Thank you so much. Really appreciate the opportunity. Thank you everyone for joining me, today on this stage.I'm super excited to share my journey and the lessons I have learned along the way, a journey that I hope will inspire each one of one of you to embrace your own path to success. And towards the end, with a brief q and a, I might pick up a couple more nuggets along the way. Let's begin with the guiding principle that's been instrumental in my journey, the importance of asking why. When someone says something, understanding the why and the reason behind the topic opens door to deepen insights and more meaningful dialogue. All of us have a seat at the table.

The best way we use the seat at the table is by empowering ourselves to ask questions, ask questions about the assumptions, and engage thoughtfully with the world. It's about having the courage to dig deeper, to challenge the status quo, and to seek out the truth even when it is not very comfortable. When you find yourself in doubt or disagreement, call it out right then and there. Speak up and engage in conversations that push boundaries collectively for the group that we work with. If you ask me about the most significant lesson I have personally learned, not only in my professional, but in my personal life also, is the value of stepping outside of comfort zones. I have become one who likes to shoot higher, who likes to take chances. I'll tell you.

Moving to The US was a pivotal moment in my life, a calculated risk that my husband, myself, my two twin boys, at that time four year old, took to change our lives, which opened doors to opportunities I had never previously imagined. Growth happens when we are uncomfortable, when we push ourselves beyond our limits and challenge ourselves to learn new skills and explore new possibilities. Embracing discomfort, having that feeling within me of trying something and proving myself has been a driving force in my personal and professional development. I must accept it becomes harder and harder as you go up because the radius of influence keeps on, becoming bigger. By taking risks and tackling big challenges head on, I have discovered that I am by nature a transformation person. I'm not just a day to day operate person. If my today looked like yesterday and my tomorrow will look like today, it becomes difficult for me.

I aspire to change, innovate, and I encourage everyone around me and to you, for that matter, the same. Being uncomfortable while being in a comfort zone has taught me that every day presents a new opportunity to grow. It's about doing new things and learning through execution, learning through experiences, getting those new experiences. This is where the real growth happens. And I personally thrive in it because it propels me forward. And along with being uncomfortable comes taking risk. I believe taking risk is essential for growth. That's how we learn because we stretch. One of the professors early in my career had told me, Kobe Bryant, one of the greatest basketball player of all time, always ratchet it up by an inch.

Always look for that extra inch. Embrace that new challenge. Step boldly into the realm of possibilities that the new challenge poses in front of you. Understand that growth comes from doing, from experiencing the outcome of the execution that you have because you gathered new ideas and new skills. It's the mindset that will lead you to new opportunities and success. Sometimes it presents yourself in front of you. Sometimes you have to go find. Right? So don't be afraid to venture into the unknown. Today's workforce needs people like you who can stretch the boundaries of everybody else. That's when the true innovation from within and progress for an organization happen. Take on big challenges and remember who you are inherently is one who can evolve, who can aspire to be the transformative leader, constantly seeking new ways to innovate.

And now when we talk about new ways, when we talk about innovation, the area that we work in is right for it. In today's one world, technology is enabling every walk of life in the present day. If you look at when we talk about digital transformation, it's just not a buzzword. It's a necessity. In our personal life lives, we have digitalized our experiences. We no more call a restaurant to make a booking. We no more call a airline to get a ticket. We have digitalized it in our personal life. So if we can do that for ourselves, why can't we do it for our companies? And it is not only about adopting new tools. It's actually about looking at our business processes end to end, and it drives ultimately business success. As leaders, we must be business leaders, though.

Always think about understanding how our company creates business value for our customers or in operations and aligning technology needs and initiatives with those goals of of our organizations and, ultimately, of our companies. Our effort should not be just about innovation for innovation's sake, but about driving meaningful business outcome. As I use the examples in my, personal life, in professional lives also, I have thought about how do we take a company where I'm working, and what's the next frontier to enable digital customer experience or digital operational experience for our employees. Always be a business leader where it you as a business leader can harness the power of technology and embrace our roles as business leaders. This involves translating technological capabilities into business solutions and bridging the gap between technology and business to drive meaningful outcome. I grew up as an engineer. I personally feel getting into tech fields, we have the unique opportunity to create products which our employees and our customers use and drive value to evolve their own lives, and these are not just technology products.

Our focus should always be on the end user, creating products and services that enhance lives, solve problems, and adds enormous value. Being a business leader means understanding how your company creates value, what's the end to end value chain, Where does your role fit in that value chain? And it's always about connecting dots across. I call it east west and north south. There are business processes which are depending on each other. And how do we then understand how a technology can solve that problem across and not just a point solution for a specific problem? I would also encourage each one of you to build a strong and diverse skill set. Throughout my career, I have worked across multiple industries and technologies. It does not have to be different companies. Within a company, there are many different areas where we can gain experience.

I have taken the opportunity to understand how we create value for our customers, how we create value for our operations leader, how we create value for our customer service people, as well as the product development, and all the back office functions like finance, HR, legal.

