“Go beyond and challenge the norm”

Cynthia S. Srinivas a top executive tells her own story

With work experience of more than 25 years Cynthia S. Srinivas is top executive in Intuit India Development Centre (IDC). Working as a Director for Product Infrastructure, she believes in hard work, “I believe there is no substitute for hard work, discipline, and commitment. I am quite optimistic and feel that things always happen for a good reason and you cannot control everything. This has helped me keep a positive outlook on life.”

Family Background

Cynthia was born to educated parents and had a modest, middle class upbringing –a happy and peaceful childhood.

“The one thing my parents emphasized on was education. Values such as honesty, discipline, respect for elders, contentment and sharing were of utmost importance.”

“Being the eldest of three siblings, my mother drilled into me, from a very young age, a strong sense of responsibility and that I had to be a good role model to them. My father set the bar very high on academic performance and behavior. The confidence that my parents had in me, was an inspiration for me to give my best to succeed. My parents gave us the best they could, and we did not lack anything, so that always made us feel that we were fortunate and privileged.”

Cynthia is a proud mother of two and is a cool mom “I have two lovely daughters who are in college and high school, aspiring to build a career in Arts and Design, very different interests from what I chose and I support them whole heartedly in what they want to pursue!”

Educational Background

I have an Engineering Graduate degree in Computer Science, an area that was at its nascent stage in the late eighties. We never had access to the kind of literature and online information that is available today. We had to rely on books, group discussions, seminars, and lectures from visiting faculty, to learn.

Cynthia is a maths fanatic, she is all about odds and even, alpha and theta, she says, “As a child, I was quite interested in Maths and enjoyed derivation of formulae. I was not too keen on Biology and that led me to take up Computer Science in high school, even when it was not so popular. Since it was an emerging subject, it provided greater learning opportunities.”

The time has changed when a women in engineering field was rare, now she is everywhere. “I meet a lot of young women – right from Campus graduates to women in senior roles. The number and stature of women in the IT sector has dramatically increased since the time I joined the industry. And that is a positive change. It is also encouraging to see companies promoting gender diversity that will provide more opportunities to competent and aspiring women.”

Her business

Intuit a $4.2 billion company is a leading provider of business and financial management solutions for small businesses, accountants and consumers. Intuit came to India in 2005. Its headquarters in India is in Bangalore and it houses the company’s Development Centre and is the regional hub for in–country engineering, marketing, sales and support operations. India office is an integral part of Intuit’s business operations alongside the United States, Canada, Brazil, United Kingdom, France, Singapore and Australia. Originally conceived as an engineering lab for Intuit’s core products, such as QuickBooks, the Centre’s role has now expanded to include conceiving, developing and selling products in global emerging markets.

“Intuit is ‘in India, for India’. Our goal is to profoundly improve the financial lives of Indian small businesses. The Bangalore office is Intuit’s first venture in the Asia–Pacific region, working with small businesses and accountants to develop home–grown solutions.” Tells Cynthia.

“My team at Intuit is about 25 percent of the global Product Infrastructure team. We have the charter to host and deliver infrastructure (including systems engineering, software development and automation) to meet application demands and SLAs. We are the single point of contact to the application teams for infrastructure delivery and operations. We are accountable for ensuring high availability and uptime of our Core Product offerings and Enterprise Business Applications, through infrastructure performance and optimization.” She added.

Motivation and Inspiration

As a child I was motivated by the expectations that my parents had of me and always did my best to make them proud. What continues to inspire and energise me personally is my passion to make a difference. I am motivated when I am learning, and am trusted and empowered.

Throughout my career, I have had the good fortune of working with many brilliant people on many challenging assignments in different fields such as telecom, storage, networking, and consumer experience. This has broadened my spectrum of exposure and learning.

I am self-driven, results oriented, decisive and have trouble settling with mediocrity. As a leader, I am motivated when my team is able to break down barriers and work on complex problems, lead the way and deliver awesome results that can make others count on us.

Pink is the Power

I don’t think I have ever faced challenges just because I am a woman. I have worked with very supportive male colleagues who have played a key role in my professional growth. I had equal opportunities to pick up challenges and deliver.

One challenge that I had to deal with was the perception of being aggressive. My personal opinion is that it is seen as a very positive trait in men but not so admired in women. I have worked in at least three Silicon Valley product companies in my career, where there were aggressive business goals that my team had to meet. You cannot be expected to always be docile and accomodative and say “yes” to everything, and still make impactful changes and deliver. You can’t always keep everyone happy and there will be resistance to change. The way I learned to deal with it, was to rely on data and insights, which helped me make rational decisions. I always made sure to have the right stakeholder support, which enabled me to articulate my point of view, when I disagreed or when I knew something was not working. You can’t always keep everyone happy and there will be resistance to change – so I learnt to accept that and let it be, if need be.

During the early years of my career, like anyone else, it was indeed a challenge to balance family and work life, especially when my children were very young and I had to work long hours and had a demanding role to fulfill. It was physically and mentally tiring but I believed if I could just hold on for a few years, it would pass and it did. I could overcome that difficult phase, with the support of my husband, and with my personal grit to not give up. I must admit that it was stressful because the opportunities were very limited if I wanted to take a break and resume my career at a later time.

Motto for success

Be bold, passionate and driven

Lead by example

Go beyond, challenge the norm

Team first

Be a Finisher!

In workfield nothing can stop Cynthia, as any boulder come she asks just one question. “Whenever I am going through any hardship; I ask myself, “what is the worst that can happen?”I believe that “Like everything else, this too shall pass…” This helps me move forward.”

Advice to other women leaders

Never give up. I have met women who have given up their careers in order to start families or for other personal reasons. I think that instead of being diffident about it, they should be proud that they were strong enough to take this decision, to be able to focus on priorities that mattered to them at an important stage in their life. At the same time, they should also know that they can come back. Believe in yourself. Raise your hand when an opportunity comes around. You don’t have to know everything to the finest detail – Opportunity and Initiative beget Learning!

Achievements

• Cynthia was the first woman engineer in her extended family
• Became the First woman engineering director at a technology company she worked for in India
• She have led complex technical projects in different domains and delivered them successfully
• Panel member and speaker at The Grace Hopper India Conference for ‘Women in Computing’
• Leader of “Women in Technology” Forum
• Participated in tech forum round tables

High-Five:

Fitness Mantra: I keep myself busy. No work outs! I need the energy - If I loveto eat something, it means my body likes it!

De-stressing Mantra: I like to be alone or go for a drive. Greenery is a big de-stresser!!

Where do you like to shop?:I like traditional Indian wear and I  enjoy shopping in and around MG Road for my sarees

Your favorite holiday destination: Europe

5 things you cannot live without: Myfamily, Friends, Good Humor, Greenery, my Job

Workday:

Wake up at: 6:30 AM

Morning activities: Enjoy a cup of piping hot South Indian Filter Coffee while I solve Sudoku and word puzzles in the newspaper – My energizer for the day!

I leave office at: Anywhere between 5 PM and 9 PM depending on my work schedule.

1st half in office: My first half is tied up with meetings or conference calls, and responding to emails.

Post Lunch: I am usually busy with meetings, catching up on action items, and reviews.

How do you spend your evenings?: Some days I work late or get tied up with conference calls. Otherwise, I spend time chatting with my children, catching up with friends or watching television.  I spend my commute time from work, listening to music, returning phone calls.

Sleep time: I usually sleep at midnight, for about six hours, after I have planned my activities for the following day.