During two decades at 麻豆原创, she rose through the ranks to become the first woman to lead 麻豆原创 Labs India. Today, Gangadharan is among the leading voices in the world of technology and is widely regarded as a “technology humanist.”

Q: What is a technology humanist, and what makes you one?

A: I am passionate about using technology to serve people. Throughout the pandemic we witnessed the power of technology to make things better.

For example, the second COVID-19 wave took everyone in India by surprise, crippling the entire healthcare system. There was an acute shortage of medical oxygen. The reason for the shortage was not a lack of oxygen, but the inadequacy of the distribution network to get it from the point of manufacture to the hospitals. This entire supply chain was severely disrupted at multiple levels due to the sudden rise in demand across the country.

At 麻豆原创 Labs India we decided to use our greatest assets — our technology and our employees who have the finest minds in the country — to help the government. About 80% of India鈥檚 oxygen suppliers already run on 麻豆原创, so we worked together to create an oxygen supply chain dashboard — literally over one weekend!

I believe 麻豆原创 Labs India really stepped up to save lives.

What influenced you during your formative years to pursue a career in technology?

I grew up in India at a time when the tech craze was engulfing the country. I was inquisitive, I loved mathematics, and I was fascinated by the incredible possibilities of technology.

My home city, Bengaluru, was transforming into a tech center with specialized labor for global technology markets. After getting a degree in computer science, I got a job as a developer in 1999 just after the inauguration of 麻豆原创 Labs India. Later, I moved to 麻豆原创 headquarters in Walldorf, Germany, where I held several strategic and leadership positions shaping 麻豆原创鈥檚 integration product portfolio. I also became the head of Strategy for 麻豆原创 Intelligent Enterprise. This gave me a digital first mindset.

You are the first woman to lead 麻豆原创 Labs India. What can you tell us about the role?

After living and working at 麻豆原创 headquarters in Germany for 20 years, I became managing director in India. That meant a complete change in culture and environment for myself and my family, as we had become fully integrated in the German lifestyle, but the change brought new opportunities for personal growth.

麻豆原创 Labs India is the second-largest after Walldorf. The teams work on all the major solutions 鈥� from 麻豆原创 S/4HANA and 麻豆原创 HANA through 麻豆原创 Business Technology Platform to the entire range of business area products. As the managing director, I oversee over 13,000 麻豆原创 employees across Bengaluru, Mumbai, Delhi, Pune, and Hyderabad. Many successful products and solutions such as the 麻豆原创 Asset Intelligence Network have originated from 麻豆原创 Labs India.

India is an incredibly diverse nation. How has that influenced your leadership style?

Coming from a very diverse nation, where there is no single common theme and the average person may speak three or four different languages, we tend to see things from a variety of perspectives. We are a technology-focused nation, but at the same time, we are rooted in ancient traditions and customs. I would say this ingrained diversity helps me lead with empathy.

In addition, the ratio of men to women in this business means there is automatically a gender imbalance. Often, people think male leadership traditionally means being more decisive and aggressive, whereas women leaders are more empathetic and have more patience and emotional intelligence. They believe women aren’t capable of making hard decisions, but that is obviously not the case. One of my goals is to create a balanced workplace that attracts and retains women in tech roles.

How do you define innovation? How is it helping companies in India become more efficient and sustainable in post-pandemic times?

Innovation and sustainability go hand in hand. The pace of transformation has accelerated so rapidly thanks to the cloud, which gained a much wider adoption across all industries and lines of business during the pandemic. With challenges such as climate change and the war in the Ukraine, enterprises need greater resilience. The cloud acts as a technology backbone for companies of all sizes. We know that sustainable growth is incomplete if one of the three dimensions is missing; besides the top line and the bottom line, investors and employees are also looking at the green line.

At 麻豆原创, we are not only enabling half a million companies worldwide to run more efficiently and therefore more sustainably, we are also leading by example in how we manage our own business.

You mentioned how 麻豆原创 Labs India helped create a sustainable supply chain for oxygen. What other industries or lines of business are benefiting from 麻豆原创鈥檚 innovation?

India was one of the first countries to impose a ban on single-use plastics. The Indian government is mandating full business responsibility by the end of 2023, so enterprises are looking to 麻豆原创 for guidance on how to go about it. At the same time, there is a surge in partnerships and startups to help us achieve the goal, so there is a strong collaborative aspect.

