Breaking Barriers and Building Missiles: Sirisha Voruganti on Tech, Diversity, and Redefining Leadership

NOTE: This is a transcript of the interview including questions by the host and responses by the interviewee. Human eyes have gone through the script but there might still be errors in some of the text, so please refer to the audio in case you need to clarify any part. If you want to get in touch regards any feedback, you can drop us a message on [email protected].

Good morning. This feels like a great venue for a rock concert and I'm glad I have a rock star with me here to kick it off. Sirishai, thank you so much for joining me. So, you know, let me dive straight in. You're an engineer and many of you are also engineers. I am not, so please forgive me any lapses of memory or knowledge.

Tell us about how you've made your career moves. You worked with government. Many people may not know this and you worked in very, very core and critical technology projects within government, in defence and many of those projects are still around us and coming into market, so to speak. Tell us about what motivated you to do what you were doing then and then you transitioned out because you were looking for something more challenging. So, tell us about that path and particularly from maybe the time that you actually started working as a young engineer.

Sure, but before that I think it was just so wonderful to see Rini on stage. We grew up seeing her as a news anchor, so was amazing and, you know, wonderful to see you in person. This question of yours, right, so I started my career many, many years ago, 33rd anniversary for me in the workplace.

I did a master's degree in Microwave and Radar Engineering and my first stint naturally back then, in those days, there was not too much private sector, was government. So, I did start with the defence research organisations, worked on India's, you know, the IGMDP programme, which in those days was, you know, the big thing to be part of, part of all of it. So, was part of the Prithvi programme, which was the surface-to-surface missile, worked on both the 150 and the 250 kilometre range missiles on the, you know, the mission computing and navigation units of that.

Then moved to working on Nag, I don't know how many of you know that Nag is an anti-tank missile, so worked on the control software for Nag. Then moved to working on the LCA, the Light Combat Aircraft, which was so nice to see that it actually is now part of the Air Force and worked on the, the mission computing. We actually did something called an integrated mission computer for the LCA.

So, that was my, you know, last stint with the government. But what excited me to move to another space and was to see if we can do these very, very large-scale integrations on chip, right? I mean, those were the days of the one-chip TV, the early days of mobile telephony and so on and so forth.

So, can we create these large solutions on chip and, and, and so, you know, where you can do hardware, software, co-design way outside before you actually got it to silicon. So, that's when I moved to the private sector and I was just, as I was just telling you, it was mayhem at home because everybody in my, you know, in my family is part of government and, you know, moms tend to kind of overreact a lot of times and mine did as well, saying, why are you moving to the private sector? But I don't think it was a bad decision at all because I think through my career, it's actually helped me challenge myself, I think, each time.

So, I did a couple of startups, you know, two of them were fairly successful. One was a solution that, a wipe solution that we created, which we sold into Skype. There was another solution that we built out, which was like the first, India's first e-book reader that we actually retailed in the, you know, in, in Chromas and as well as Reliance Digital, I think, back then.

And the third one went south because we tried to do, with startups, the problem is if you have an idea which is way ahead of time as well, you know, it can just, it can just fall flat. So, we tried to do a low-cost mobile phone for the India market, a 2000 rupee phone back then, where we said, you know, we were just predicting that mobile phones were going to be the future and we came up with, you know, a platform. But unfortunately, that couldn't take off and, you know, we didn't have enough fabrication units in India.

So, we were using TSMC back then. But I think the price points and a lot of things, we missed the spec by a little. We had to do re-spin of Silicon, the US and, you know, I think it was the downturn in the US.

So, we didn't get the sort of funding that we expected. That prompted me to move back to the industry because you have your mortgages and all that to pay up and doing sexy startups doesn't necessarily help you all the time. So, yeah, that's what it was.

So, one of the things that seems to have driven you is the search for technology challenges as opposed to other challenges. That's right. A lot of people I know or maybe it's men in general would say, okay, I want a promotion, I want more salary and that's why I want to move and I want a team underneath me. The sense I'm getting from you is what you were aspiring for and I've seen this with previous Grace Hopper conversations, of course, that was a few years ago, was that technology is the driving motivation. So, tell us about what was that in your case or the technology itself and whether that's been a consistent theme subsequently too.

Oh yeah, absolutely. So, I think most of my career, I still am an engineer at heart and I believe that's what it's been for me. Whatever roles that I've done post that too have been hardcore engineering roles.

