An interview with 3M’s Magical, Majestic, Magnificent MD- Debarati Sen.
Being born in a middle class family to becoming the Managing Director of 3M India Ltd. and 3M Sri Lanka Pvt. Ltd., how has been your journey so far?
The journey has been very exciting. I was primarily led by my rules which essentially meant that don’t follow any rules. Look at what the world is, look at what you want to make it, and make that world your OWn. So being at every step of the journey, if anybody told me I couldn’t do something, whether it be girls can’t be good in math or you can’t become an engineer, you can’t go to the United States, each time when somebody told me that I couldn’t do something, I made it a point to do it. That just opened up new doors and new vistas and it’s been just so much fun along the way. 3IVI is one of the most preferred employers. What is it that excites the employees or recruiters to look for in the company?
I am so blessed to be in 3M. I’m in my 21st year. And I can tell you, for all our employees, there is something about being a 3Mer that excites us. One of our longest-serving CEOs of the company, William McKnight principles. knowing how to learn, knowing how to find a path He talked about the fact that management should ahead, and adapting yourself and again bringing it to hire good people and let them be. Smart people will back to learning agility. That’s how you deal with the make the rules, make their own world, and make sure VUCA world.
3M is a very innovative company.We all like being appreciated for our spirit, for our innovation and our thought process. We also brought in the 15 percent rule, which means 15 percent of the time we can work on something that is our passion. He also said,“Don’t put fences around people, then you get sheep.“ So none of us are sheep. We are spirited 3Mers and we love being 3Mers.
We need to move away from talking about syllabus to talking about learning, to truly inspire people to become curious, to pursue intellectual curiosity for the sake of it.
That’s probably one of the deepest questions we are facing right now as we look at skilling. We call it —‘Skilling’ because learning is not getting people to a skilled state that industry can hire or work with. There’s still work to be done.
In the present VUCA business scenario, what is that management style that leads you towards success? To excel in this world of VUCA, one should have McKnight who was very well known for several of learning agility. It’s not about knowing, it’s about his principles, we call them now
career where you made a tough decision and you succeeded?
I would say in my career, each time there was a t ough challenge or a tough problem, I raised my hand. Very soon, your signature becomes, “Here’s a person who can come, and on behalf of the company and for the company, solve some of the toughest problems
Let me go back about three years. I was the part of 3M’s global oil and gas business. I was a Global Business Director heading the oil and gas business. When I started that role, oil was at $141 a barrel. When I left that business, oil was trading by $36 a barrel. I remember going to the committee of our CEOs and the heads of our company and saying,“You need to fire me. You need take my job away because this is no longer relevant to what we set out to do. It’s no longer rights
That was probably my biggest challenge and I can tell yOU that day around the table and at the highest levels of our company, I won the respect of each and every person in the room. So from those challenges come your greatest opportunities and you become who you are.
What are those four values that define Debarati Sen?
Several …
First and foremost ethics – An absolute commitment to bringing about energy into ethics, not just knowing, not just being; but driving ethics. I grew up with a set of parents who instilled that into me at a very early age and I’ve never had to look anywhere else. I am anchored in ethics. The second piece that I think I talk about all the time is humility. I look to hire people who are humble because if you’re not humble, you cannot be a learner. The third thing that is really important for each one of us no matter where we are in our careers is an absolute dedication to discipline and I articulate it as – work harder than anybody else you know. Now of course that could be your college, that could be your first job, that could be the board room that you’re in. If you’re working harder than anybody else you know, your brand starts growing, starts being known very easily.
So those I think would be the anchors. Those are the foundational blocks that makes me- ‘Me’
Your views on youth engagement to social media.
I’m addicted to social media. I have to say that I am probably a bit of an anomaly in my generation. I used to be Twitter agnostic. And in the last two months, I said, “I turned 50, I better learn Twitter,’ because social media brings a different level of power to CEOs, to corporate leaders to spread the good messages. Now I have the power of the followers that I have as Linkedln connections. I have the Facebook family. I have the power to spread the messages that I believe in, and I believe are important to society. So I am bit of social media addict now. But When I do it, I do it in a disciplined manner because Ou can give your entire life to social media and you StOp achieving. So I see what’s happening in the
World, at night I look at how the world ends today, any messages for me to spread from my day or the message that others have posted that I need to learn about or get some ideas from. Your clarion call to this new millennial generation. Every generation tells the next generation that they are not getting it right, the earth and the world is in trouble because they are not doing something. My only advice to the generation is do what you think is right, do what you feel is right. I don’t think people who died 300 years ago would have seen this world. People like us who won’t be there when you’re in your 50s and 60s don’t know what the world you would be facing would be. So do what feels right. Listen to your heart, adapt, be agile, learn and you can create the world that we don’t even know about today.