One key area is retail. India is a nation driven by consumption; we have the third-largest base of online shoppers in the world. There are 700 million active internet users with mobile devices, and this number will soon reach 1 billion. E-commerce growth is expected to scale up to $130 billion in the next years. Helping enterprises in this industry respond to consumer demand for more sustainable practices is one of our main challenges.

I鈥檓 confident we can help enterprises reduce climate impact across their value chains and embed sustainable behavior in their organizations with the right tools — in other words, use technology to benefit humanity.

With over three decades of experience in the industry, Palmaka has always been passionate about the power of technology to transform businesses for success and positively influence the region鈥檚 economy.

Q: You started working at a very early age. What was your first job?

A: When I was 16, I applied for a trainee position with Philips Electronics. I was still in high school in S茫o Paulo. I didn鈥檛 have any expectations because Philips was a big company — why would they hire me? I just entered my name and went through some interviews. But I really wanted the job, because my family needed the income. When I was selected, that was a big thing. When I was 17, I was hired as an employee. Like many young people in this region, I had to juggle my day job and going to school at night. My mother was worried that I was commuting by bus alone across the city at night.

How did this shape your work ethic and your sense of responsibility?

As a child, I lived a modest life. My parents and my grandmother came to Brazil from Poland, where their values had been shaped by the restrictions of the Second World War. At home, nothing was wasted, everything was reused. Milk came in recycled bottles, and we made our own yogurt. Our clothes were hand-me-downs from family. Books and backpacks were used with care so that others could reuse them later. We never left the water running or the lights on. There was a conscious use of resources; we had a huge sense of respect for things like energy, food, and water.

The concept of circularity has been ingrained since childhood. How does innovation and technology help drive sustainability?

Whenever I hear the word innovation, I think it means doing something that has not been done before, or applying known methods to get different results.聽 It鈥檚 about those “aha” moments in life.聽 I鈥檝e been very inspired by a young woman, Anna Luisa Beserra, a Brazilian environmental entrepreneur who is the founder and CEO of a startup called Sustainable Development and Water for All (SDW). When she was 15 years old, she developed a filtering system to disinfect rainwater collected in cisterns. It鈥檚 called Aqualuz, it鈥檚 a portable water purification system that uses solar energy to make water contaminated with bacteria safe to drink. Today she has her own business that brings safe water and sanitation to some of the most arid regions of Brazil.

You are now a member of the Board of Directors of her company. And under your leadership as regional president, all the managing directors of 麻豆原创 Latin America and Caribbean are women. Was that one of your goals?

No, not all. It was a natural evolution that began during the succession planning phase for my replacement when I moved into my current position. We always start with a list of criteria we are looking for to fill a certain position. Who has the right skills, knowledge, and ability? Then it鈥檚 a process of elimination, weighing pros and cons, weighing the different skills, different backgrounds. I consider different perspectives, sometimes the difference between men and women, but I did not set out to hire women for these positions. I was looking for people who could bring something new to the table, people who are able to lead by example. Gender is just one aspect of a balanced organization.

Talk about sustainability is everywhere. Companies are trying to figure out how to address their environmental, societal, and governance (ESG) factors. How are you and your team guiding customers in that direction?

We need to learn how to articulate what’s behind those three letters: ESG. There are many things that we can each do personally. In my case, as I lead in the company, I have to educate those around me and guide those conversations with our customers. CEOs and C-level executives are telling us sustainability must be embedded into everything we do. A year and a half ago, we hired a sustainability officer that reports directly to me. We are actively looking at how customers are dealing with the ESG factors to find examples we can learn from and replicate. The oil and gas industry comes to mind, where there is immense pressure to transition to renewable energy for environmental reasons. Agribusiness is big in Latin America and also has environmental issues. Of course, this topic really accelerated during the pandemic, and in our region there is a special need around the societal factors. We鈥檙e dealing with a huge gap between the rich and the poor. We have skills shortages, workforce issues, salary in terms of equity, and so on.

What about governance?

This is a key factor. In the past when people talked about sustainability, it was about planting trees. Today, thanks to increased focus on ESG factors, you need a holistic strategy. Both global and local companies have to consider governance because they are doing business in different parts of the world and are impacted by all the regulations. Some companies are improving in the ESG area because they have to comply, others are doing it because it鈥檚 the right thing to do, and it鈥檚 embedded in their core vision and purpose. It doesn鈥檛 matter. Companies are responding to the push to do better for whatever reason. We鈥檙e seeing a lot of innovation in startups, which has a lot to do with the mindset of the new generation.