It it has given me the opportunity to continuously learn and adapt myself because I understand the functions end to end. I I contributed back to my job also because I joined Tata Steel. I was a metallurgical engineer. And they spent nothing but a year training us in the whole value chain of the company. So very early in my career, I learned to understand how does different functions, which are back office versus front office, that means where we are developing product and getting it to the customer, linked together. In a world where trends in IT and business leadership are constantly evolving, staying ahead with great understanding of our business is not beneficial, but it's essential. Transferable skills are powerful. When you learn about business or how a company creates value for its customers, it can be applied anywhere.

Taking on problems from a customer's perspective not only help you grow, but also drive innovation that truly resonates with your leaders, your peers, your stakeholders across the board. On a personal note, I have been intentional about building my own capabilities. In turn, you can call it resume. And I encourage you to do the same. Be selfish about yourself. If you are not watching for yourself, who else will? Right? Are you growing through your roles within or across the company or the role that you work for? Are you consistently adding value to your organization each year? These are the questions we should all be asking ourselves. Approach your career with your own agenda. What skills, what experiences, what expertise, what type of relationships do you wanna build?

What can you do to make yourself a better employee, and how can you make yourself indispensable? One more thing I'll add to this is having people around you who understand you. And it's not only your manager or mentor or your spouse or your siblings or your parents. It's about the people who you aspire to be. Try to have some kind of connections with them and try to learn from them. I call them a personal board of director and ask them for critical feedback, not only positive reinforcement. The people who can give me critical feedback, again, my husband does too much of it, but somebody who can manage themselves, be a great, value add to you to improve as a person.

Be proactive about your development. Be a driver, not a passenger. Don't just convey the news. Be the news. Make the news. Make an impact that is significant and visible. We think a lot sometimes about recognition. If I do this work, what happens? How people will think about me? The way I have thought about this, that if if I personally drive real change, recognition will come. And, you know, sometimes when I'm uncomfortable, sometimes when I'm taking risk, 100% of the time, I don't end up successful. But my approach has been that if I shoot here, I'll get here. Otherwise, I'll stay here. The key is to focus on innovation, align your efforts with business goals, and empower your teams.

When you make a meaningful impact in these areas, recognition becomes a byproduct of your success. It's about creating value and driving change that resonates both within your organization and beyond. Strive to be a catalyst for transformation. Let your work speak for itself. Recognition will come, but absolutely be cognizant of the fact of where you are overachieving versus where you are meeting versus where you could do better. You be the most vested in yourself, but at the same time, be your critique sometimes. Right? I cannot finish by, without mentioning that a part of a leadership is also creating an inclusive environment, and it is not just the right thing to do. It leads to stronger teams and better business outcomes. No one can succeed along. I'm a strong believer in if you wanna go far, go together.

This means fostering a culture where everyone can contribute and thrive. There is a healthy tension in the organization, but end of the day, we are a team. As leaders, we should focus on asking the right questions rather than having all the answers. Growing up, early on, I realized that I was an engineer, so I was always about solutions. And I still am. It's a continuous journey to keep on reminding myself to be about right, right question because what it does that makes me not the smartest person in the room, it's about asking the best question to unlock potential in my team and in my peers. Inclusion means valuing diverse experience and ensuring everyone has the opportunity to bring their best to the table. It's about helping people claim their seat as well and amplifying voices that might might otherwise go unheard. Remember, little gestures can make a big difference.

By leading with a commitment to diversity, equity, and inclusion, we create environment where everyone can excel and achieve their potentials. Finally, resiliency. I cannot talk enough about this skill. As I mentioned, it's not always about succeeding in everything. In fast paced world of technology, challenges and transformation while driving transformation, are inevitable. Strong leadership can require perseverance, adaptability, vision, and resilience is at the heart of it. Working in tech, we often face difficult situations, big disruptions in our day to day work for the which impact the entire company. But the key is to be resilient, to be to have the right team at the right time with the right experience with calm to solve the problem and move on to the next one. And most important is to learn from these experiences so that this doesn't happen again. I always talk about resiliency is not about moving fast only.

Resiliency is about moving fast, falling down, recovering quickly, and achieving that next, mile even faster than the than the last one. It is our ability to bounce back from from adversity. So companies today need leaders who can drive resolution and ensure the right setup to deliver results. And when failure occurs, the question is, how do we recover quickly? It's about working through issues and driving forward with determination and clarity. Resilience involves knowing that challenges will pass and setting up the right environment to overcome them effectively. At close, I hope my journey inspires you to forge your own path to greatness. Remember, the power of transformation lies within each of us. It's up to you to harness it. Building a strong and diverse skill set is about embracing continuous learning, adaptability, and personal growth.

It's about being strategic in your development and ensuring you are always adding value. Let's commit to being drivers with meaningful impact in our fields. Thank you. Thank you for being here. Thank you for being committed to your growth. Let's continue to lead with courage, innovation, and resilience.