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Leaders of Change

nupurja
September 23, 2021

Daisy Chittilapilly, a 20 year veteran at Cisco, now holds the responsibility of navigating the Cisco India ship. Rome wasn’t built in a day, and the same goes for careers. I had an opportunity to capture her journey and get a glimpse into her life outside of work. Continue reading to find some exciting throwback experiences and anecdotes!

Q: When you started in Cisco 17 years ago as an AM, did you ever imagine yourself as the President of Cisco India. And if you did, how did you work towards making it happen?

I don’t have dreams that are looking so far into the future. People always ask me about my 5-year, 10-year plans, but I don’t know what to tell them. I always had an idea of what I wanted from life, but never an end goal. The way that I work is, I take up a role and then I think about where I can go next, and that decision is based on things that are challenging and interesting.  I have always made career choices which are at the intersection of my interests and capabilities, and this has been my advice to others as well.  I also think I take risks that a lot of people are hesitant about, so I have made a lot of moves which don’t make sense to others, they only make sense to me.

Q: How do you work towards identifying your next career move?

It’s very important to me that I switch roles every two or three years, it isn’t always a vertical move, but it’s always something I have never done before. I ensure that I get incremental exposure. I never ask for a role when it opens, I am constantly working towards it, evaluating, and assessing what needs to be done to transition to the next role. I always look for answers to these questions, while deciding.

What is the definition of that role? What is required from a person in that role?

What is it that I need to work on, learn along the way to excel at that role?

What is it that I want to do uniquely when I take that position?

This is something very personal to me, but I hope it helps some of you along the way.

Q: Going back a couple of decades when you just stepped into the corporate world. Some people hit the nail the first time, but some people take a couple of years to figure out what they want to do. What was that like for you?

There is huge difference between the generation that I was a part of and the times that we live in today, people today have choice. I grew up in a small town in a middle-class family, I had to fight tooth and nail to make the journey to a premier institute and women made less than 25% of the class strength in those days. Despite graduating from one of the best in the country, in a batch of 500 only 40 to 50 students came out with jobs. Campus placement in those days was extremely difficult and given the number of jobs that were available in the mid 90s, less than 10% of students got placed through campus.

So, the big dream for a middle-class kid who goes to an environment like that, was “TO GET A JOB!”, any job was okay.

My first company was a wonderful experience, I could relate to the culture and values of the organization. A lot of my friends switched careers very early and following the trend of the late 90s got into software development. My mother, who had seen my life as a front-line Account Manager asked me to consider software development.  My real decision making was around 1997-98, when I decided to stick to sales. I realized I loved sales because it gave me a broader connection with the world. As a 23-year-old Account Manager, I could talk to the CEOs of companies, and if you had something to say, they would listen. My learning curve was exponential.

To summarize, there is no magic formula to figure these things out, you need to be very self-aware of who you are as a person and what works for you without giving into peer pressure or just following the herd. As I mentioned earlier, a lot of my career moves also didn’t make sense to people, but I stuck to my decisions because I believed in them.

Q: The title of Cisco India President holds so much value in so many circles, how do you plan to leverage this platform to give back to the society?

When I was thinking about my next move, this role was on one of my top 3 choices, not because it is one of the most coveted roles in the country. It was never the sales element of it, that is fiduciary responsibility of this role, but the platform. The platform to effect change, whether it is internal or external. The ability to affect change is what drew me to leadership, and it is what keeps me going. People leadership is not a party, once you have done it for a few years there is no novelty in it. The people who continue with leadership roles, are largely motivated by the fact that you have the platform to effect change, the power to make choices.

As the VP of India Sales, I can direct resources to initiatives that are important to India, to name a few: Digitization projects spearheaded by the government, CSR Initiatives, Upskilling individuals, Network academy, driving relationship with Universities. These are the things that matter to India and SAARC rather than just selling Cisco products in India.

Cisco partnering with the country to effect equality, using the power of technology to ensure that the common citizens, the disenfranchised have access to social services, financial security, and resources. These are the kind of conversations one has the power to lead in these kinds of roles.

True leaders, not managers, a statement that always sticks with me: Managers manage risks, leaders effect change. So, anyone who shows up as a leader, even individual contributors have the power to create change and this platform gives me the capability to effect change.

Q: How can Cisco bring about systemic change that impacts people at large under your leadership?

From an Indian context, Government’s mission around digitization is access to opportunity and access to resources. We have vehicles like CDA and CSR to do exactly that. In addition to that I want to drive focus towards upskilling, creating employment, and getting Cisco to invest in India generating more employment opportunities.

Cisco India sustains an ecosystem for multiple entities, we hire people in India, we upskill people to become employable and we also generate employment with our investments in India, giving out work to multiple people and organizations.

