MPW 2022: SAP Labs India's Sindhu Gangadharan is a maven multi-tasker

For this multi-tasker, life has come full circle. Sindhu Gangadharan, who holds dual responsibilities at SAP, started her professional journey with SAP Labs India as a young developer. “At that point, I didn’t even know what I was getting into or technology’s immense potential. But I was fascinated with [it],” she says, adding that she was sure that it was the space she wanted to learn and grow. She then moved to SAP’s headquarters in Walldorf, Germany, and worked there for 18 years, before moving back to Bengaluru in 2019. This time, Gangadharan—part of the Business Today Most Powerful Women in Business 2022 list—was back to head the place where her journey began.

As SVP and MD of SAP Labs India, she drives product development and innovation across R&D locations in India. As a result, around 40 per cent of R&D for SAP happens out of India. She has also inculcated a culture of motivating and hand-holding young professionals within the organisation to patent ideas. And as the head of SAP’s User Enablement business unit, she provides a consistent, personalised and intelligent enablement experience for the whole SAP product portfolio.

Besides managing the top line and bottom line, forward-looking organisations, she believes, are focussing on sustainability as the third dimension to drive business growth. Calling it the ‘Green Line’, she believes that technology can make a difference.

There is another thing Gangadharan is passionate about—working closely with the Indo-German Chamber of Commerce and driving bilateral trade between the two nations. Even with so much on her plate, she wants to learn kickboxing this year.