So, I used to be the executive vice president for MasterCard, leading architecture, shared services and digital and then had a very similar role at JP Morgan Chase as well. But the underlying theme of all that is that technology drives solutions today and even if you look at any bank, they today call themselves a large fintech, right? It's primarily financial technology that is driving most of these and it's not just about banking sector.

I think if I look at retail, if I look at, you know, including healthcare, the underlying theme of all of that is technology and so I've not regretted the fact that I've continued to be a technologist all through.

And what would you tell someone who's a technology person today and trying to find their feet? You know, for example, in your case, you worked on missile systems in the government and then moved to the private sector where you worked in technology, but different kinds of technology including more recently, let's say financial technology or fintech as we call it. How do you, I mean, is there a way that you ground yourself in technology and if so, how do you find your north star?

Yeah, a couple of things, right? So, I keep giving this advice to a lot of people that reach out to me. I think it's, I believe in the five C's, you know, and the first to me is all about competency.

You can aspire to have seats, you know, a seat at a certain table, but I think the only way you get there is to build that competency, to be that person on the floor that somebody can reach out to on a particular area and be the very best at that. And I think there are no shortcuts to that aspect, right? I mean, if somebody is aspiring to grow in organisations, just ensure your competency levels are really, really high and keep upskilling and cross-skilling yourself because you are a lifelong learner at the end of the day.

The second to me is courage and confidence and I know a lot of girls in this room do have that. It's really about being able to stand up and speak, right? You will be the only person in the room a lot of times and it's bloody hard to get up and be able to give your opinion or say something.

So, I think, and just not about representing yourself as you grow up, you know, the organisation. It's about representing your team. It's about representing or being more responsible for their careers.

So, I think courage and confidence to me are extremely important, you know, and we need to build those out. The next one to me is communication, right? And that's where I keep over-indexing on, you know, storytelling sessions, focussing on written communication.

Could seem very, very simple, but if you want to make your point in a group and especially for a lot of us, it's not, you know, it's international audiences that you're speaking to a lot of times and so it's important to be able to make the other group understand what you're trying to say. And for many of us that have probably come in from vernacular media, you know, in India, especially, it's important for us to, you know, teach ourselves to learn to write and to speak better. So, communication to me is you can over-index on that and really learn to make your point well, right?

And the last of the five C's to me is having your compass and the, you know, your North Star, right? So, these five, there is no compromise on these five where, you know, focus on competency, have the courage to stand up, ensure you're able to communicate really, really well and, of course, have your, you know, compass and integrity pointing to the true North all the time. I don't think there are any other shortcuts.

No, no, there aren't. I mean, none of these are shortcuts either. So, on courage and confidence, tell us about an instance that you've seen in your own life where you felt that, you know, you held back and maybe it happened more than once and then there was a turning point or a tipping point and then after which you said, okay, I'm not going to hold back and I will speak up because I have to.

Well, I think it happens for many of us. You know, we come from fairly, I come from a fairly Orthodox Brahmin family and it's not very easy and communication or standing up on stage and speaking is not something that naturally comes to me and even as you're growing up, I have a brother and myself and you're always told the girl has to be a certain way, right? And so, I don't think there is the entire environment that's encouraging you too much to go off and, you know, have your wings and fly and things like that, though I've received a lot of support from home, not to undermine any of that, but I think, you know, at some point you have to tell yourself you're the only one that can help yourself, right?

Because in my days, which is 30 years back when I started, you were always the only one in the room, right? There are not too many other women. If you talk about a problem, it's your problem and you have to make somebody understand that you need a little flexibility, you need something, you're not all, you know, you're not very sure if you can raise your hand for a certain job, which is a male-dominated world, right?

You say, can I do it? Can't I do it? I have this responsibility at home.

So, you're always, you know, second-guessing your own self, but there were a few people that helped me through my own journey and I think after that, today, I think it's better that I call out if I want to do something rather than keep it to myself and say, you know, if there is an opportunity, I'd like to go and speak about that opportunity to an individual and say, maybe I can just try this out, maybe I can do this, right? And I may not be the best person, but I'd still like to ensure that I put in my, you know, my application there or let people know that I'm willing to pick up that opportunity.

And I think that's where the courage and confidence piece comes in, where, you know, even if you're not 100% there to do that, you know, in the past, I would have probably not raised my hand, but today I will, because I think if I want to grow in a very male-dominated world, I have to challenge myself and challenge myself at another level.

