Answering your questions

1. Your journey: talents, passion projects, milestones, inspirations, and defining experiences.

Talents -UNtalented and Still getting by!
Most people that have met me will say I am a Very passionate person, energetic, and empathic in enabling others
“how come you wake up with energy every morning”
My answer is simple -when you do what you love and love what you do
Passion Projects -Only started three years ago. Working to serve others less fortunate than us
Milestones -entering IITB (was about to sign up for Med School in Bombay)
Milestone -Surviving first semester without failing a subject!(Likely cried more in that first semester than in my first year of birth, due to a bruised ego!)
Milestone Graduating from IITB building lifelong friendships
Milestone -First Job Pricing Mortgage Back Securities -taught me what I did not want to do (Learn from ones mistakes), never put that 6 month job on my resume!
Milestone -Second Job -Stumbled into Supply Chain and have loved it ever since. Remained a traveling SC consultant for 16 years
Milestone -Stints in multiple countries (Australia, New Zealand, Singapore, Germany, Canada, USA, India) setting up/driving SC consulting. Had too much fun at i2 during the first 6-7 years there!
Milestone -last 5 years at i2 -learning the harsh realities of shrinking a org -having to let go of folks, One of the most gut wrenching times I have been through
Milestone -m2i (move to India)-Re-learning how to live in India and work in India for first time). Learnt a lot from my peers (Alok Agarwal, Praveer Joshi, Pradeep Menon and Nishant Banthia) – now friends and fortunate to meet and work with the Human connector Pankaj Rai!
Milestone -Move back to US to be first member and leader of Advanced Analytics at VMware with industry veteran Theresa Kushner
Milestone -Moved to Apple -back to SC Business Process Re-engineering learning from Girish Gulvady and a smaller team (to do more ideating projects work) and learnt how to plan a large company using excel!
Milestone -Before I turned 60, switched to working full time with various NGO/Non Profits -the most fulfilling experiences I have had and definitely the most impactful

2. The purpose that has guided your life’s work

In the corporate world, I lived by my motto
“Work Hard, Play Hard, Have Fun (at what you do)”

In my personal life and in my third innings!,
Learnt from my father a social worker,
“Takers may eat better, but the givers will sleep better”.
“Get a lot more from giving than from taking”
Leave a “Legacy of Goodwill” -that what my father’s memoir was called!

While over the years I have worked cooking/serving food/fodder pantries stocking/working with disabled, supporting young children education and feeding, that has all been for me -to make me feel good. Now when I am full time serving others, it feels I am doing something for them!

3. Transformative experiences shaping your worldview.

Learning from my Marine friends at CSX Logistics -do all you can!
Learning during the tough times at i2 -put yourself in others shoes, empathize with their situation
Growing up without much, learning that having don’t make us, what we give, does

4. The lasting human impact you are committed to advancing.

Touch and impact as many rural Indian (children) and less-fortunate as I can. Drive a change in their Health, Education and Welfare.

5. How you develop and empower the next generation of leaders.

I have been blessed working with folks far smarter than me, far more talented than me.
Guide them, let them grow their strengths and contribute with them. Highlight possible roadblocks and work with them to overcome. Walk in their shoes. Put their priorities above yours.
I loved what a team member made in my recent past -“we were skeptical when you came aboard to manage us- a bunch of PHDs when you did not have a doctorate, but you supported us and campaigned for our ideas”. Best leadership lesson for me
Humility and empathy go a long way in earning trust, empowering teams, learning from the best!

6. Your signature offerings / initiatives / products / services (up to 22).

I have been fortunate to work with the best teams, folks smarter, more focused and driving phenomenal impact during my years at CSX, i2, Dell, VMWare, and Apple, and now,
in the Non-Profit world with Akshaya Patra, WHEELS Global, OWOF, One School at a Time (OSAAT).

I would encapsulate my professional work into a few headers:
ENABLING & GROWING TEAMS -at i2, Dell, VMWare and Apple. Empowering the teams to do their best -this by far would be something I feel incredibly accomplished by.

