What Shapes Us

What makes us who we become? In Episode 10 of What Shapes Us, Prof. Vidya Mahambare speaks with Makarand Sahasrabuddhe, development professional, coach, facilitator, and alumnus of IIT Bombay and IIM Ahmedabad, whose career took a path few would expect. Instead of pursuing the conventional corporate journey, Makarand chose to dedicate over three decades to the development sector, working across In...

From Blindness to Flight: Divyanshu Ganatra on Resilience & Inclusion  In Episode 9, Vidya sits down with Divyanshu Ganatra, clinical psychologist, cognitive neuroscientist, India's first blind solo paraglider, and Founder of Adventures Beyond Barriers Foundation (ABBF). At nineteen, Divyanshu woke up completely blind. What followed was not a story of overcoming tragedy, it was a radical reima...

What does it take to go from a Marathi-medium school in suburban Mumbai to VP of IT at one of the world's largest automotive groups? In Episode 8 of What Shapes Us, Vidya sits down with her former classmate Gauri Mudkavi-Kulkarni,Chartered Accountant turned global IT leader, for a conversation that spans six cities, two decades at Danone, and a door-to-door job hunt through Shanghai in 1999. Gauri...

In this episode, Gangapriya Chakraverti , Managing Director and India Site Head at Ford Motor Company, sits down with Vidya to trace an unusual path to corporate leadership in running a 12,000-plus workforce at Ford Business Solutions, the Global Capabilities Centre in Chennai that supports Ford's worldwide operations. Gangapriya represents a relatively rare archetype in the Indian industry: an HR...

What actually shapes success in India’s startup ecosystem? In this episode of What Shapes Us, Sajith Pai, Partner at Blume Ventures and author of the Indus Valley Annual Report, sits down with Vidya Mahambare to unpack the real forces behind who builds, who succeeds, and who never gets the chance. From growing up in Kerala to two decades at the Times of India group and a late move into venture cap...

Madhubalan Viswanathan , Professor of Marketing at Loyola Marymount University, has built a career by asking a question most mainstream marketing frameworks overlook. What do markets look like when consumers live under chronic scarcity? Rather than focusing on affluent segments or high-growth categories, he immersed himself in low-income communities across countries, studying how individuals with...

As Professor of Strategy and Innovation at Indian Institute of Management Bangalore, and having completed a term as its Director, Rishikesh Krishnan has observed institutions from both the classroom and the corner office. That dual vantage point shapes how he thinks about leadership, innovation, and access. Through influential works like From Jugaad to Systematic Innovation and the award winning 8...

From a small town in interior Tamil Nadu to leading one of India’s key payment infrastructure platforms, Vasanth Emmanuel Jeyapaul’s journey cuts across worlds that rarely overlap. Today, as CEO of CAMSPay, the payments arm of Computer Age Management Services, he operates at the core of India’s financial plumbing, enabling digital transactions for mutual funds and financial institutions at scale....

From early schooling in Bihar to leading boardrooms across India, Mitu Samar Jha’s journey is built on deliberate choices, not chance. As Founder and CEO of Eminence Strategy Consulting, she works at the intersection of reputation, leadership, and long-term credibility. Before that, she held senior roles at CRISIL, Aditya Birla Capital, ICICI Prudential Mutual Fund, and The Great Eastern Shipping...

In this episode, Vidya speaks with Sirisha Bhamidipati , a Fulbright Scholar, IIM Ahmedabad alum, and Carnegie Mellon University fellow, whose work sits at the intersection of strategy, systems, and inclusion. Sirisha is also the Co-Founder and Managing Director of Align By Design, where she helps organisations think more intentionally about culture, purpose, and how design choices shape behaviour...