Passion drives performace: Pratima Salunkhe

Pratima Salunkhe, director, HR, Fujitsu consulting India is straight forward and a complete people's person

 

What are the challenges of being a woman director?

"There are innumerable challenges every director faces, so I wouldn't say it is very specific to being a woman director. For any person in this particular role, unless you have the confidence, the subject matter understanding and persuasiveness to make things work; it will not work for anyone.The role demands for distinctive leadership qualities like strategic thinking, decision making, pro-activeness and is common to anyone in this profile be it a man or woman. One challenge for women, I would also say is striking that right balance between managing work and home and be able to give quality time and your best shot to both," says Pratima.

The educational background

A double post-graduate with Masters in Computer Management along with a Masters in Human Resource Management from XLRI, Pratima always stood out in academics.

 

Family Background

Born and brought up in Pune, she loves the city for its rich culture and tradition. Pratima has an 18 year old daughter, Saniya who is studying Neuroscience in University of Southern California and her husband is a senior director (consulting) at Cognizant Technologies.

 

Working in Male-dominated field of IT

"Well I would say that IT & the ITES sector have healthy percentage of women and the gender diversity is improving. With increase in women workforce, workplace dynamics are also evolving. Organizations are taking many steps to make the workplace conducive for diverse workforce. Having said that end of the day conviction, handwork and performance are valued & rewarded at the workplace, " says Pratima.

 

Does a Glass ceiling exist?

Different women executives have different takes on this but Pratima firmly believe that limits exist in our mind. Every organization has challenges and in the past organizations may not have been accepting of female leadership. However, today, largely organizations are evolving and progressive; therefore, an individual's growth is independent of gender. It is primarily based on the individual's merit, job efficacy and an urge to surpass the challenges. That's the only path to creating a winner.

 

Advice to working women

"My suggestion to women professionals is to maintain thebalance and keep a flexibility. us. Gender differences do not matter, instead enjoy the competitive spirit any role brings to you.The trick here to success is doing the things what you enjoy doing the most. One should do what you really like to do and pursue it to the very end and beyond rather than just picking up any profession. My motto in life is passion drives performance," says Pratima beaming with confidence.

 

Hobbies

Music is a passion for pratima. She loves listening to Indian classical music and light Indian music.

 

Future plans

Pratima is completely a people's person and lover her jonb immensely. She has plans to be in a global role in Human Resources.

 

Ekta Saxena

(ektasa@cybermedia.co.in)