To give you an example, an organization in the Northeast of India works with government institutions to run childcare and maternity programs. It leverages technology in various capacities to deliver strategic outcomes. They do not evaluate technology in terms of the performance or throughput, rather they are look at technology to solve real world issues.

How can we serve more people in the  primary health care centers?

How can we maintain and monitor these centers effectively?

How can we Manage Infant mortality?

While working on such projects, it makes me realize, we have truly touched lives.In summary we are shaping what India is to Cisco, but you also need to shape what Cisco can be for India. Both halves are equally important.

Q: A lot of people want to get to know you as a person, what are some things about you that we one cannot learn from your resume?

I enjoy writing, even though I struggle to find time for it. Some people know this about me, it’s the reason I tend to correct language, (smiles).

To name a few others, I have probably seen the worst made chick flicks in the world. I love watching animated movies, I am probably the only adult who goes alone to a theatre to watch an animation movie. Pixar makes movies for adults; I don’t think they make them for children.

I watch a lot of musicals, I have seen Cinderella, Beauty and the Beast, Inside Out – basically I have seen them all (Smiles).

I make time for travelling and I do it religiously, travel opens your mind.I believe that you can learn a lot from the collective experiences of humankind. Chuck said this: “You are a product of your experiences and exposure”, I take it a bit further and say that “It doesn’t always have to be your experiences, it can be somebody else’s experience too.”

Q: Which is your favorite Fictional Character and why?

Elizabeth Bennet from Pride and Prejudice, she is probably the most complicated character ever written. Written by a woman who was smart, single, and Independent. (Jane Austen)In many ways, she was an accepted version of Jane Austen herself. I was very clear that if I have a daughter, her name would be Elizabeth!

Despite growing up in a world with so many restrictions for women, Elizabeth did not conform, and I completely relate to this. She was fiercely independent and a force to reckon with. I was probably 10 years old, when I read the book and Elizabeth Bennet had a profound impact on me.I also admire Joe from Little Women.

Both Louisa May and Jane Austen, end the novels on a positive note, where the protagonists get married and live happily ever after.But I always believed that the ending was modified, possibly because of editorial suggestions. The characters were never meant to get married in the end, and if you think about it Louisa and Jane (Authors) never got married themselves, something to think about, right?

From an Indian context, when I read “On Balance”, Leila Seth’s biography, I was in awe of her. She also has a very famous child in Vikram Seth, but it wasn’t surprising because all her children were set up for success having a mother like that.

Q: What can we do better to help women in our Industry?

One of the reasons I spend so much time with women, internally and externally, is part of my narrative to effect change. I had my very own Sheryl Sandberg moment, when I went for a very important meeting with one of the biggest companies in India. I found myself looking for the washroom, and when I couldn’t find one, I was told that there wasn’t one on that floor. We were on the boardroom floor!! 🙂

I had to go down a couple of floors to find one, even though I was okay with that, it really got me thinking.

To effect change for the better of women, there is so much work that needs to be done. I have come across multiple women, who even today, do not have any autonomy over their salary.Over the years I have realized, not everyone can speak up for themselves, and we need to stand up for people who cannot do so, we need to be an ally. Give people the strength to stand up for themselves, it is part of the pay it forward conversation. Madeleine Albright said this, and I truly believe in it, “There is place in hell for women who don’t help other women.”

Q: How can we change the narrative for women who work as professionals in various capacities? What does the “Pay it Forward” conversation mean to you?

When we talk about women in a professional setting, we need to remember, that one is either a manager or an Individual contributor, one is never a “Woman Manager” or a “Woman IC”.If we want to effect change for women, we need to change how the world views women.

One of easiest ways to do so, is through the interactions people have with us.  A lot of people come from families where women do not work, and they believe that this should be the norm. Change this viewpoint for people, show them that the world is changing not by preaching to them, show them capability and strength!

Be the best professional, not the best women professional. Most people when faced repeatedly with opposing views, will change their own opinion. The best way to carry the baton forward for women, is to simply be the best at what you do.

During my initial days, one of my customers pulled me over to discuss how he could retain women in his team. I remember this very clearly, because it made me so happy, he said: “Till I met you, I didn’t even know there were women in sales in India”. My customer wanted to know, how his teams could be more like teams working in Cisco.People shouldn’t hire us, because we are women, that is never the idea. We should be hired because we are very good at what we do.

Always remember to Pay it Forward, even today I am the product of the generosity of many people, I have never had managers in Cisco who were women, multiple men have helped me throughout my career, and I remain grateful to them. Not just women, but there are various disenfranchised groups amongst us, and we should look after them. Be an ally for people, help them find a voice and speak up for people who struggle to do so for themselves.

Thank you Daisy for taking time out of your busy schedule to share your professional voyage and personal experiences you gained along the way. I hope each one of you reading this interview found it relatable, learnt a lesson to take away and aspire to pay it forward.