ENABLING HIGH IMPACT for the organizations we worked with – Top Line growth And Bottom Line savings with intelligence build into the process

LEVERAGING TECH to enable , optimize processes –
Optimizing reefer (refrigerated containers) movements across Alaska, Hawaii and China to minimize empty container movements (at CSX/Sealand)
Enabling SC Segmentation and manufacturing sites optimization over a 3 year period at a large Innovations driven conglomerate (at i2)
Optimizing the integrated metals supply chain for Flat and Rolled Steel for the largest Mining company in Australia (at i2)
Helping improve the best run SC in the world(Dell) leveraging Analytics/AI/ML
Being one of two finalists for the Franz Edelman award representing the SC, Digital Marketing and Pricing team analytical work, where Michael Dell enunciated the 100s of millions of dollars in saving that Dell Global Analytics team had created
Starting as a team of 1 and building out a company wide analytics team across Finance, Ops, marketing, Sales, Pricing, … to enable cross functional optimization driving millions of dollars of impact (at VMware)
Publishing with my team our work to drive significant impact with Harvard Business Publishing
Again helping improve the best run SC in the world (Apple) leveraging Analytics/AI/ML and driving Planning improvements.

My work in the Non Profit world is and will continue to dwarf my work in helping corporations driving significant Top Line and Bottom line improvements.
It is impacting LIVES, and in my sphere of interest, the lives of the forgotten/underprivileged.
Few causes dear to my heart, and enabling improved lives for the less fortunate have consumed me over the past three years:
-The Mid-day meal program in India is enabled (besides the state authorities) by a charitable organization Akshaya Patra that serves 2.6Million meals to school children every day at government schools, enabling a poor student from not going hungry, enabling sometimes the only meal of the day for the student, enabling the student to come and stay at school. It’s a massive operations with 80+ commercial kitchens designed to cook and deliver nutritious meals to the children every school day aross India, and also providing a livelihood in rural areas for the populations that need it most. The ability to improve the efficacy at this scale to drive more and more meals for more and more students is a mantra that we cannot get enough of. The need is so much more

-WHEELS (Water, health, Education, Energy, Livelihoods Sustainability) is a PAN IIT NGO focused on enabling technology solutions for the rural Indian populations with a goal to touch 200million+ lives. The Mother, Infant and Young Child Nutrition program is once such program that is implemented /being implemented across 35+ districts in 6 states in India. Dr Rupal Dalal who the designed this program over two decades (Exclusive Breast Feeding of Newborn for 6 months, Antenatal and Post-natal Mother Nutrition, and Complementary Feeding for the 6+months child) and Dr Devaji Patil(who masterfully trains the health care workers (HCW) in rural India to impart this knowledge to the mothers) are driving a revolution in how a newborn is breast fed and changing the nutrition equation for pregnant mothers and the young 6+months child. The impact is driving down malnutrition (significantly) in India, and improving and bettering WHO health metrics for babies. This is likely the most impactful process I have ever been associated with. And I have to thank “the two doctors” (as we call them, respectfully)! All of this without providing food, nor money to the HCWs, yet earning the HCWs trust, respect and devotion for the cause.

-Health -enabling improvements in diagnostic care for those that cannot access it, working with the largest Charitable hospital in Asia to drive free outpatient, inpatient, surgical and pharmaceutical needs for the less fortunate. Most rural poor cannot forward to take time off to visit a doctor for diagnostics unless it is very pressing -sometimes funds, sometimes accessibility prevent them for getting help before it becomes a major issue. Outreach programs enabling such diagnostics, supporting them where they are (rather than a facility) – a key to enabling between better health outcomes. Bringing those in need to a hospital to provide support at the earliest, enabling their care post interventions, free of cost is driving care where it is needed most.

7. Your message to humanity and future digital beings, a timeless note for the “Living Time Capsule.”

God has given each of us one life
“Work Hard, Play Hard, Have Fun” AND
Do you best to Serve Others All Along
Paths of Dharma and Karma will lead us to fulfillment when done righteously.
Find your true calling not just at how you making a living, but how you give a living!

8. How are you expanding your influence and impact today, and how you envision BSMe2e partnership to amplify it?

As I continue to work in the Non Profit world, largely in Rural Health, Nutrition in India, it is humbling to realize how much I don’t know. Learning this “new” world for me has been and will continue to drive my passionate growth. The ability to leave a legacy of goodwill should have started much earlier …