Meena Ganesh
CEO & MD, Pearson Education Services
Meena Ganesh is a member of:
Top Leadership Qualities:
To me leadership is about getting people to rally behind a cause and objective with single minded focus. This involves being able to sell your vision and dream to everyone in your team , being a coach and captain , being part of the team while being first amongst equals. Communication of your enthusiasm and passion to others is key part of leadership. Being fair , frank and honest are key hallmarks to get the respect of the team for the leader.
Advice For Fellow Leaders:
I dont think I can give advice to fellow women leaders - I am still learning and developing and look forward to learn from them!
Job Profile:
I am the CEO of Pearson Education Services. We provide end-to-end education solutions in the K-12 segment.we have emerged as the brand of choice for students/parents, teachers, schools and colleges, globally, due to our innovative, technology-enabled solutions and services. With Pearsons global resources, expertise, content and reach, we provide international standard education at affordable prices to the mass market.
A Fine Balance:
I strongly feel this phrase is overused and overstated. I can never fully switch off work or life since we are emotional, thinking, living beings and not automaton or machine. I am fortunate to have had the opportunity to be working on things I love and am excited about.
Challenges Faced:
On a professional front, frankly , gender is not that important. You need to see yourself as a person fulfilling a role and ensuring that you do the best possible contribution for that role, infact try and overdeliver on the expectations.
However, overall, being a woman means that there are other responsibilities as a mother, as a daughter etc. These responsibilities need to be balanced such that you do justice to all aspects. Invariably a lot of women get torn by guilt and that is the biggest challenge that needs to be overcome. It helps to have a lot of support from family and friends in handling these responsibilities; however, it is also important not to attempt being a
Important Decisions:
I think an important career decision which I made very early on in my career was joining a start-up like NIIT from campus. This helped shape my thinking and developed in me a comfort with the unknown, a high sense of ownership and risk taking. NIIT which was in its early days was very entrepreneurial. After NIIT, I worked with Price Waterhouse and then with Microsoft. I was lucky that in each of these companies I ended up building a new vertical or a new business line for the organization. So in effect I have been an
The Journey So Far:
I spent my formative years in Calcutta, Nagpur and Raipur. I completed my schooling and
undergraduate degree in Physics from Chennai and went to IIM Calcutta. As my father was in the railways, we would move frequently and also travel quite often by rail. This experience has in general made me very adaptable. Also, as I studied in a KV, which had an extremely diverse student base, I find it easy to get along with anybody. As a family we value academic excellence very much and that has spurred me on to work hard and strive for excellence in anything that I do.
