accomplishment in an industry she had not considered as a career option comes as a revelation as she admits that her professional aspirations were limited to the stereotypical ‘doctor-engineer’ dreams that parents had back then. Sangeetha’s first brush with sales was during her association with Brilliant Computers where her job as a student counsellor extended itself to sales unconsciously. Back then, learning computers was not considered very important and the course was expensive. It was up to Sangeetha to convince the parents to let their children take up the course. It is said that women excel at multi-tasking. Sangeetha is no exception as she managed to add a postgraduate diploma in computer applications to her degree in science and mathematics from Mysore University, even as she kick started her IT stint at Brilliant Computers in 1992. The successful balancing is carried into her personal life too as she strives to give adequate time to her family. As a single mother, she calls the process of instilling values in her daughter the most rewarding experience. The influence of her favorite writer Ayn Rand is reflected as she expresses displeasure with the perception that the fields of technology and sales are meant for men. She wishes that she could see more women take up sales, but reasons out that women sometimes bring it upon themselves by using ‘women’s issues’ as an excuse for their absence or non-performance. So who or what inspired her to tread on such an unfamiliar path? Sangeetha hails Srikanth Rao as an ideal person and her professional mentor who taught her how to dream. It was in 1998 when Srikanth took over as the Country Head of BEA Systems India and hired her for marketing communications that her life changed. That was the time when Y2K was the buzzword and BEA had caught up with transaction processing. There were e-links for doing integration and the application was custom coded. It was a two-man operation and Sangeetha’s job was to call up people and talk to them about the 3-tier architecture when people had only heard of 2-tier architecture. According to her, growing companies provide opportunity for the growth of employees and often stays with one as a learning experience. “Since BEA was a growing company there were no rules of engagement. Everything came from on-the-job learning, documenting, and making mistakes and learning from them.” Her learning days became much more rewarding since her boss himself became her mentor. Her five year long relationship with BEA came to an end when Srikanth quit and it became difficult to adapt to the new management. Sangeetha believes that it seldom comes as default that one is good at his or her job; it has to be proven every time you take up a new one. That is precisely what happened when she joined Mercury Interactive Corporation India, where she became part of another big turnaround. As applications in production were crashing, the task of performance and functional testing came to the forefront, thus elevating the status of a testing professional. At Mercury, Sangeetha was responsible for setting up the channel business and the commercial sales division for India. When HP acquired Mercury, she became the Head of Commercial and Channel Business for HP Software India. In December 2009, Serena Software roped her in as part of an aggressive India growth strategy and she is now responsible for driving growth, channels, and the expansion of the company’s marketshare in India. Recalling the many mistakes in her career, she singles out venturing into advertising as the biggest, but she is quick to say that it was a learning experience. Sangeetha comes across as a team person, calling team success as the biggest motivation. She feels that bringing success to team members in turn contributes to their families, which is her way of contributing to the society. She does not believe in micromanagement and terms her leadership style as being supportive. She does not forget to emphasize on the need to treat everyone politely, whatever position one is in. “You never know. A person who is nobody today will be somebody tomorrow.” “Each one is a CEO” is her mantra. She is a firm believer of the comfortable coexistence of work and leisure. Despite her demanding career, she still manages to pursue diverse interests. Cooking is a stress-buster for her and she indulges in it as frequently as possible. Traveling is one of her favorite hobbies and luckily, she gets to go to the United States often as part of her job and has had the privilege of spending holidays in exotic locations like Hawai, Bermuda’s and Cayman Islands as the winner of many sales club awards . As though all these are not enough, she manages to read spiritual books and does painting as well. What is her advice to new aspirants? “Be honest, fair, and open. You should have team sense and should be able to stick around. It helps to be pleasant and extroverted. Have high self-worth and be ready to take ‘no’ for an answer.” She stresses on the need for women to tread cautiously on the financial front so as to be independent. She points out that the only way to make a mark is to be different and standing out in the crowd. Sangeetha Phalgunan certainly does.