Competence silences doubt: Savitha Balachandran

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Finance was the natural choice of education for her, as she was a meritorious student who liked problem solving and analysis. After graduating in commerce from Bengaluru’s Mount Carmel College, she moved to pursue a Master’s degree in finance at the Symbiosis Centre for Management & Human Resource Development in Pune. She also completed the Chartered Financial Analyst course, and received a Fulbright-CII Fellowship for Leadership in Management from the Tepper School of Business, Carnegie Mellon University, in the US.

In 2002, she joined Tata Motors through campus placements. Her career with the Tata Group has now spanned two decades, where she has straddled roles in diverse fields such as business, finance, and strategy transformation. “My career has been anything but a straight line,” she says. “The capabilities and the muscle that I built came from opportunities I got, thanks to my managers and sponsors. It takes many allies and a committed support system to help women grow.”

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Technology and finance remain male-dominated fields, and she is aware that her progress is an exception in the industry. Her career challenges, however, were more due to cultural norms, than organisational barriers. For instance, “As part of an automobile manufacturing organisation, I would be the only girl in the room in most meetings and had to find the voice to speak up among senior colleagues,” she says. “Sometimes, the unconscious biases do tend to come up. I believe there is positive change over the years, but, in my younger days, I did feel that women are expected to do more to prove themselves than male colleagues.”  

The other challenge, she recalls from her initial days, was finding ways to get hooked onto internal networks. “When you are part of a team or a system that is predominantly male, gaining visibility into the inner social networks becomes challenging,” she says. The only way to stand out was to step up for roles where one might not have been the obvious choice. “Competence silences doubt. There’s nothing more powerful than delivering impact and having a laser-sharp focus,” she says.

Speaking up has also worked in her favour. “Fortunately, I’m a vocal person, and have never had to alter my authenticity or feel pressured to be perfect,” she says. This is a challenge for many women, especially in the middle management, who tend to drop out of the system due to changing priorities. “Chasing perfection can paralyse success but harmony is achievable. It is important to move ahead and make progress rather than be delayed by focusing on being flawless.” Women leaders, she says, are crucial as they bring diversity in perspective, nurture a culture of accountability, and normalise holding positions of authority for the next generation.

“Savitha’s strategic foresight and commitment to our collective goals have been instrumental in our progress over the last few years, including the successful IPO,” says Warren Harris, managing director and chief executive officer at Tata Technologies. “Her leadership continues to drive our journey towards engineering a better world for all our stakeholders,” he adds.

Balachandran views leading the IPO for Tata Technologies as the biggest accomplishment of her career. A stellar market debut, the stock opened at ₹1,200 on the National Stock Exchange (NSE), listing at a 140 percent premium over its issue price of ₹500. Now, she has her focus trained on improving the efficiency of processes and making it more competitive and relevant in the digital era. “There are many milestones to achieve,” she says.