Voice of Experience: Akila Krishnakumar, COO and Country Head of India for SunGard Technology Services

By Melissa J. Anderson (New York City)

“I’ve had an active career. I’ve moved around a lot in India and outside,” said Akila Krishnakumar, Chief Operating Officer and Country Head, India, SunGard Technology Services. “I’ve worked for 25 years with no real break in my career. It’s just so much fun.”

Krishnakumar is energetic about work – the opportunities she’s encountered, sharing successes with her team, and now the ability to be a role model for her employees. She also emphasizes the importance of continued learning. “I firmly think you have to be open to a wide range of experiences. In every single thing you do, there is learning.”

A Love of Work

“I started my career when I was barely twenty one at Wipro. It’s large and famous now, but then it was a small company, almost a start-up.” Krishnakumar said. “It was the best grounding I could ever hope for, in my career and as a person.”

“Two years after joining Wipro I got married, and we were in the same office. This was not something I enjoyed – I wanted a different scene.” Krishnakumar then joined a UK-based computer manufacturer, working in its customer support and application development division.

“I had a child in that period. And after much thinking, I left him behind with my husband and family, and moved to London for a year and a half. My family was very supportive,” she said. “I was not looking for excuses to duck out.”

She continued, “This was my first taste of enterprise software product development – before I was working with customers to meet their specific technology needs. Here I got to analyze varied customer requirements and build products. It was exhilarating.”

Krishnakumar then moved back to India and continued working. “I moved to the northern region [of India] which was not so well connected and headed up professional services for that region.” She recalled being on the road a lot, alone, and that she should have been concerned about safety. “It was not easy for anyone, especially a woman, but I was too deeply involved in my work.”

In 1993, just before Krishnakumar was about to have her second child, she decided it was time to “stop and take a breath and think about doing something different.” But, “one month later, I met some very interesting people, who were working on a startup…”

She said, “I couldn’t stop myself being excited about the opportunity and felt I shouldn’t miss it!”

Krishnakumar joined SunGard through an acquisition in 2005. “I’ve had a very exciting career at SunGard. I now manage all of India operations.”

Currently, she is most excited about the company’s new global professional services business, rolled out earlier in April. “I’m extremely pleased with how it has turned out. We’ve had so much interest from markets and from our customers.” She is also excited about the “movement to Software as a Service. It’s how software will be sold in the future. It’s where the industry is headed.”

She also mentioned her interest in globalization. She said, “We are an extremely global organization. It takes a lot of learning and unlearning for everyone to work as a team.” In fact, one of the major things Krishnakumar loves about her work is the opportunity to share success with her team.

She said, “I’ve lived through many occasions when we had fantastic customer wins through usage of our products. There’s the high of building from scratch and taking it through four or five cycles. It’s very exhilarating experience to share with your team.”

She continued, “For many years now, I’ve not lost a direct report [employee]. It’s a big positive signal in my mind. This market is extremely hot for talent, yet they choose to stay and work with SunGard. SunGard’s CEO Cris Conde says, ‘people join organizations, but leave bosses.’ How true!”

Multigenerational teamwork is another topic that interests Krishnakumar. Citing her team’s average age as 27, she explained that “the people-side” presents many questions, regarding definitions of career success, differences in motivation and appetite for challenges. “This is an opportunity that the organization really needs to know how to leverage. It feeds my creative side to be able to pull it all together.”

Krishnakumar is also very excited about what the future holds. Looking forward, she says she sees herself “clearly with SunGard. I’ve seen the organization transform and become more global. It values entrepreneurial skills, and I really see myself in roles that are global and entrepreneurial.” She continued, “I also want to be working with people very closely.” Krishnakumar says she values highly the importance of “influencing them, but not controlling them.”

Career and Work/Life Balance Advice for Women in the Technology Industry

Regarding barriers to women in career success, Krishnakumar says, “I think really there are none that cannot be overcome. In a way, people perceive obstacles. We’re always challenging traditional models as women.” She emphasized the importance of “breaking rules in a sensitive manner. She said, “working around is a smart way to approach it. It’s a smart way to approach any challenge, actually.”

The main challenge women face in their careers, she says, is that “the woman as the primary caregiver is an extremely traditional and accepted norm and is relevant even today.” She said that women shouldn’t be afraid to “shamelessly ask for help.”

“From an Indian context,” she continued, “we are a very traditional society, which values education and knowledge extremely highly. To be in this industry – the knowledge industry – gives you a certain respect, and it makes it a lot easier, for women here.”

Krishnakumar sees work/life balance as a matter of pragmatism. “Being pragmatic is important about what can be achieved. You have to give it your best effort. There’s a way to get to it, if you’re focused about getting there. It’s okay to dream big. But your actions have to be small steps.” She continued, “In simple terms, I don’t think there is any mantra to achieving [work/life balance]. It’s quite simple. Just hard to put into practice.”

Krishnakumar advises people to value and take advantage of all of their abilities in their careers. “Looking back I value quite a lot the creative side of my personality. I do very well when there is an unscripted problem. I wish I had realized this earlier… There are numerous occasions when I could have used this well.”

For women beginning their careers, she says, “Don’t specialize too early, unless you are really passionate about a specific area. And invest in projecting yourself. Pick the right time, place, and people. Don’t withdraw – talk about what you’ve achieved, what you’re capable of, what your interest is.”

For those women who are reaching the mid- to upper- levels of their careers, she says, “Play to your strengths. By now you should be able to identify what your strengths are. You have to be clear about what you’re good at and try to be the best.” She continued, “Time management is extremely important at this stage; it takes stretching, investing in themselves, to get through that period with a sane mind.”

And finally, she says, “Network. And not just beers in the evening. Women have a way of networking – it’s an inherent strength, but it’s not seen in the business arena.” And networking should not just be seen as a way to advance one’s career, she said. “There’s a tremendous amount of perspective and freshness,” to be found by networking as well.

Krishnakumar also sits on SunGard’s Global Diversity and Inclusion Council. She explained, “Last year, our CEO personally took tremendous interest in the subject and invited me to be a founding member of the Council. I’m extremely honored.”

“I have started to take the issue more seriously. In the past I didn’t want to focus on gender.” She explained, “I focused on being gender neutral. Over the years, though, I’ve changed my opinion.”

Recalling Mahatma Gandhi’s famous quotation “Be the change you want to see,” she said, “Lately, I’ve thought a lot of that. First of all you need to be that change. It’s a role I’ve started to recognize more recently.” Out of Krishnakumar’s team of 3,000, she says 30% are women. She explained, “It means just being available to them when they want to talk, just being an accessible role model helps.”

Personal Inspiration

Krishnakumar recalled a memory from her school days, explaining, “Back then, girls had to cross stitch (although 20 years later my son had to learn to cross stitch too). I didn’t want to do it, but I had to pass the class.”

Instead of the floral design she had been given, Krishnakumar said, “I wanted to do a quote.” With permission from her teacher, she stitched a quote, not knowing who to attribute it to, and making up a bit as well. She remembered, “It said, ‘Don’t just hear, listen. Don’t just see, observe. Don’t just dream, do it.’ I don’t know if it’s very profound, but I find it inspiring.”