10 Years Anniversary!!

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10 Years Anniversary!!

5 Aug 2020
- admin
July 2020 – an important milestone for me as I completed 10 years working with Kohler Company post graduating from SOIL in 2010.

Back then I never knew the possibilities but as I stepped my foot into the Corporate World with Kohler Company, I was welcomed with open arms and eventually got an opportunity to lead the India Market for C&B and Stewardship. This led me to make another big move to work through the EMEA market based in the United Kingdom.

As I look back with deep gratitude, here are the two big lessons I learnt:

1) Believe in yourself!

Go out and explore, the right opportunities and right people will find you as you seek them! If you have it in you, there is no stopping you!

There are many examples to share from my journey so far but this one is very special to me. In my first year of being promoted to lead C&B and Stewardship for India/SSA region I was presented with an idea from our Tech Services Team to partner with Anand’s CSR wing to launch a Plumbing Academy. The aim was to empower youth with skills to earn their livelihood. It was my first presentation to ask for funding from our Corporate on an idea that was one of its kind, never explored before.

With support from our K&B India Leadership team, Tech Services team (Antly and Prashant- our Star members), Cindy Howley & Laura Kohler, I presented to our Stewardship Advisory Board. Not only did the funding get approved, each of our teams from Tech Serv, HR, Marketing, Finance, Purchasing, Legal came together to make this dream a reality and the first Kohler Plumbing Academy was officially launched in Gurgaon. It was a huge success and later, as I transferred to another role, the India (Pankaj Rai’s) team took KPA to the next level of its awesomeness, managing it as one of our Flagship Projects.

2) Stretch your Boundaries – Find the Blue Ocean!

The VUCA world will present many unique challenges thus stretching your boundaries – being agile and learning as you go will be critical. Finding the blue ocean is important as most times our ability to see beyond is limited by our perspectives and sometimes fear of failure & we continue swimming in the red ocean. So gain new perspectives and broaden your horizon in your own unique ways.
- I was the first global Kohler HR partner to try out a short-term assignment in Kohler, Wisconsin. Stretching myself and expanding my boundaries helped a lot as my assignment was a successful one. I experienced a different culture, made many friends along the way while completing this assignment with the support of my team.
- Another opportunity came in about 3.5 years ago when I took an assignment based in UK. I take this opportunity to thank the Kohler Leadership team for providing me tremendous exposure to new horizons leading to my personal/ professional growth while providing service to our HR Business partners.
The past 10 years have been very fulfilling for me as I continued to learn and contribute. I believe that undergoing all the foundation courses & leadership sessions, getting quality exposure to industry, theatre, wellness, NGO partnerships, etc, doing a live consulting assignment with an MNC, and most importantly going on a journey of self-discovery at my alma mater, SOIL Institute of Management, accelerated my learning journey in the Corporate world.

I will take this opportunity to thank Mr. Anil Sachdev and all the Professors who taught us, focusing on the 5 pillars of SOIL. A special thank you to my mentors Muninder Anand – Current MD, CCL and R. Anand – Current Sr VP HR, HCL, for guiding me. Additionally, thank you to Nischae Suri – Current MD, Edcast for taking the course on Rewards Strategy which really helped me in my current domain.

Again, I thank SOIL and KOHLER for providing me access to a platform through which I was able to contribute in several meaningful ways and for supporting the diverse candidature I bring to the table.

Shubhika Rana

SOIL Alum, PGPM – Human Resources

HR Manager-C&B, EMEA Corp. Services at Kohler Company, United Kingdom