Leadership in technology is no longer just about expertise—it’s about connected ecosystems, hyper-agility and the ability to harness human potential. In an industry defined by rapid change, true talent leadership goes beyond hiring and performance metrics; it’s about visualising a purposeful future, un-learning, harnessing the power of teams & driving transformation at speed.
Padmini Sharathkumar exemplifies this philosophy through her career journey. With a diverse background spanning banking, technology, marketing, and business enablement, she has led strategic initiatives, built high-performing teams, and shaped team cultures to drive business impact.
Now, as the Chief Talent Officer at Intellect Design Arena Ltd, she channels this rich experience into fostering an environment where creativity and can-do thrive along with speed and precision. In this conversation, Padmini shares her reflections on leadership, culture-building, and the defining moments in her career journey.
To know the answer, you’ll have to read along as Padmini spoke in an exclusive interview with Women World India, the highlights of which are given herein.
Ma’am, as a Chief Talent Officer in tech, can you tell us a little about your background and what inspired you to pursue a career in tech?
I have had an eclectic career journey spanning Technology and banking domains and rich functional exposure to Treasury, Sales, Chairman’s office, Integrations, Marketing, Media Relations, and HR. Indeed, my professional journey is the quintessential melting pot, with diverse roles at Nucleus Software, American Express Bank, American Express Technologies, Polaris Financial Technology, and Intellect Design Arena.
I am an alumnus of BITS Pilani with a Master’s in Management Studies.
I began my internship at MRF, Chennai during my engineering days, and at that point, working with large machinery on the shop floor was a big attraction. Engineering roles for women in the factory were hard to come by at that time, and I eventually landed an interview at Nucleus Software, Chennai, purely by chance. It was a start-up that had an appetite for IIT, BITS, and REC (now NIT) engineering grads. FinTech was not an established category in those days.
My interviewer asked me how I landed up for the interview without a computer science background; I distinctly remember saying, ‘I am a quick learner’! That was my first job, and my second was at American Express.
Organisational structure changes, M&As, and the two sabbaticals during my parenting journey led me to embrace changes and explore new roles with a serious commitment to learning quickly and delivering—not ‘I will give it a shot’ but ‘I will give it my all’!
I would summarise that it was not about inspiration but about preparation and a mental state of readiness for any new opportunity!
What were the turning points in your early career?
One of the turning points came in the form of an organisational announcement where the Global Systems division at American Express in Chennai (of which I was a part) was being outsourced! I was all set to get happily married, and two weeks before my wedding, this bombshell! I could have looked for opportunities in Tech but decided to change tracks and explore opportunities in banking. I picked up a whole new domain – Treasury & Foreign Exchange (FX) in the process.
I opted for a career break just before the birth of my second child, as I could not cope with the demands of the dealing room, a young child and one more on the way!
I soon settled down into a two-kids’ domestic routine when Mr Venky Ramanan (former leader, American Express Global Systems) came to visit. He was quite concerned as to why I wasn’t back at the Bank. I gave a sarcastic reply that I had 4 hours of free time between looking after my young sons.
He actually gave me a role from 2 pm to 6 pm at Amex Technologies, during which time I familiarised/trained techies on a treasury platform that they were upgrading! I simply loved this role. In the process, I discovered that I loved working with teams and enabling them!
First life lesson: We all could do with Mentors & Sponsors around us!
They say history repeats itself. Soon after, another organisation announcement came up with the plan to outsource Amex Technologies! I was too stunned to react.
But guess what? I was cherry-picked to work on the initial design and approach to the integration of Amex (my employer) and the Tech Major that acquired us.
I refused the offer of a full-time role with the acquirer, knowing I couldn’t handle the timings, commute, or travel just yet. I began looking for interesting part-time roles.
You’ve had a long and rewarding career with Polaris-Intellect. Are there any turning points here?
I had an opportunity to reconnect with Mr Arun Jain, Founder and CMD (Polaris Financial Technologies & Intellect Design Arena), a Leader and mentor extraordinaire. I had begun my career in his erstwhile company, Nucleus Software.
As with many young moms struggling to find the right opportunity, my first meeting with him was more about my ‘constraints’ and what I would NOT be able to do!
He updated me on a potential acquisition and suggested that he could consider me for the role of Integration Lead.
Meeting Mr Jain was the mother of all turning points. Once the integration program was completed in nine months, he offered me a key role in his office.
There was no turning back. I began an incredible second innings, growing to be a Partner & Chief Marketing Officer for the Polaris group by 2009.