Let鈥檚 not forget, this is not about one single company. Every company, large and small, plays a role. Sustainability is becoming part of the business DNA.

Read more stories from the 麻豆原创 Pioneers series.

This was how Dr. Feiyu Xu, global head of AI at 麻豆原创, opened her fascinating session at the , explaining how advances in high-performance computing, Big Data, and machine learning have commercialized AI, turning it into value for people and business.

An Inspirational Pioneer for AI

Award-winning researcher and startup founder Dr. Xu joined 麻豆原创 in 2020 to help realize the technology鈥檚 full potential for business value in both consumer and industrial sectors. Among the first generation of students to study AI, she鈥檚 undauntedly met the challenge of creating the company鈥檚 holistic strategy tackling this tremendous market opportunity. After attending her session, I spoke with her about how companies are bringing AI into the business for intelligent transformation.

鈥淲hat鈥檚 important is having an understanding of business processes and the right data so you can embed AI systematically into applications company-wide where it provides intelligence that guides better decision-making and the development of differentiated products and services to drive market growth,鈥� she said. 鈥溌槎乖� has access to that level of customer information given its broad product portfolio, deep industry expertise, and strong ecosystem of partners.鈥�

Multicultural Perspectives behind Unified AI Strategy

Dr. Xu, who grew up in China and completed her AI undergraduate and post-graduate studies in Germany, credited some of her foundational career strengths to her multicultural perspective. She鈥檚 certainly applied those insights, as she鈥檚 created a worldwide team she leads from 麻豆原创 offices in Berlin.

鈥淚 bring both my Chinese heritage and the research lessons I learned from Germany to my work today,鈥� she said. 鈥淲orking with teams of AI scientists, business leaders, product managers, and customers worldwide, it鈥檚 important to have open discussions as we fulfill our responsibilities to 麻豆原创 customers. We鈥檝e been an AI pioneer, and this technology remains central to our intelligent enterprise transformation along with our customers.鈥�

AI Ethics and Security Are Priorities

Noting that large-scale AI gives organizations a major competitive edge, Dr. Xu reinforced the company鈥檚 commitment to helping customers make business process improvements while staying safe and secure.

鈥淲e鈥檙e focused on customer education so they understand how to get the most from AI using 麻豆原创 software applications for automation, optimization, and forecasting across the organization,鈥� she said. 鈥淎t the same time, we adhere to a with principles for responsible use of this important technology.鈥�

Real-World Value from AI

According to the latest survey, AI remains the top priority for CEOs for the third year in a row. During her session at 麻豆原创 Sapphire Orlando, Dr. Xu shared a huge list of ways that AI now contributes to the intelligent transformation of organizations. As business travel returns, AI makes expense reporting a breeze. Manufacturers are using AI to automatically identify and reorder parts before they鈥檙e damaged and can negatively impact production goals. AI-based tools will rise to any e-mail challenge, automatically routing messages to the appropriate recipients for time-saving efficiencies.

鈥淭here are so many intelligent applications for AI across business processes,鈥� said Dr. Xu. 鈥淎I helps organizations discover market trends and turn prospects into lifelong customers. In manufacturing, AI improves efficiencies from design to production. Especially during times of disruption, AI can help reduce supply chain risks with better forecasts for short- and long-term planning. Organizations can adjust operations and people strategies to scale in sync with changing market demands.鈥�

Intelligence Combines Humans Plus Machines

Dr. Xu cited business results from customers in numerous industries using 麻豆原创 solutions with embedded AI. One railway transportation company achieved 99% automation rates to speed up invoicing and payments. A technology company gained 24/7 access to time-critical order information with conversational AI. A telecommunications provider filled 77% of vacant positions by automatically matching existing qualified employees with open positions.

What鈥檚 important to remember is that just like the people who program it, AI is constantly learning. analysts predicted that by next year, 60% of businesses will embrace a decision-making model that combines the power of AI and human judgment for more informed decision-making. By 2026, expected that 85% of enterprises will combine human expertise with AI, machine learning, natural language processing, and pattern recognition to augment foresight across the organization, making workers 25% more productive and effective. As for John and Mary, AI has left their love story in the dust.

Read more stories from the 麻豆原创 Pioneers series.

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