Legacy: Letters from eminent parents to their daughters by Sudha Menon Read Free Book Online
Authors: Sudha Menon
homemaker called on her inner strength and took a giant leap of faith, moving the family to Mumbai where she picked up a job and put her kids through college.
‘It was a very different life from the one we lived in Jaipur but she (mother) took up a job designing for a garment company, pulling on her inner strengths and making sure that step-by-step she put all 3 of us through college, got us married and set us up on our way.’
Chanda obtained a Masters’ degree in Management Studies before joining ICICI as a management trainee, steadily working her way up the corporate ladder. At 47, she became its first woman MD and CEO, and its youngest too. Today, she is the captain in charge of $100 billion of the bank’s assets and over 2,700 branches spread across 19 countries.
And yet, Chanda believes that each of us can write our own destiny, largely by following a value system based on the tenets of hard work and commitment. ‘Your destiny is what you make of it’, the slightly-built woman told me at her plush office at ICICI’s corporate headquarters in Mumbai last year.
It is hard to discount what she says because her career graph speaks volumes about the fact that she practices what she preaches. It was relentless hard work, along with the ability to continuously push her own boundaries, which ultimately worked to her advantage, and got her the top job at the bank in a keenly contested race between three highly talented women in the group. Chanda herself attributes her success to the fact that she is able to withstand extreme levels of pressure without caving in or displaying that stress to others.
But her journey to the top was no smooth ride and came with its own set of challenges. When the global financial meltdown led to a Rs1,050-crore decline in the bank’s profit after tax for FY 2008/09, it was Chanda, then Managing Director, who stepped in to take some hard decisions. ‘In times of crisis, the leader should broaden his shoulders and straighten his back so that he can absorb all the strain and leave the team to do their best to resolve the crisis,’ so is her leadership mantra. It worked wonders for the bank and got her the ultimate reward: the privilege of stepping in as CEO and MD.
Chanda’s biggest life lessons were learnt from her parents. Her father refused to bend the rules even for his own son seeking admission into the engineering college of which he was the Principal. And her mother single-handedly charted the course of her family’s life without once letting her children gauge the extent of the pressure she shouldered.
It was from her that she learnt the importance of never letting stress get to you and, in turn, affect those who depend on you for leadership and guidance—whether at home or at work.
Chanda writes a touching letter to her daughter Aarti about the importance of family in our lives and of never letting the daily pressures of life bog us down.
Aarti is an engineering graduate from the University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia and is currently employed with Boston Consulting Group (BCG) as an Associate. She plans to do an MBA sometime later this year.
Dear Aarti,
It makes me feel so proud today to see you standing in front of me as a confident young woman right on the threshold of an exciting journey through life. I am looking forward to seeing you grow and flourish in the years ahead.
This moment has also brought back memories of my own journey, and the life lessons I learnt along the way. When I think of those times, I realize that most of these lessons were actually learnt in my childhood, mostly through examples set by my parents. The values that they instilled in my formative years gave me the foundation on which I try to live my life even today.
Our family of five, comprising of my parents and three siblings, lived in Jaipur, Rajasthan. Our parents treated all three of us—two sisters and a brother—equally. When it came to education, or our future plans, there was no
‘It was a very different life from the one we lived in Jaipur but she (mother) took up a job designing for a garment company, pulling on her inner strengths and making sure that step-by-step she put all 3 of us through college, got us married and set us up on our way.’
Chanda obtained a Masters’ degree in Management Studies before joining ICICI as a management trainee, steadily working her way up the corporate ladder. At 47, she became its first woman MD and CEO, and its youngest too. Today, she is the captain in charge of $100 billion of the bank’s assets and over 2,700 branches spread across 19 countries.
And yet, Chanda believes that each of us can write our own destiny, largely by following a value system based on the tenets of hard work and commitment. ‘Your destiny is what you make of it’, the slightly-built woman told me at her plush office at ICICI’s corporate headquarters in Mumbai last year.
It is hard to discount what she says because her career graph speaks volumes about the fact that she practices what she preaches. It was relentless hard work, along with the ability to continuously push her own boundaries, which ultimately worked to her advantage, and got her the top job at the bank in a keenly contested race between three highly talented women in the group. Chanda herself attributes her success to the fact that she is able to withstand extreme levels of pressure without caving in or displaying that stress to others.
But her journey to the top was no smooth ride and came with its own set of challenges. When the global financial meltdown led to a Rs1,050-crore decline in the bank’s profit after tax for FY 2008/09, it was Chanda, then Managing Director, who stepped in to take some hard decisions. ‘In times of crisis, the leader should broaden his shoulders and straighten his back so that he can absorb all the strain and leave the team to do their best to resolve the crisis,’ so is her leadership mantra. It worked wonders for the bank and got her the ultimate reward: the privilege of stepping in as CEO and MD.
Chanda’s biggest life lessons were learnt from her parents. Her father refused to bend the rules even for his own son seeking admission into the engineering college of which he was the Principal. And her mother single-handedly charted the course of her family’s life without once letting her children gauge the extent of the pressure she shouldered.
It was from her that she learnt the importance of never letting stress get to you and, in turn, affect those who depend on you for leadership and guidance—whether at home or at work.
Chanda writes a touching letter to her daughter Aarti about the importance of family in our lives and of never letting the daily pressures of life bog us down.
Aarti is an engineering graduate from the University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia and is currently employed with Boston Consulting Group (BCG) as an Associate. She plans to do an MBA sometime later this year.
Dear Aarti,
It makes me feel so proud today to see you standing in front of me as a confident young woman right on the threshold of an exciting journey through life. I am looking forward to seeing you grow and flourish in the years ahead.
This moment has also brought back memories of my own journey, and the life lessons I learnt along the way. When I think of those times, I realize that most of these lessons were actually learnt in my childhood, mostly through examples set by my parents. The values that they instilled in my formative years gave me the foundation on which I try to live my life even today.
Our family of five, comprising of my parents and three siblings, lived in Jaipur, Rajasthan. Our parents treated all three of us—two sisters and a brother—equally. When it came to education, or our future plans, there was no
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