Katuri Chellaraja Wilson is a trailblazer, and not simply because she won the “Trailblazer of the Year” award at the recently concluded Women in Management Top 50 Professional and Career Women Awards. In her 30-plus-year career, she has proven time and again to be a resourceful, talented, and driven leader, culminating in her appointment last year as the Group CEO of Hemas Holdings PLC and making history as the first female Group CEO of a publicly quoted conglomerate in Sri Lanka.
Wilson has been a constant presence in the boardrooms of Sri Lanka in her trademark saree, helping lead and innovate. During the pandemic and the three-month lockdown, in her then role as Hemas Pharmaceuticals Managing Director, Wilson worked tirelessly with the other silos of the Hemas Group, empowering her employees to make situational decisions outside the traditional system and find solutions to better support customers in a trying and uncertain time.
On a personal level, Wilson describes herself as a fun-loving person who loves to travel, is passionate about helping the underprivileged, and believes in the importance of paying it forward.
The Sunday Morning Brunch sat down with Wilson for an informal chat about how she approaches life and work.
Following are excerpts of the interview.
What are your core working principles?
The way I see it, I believe I need to bring passion and energy into whatever I do every day and love what I do. The day I don’t love my work, that’s a problem.
The other principle I take into work with me is that in my role, I need to make decisions and look at it from the lens of whether it’s the right thing to do.
The last principle I take to work is always keeping in my mind that I am working with people, with human beings, and while I need to push them to drive business, I can’t forget the human element.
What is it you love most about what you do?
The fact is that as humans, all of us have the freedom to make the change we want to see in the world and impact the people around us. I love the position I am in to make an impact on the families of Sri Lanka and that we at Hemas have the freedom to make this impact and culture that encourages one to think of the consumer first.
The second aspect of my work is that I love a challenge, and being head of a diverse corporate, every day you have a different challenge. Most of the time, it’s a simple form of not really understanding the consumer, but the challenge forces us to think for answers and find ways of doing better.
What are some of the most important pieces of advice you’ve received in your career?
One big thing I think which made a big impact is “reach out for help”. Admitting that you need help doesn’t mean you’re less of a leader. With every role I’ve moved into, I’ve had a load of help from people around me. It’s also important to always keep learning; I held six roles so far in my career, and I always kept learning as I took on each new role.
The second thing is “give yourself space and time to think”. We traditionally tend to think that a leader has to be super busy with meetings and operational stuff instead of actually being that leader who can build teams and create space for you to think of stuff that can impact the business and help it grow – the game-changing stuff. But to be that kind of a leader, you have to create space and time to think.
How do you stay productive and at the top of your game?
I have a habit of going through my next day’s calendar and thinking of my meetings before going to bed each night. I also make sure to clean up my pending emails before I go to bed, and prepare and push what needs to be pushed to other members of my team to follow up.
Every Sunday, I look at the week ahead. As a rule, I take Saturdays off and avoid going through official emails. On Sunday evenings, I go through the next week’s work on our key initiatives and put in important tasks and meetings into my diary. For the longest time I used to do this mentally, but now I make sure to write things down too.
I don’t like long meetings and I try to avoid them as much as possible. I also like to know when I walk into a meeting what the outcome of that meeting is supposed to be.
I don’t like too much procrastination around a single topic either; I believe in diverse views and thinking things through, but at some point, we need to step back, absorb views, and take a decision. The other side of this approach could be that maybe I lack the patience sometimes to get all these views fully fleshed out, but I feel it’s important to be decisive.
How do you handle and overcome challenges at work?
I thrive on challenges – it’s something within me. I remember when doing maths in school or I had a problem in class or at the office, I would try to work it out in my head and it would always be there at the back of my mind, and in my sleep, I would dream about and process it and wake up with 90% of a directional solution.
Of late, I have come to realise and value the benefit of having diverse views when dealing with challenges. Diversity in any form is an asset we value at Hemas, be it in terms of ethnicity, gender, race, or religion.
