Best of the Best Conference

Anantha Radhakrishnan (Radha)
CEO and MD - Infosys BPM

Radha has been a quiet strength and patient ally of DEI at Infosys BPM. Apart from strengthening quantifiable metrics on gender diversity, he also has added impetus to softer aspects such as bringing in transparency across selection criteria, giving a fair chance for diversity in leadership-hiring and personally mentoring women within the leadership council of Infosys BPM. Today, the leadership council of Infosys BPM has a third of women leaders from across global DCs who actively lead and execute key strategic initiatives globally. While this change is structural, the transparency of selection criteria based firmly on performance and meritocracy, has ensured there is no corridor talk on ‘tokenism’ or any flippant references to ‘diversity candidates’. There have been several instances over the years where Radha has, during discussions on awards, recognitions, and executive/ leadership program nominations, subtly brought up the glaring lack of diversity, which may have been inadvertently overlooked. This consistent nudge has, over the last few years, ensured that the equity in ensuring diverse representation is an activity that is done before it reaches Radha’s office. He maintains that ‘awareness is key’ and ‘no one deliberately tries to exclude, but we need to make a conscious and deliberate attempt to include’. Under his guidance and leadership, there are also specific DEI assessment programs (both for new joiners and existing employees) that have been rolled out where employees can test their DEI quotient. Programs on unconscious bias in hiring and performance evaluation were launched across job levels over the last couple of years. Through systematic awareness-creation that Radha spearheads, several unconscious gender biases have been weeded out and appreciation for inclusive thinking has become part of the DNA of Infosys BPM. Following in his footsteps, several of the male leaders are now staunch allies, doing ‘equity’ checks before nominating a candidate for an award or recognition, actively mentoring women leaders, counselling on career progression and sponsoring leadership development programs.