You mentioned a key role in the Chairman’s Office. How did it shape your journey?
It shaped my ‘thinking’ first! Let me touch upon three of these.
- The above role gave me the exposure and experience to think beyond conventional boundaries—be it functional boundaries or industry boundaries, such as ‘number of years of experience’ or boundaries of role and hierarchy. Very quickly I moved away from the trappings of ‘how many people would report to me’ to ‘how can I add more value’.
- I learnt to observe leaders around me, how to navigate ambiguity, how to think in frames, how to ask the right questions and above all, how important it is to walk the talk!
- Another life lesson learnt from the Chairman was how to identify positives in talent around us and build on those.
Very early in my career, I got out of the ‘comparison’ trap, not pegging my aspiration or path to anyone else’s. I learnt to ask myself truthfully, ‘Am I becoming better than what I was last quarter or last year?’
Second life lesson: Our journeys are usually an outcome of our thinking.
What does talent leadership in tech mean to you?
The answer lies in the word ‘Talent’ itself, as opposed to the oft-used term ‘Resource’. Resource conjures up images of productivity and optimisation. The word’ Talent’ pushes one to go beyond obvious performance and adds the dimension of potential and expansion.
Talent leadership, in my view, is a layered topic.
Layer 1: Tech is synonymous with many moving parts, and this domain requires full-throttle speed and precision, whether it is acquiring a new skill, scaling up a competency, or driving a change.
Layer 2: is our Mind space. Most of us learn to analyse and crunch our numbers well. That’s predictable and has observable patterns. Understanding our mind requires a very different perspective. Suddenly, you start observing talent around you, beyond headcount and performance appraisal – what ignites our thinking, how we get inspired, how our minds learn, how they unlearn, our belief systems, our values or where our identity is linked to. All of these impact human potential and capacity.
Layer 3 – is understanding how teams come together. Have you wondered how different teams produce different throughput with the same skills and tools? Unravelling elements of team chemistry and team culture would be the third layer.
Talent leadership is about looking at the three layers holistically, bringing these together and connecting the dots. One could also say that Talent leadership is about harnessing the power of human potential and kinetic energy. In this AI-led era, the analogy would be changing the wheels of an aircraft while it is airborne!
Believe me, when I was chosen as the Chief Talent Officer, I was at first baffled by the difference between a Chief of Human Resources and a Chief of Talent. That began my journey of discovery.
Intellect Design Arena Ltd has emerged as one of India’s best tech companies. Could you share the guiding philosophy that has propelled your organisation’s success?
The organisational guiding philosophy has been influenced significantly by the Founder’s philosophies.
- The Power of Dreams.
- The Power of Teams (ordinary people can come together to do extraordinary things).
- Let’s solve problems holistically!
- There is always a simpler way to do things!
The first two philosophies enabled the company to visualise the future and kept us ahead of the curve. It also led to the creation of a strong culture. While Intellectual property is a great competitive differentiator, I believe our culture is probably as big a moat! We can still catch up with IP, but it is harder to recreate culture.
The third and fourth philosophies propelled the organisation to adopt Design Thinking as the approach to holistic problem-solving. We set up the first-ever design centre for financial technologies in the world in 2013. This design centre, known as FT8012, is located in Chennai and is spread over 30,000 sq ft. The innovation & Can-do DNA has been beautifully nurtured over 3 decades of our existence. Since its launch, we have facilitated immersive sessions for 25,000 influencers from 50 countries. Additionally, the Design Center has organised 500 Design Thinking workshops for Academia, Corporations, Intellect Customers, Government & Administrative agencies, and Social Development Accelerators.
This investment & adoption of design thinking catapulted our company, Intellect Design Arena into a preferred technology partner for transformations in the Banking & Financial Services Sector. Today, we have an enviable landscape of over 300 clients, including 6 out of the Top 10 in practically every major geography.
What specific obstacles do you think women in tech still face today, and what needs to be done to address these barriers?
Let me focus on the biggest talent loss we face as an industry – young mothers, where there is a serious conflict between the demands of parenting young children and building one’s career.
The problem is multidimensional, so linear solutions will not help. It is important to look at the solutions through the different lenses of individual, family, organisation, and social ecosystem. Success would follow if we are able to design a more comprehensive solution by wiring the above, holistically.
Let me start with an example from the family lens.
One of the Coaches we are working with talked about a situation in a Coachee’s family where she (the Coachee) was told, ‘You can go to work provided this, this, and this are not compromised.’ Educating or sensitising families about the negative impact of such one-sided conditions would be critical. On the other hand, equity in managing household chores is a welcome change we are observing, and that’s heartening.
