Revathi Advaithi and Bela Bajaria, two Indian American executives, have made it into Fortune's list of the most powerful women in business for 2022, which is once again headed by Karen Lynch, president and CEO of CVS Health.
This year, Fortune decided to combine its domestic and foreign lists of the top corporate women leaders, making it a little tougher to be named among its Most Powerful Women.
In second, third, and fourth place respectively, are Julie Sweet, chair and CEO of Accenture; Jane Fraser, CEO of Citi; and Mary Barra, chair and CEO of General Motors. Lynch is once again managing the highest-ranking Fortune 500 and Global 500 firm ever led by a woman (No. 4).
On the list, Advaithi, a 54-year-old CEO of the $26 billion manufacturing behemoth Flex, is ranked 37th.
She appreciates the work of 1,70,000 Flex employees who overcame challenges including COVID-19, supply chain constraints, and the Russia-Ukraine crisis to produce 7.9% sales increase in FY22, according to Fortune.
“This is amazing considering the complex industry issues,” says Advaithi. Flex, a company that manufactures anything from face derma rollers to industrial robots, has huge hopes for India.
According to Advaithi, India is one of the top 10 strategic markets for Flex. "A Made in India approach to assist their growth markets is appealing to many of our customers."
She has observed a lot of interest from clients looking to benefit from Flex's cutting-edge design and production capabilities in the industrial, automotive, cloud enterprise, and communications industries.
Advaithi held executive positions at Eaton and Honeywell before joining Flex. Along with being a member of the MIT Presidential CEO Advisory Board, she also serves as a director on the boards of Uber and Catalyst.org.
On the Fortune list, Bajaria, 51, is placed 44th as the Head of Global TV for Netflix. According to Fortune, "Netflix may have had a year of highs and lows, but Bela Bajaria remains laser-focused on creating the "greatest shows."
Prior to this, Bajaria served as president of Universal Television. She claims that she is still working on local, authentic storytelling.
“Our most popular shows are the ones with authenticity and specificity,” she says. The American streaming giant is employing regional creative teams as a result.
Although the previous year was challenging, Bajaria directed some excellent programming. Squid Game, Netflix's most popular TV programme to date, debuted in 2021. It also became the network with the most Emmy wins and the studio with the most Oscar wins.
But difficulties persisted. Due to a decline in subscribers, the corporation had to make job cuts. Players like Disney+, Prime Video, and HBO Max posed fierce opposition.
