Brand Sales Director, SIMULIA, Dassault Systemes India
For a professional who can speak about her organization and products even in her sleep, talking about her life story is indeed a challenge. Digging deep to know what makes up Renuka Srinivasan, Brand Sales Director, SIMULIA, Dassault Systemes India was a pleasurable experience writes Sarada Vishnubhatla
Born in Chennai in a joint family in 1971, Renuka was exposed to the family’s construction business from early on. She shares: “Despite ours being a fairly conservative family, my sister and I were always encouraged to excel. Majority of our family studied to be engineers, and growing up, I too wanted to become a civil engineer.”
A graduate in civil engineering from BITS, Pilani, Renuka earned her Masters in Structural Mechanics from Duke University, and went on to work with Hibbitt, Karlsson and Sorensen INC, USA for a couple of years. In 1999, she set up Abaqus India which was later acquired by Dassault Systemes in 2005 and integrated in 2011.
Renuka remembers: “In my final year of college, I took a course in finite elements. Understanding different kinds of products across different engineering disciplines, knowing how a product behaves resonated with me. I could fulfill my entrepreneurial wish with Abaqus India where I put a strong team together and worked on expanding the business here.”
She needs to constantly know that her actions are impacting others in a constructive way making her an intuitive people’s person. Polite, frank and transparent is how Renuka is with her team and others. Working in a traditionally-male dominated field for two decades, she did hear a few gender-based remarks, but they were nothing that could deter her. Though now, times are changing and customers recognize and acknowledge the passion that she and her team work with.
Like any professional, Renuka also has been plagued with issues of life and work balance. She says: “I had a baby late and there were times when I asked myself if I was doing the right thing. My baby was not even a year old when I had to travel, and I remember I howled all the way to the airport. Fortunately, I had a strong support system – both within the organization and at home. I feel that guilt is encoded into a woman’s DNA when it comes to her child. I believe that the challenge takes on different forms depending on whether you are already established in your career or you are still climbing the career ladder.”
Renuka has been able to apply the whole experience and its learnings in becoming better at understanding her team because she feels that the skills she would employ while dealing with her child are also those that can be applied when working with people. For her, parenting helped her realize that there exist different approaches to deal with a situation.
She has a healthy respect for emotions at work because she believes in their power of motivation. She laughingly confides: “Personally, I certainly show emotions at work when I blow my fuse, though I try not to. I have learned that when strong emotions lace our argument, people tend to assume that our business reasoning is also colored by it. If I do lose my temper, I ensure to apologize to the person and work with them to fix the issue.”
Naturally gifted with impressive communication skills, Renuka’s strengths include knowing areas of improvements in herself, such as thinking bigger and creating more ambitious goals for herself.
Renuka’s blessings come in the form of her team looking at her as a balanced and inspiring head because they know that she is focused on achieving the target as a team. This team player sure has earned her stars!