Vaijayanthi Srinivasaraghavan (Viji) leads global technology operations, overseeing UPS’s package centers, automation, compliance, and on-road technology. A certified Delivery Project Executive with 30+ years of experience, she is an award-winning leader, accomplished public speaker, and best-selling author of SHAPE-IT.
In a thought-provoking interaction with Women Entrepreneurs Review Magazine, Vaijayanthi shares valuable insights on the evolving IT project management landscape, addressing strategies for leadership, navigating cultural dynamics, integrating sustainability goals, and her approach to continuous growth and development as a leader.
How do you see the current market landscape influencing project management practices in IT? What strategies are essential for leaders to adopt in this environment?
Project management in Information technology world is evolving rapidly due to technological advancements, changing business needs, and global market trends
To succeed, leaders must adopt flexible, technology-driven, and security-conscious project management practices. Those who embrace these changes will gain a competitive advantage, ensuring their projects are efficient, innovative, and resilient in an increasingly digital world.Here are few of the Project Management Transformation that logistics companies are adopting are
Digital Twin Technology: a real-time simulation, allowing them to model different scenarios before implementing changes.
AI and IoT for Route Optimization: AI-powered analytics and IoT sensors optimized delivery routes in real time, considering weather, traffic, and package volume.
Hybrid Agile & DevOps Approach: Continuous delivery pipelines to update software systems dynamically instead of long release cycles.
Leaders must stay adaptable, embrace innovation, invest in learning, and foster a culture of agility and security. Those who proactively implement these strategies will drive growth, resilience, and competitive advantage in the digital era.
In managing large-scale global projects, what are the key factors that help navigate the complexities of diverse cultural dynamics within teams? How can these strategies be scaled across organizations?
Successfully navigating cultural diversity in teams requires awareness, adaptability, inclusive leadership, and effective communication. By fostering trust, leveraging technology, and promoting cultural intelligence, leaders can create a high-performing, globally connected workforce. In our day-to-day job, we are dealing with people and emotions.
Writer Annie Dillard famously said, “How we spend our days is, of course, how we spend our lives.” For many of us, a large portion of our days is spent at work; in fact, the average person will spend 90,000 hours at work over a lifetime.
Most of us, on an average spend one third of our life at work. The recent pandemic and hybrid work culture has blurred the lines between office and home, making our office colleagues part of our modern-day family. To make this family function without any friction you need to know your team to lead your team; build trust within your team; and be the shoulder for your team to lean on during difficult times.
I would recommend book “Team Topologies by Manuel Pais and Matthew Skelton”, which presents a framework for designing and managing software teams to improve flow, efficiency, and adaptability. Given the complexity and cultural dynamics, we should structure the team based on the amount of cognitive load they can handle, ensuring that they are neither overwhelmed nor distracted by unnecessary complexity.
How can IT projects integrate sustainability goals without compromising on performance? What do leaders need to do to achieve sustainability goals in an organization?
We being a global leader in logistics and transportation, has successfully embedded sustainability into our IT projects without sacrificing operational performance. By leveraging advanced technology, AI-driven logistics, and green IT infrastructure, UPS continues to reduce its environmental impact while maintaining fast, efficient, and reliable services. Our sustainability goals are focused on carbon neutrality, alternative energy adoption, sustainable logistics, and community engagement.
Carbon Neutrality by 2050: Achieve carbon neutrality across its operations by 2050, addressing Scope 1, 2, and 3 emissions.
Community Engagement: Positively impact 1 billion lives by 2040, including planting 50 million trees by 2030 and contributing 30 million volunteer hours by 2030.
For an organization to successfully achieve sustainability goals, leaders must drive strategy, technology adoption, cultural transformation, and accountability. By embedding sustainability into business operations, employee engagement, and innovation, companies can make a real impact while maintaining profitability and efficiency.
Let me make it specific for you on how one of the IT project – ORION, we are working on is helping us achieve sustainability goals.
On-Road Integrated Optimization and Navigation (ORION) system is a groundbreaking route-optimization AI technology that has revolutionized the logistics industry. Developed to increase efficiency and reduce costs, ORION uses advanced algorithms and data analytics to create the most efficient daily routes for UPS drivers. Since its initial deployment, ORION has saved UPS approximately 100 million miles and 10 million gallons of fuel per year, significantly reducing its environmental impact and operational costs. A saving of 10 million gallons per year translates to reduction in CO2 emissions by 100,000 metric tons.
How do you ensure continued growth and development as a leader?
In the book, The Starfish and the Spider by Ori Brafman and Rod Beckstrom; he describes that, If you cut off a spider’s head, it dies; if you cut off a starfish’s leg it grows a new one, and that leg can grow into an entirely new starfish.
Traditional top-down organizations are like spiders, but now starfish organizations are changing the face of business and the world. I started to practice some of these practices in the recent past. If you help your team to grow and allow them to take the responsibility; it will help them to grow in their career and also ensure that there is always business continuity and sense of leadership at all levels of the organization.
In today's digital era, do you think a different set of leadership skills are required to manage a new age workforce?
Digital disruption requires a transformational leadership. It is all about how we learn, un-learn, re-learn and instill these practices in the team that we manage.
In my view, in the fast-changing technology space, the leader who has an appreciation of the technological changes, and who has hands-on technical expertise in the relevant areas, will be
respected and looked upon by the team and the organization. And the hands-on technical expertise will need to be complimented by problem solving expertise.
What is your career statement and how does it make your job essential?
My career statement is all about, “Be ONE Who Is different from others and NOT one among others”. It is like the horserace with blinders on, just focus on self-goals and career aspiration. The only time I look beyond the blinders is when I want to learn something new and to explore the unexplored.
