Meet NTT DATA People
Vanathi Asok
Director – Project and Application Services
Vanathi Asok is originally from a small and remote village in Southern India. She attended university and broke the mold by becoming the first woman from her hometown to graduate from education with a university degree. She was recruited to work for NTT DATA in 2005 while in the third year of university and moved to Bangalore and still lives there with her husband, daughter and a cocker spaniel. Vanathi believes that a combination of healthy body and calm mind are the keys to successful living. To that end, she is a regular practitioner of yoga. She is a one-company person and is currently a director for application and configured platforms in the Global Delivery Office.
Bringing mindfulness and dedication to work and life
Tell us about an interesting project
I am someone who loves to take on a challenge, especially one that requires a lot of investigation and analysis to solve whatever the challenge is. About 8 years after I joined NTT DATA, I was assigned such a challenging project. It was for a UK-based insurance company who were looking to improve the systems they used to interact with customers.
I was charged with investigating why the project was stumbling and to find ways to get it back on track. It was a multi-step process that began by looking closely at what had happened so far and replanning the whole project to gain back the trust of the client. I found myself deep in client conversation and with the help of a fantastic team we were able to not just turn the project around but to make it extremely successful, so much so that our external auditors gave us a glowing review. It was a great project and testimony to what you can achieve with diligence and teamwork.
Describe a regular working day
How my day looks depends largely on what I am doing. Of course, at one time in my career I would have been in the office every day. But just like with pretty much everyone else in NTT DATA I have been given the choice of where to work.
I would say that I prefer to work at home when I need to go through routine tasks such as having meetings with Japanese colleagues or to do work that I can perform alone. On the other hand, I also like to go into the office to meet other people from my team or the other managers. Usually, it is my privilege to be in the office to meet and greet visitors, especially clients and executive management team for other NTT DATA regions. Nothing really beats the personal touch.
Why do you like to work at NTT DATA?
As I mentioned before, coming from where I came from, I'm considered to be a bit of a groundbreaker. But I do believe that no woman is an island and because of that I appreciate help and support to achieve my dreams and goals where I can get it. In terms of NTT DATA, I can say that such support and belief in me has been present since day one. The company and I have grown from a small beginnings to an organization of more than 40,000 people in the time that I have been here.
I know that such growth cannot be achieved without teamwork, which is why I say that NTT DATA is like one large tree that is always growing and branching out. I feel privileged to be part of that tree and proud of how I have grown throughout my time at the company too.