As you build your teams and as you've built your teams at Lloyds, you're again starting from scratch and you've reached about 2,400 people. These are very highly skilled engineers and you're going to grow even further. Tell us about how you are architecting these teams, particularly, I'm not saying gender should be a driving factor, but how does gender sort of sit at the back of the mind when you're designing your own teams?

So the one thing, again, I keep telling people is, I wish there were women on the design teams of automobiles. And why do I say that? I think for many of us that have a car, you always struggle even today to keep your handbag, right?

Nobody has designed. I would imagine that there are not enough women on the design teams for automobiles, because there is no space for a handbag, even in the, you know, the most high end of vehicles that we see. So I really believe that it's important to have a diverse organisation that you build out.

And especially coming from the financial services sector, where 75 plus percent of any buying decision is driven by women. I think it's really important for us to have a lot more women on our design teams, on our architecture teams, and so on. So I, you know, personally believe that women bring a different dynamic to teams and organisations.

And if you have to build a great product, you can't exclude them from any of the teams.

So let me ask you a slightly trick question. 50% of consumers are women in any case, at least. So if you were in a room where the iPhone was being designed, how would you design it differently?

Well, again, to me, convenience is one of the most important, you know, things.

And the reason I asked about iPhone is because it was told to me by someone at Apple that about the conspicuous absence of women in the design stage.

Yeah. And personally, I don't, I have an iPhone and I carry that everywhere. That's my work phone. But my personal phone is an Android device. I find those a lot, I find those a lot lighter. And it's just a lot more convenient, I think, to carry those around. I hate the brick design that iPhone has. So the one thing that, you know, maybe somebody on that design team would have changed is that brick design that an iPhone has. And I find it a little more heavier than the other devices. So yeah, that's probably one difference that I can think of.

So you talked about architecting the teams differently. And if I were to bring the conversation to where we are as India today, and where we are in our journey in terms of economic progress, more gender inclusion in that economic journey, what are the two or three things that stand out for you from both opportunities or where we are versus challenges?

Well, so I don't believe in, you know, I think it's equal opportunity, it's level playing ground at some point in time. And I don't think any of the girls would like to believe that they're in a because of gender, right? I think we are where we are, because of the competency.

I mean, so there are a lot of them that do agree with me. I think it's we are where we are because of what we bring to the table. And we'd like to keep it like that we believe with the best engineers.

And that's why we are where we are. And if we do better, and there's no reason why somebody should not have us leading teams. But I agree, there are certain vulnerability points that all of us have, right?

I mean, so and I keep saying this, our careers are picking up at some point in time. And at the same time, our journey into family life probably also starts, right? You have children, and I don't know, it always happens like that you have the most important meeting of your life, you've prepared for that, like crazy, and your child is unwell that very day, for whatever reason, there's something at home, you know, that seems more important.

And there are a lot of people at home that tell you, it's okay, why can't you just skip that meeting, you know, your kids unwell, take care. But for you, that meeting is so important, because you've just put in heart and soul into that particular endeavour, right? So I think at the end of the day, it's for all of us to believe we can do it.

And it is level playing ground. So whatever struggle that we have, we go through that. And that's why I think success is a lot more sweeter for us women, because we've earned it every step.

And it's just been so very hard to get there.

And you talked about support, you know, I was reminded, I was interviewing Indira Nooyi, when she had written a book a couple of years ago, and you know, she talks about the fact that she's gone through this very high intensity meeting and all kinds of problems in Pepsi. And when she comes back home, she's asked about the milk, the milk packet in the refrigerator. And she didn't even I mean, I guess what she was trying to say, because she said it publicly, was that she didn't even get the support that she thought she would get right at home. So forget everywhere else. How do you see that? I mean, and the question now is more about India? How can people work within their families? Because sometimes, you know, one is to say that my manager or my VP or president or CEO, that's one part of it. The ads on situations that are around situations like this, how do you build that or work on that?

Well, I think it's really more about how we're training our boys, you know, and teaching them to respect, you know, what their mom is doing, or what their wife is doing at a later point in time, I think the first step is to respect what your mom's doing, and understand that your mom's never going to be a 10 on 10, probably on everything that you expect her to be, she might miss a parent teacher meeting, or she might not be there on some days that you want, because it's also important days for your mom, and she's struggling to get to some point.

