The Vice President of Dell Digital is Sheenam Ohrie

As Vice President of Dell Digital, I lead from within Ohrie has taken on roles that offer her something new and charted into territories that are outside her area of expertise - all to learn. Ohrie has been with Dell Technologies for over 27 years as Vice President, Dell Digital, and CIO Leader, APJ. She is resilient, empathetic, and a champion of doing the right thing.

I  started  my  career  with  a walk-in  interview  for a startup  called  Citicorp Information Technology Industries  Limited  (CITIL),   an offshoot  of  Citicorp Overseas Software Limited, which   was the  captive  for  Citibank.  The second defining moment for me was when my son, Adi was two years old and my husband, Alok got a work opportunity in Mumbai.

I felt immense guilt throughout since I was working for a young software company where implementation is the core business and we all had to be onsite. The choice I made allowed me to learn more and at a faster pace than any of my peers.

That was probably the biggest defining moment of my career and I haven’t looked back since. In 2006, I began to look out for the dream to work with a small company and help build it. I joined Business Objects, later acquired by SAP, which was a huge change from my previous work experience.

It had a more global focus and hence different roles and technologies to learn. Almost eight years later, after having served in many senior positions at SAP, I began to look for a new opportunity, which is when Infosys and EdgeVerve happened.

At different junctures in life, you will need to make choices based on your current priorities. This choice will be the right thing to do; one that will drive the happiness of your ecosystem. When I was offered a hugely demanding role like the one at Infosys, I knew I could take it on because Adi was moving out for college.

You get to decide what is important for you at every stage of your life, and then treat that as your priority. In my very first meeting and conversation with Alok, my husband, I told him that my career is important to me and so I alone will decide how long I work and when I decide to quit. 

Trust, integrity, honesty: Doing the right thing, and ensuring that you and your brand are synonymous with it, goes a long way. The right thing could be different at different points in time but if people know that you operate with fairness, honesty, integrity, and transparency, you will be trusted – and that is paramount for me.

To me, empathy is crucial for running a strong and happy organization, and that’s the culture I always try to build. Back in 1992, there were hardly any women in engineering and tech colleges, who could later join the workforce. 

Your happiness matters: As a woman, you will likely be the fulcrum of more than one home – your parents, your in-laws, and maybe even your children’s home. So it’s important that you stay happy.  Make yourself visible: You must have compelling technical skills but it’s also simultaneously important to build your brand.

Read a lot and network with other women whom you can learn from. When opportunities come your way, grab them – it’s your responsibility to build your career, no one else’s.  Act like a woman: Don’t try to mask any of the traits that make you a woman – that’s the unique perspective that you bring to the table and that’s why you are needed in the organization.

I like my work so at a principle level, I’m motivated. But there are days when a conversation, a meeting, or a remark can bring me down. I think it’s important to recognize when something like this happens; I always acknowledge such a dip in my mood and energy.

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