Alka Upadhyay of Tata Sustainability Group wanted to take her skills and her career to the next level. She was a functional manager who hoped to become a business manager, and she knew that she needed to broaden her leadership skills across a range of organizational disciplines. With this challenge in mind, she applied to attend the Senior Executive Leadership Program—India at Harvard Business School (HBS). She shares some thoughts about her experience.
Why did you choose to apply to a senior executive leadership program?
This is a very complex world, in which everything is interconnected. It's uncertain and it's ambiguous. One of the greatest benefits of the Senior Executive Leadership Program—India is that it was multidisciplinary. The curriculum focused on the connection among multiple subjects and multiple sectors. When I enrolled, my goals were to better understand the big picture and see those connections—and I definitely achieved those goals.
How would you describe your overall experience?
My learning experience can be divided into two categories. The first one was related to self-discovery. I was reintroduced to myself, and this happened gradually. I was forced to reconsider my leadership style and identify opportunities for improvement. Each of us in the program had a coach, a mentor, so when I recognized areas for improvement, I took them to my coach. I was very honest with her, and she has helped me tremendously with my personal development. The second category involved going beyond being a sustainable professional and becoming a business manager with a much more holistic role and view. This program provided that cross-functional view, learning concepts and frameworks that I didn’t know earlier—and that compelled me to think about how to use them in my organization for long term value proposition. During our classroom discussions, there was no right or wrong—there were multiple perspectives—and that created a wonderful learning environment. I can only hope that every participant was moved and gained from this experience the way I was.
Can you describe some key takeaways from the program?
Yes, I can think of a few. I loved the HBS faculty. Their level of engagement and the excitement they created was inspiring, and they enabled us to think at a deeper level. Also, my living group was unlike anything I've ever experienced. We came together—eight complete strangers—and with the guidance of our coach, we were able to learn about each other. During this process, I realized that they were all high achievers in their respective field. Beyond my living group, the broader group of participants was very diverse. There were people not only from India, but also from the Middle East and other regions of the world. Some were from family owned businesses and others were from larger corporations. It was quite an eclectic crowd.
In addition, I liked the selection of subjects which were a mix of topical and emerging business trends and the sequencing of these subjects—as well as the overall pedagogy, which was largely based on case study discussion. The quality of the discussion was dictated by everyone in the classroom—faculty and participants—and it was up to the participants to extract as much as possible from these discussions. And, of course, being an HBS alumnus now allows me to tap into the alumni network, which is invaluable.
Have you been able to apply anything you learned back at your organization?
Yes, I've been able to apply many of the lessons to my organization. One example is the value-mapping tool, which we learned about during Module 1. My organization has since conducted a strategy planning process, the first step being identifying customer needs. The value-mapping tool has been a great resource for us.
Would you recommend this program to someone who is considering it?
I will definitely recommend this program to people at my level, those who are in the C-suite, for a number of reasons. It addresses a variety of topics at our level, and that's important because we need to understand how different subjects are connected. The program is of great value!