I think when you have more and more of the boys seeing that, as they grow up, I believe they will start respecting what their wives are doing, or, you know, others in the family are doing, and we will be more supportive is what I would imagine. Some of my own peers, and I've seen this, have their husbands supporting them to a level where the husband say, you know, your career is taking off really, really well, maybe I'd like to take the backseat. You know, I know our families are probably not very supportive of that.

But for us, our generation, and we see our children doing it, maybe we'll be a lot more supportive, because we've seen that phase for ourselves, right? So I think it's evolving. It's been a little slow for us, because, you know, of our own communities and how we've grown up.

But I believe it's getting there, even in India. And so you see a lot more women aspiring to and in senior positions.

Right. And I'm going to come to some questions here as well in about two minutes or so. So before that, you know, so we've talked about your leadership in technology. And maybe we can, or I can ask you to speak for a few minutes on the transition from leadership in technology to leadership in general. In your current role, for example, you're no longer the missile scientist you were, or leading a team of hardcore scientists. I mean, perhaps there are a few layers below. Tell us about that transition and how, what are the lessons? I mean, if lessons or insights that you could share from your journey or this part of the journey?

Yeah, I'll just share one little aspect and I'll tell you what leadership means to me. The one individual that I believe, you know, is a role model that I've wanted to always be like was Dr. APJ Abdul Kalam. And he was the chairman of the IGMDP programme when I started in government as a junior scientist.

But I did happen to have, you know, some interactions with him, especially when we were launching the 250 kilometre range missile. And that, and I was part of the countdown sequence. So you're starting from 10 and you're going all the way to, you know, to zero when things take off.

And we were, and I was monitoring engine pressures and things like that. And Dr. Kalam and Dr. Saraswat were in a vehicle because there's a van. And the way this happens for those of you that have seen a missile launch on TV is you typically launch the missile into the Bay of Bengal, and you have a ship that is in the Bay of Bengal that has a helicopter, which takes off at the very same time.

And you're looking at the region of impact, for instance. So there's dyes that we put in because you don't put in a payload or anything on that. So you just see the extent of dye to see the extent of damage for the missile.

So we were at, you know, five, and we saw that the engine pressures were not building up. And we were like, you know, really scared. We were junior engineers there.

And at five, the mission was aborted. Dr. Kalam and Dr. Saraswat, all red faced walk out of this van. And we were just sitting outside the van.

And we were like, you know, so worried and scared that this was our first mission as well. And it was aborted, they came in. There were lots of things that were said about why, you know, pressures didn't build up.

Somebody went to the extent of Pakistan had a hand in, you know, in all this. It was not that really. But we were doing an RCA.

And we took out, so the mission was aborted. It was going to happen much later. We took these parts, we were doing what was called a root cause analysis.

And many of us were there in that room doing that. Around 1.30, this gentleman walks in. For those of you that have seen Kalam, right, hands behind his back, he walks into the room.

The man, he's a man of very few words. He doesn't say too many things. He just came and patted us on the back.

I remember getting that pat from him on my back. Half an hour later, we actually solved the problem. What I love about a leader like that is it was 1.30 a.m. He was Director General of, you know, DRDO. There was no need for him to come into that room where, which could have been solved by lesser models. But that to me was a lesson as this young person saying, you know, you have to be there with your team, because success and failure, you are together in it. And to me, that is the sort of leader that I like to be.

So one, I think, no matter where you're growing from, and as I said, I kind of grew from the ranks, it's important for you to understand, because I think otherwise you cannot guide teams. So firstly, you need to understand the areas of technology and domains that you're in. Be humble all the time.

And understand that your own success, you might have a seat at some table, whatever that is, would not have been possible without your team. So ensure that they are as much part of your success as you yourself feel. The moment you start looking at yourself as something much larger, you start failing and failing and failing again.

So I think it's really important to believe that it's a team effort, and any organisation success is primarily because of the team.

Right, wonderful. And it's great to see that Kalam, Professor Kalam had had such a powerful impact on your leadership style, which I'm sure carries through to this day. So we've got time for about two or three questions. Does anyone want to go? Yeah, go ahead. I think you'll have to shout.

Yeah, no, that'll be difficult in this room, I guess. But do you want me?

Yeah, or come up.

Yeah, yeah. Okay.

GE - Oh, there's a mic coming to you. Yeah. So my only request is please keep the questions short, because so that there can be two or three more.

Neha - Yes, I'll keep it precise. I'm Neha. I work as a software development manager with Amazon. Sirisha, one thing I want to ask you, I'm really impressed by the five things you said that we should be doing. Are there five or top two that we should not be doing at work?

