1. How did you decide to pursue a career in technology?
When I was in doing my undergraduate degree, I had a friend who was always talking about a post-graduate degree course in Engineering in the premier Indian Institute of Science (IISc) at Bangalore and that she was applying for it. So I just went along, took the entrance test, got through it and joined the Bachelor’s course in Electrical and Electronics Engineering. I also went on to do my Masters in Engineering from IISc itself. Thereby, a chance discussion and a lot of encouragement and support from my parents, my father in particular, took me along this path and here I am enjoying a career in technology!
2. Based on your own experience, what skill(s) or characteristic(s) do you think are most important for technical women to succeed?
Personal Excellence, Positive Attitude, Focus on continuous learning, Persistence, Adaptability, Passion for technology (obviously), Integrity (key), Self-confidence, Self-awareness and Open to feedback. In addition, never hesitate to seek help – recognizing that you cannot be and are not a super-woman is very important.
3. What was the greatest challenge that you overcame in your career?
I have never thought of anything as a challenge but something to be managed. A few of these changes were: Changing my career from pure Technical to Management, moving from managing the Software labs to handling only couple of products, being asked to manage a product at the Global Level, etc. Some of these changes were deliberately initiated by me and some of the changes happened because of the organisation requirements. At every point I have always looked at learning either from my mentor, or my manager or my peer, or my reportee – whoever I thought had the knowledge to help me learn and manage.
4. How do you manage work/life balance?
I like the current term a lot better – “Work Life Integration” than the work life balance. It has been a challenge given that we work in a global company. I try to keep the week-ends for my family and be there for important events or testing times. I ensure I am there when I am most needed. The flexibility work options provided by IBM are useful. I also built a good team with the team members having a strong mutual trust – this team contributes to each one managing work and life.
5. What advice would you give to women in high tech who want to advance on the management track specifically?
Go for it. It is an interesting, very exciting and challenging career. The one thing to be aware is that either as an individual contributor or a Technical Manager, it is critical to keep updating yourself; continuous learning and building a brand for yourself is very important
6. How do you stay current in your technical field?
Self-learning, learning through others – peers, reportees, juniors, etc., courses, and so on. One advice here – always have people smarter than yourself in the team. This has helped me to retain my hunger to learn new things, and it has helped me to grow myself as well as my team.
7. In your opinion, what are the barriers facing women in technology in India?
Because of the meager numbers of women leaders in the technology space, a lack of Role Models in Technical field has been one of them. Given the cultural context, learning to manage work and life is also a key aspect to growth or a barrier to growth as the case may be. Women also have to learn to create visibility for themselves in their chosen field and in their organization. Which brings me back to how we should plan and deliberately make changes, we should ask for challenging assignments and we should not hesitate to seek new opportunities without waiting for something to come up, and be asked of you.
Kalpana has 27 years of industry experience and has been with IBM for the last 16 years. She has been with India Software Lab (ISL) since its inception in 2001 and has played key leadership roles across functions in growing the lab to its current level.
Born and brought up in Bangalore, Kalpana completed her Masters Degree in Engineering from the Indian Institute of Science, Bangalore in 1982, after which she embarked on an 11-year career with PSI Data Systems.
Kalpana joined IBM in 1993 as Software Specialist. Performing various key technical roles on development of several products, she progressed to a Consultant Software Specialist in 1995. She made a switch to management in 1999 and executed as the Lab Manager for the India Software Lab for 4 years. In 2005 Kalpana was appointed Program Director, ISL and managed different products teams across the various pillars like Lotus, Tivoli, Information Management and also the File Systems projects.
Currently, Kalpana is the Director for WebSphere Adapters and B2B WW Development and AIM Development in ISL. As the Director for WebSphere Adapters and B2B Development, she owns the business direction and strategy for Enterprise Information Connectivity and B2B set of products including WebSphere Data Interchange and Partner Gateway. As the Director of AIM Development in India, she oversees development activities for all AIM products (WAS, WebSphere Commerce, TxSeries, etc.,) delivered by ISL.
Kalpana has received several awards in recognition of her leadership with the India Software Lab, and was named the recipient of the IT People Award for Women Leadership in 2007 and the Women In Leadership (WILL) Women’s Choice Award in 2008.
Kalpana is responsible for driving some of the key leadership initiatives across ISL and IBM India. Some of the key assignments are:
- Unleash the Lab(ISL) – A Customer focus initiative
- GMT (Growth Market Team) Ambassadors for Gender Diversity
- Member of Global Women’s Council
- Co-Chair for WIT (Women in Technology) Executive Steering Committee.
- Member of the India Leadership Forum
- On the Board of IBM India