With the rise in India’s Global Capability Centres (GCCs), there is a visible trend of women leading innovation, and the list is quite extensive. According to a joint research published by Pure Storage and Zinnov, GCCs in India are leading the charge for a diverse workforce, with women accounting for 28% of their workforce.
Madhurima Khandelwal, vice president at American Express, brings her background in Economics to the table to lead a strong team of 1,700 skilled professionals. She is no stranger to innovation; her stint as head of AI Labs saw her team boost the company’s machine learning and AI capabilities.
Sirisha Voruganti, on the other hand, has a management degree from Harvard and is making headway at Lloyds Technology Centre India. As the CEO and managing director of the tech and data company, she pulled off an impressive feat by growing the team to over 1,000 engineers in just six months.
In a LinkedIn post, Voruganti acknowledged that women are indeed breaking the glass ceiling and forging a new era of leadership.
In another LinkedIn post, Kishore Chandran, founder and president at Dr Kalam Foundation, said, “The story of India’s GCCs is being written by nearly two dozen women leaders who are taking on pivotal roles beyond traditional HR and marketing domains. These women are leading core engineering, finance, innovation, analytics, and other areas.”
Meanwhile, Suchita Vishnoi, co-founder and CMO at gatewAI, spoke about how women leaders lead by example, blend heart and mind, and showcase strong team-building skills.
“I see a lot of women who bring in leadership skills when it comes to putting a team together and leading by example…That’s a very big quality. I am a woman leader myself, and I think I bring that.”
She pointed out that the expertise, experience, and ability to lead diverse, large-scale teams of women make them ideal for such roles. “They are skilled, they are experienced, they have the right expertise, and they bring in the best leadership qualities that anyone needs to bring in to lead a large team of the scale.”
According to her, women leaders often rise above differences in origin to represent their organisations effectively.
Recently, AIM spoke to Dhanya Rajeswaran, who leads Fluence’s India operations as the country managing director. With her management degree, she’s been instrumental in building the GCC in India from scratch, turning it into a key innovation hub for Fluence, a global leader in energy storage and renewable tech.
Dhanya highlighted the collaborative nature of GCC leadership, which moves away from the traditional hierarchy. “The role of a GCC leader is, in my view, a very strong bridge builder. You need a vision, a strategic mindset, and strong execution, but also the ability to connect across potential silos in the organisation.”
This leadership style thrives on connections over authority. “Not everybody reports to you or has to listen to you, but you still need to work with them to connect the dots meaningfully, both globally and locally,” she added.
For Dhanya, creating an innovation culture means fostering an environment where “everybody feels nurtured, free, and enabled”.
When asked if GCCs offer a more unbiased environment for women, she elaborated on their global focus. “Is it an unbiased environment, or is it an environment which is more globally connected? There are no traditional mindsets about how things should look, but rather a focus on finding the best person for the job.”
On why more women seem to lead in GCCs, Dhanya noted, “I don’t think women are chosen intentionally. But the structure is fluid and open, which might naturally lead to more women being in these roles.” This flexible and inclusive approach challenges traditional norms and enables innovation to thrive.
Massive Expansion
Under her leadership, Fluence was established in India in 2022 and has rapidly scaled to 400 employees in just over a year.
She pointed out that for India, especially as a Global Innovation Centre (GIC), there are three key aspects of the company strategy. “India is an accelerator, value generator and horizontal integrator.”
The GIC contributes not only to the speed of product development but also enhances the company’s top and bottom lines globally.
Fluence goes beyond just providing battery energy storage systems, often referred to as “the boxes”. “We don’t just do the battery energy storage, which means it’s the boxes, but on top of the boxes, we have our own software, which is our operating system,” Rajeswaran explained.
The core of Fluence’s innovation lies in its in-house software solutions in India, which involves two to three different levels.
First is the Fluence Operating System, a control system that ensures the smooth operation of storage units. Next is an asset management tool called Nispera. Finally comes Mosaic, a powerful AI-driven bidding application that uses AI to make critical decisions.
“At any given time, there are nearly 5,000 decisions you need to make to decide if now is the moment to bid in the market and at what price,” she explained. The AI simplifies this process, which helps eliminate guesswork and helps customers act at the right moment.
These tools are not standalone products. They integrate with Fluence’s storage systems. For example, Mosaic can automatically trigger energy discharge when market prices are favourable, combining hardware, software, and AI for a complete energy storage solution.
India Takes Centre Stage
India’s contributions to global product development at Fluence have reached a new milestone. “For the first time in two years, we now have the global product leader for our next-gen product sitting out of India and designing that product,” Rajeswaran added.
Unlike many organisations that delegate smaller portions of work to India, Fluence takes a different approach. “Nearly 75% of our global teams have a strong presence in India,” Rajeswaran explained.
Rajeswaran also added that the centre has grown more than eightfold in just two years. “We started with just a few of us setting up the entity.”
Why Bengaluru
Rajeswaran pointed out that a unique thing about Bengaluru is that it is so cosmopolitan. “People here have worked in so many different parts of the world, and eventually, they settle here.”
Bengaluru offers Fluence, whose work is highly specialised, an unparalleled advantage. “If you need someone familiar with Australia’s grid codes, chances are you will find them in Bengaluru more than anywhere else.”
While other cities like Chennai or Hyderabad also have talent pools, Bengaluru’s ability to provide niche global expertise sets it apart.
As a company, Fluence takes a quality-over-quantity approach to its workforce. “Globally, we are a $2.7 billion revenue company with a headcount of only 1,700,” Rajeswaran further said. This lean but highly skilled team ensures that every hire brings deep expertise in engineering, energy, and technology.