Okay, never underestimate yourself and always believe you're the best.

GE - Anyone else? Yeah.

Pratibha - Hi, Sirisha. I'm Pratibha from Helion. I'm working as a Principal Data Engineering Manager. One thing I wanted to understand is what do you think about work life balance? How does what is your perspective for Gen Z especially?

Well, I can only say that there is never work life balance. And all of us in this room do absolutely understand that. But my you know, I don't think we should try to be super moms and super something at every place we work.

I think it's important to have the right focus in areas at the right times. There are probably times when your work requires a lot more of you than your home. I think focus on that 100%.

And there are many times that you know, maybe the other part of your life requires more focus. But there can never be work life balance. Or it is never I mean, I and this is not just myself of men or women.

I don't think that exists no matter how much how hard we try.

GE - Okay, one or two more questions. Yeah, go ahead. Can you come out a little bit?

Disha - So you mentioned a very powerful thing that you should not be a number on the dashboard. How we as managers in the team can navigate that so that we can make other can I say men understand that you know, we have to be a little sensitive about this. And it can just not be a number. It has to be we bring our ideas to the table. And sometimes there's things like vulnerability that women understand naturally, right? So how can we avoid that and be like inclusive in navigate those manager meetings where we are a part of right? And so that they understand that this yeah, got it.

Yeah, I think I faced some of this right at some point, I was just telling him, I was the first woman executive vice president in MasterCard was the first woman MD in JP Morgan for technology. And I remember somebody making that statement saying, you're a diversity candidate. And that's why you've got that role.

That is extremely demeaning to, you know, I don't know, 30 years or 20 years or whatever time that we've spent. The only way you can shut anybody up in organisations is make your presence felt where you deliver something that is the best. You develop the most innovative solution that a bank or whatever organisation that you're working for has, it's only your work that can speak.

Because, you know, there is no way the entire world will understand you. Otherwise, you know, I agree, there are some vulnerabilities, we do need that little support. We do need those men, a few men as allies as we're growing up.

I agree those are required. But you know, the only other way to shut up the world is to ensure that you are the best at what you do. And I genuinely genuinely believe in that.

Disha- Thank you so much. I missed my name. My name is Disha. I'm from PwC. Thank you so much.

GE - Thank you, Disha. Okay, last question. Yeah, go ahead.

Leela - Hi, such an inspiring story. Myself Leela. I'm from Ains and I work as a product owner. Your story reminds me of the one point in Machine Mangal where she actually shuts and then it actually works back. Was there an incident in your life where you had to step back and take a pause? And then you go ahead? Because there's so many women here in our career, as you said, we play a different role, be it a mom, sister, a wife. So there are times that we have to take a decision and we have to take that break and then set back in go ahead in the career. Was there an incident in your life, which can inspire us? Thank you.

Well, yes. So I went through an absolute low at some point in time in my life, where I was not not very sure about what I wanted to do, what I was going to do. And I had a child as well at that point in time.

But the only support I think I've received. I was not very close to my mom as well as I was growing up because I thought she was always partial to my brother is what I was thinking in my in the days I was I was growing up. But she was the only pillar of support, somebody that I could go to for everything that stood rock solid there for me at that point in time.

And it took me a few years to come back up to be able to regain my lost confidence. But I think that's where family support is extremely, extremely important. They're absolutely nonjudgmental of you, right?

They're not going to be biassed. They're not going to be, you know, judge you for things that you've done. But that was a time when I actually took my career took a backseat.

And then I came back again. But thanks to my mom for that.

Okay, we've run out of time. Unfortunately, there are two or three questions I want to ask you. But let me keep it a simple one. So what's the what's what what do you do when you're not working? Or, I mean, is that a hobby that you have? Or is there something that I mean, it I'm sure it aligns with technology. But is there something that you pursue?

Actually, it doesn't align with technology at all. I'm a badminton player. So I've been playing since when I was eight years old. We were the first group of badminton players from Andhra Pradesh that went through regimented training and all of that. So yeah, that is something that I love hitting the shuttle. I just feel really excited, forget everything even now feel like a kid as I do that.

And yeah, I was a stage performer on So those are my, my two hobbies. And I'm not performing now. But if I retire, that's something I want to get back to, of course.

Thank you so much for being here with me. It was a pleasure talking to you.

So wonderful. Thank you.