Every individual is unique in his/her own way. One’s nearly life experiences, environment and circumstances mould us into becoming who we intrinsically are as people. Often times our traits work in our favor as we advance in a leadership role, while others might hold us back. Business leader Sugandha Goel is highly self aware and perceptive when it comes to analyzing her personality traits that define her approach to leadership. She underlines her transparency, risk taking abilities, innovation, value, ethics & integrity and decisiveness as the key traits that work in her favor.

These traits have also fuelled Sugandha’s journey from a nondescript town in Punjab to becoming the co-founder & Chief Business Officer of FIVD. an architecture firm. Sugandha has been instrumental in scaling up FIVD’s business from incubation to becoming a leader in AEC industry, building capacities of scale ensuring complete fiscal responsibility and accelerated high business growth.

An astute business leader, Sugandha is passionate about scaling up businesses through vision, intuition, and technology. In her current role she helps FIVD to devise overall growth strategy and driving high impact initiatives with a focus to accelerate the growth and profitability. A proponent of flat hierarchies, she enables her team to explore different ideas, focus on small wins and actively endeavors to eliminate bureaucracy which stifles progress.

Sugandha’s high caliber leadership skills are complemented by her quest for constant learning. She is currently pursuing a Program in Machine Learning & AI from an institute of global repute.

In an extensive conversation with the Women Entrepreneur team, Sugandha speaks to us about thoughts on leadership, the challenges faced by the industry and the traits that define her as a leader.

Take us through your early life and prior industry experience that have shaped you into becoming who you are today.

I grew up in a small town Nabha, Punjab and my academics began at The Punjab Public School. Later I moved to St. Bedes, Shimla. I graduated with a degree in Mass Communication and soon after pursued a degree in Law & Psychology.

My formative years in the corporate world were spent in the Steel Industry which brought me exposure to Human Resources & Operations Management domains. My employment at Greenlam helped me understand and nurture my skills in Design & Product Management.

Thereafter, I spent the next ten years working for HKS, Inc. a US based international design firm. I led Business Development efforts for the Indian Market and grew to the position of Vice President , managing responsibilities such as New Client Acquisition, Marketing, P&L Management and more.

shoulder as the CBO of FIVD. What are the primary focus areas in your current role?

We co-founded FIVD (an architecture firm) to bridge the gap prevailing in the AEC industry. My core responsibilities at FIVD are building business strategies, talent management, client relation management, quality delivery and other operational functions.

As a leader I’m passionate about improving how people work and optimizing workflow. The goal here is to build an effective and efficient Organization and just so it happens I have prior experience in implementing a myriad of tactical operations.

Steve Jobs once said, “It doesn’t make sense to hire smart people and tell them what to do; hire smart people so they can tell YOU what to do”. We have adopted a similar mantra at FIVD. The company is structured in a way that encourages open communication up, down, and sideways. We steer away from positional authority the best ideas win regardless of title.

Our focus is to empower teams, regularly ask for feedback and create a culture where people are comfortable speaking their mind and thinking differently. This enables employees to come up with unconventional ideas that can work well in the future. We have created a Design Tech team with dedicated employees who keep experimenting  with ideas. The goal is to dream big and build the future which can create tremendous gains over a period of time.

What are some of the most pressing challenges that you encounter in terms of leading an architecture firm? How do you successfully mitigate these challenges?

The fascinating quality of running an architecture firm is maintaining a balance between the logistics & metrics and having a dialogue for creative freedom. Owing to adoption of new technologies architecture as a profession today is far leaner and meaner than its pre-crisis state. It’s always a ball game, trying to balance going all out

with your designs and making sure that you are not running all out of the profits. You’re inspired by the creative direction, but you must translate it into value for business and the client obviously must resonate with the same.

FIVD has several long-term clients that have helped shape us in the architectural field. The key is to align with our clients and truly understand their needs.

We understand what our client’s business is, not as designers or architects, but as their business partners. We connect with them deeply and provide them with insights & foresight backed by our expertise which ultimately helps their business succeed. This creates a real and dynamic partnership which keeps evolving with time.

“As a leader I’m passionate about improving how people work and optimizing workflow”

Tell us about some of the key traits that you possess which have enabled you to become an effective and successful business leader?

We all have our behavioral styles and typical approaches that have been monopolized into us since very young age. One of the primary traits that have contributed to my career journey is transparency. I believe that a part of building trust is being transparent. The more open you are about the organization’s goals and challenges, the easier it is for employees to understand their role and how they can individually contribute to the company’s overall success.

Risk-Taking and innovation are next. Leaders should possess the courage to take risks and promote creativity. Fostering ideas and innovation steers the organization to an epitome of success, hence changing the business perspective all together. Encouraging the people around you to take out few minutes to conduct group brainstorming sessions and prototyping models is a game changer.

I also possess strong values, ethics and integrity. I believe a leader with high ethical standards conveys a commitment to fairness, instilling confidence that both leaders and employees will honor the rules of the game. Similarly, when leaders clearly communicate their expectations, they avoid blindsiding people and ensure that everyone is on the same page.

Lastly, being decisive has been a key element of my success as a leader. Being a visionary for the company’s growth and striking at the right time without doubting yourself is the key to build a successful empire.

Drawing from your experience as a business leader, what would your advice be to young women and girls who also aspire to become business leaders and entrepreneurs in the future?

As said by C.S. Lewis, I also truly believe that "you’re never too old to set another goal or to dream a new dream”. Focus on competence and the quality of your output. Draw attention to the fact that you are a professional par  excellence and not your gender. Very often we forget that if you put the company before everything else and focus on your competence, you’ll move ahead. Just focus maniacally that way, based on competence, and you’ll be amazed at how many doors open for you.

Sugandha Goel, Chief Business Officer, Fivd

A co-founder of FIVD, Sugandha has been tasked with building business strategies, talent management, client relation management, quality delivery and other operational functions at the firm. Armed with deep industry expertise she specializes in building capacities of scale, ensuring complete fiscal responsibility and accelerated high business growth.