It is rightly said by Hellen Keller, “Life is either a daring adventure or nothing”. Pooja  Aggarwal, Head of Business Operations, Schindler Group goes by a similar philosophy while leading her life & business. She is a significant leader who has dared to go beyond the usual and embrace the adventures of her career with courage & determination. It is because of her ambitious & inquisitive attitude, that she has shouldered significant leadership roles across multiple industries including financial services, apparel & elevators. Her wide industry experience enables her to bring on unique perspectives on leading cross-cultural teams and driving customer-centricity. Over the years she has been instrumental in building business vision and elevating the performance & profitability of the organizations she has been associated with. She has been in charge of transformational projects and handled multi-cultural teams in diverse functions including Sales, Business Development & HR. Drawing from her experience as a business leader, she advises young women to become a benchmark for themselves and own their strengths, leverage them & claim their achievements. She is a lady on the move, hustling with her skills; she is on a mission to be the best she can be. Let’s hear it from her.

Take us through the professional experience that you bring to the table.

I started after my management from IIFT which gave me the platform to kickstart in the corporate world. I have also been a Group Management trainee at the Aditya Birla group which included varied assignments involving B2B sales in financial services. Then I moved on to the HR department at the corporate level, wherein I headed the Young Talent Management portfolio. Post that I joined Schindler where I have been leading a P&L role that includes generating Rs800 crores of annual operating revenues along with 850+ team members. I have had a unique journey so far working across diverse verticals. I have worked for startups as well as mature organizations collecting transformational experiences in each of them. Be it in the manufacturing sector, service-based sector, textile sector, or financial sector, I have excelled in growing not just vertically but horizontally as well.

“How do we cater to the needs of our customers has become an everydaychallenge; we try to overcome such challenging situations with agility in our business operations at every level”

Tell us about the various roles and responsibilities that you shoulder as the Business Leader for Schindler Group. What are the primary focus areas in your current role?

As the Business Leader of Schindler Group, I manage 10+ departments influencing & motivating teams at every level. My focus is to lay down long-term manpower planning and ensure employee safety considering the risky business of elevator installation. I am responsible for every direct function in the business, i.e., from ensuring the safety of our engineers to maintaining the brand image in the market. I have to keep a check on the health of the financial balance sheet of the business operations parallelly being aware of the external challenges. So, it is an encompassing role that covers various functions and roles in different capacities.

What are some of the most pressing challenges that you encounter in your current role? How do you successfully mitigate these challenges?

The foremost challenge as a Business Leader is to balance between long-term and shortterm business aspects. These include building futuristic business and strategy while delivering current year results. I directly drive various initiatives with the Head of departments that help us to be prepared for the external challenges and the changing needs of the market. We have seen a lot of turbulence in the market since the pandemic including geopolitical tensions between the countries which have directly disrupted the supply chain and timelines. In addition, Customers have become impatient considering the advent of technology and expect everything at a go. Hence, how we meet the needs of our customers has become an everyday challenge; We try to overcome such challenging situations by building agile teams in our business operations at every level.

What are some of the most significant learnings that you have acquired throughout your professional journey? How do you keep yourself aligned with periodic industry changes?

To begin with, my role in financial services broadened my skills in sales and helped me gain valuable consumer insights. I got opportunities to explore innovative ways of doing sales. My role at Group HR at Aditya Birla Management Corporation has been a complete turnaround for my professional journey, I have had my biggest learnings from there. It helped me to understand human psychology and its importance in the organization, as a company cannot run without its people. Moreover, I undertook transformational projects including employerbranding in Southeast Asia which built in me the courage to lead large projects and work across cultures.Also, my role as the Country Head for a Saree brand called Navyasa gave me opportunities to work closely with the R&D team, build a product in line with consumer needs & bring it to live in stores through a strong value position. My current role has been a complete transformation where I am learning to connect with the team at ground levels. To keep myself upgraded I connect with leaders across various industries and also pursue leadership programs that help me learn about the latest leadership aspects.

Pooja Aggarwal, Business Leader, Schindler Group

Pooja has an MBA in Marketing & Finance from IIFT and more than 16+ years of crossindustry experience handling various roles & responsibilities. She is currently the Business Leader, (Maharashtra & Telangana), at Schindler Group & one of the youngest women P & L leaders in the Elevator industry in the country.