Soma Mondal: The Customer-First Leader
Even in a short conversation with Soma Mondal, her mindset to be inclusive while understanding all viewpoints cannot be missed. Her style of leadership is to take everyone forward and her journey, therefore, inspires many.
Mondal’s decision-making is driven by some basic principles that have held her, and the Steel Authority of India (SAIL) under her charge, in good stead. After she joined the company as Director (Commercial) in March 2017, SAIL took up various initiatives to bring in focus on key customer business, enhance market reach, improve service standards and create a stable retail base, especially in the rural sector. Following this, SAIL’s continued growth resulted in her rising in the ranks to become the chairperson of the company in January 2021.
She was SAIL’s first woman functional director and then the first woman to be named as the top boss.
The Right Shift
Mondal sees her SAIL appointment as one of the significant steps in her career. “The move was truly a watershed moment as it offered me a greater canvas and challenges that come along with it. Considering the company’s size across parameters, it has been a great learning experience and a fulfilling working opportunity. It has provided me with an opportunity to make a meaningful impact in the lives of a large number of people, both directly as well as indirectly.”
Her early changes at SAIL were done with the short-term and the larger objectives in mind. “Looking ahead, we will scale up our current efforts and course-correct if necessary to orient ourselves to changing customer expectations and improving our market presence. There would be huge scope for increasing steel consumption in the country and we shall seize every opportunity to make SAIL a better company,” Mondal explains.
A Modernised SAIL
For Mondal, SAIL’s growth story is linked to the “glorious India@75”. She says, “SAIL has been the most trusted steelmaker of the nation for over six decades. We have been a part of nation-building since the late fifties. We are associated with most of the important national infrastructure projects and have contributed our might to the economic, social and industrial development of the country.”
Her mantra is to respect the past and strive to bring in continual improvement based on customer expectations and market trends, and to make SAIL’s product and services future fit. Sustainability, though, remains at the core of the business’ future form.
“Our productions, marketing and the supply chain will be governed by ESG (environment, social, governance) goals. We have signed the World Steel Association’s Sustainability Charter to reaffirm our commitment to global efforts and have drawn our roadmap towards carbon neutrality and green steel. Not only our processes and practices will be tweaked to make this journey fruitful but sustainability will also shape our technology adoption and the way we conduct business. SAIL intends to be regarded globally as a contemporary and relevant steel company.”
Breaking the Bias
Mondal has worked in the metals industry, which conventionally is a male-dominated sector. Recalling an experience, she shares, “I remember, in our college, we were two girls in a batch of about 200. Today, though women aren’t completely missing, metals in general and steel, in particular, is conventionally men’s domain. However, things are gradually shifting in terms of available opportunities and the mindset.”
She points out that in sectors like these, many a time, challenging roles are not offered to women by even well-meaning leaders because of the anticipated physical hardships and safety concerns. She advises, “In the long run, this impacts the growth of the particular woman though she is competent. She could also miss out on a place in the pool of potential leaders for senior positions. I would like to exhort all leaders to extend opportunities to their young colleagues along with mentoring so that the inhibitions and self-doubts do not mar the prospect of a potential woman leader.”