The next lens is the individual herself. Committing to self-learning and at the very least, basic networking, could be a critical focus area. How else would one keep in touch with the chosen domain or contact points during a break, sabbatical, or extended maternity leave?
From the organisation’s lens, designing roles that offer flexibility and upskilling to returning mothers would be a viable solution. Here again, it’s an acid test for inclusivity from a company’s sustainable workforce design. Let me take a step before that. What can organisations do to help individuals stay relevant when they are on a break? Upskilling on AI, perhaps? Open-source platforms today are making this very possible.
From a societal lens, consider this: We have malls for almost every three kilometres, but do we have a professional, safe, and economical daycare system?
We also need to consciously design and wire the support of external forums and mentorship around the above topic. I was recently going through 20 such support forums for Women in IT, featured in the CIO magazine online. I was thinking we should bring such forums together in India! Convergence in such supportive forums can drive a higher throughput than fragmented efforts.
In short, the common themes are Educating, upskilling & mentoring. We need to bring all of these together.
What are a few leadership strategies that have worked for you?
In the initial stages of my leadership journey, I imbibed qualities from a few inspirational leaders I worked with and, yes, also figured out from a few others what I did not want to be! Over the years, I became more aware of my authentic style of leadership. That was actually liberating.
The few leadership strategies that have worked for me are placing exceptional focus on the alignment of thoughts & energies towards the larger agenda and propagating a “We before I” and a collaborative culture. I genuinely care for my team and its growth.
One of the qualities I picked up over the years is having difficult conversations! Biting the bullet is better than allowing things to fester.
Now, how do you balance your professional and personal life?
Balancing is a directional compass. It’s important to reflect on this periodically and work on course corrections.
I have learnt to accept that many times, the balance is actually tilted towards work or home. It is important to accept that some things do not work, and it is okay to fail. There are, at the end of the day, quite a few unknowns.
Practically speaking, my secret sauce has been planning weekends very well to prepare for the pressures of the week. I have borrowed generously from the planning, positive energy, and multi-tasking I see in women around me—my mother, mother-in-law, friends, and my sister, in particular. With my sister and close friends, I openly discuss my ideas, aspirations, dilemmas and vulnerabilities.
When I meet or get to know someone, I observe what they are doing well and unabashedly steal ideas and best practices with pride. I am very particular about nurturing my support system with genuine appreciation and gratitude.
There are inspirational role models and relatable role models. Both play an important role in shaping our thoughts and intrinsic motivations.
I have been fascinated by snowcapped mountains and inspired by the rivers emanating from them. Sometimes, these rivers begin at the most unexpected places, they may begin as a trickle or as a torrent, sometimes the rivers even go silently under-ground, and sometimes they come together as a confluence. Sometimes they meander, at times they are filled with rapids, sometimes they are just a narrow ribbon…But what I find immensely fascinating is that they are always in motion.
In its own small way, my career journey has mirrored the journey of a river. Sometimes, I was in full flow, like during my tenure as Group Marketing Head at Polaris. Sometimes, I was just behind the scenes and thoroughly enjoying a smaller role. During my stint at American Express Bank in the Treasury division, it felt like I was navigating multiple rapids hour after hour, day after day. I have also gone silently underground with a few sabbaticals but have come back with renewed vigour and why, even altered my course. An inspiring message to me was always from the Rivers – Keep moving, keep flowing, and it’s okay if the flow reduces now and then to a trickle or a ribbon. There is a path or a gap waiting to be found.
Finally, what advice would you give to young women who aspire to lead in the tech industry in the future?
Leadership is not just about vision and power. It’s also an emotional journey. How you deal with your dilemmas, vulnerabilities, feedback, failures, and successes is as much about emotions and emotional maturity as it is about leadership! Preparing for leadership must be accompanied by working on one’s emotional intelligence.
Secondly, investing in broadening one’s exposure is vital—new experiences, including those outside our domain, can be enriching. A hobby that connects to our inner self or that can bring out another dimension in us can be equally enriching.
A few years ago, I heard my sister refer to Nora Roberts’ analogy in one of her storytelling sessions. It was about what to prioritise when you are busy and overwhelmed. We all juggle with glass balls and plastic balls. Incidentally, these balls are not to be mistaken for family or work, but they actually refer to a larger number of priorities, maybe even 30 or 40 priorities. There are separate glass and plastic balls for everything! It is okay for the plastic balls to fall, but the message is to focus on not dropping the glass balls.
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