Starting 2006, she has managed five different profiles within ABB, some within the same domain and others drastically different. She started her career with ABB and has never looked back since. Meet Kavitha N, Project Manager, System Drives, who is leading by example both at the personal as well as professional front.
An electrical engineer by qualification, Kavitha has been a core product person from the time she started her professional journey. She joined ABB as a design engineer and then went on to experiment with different profiles within the same domain- electrical engineering design, mechanical engineering design being the key ones. Interestingly, she also got an opportunity to be a part of a product training in Finland in 2012. The 6 months training helped her widen her professional experience.
Throughout her professional journey, she’s been driving results constantly. Her managers have been quite confident of her performance, aiding her to laterally move within the organization and have a flavor of various roles.
“Thankfully, I never had to vie for attention at my workplace. All my managers so far have been extremely supportive giving me the confidence that I can manage it all” remarks Kavitha feeling extremely fortunate of her journey so far.
Unlike the common perception that women may not be comfortable taking up demanding roles, Kavitha was offered to lead a highly critical project just after her maternity leave. The project was different from the design engineering roles she had taken charge of, hitherto, but people around her were confident she could do justice to the role.
“The new role was very different and required me to quickly learn a new set of skills. As the project manager for HPD-R8i module production line set up, I was required to design production flow, procurement of tools and equipment’s & installing, SAP activities for new production line, testing setup, piloting & ramp-up of production. Complete setup is inline with Finland Global factory."
Being a new mother, with a new profile and a rather demanding one, we asked her how she fared managing both at the same time. Here's what she has to say,
"Thankfully, with the day care right within the facility, and the support of my family, I could focus completely on my work without having to worry about my infant. What initially looked drastically different, gradually became an easy ride. We accomplished the project in merely 7 months, piloting way ahead of time”.
In her present role as a Project Manager, she is responsible for getting the projects executed end to end. She liaisons with both internal as well as external customers to partner them.
In her words, “I love to solve challenges that my profile poses, no two days are the same. I enjoy diving deep into the products owing to my design background and am usually curious to see what all options can there be to solve a problem."
So, did she always have it in her? The answer to that is apparently, yes. Been an academically inclined student and a gold medalist, she always knew she must have a future different than any of the people around her. Her school encouraged her to go beyond and her grandmother was a constant support to her, pushing her to achieve whatever her heart desired.
Kavitha’s on her way to becoming a mother for the second time over. Here’s wishing her a fabulous journey ahead.