Looking at our senior management, there is a high level of gender diversity. We also have different cultural backgrounds and levels of technical expertise, and I realise that this creates a lot of healthy debate as long as we come from a mutual level of respect. The outcomes of our decision-making have been so much better. It’s easier said than done; across the board, you have to leave things like egos and titles aside and be open to taking input from others.
Even during the pandemic, we have had Covid incidents – they have been minimal compared to the rest. We had high safety protocols in place that have evolved over time. No one says they’re an expert; we’ve evolved accordingly. During challenging times, I believe that in every challenge there is an opportunity and that every problem has a solution. I reach out to diverse people for alternate views and come out with actions based on these views. But I must say, absorbing these views and structuring, and deciding on what is important and what is simply not relevant is what I need to decide on.
As a single parent raising two young children and building a successful career, what advice would you give other single parents building their careers?
With kids, I think it depends on which point of your career you are in and how old your kids are when you get into senior management roles. In my case, I was handling a functional senior management role when my kids were young. I would say, don’t try to be a perfect mum. Don’t put yourself through that pressure of being there for every single moment of your kids’ lives – that’s the definition of perfectionism, and you can’t achieve that. You have to choose your moments and that is something you can only do by listening to your heart.
There’s no balance. What it is, is a perfect imbalance and you choose your moments of imbalance, whether it’s more time at work or more time with your kids.
There are two other things I’d advise on. One is communication, communication, communication. Whether it is with your company, your husband, your parents, or the people around you, they need to know what issues you have and what you want them to do. Especially with spouses, you can’t expect them to know what’s on your mind. You need to say it.
The second thing is to open your network. Create it around you. I had my friends around me all the time. I also had my domestics. We term them as domestics, but for me, they are family. Today, I have my elderly mum at home and I have my domestics at home helping me run things.
Building a network is not a one-way street. It runs both ways. With your network, you’re there for some of their dark days and they’re there for some of yours. It’s not a barter system either. It’s the stuff that you do from your heart.
The saree is your outfit of choice in boardrooms of power while most prefer other forms of power dressing. What makes the saree a powerful style statement for you?
I picked the saree very early in my life for two reasons. Firstly, I was the Audit Head and Director Consulting at 24 and I needed to look older than my age. Nobody took notice of me and what I was saying because I looked like a kid. I had to wear a saree to look older and more serious.
Secondly, it was economical – sarees are not the most expensive choice. You build a collection and you keep wearing them over and over; I have sarees I still wear today that are over 30 years old.
It started with that and I learnt to love the feel of a saree on me. I got very comfortable in sarees and I had confidence in it. It became my power dress because I was confident in it.
I’ve been asked why I don’t wear suits, and it’s mainly because I don’t feel comfortable. When I go overseas, of course, I will rock jeans and a shirt. At the end of the day, it’s about how you see yourself and how confident you are in the attire you choose to wear. What you wear is a huge part of your day-to-day, and if you’re not confident in how you feel and look, then you’re walking into any meeting with some kind of psychological disadvantage.
What inspires you outside work?
I’m really passionate about helping build a united Sri Lanka. I see so much effort put in by people to tear us apart using our gender, religion, or race. I made a choice to stay here and contribute, and that drives me a lot.
I also like to see people doing well and young people growing up and playing a part in making this happen. I say no to a lot of events now, except when it comes to universities or kids. I enjoy working with kids. Being able to impact young kids and help them think and do better is something close to my heart. Helping the underprivileged is something I do, since in my life many people have helped me, and I believe we all need to pay it forward.
On a lighter note, I love outdoor exercising, travelling, and eating good food. My favourite place to visit is Thailand. The whole experience is anchored around being able to wear your shorts, t-shirt, and slippers and walk around while enjoying good food in a simple country.
PHOTOS SAMAN ABESIRIWARDANA