Sangeeta Bavi of Microsoft on her journey in tech and working on projects from inception to initial success

Born and raised in Sholapur, a small town in Maharashtra, Sangeeta Bavi knew right from the beginning that her life was not to be dictated by the pin code she was born in. She says it was a small town but with big dreams.

Bavi’s father was conservative, yet very liberal. Her mother was like a freethinker. So, she was brought up with two diverse, contrasting thoughts.

“But the one person who was super influential in my life was my grandmother who had studied until the fourth standard and had lost her husband at a very early age. She would always tell me, no matter what you do, you must have financial freedom,” she says.

STEM happened not as a choice, but as an elimination. Bavi comes from a family of doctors and chose to do engineering instead. She joined REC Warangal (now NIT) to major in computer engineering, leading to a career spanning 24 years in the tech industry.

In a conversation with HerStory, Sangeeta Bavi, Executive Director-Digital Natives at Microsoft India, traces her journey, her role in the organisation, and speaks about women in tech.

Edited excerpts from the interview:

HerStory [HS]: You started your career at the beginning of the IT boom… must have been a really exciting time…

Sangeeta Bavi [SB]: I was placed in a computer science engineering role, specifically a coding job, and got into Wipro. I worked at Wipro for a short period, but directly with Nokia as my client. Nokia was dominating the market, particularly with Symbian phones, so I got to work on interesting projects, including the USB and Bluetooth core stack. 

I even had the opportunity to go to Finland and work with some of the brightest minds and engineers. I've always loved coding, even during my engineering days. As I started working, I realised that I enjoyed more than just coding. In Finland, I coordinated with various teams, including hardware and application layer folks, because of the USB and Bluetooth stack work.

There was one amazing tech engineering leader who suggested that I might be better suited for a product management role. He took a chance on me, and although I wasn’t sure at first, I realised I really enjoyed product management. 

HS: You then switched to Nokia…

SB: I moved to Nokia full-time. The work I was doing in Finland led to setting up a large engineering centre in Bangalore and I moved back to India to lead the product management team there.  

Around the same time, I was also following developments in the UIDAI (Unique Identification Authority of India) space. I started doing my own research and, if I remember correctly, I was writing a blog about it. Then, there was a circular from Nandan Nilekani sent to corporate leaders, announcing a volunteering program for people from the corporate sector to work in UIDAI. I wanted to be part of it. 

HS: Can you describe your experience with UIDAI?

SB: Pramod, who is now the Chief Technology Officer for EkStep and was the Chief Architect of Aadhaar, was one of the great minds I learned from among many others. I realised that Nokia could play a role in UIDAI, so we launched the first integrated fingerprint sensor with a mobile device. At a very young age, I got to lead that team in India while working with some of the brightest minds in Finland. 

Unfortunately, that project had to be shelved. I worked on it for about two years, and at the end of the second year, Nokia gave the IP of the industrial design of the phone--how to basically integrate, make it robust for Indian foundations. 

HS: The beauty of starting something from scratch and bringing it to fruition has seen defining moments in your life… from Wipro to Microsoft.

SB: Yes. I have always been a 0-to-1 person, working on projects from inception to initial success. Once a project hit that initial milestone, it either moved into productisation or logically concluded. This has been my journey across various industries.

It's been an amazing and incredible 10-year journey at Microsoft. I joined as a consumer and product marketing person. I then established the ISV-GTM program for India, focusing on core commercial aspects. Scaling our Azure business allowed us to apply the learnings from the consumer business to the commercial sector, marking one phase of my journey. 

The second phase came when the organisation took a bold bet on me. They were seeking a chief of staff. Typically, these roles require sales experience, which I didn't have. With my background in engineering, product management, evangelism, marketing, and category management, one thing led to another, and it worked out. It was fascinating to understand--from sales to policy, government, marketing and running the core dials of the business.

HS: Tell us about your work with startups?

SB: I was part of the team that worked on creating the playbook for incubating the startup business in India, and it became a model for Microsoft globally. So, we shared our playbook with the rest of Microsoft. This has been ongoing for the last three years. 

For anyone, it’s very challenging to establish a startup within an MNC. The leadership at India, Asia, as well as at global levels, including Satya (Nadella), supported our initiative. They encouraged us to experiment and prove the playbook works. This made me understand that sharing and positioning your good work is just as important as doing good work.

It’s about ensuring all stakeholders are across your milestones and achievements, and about understanding the playbook and its impact, essentially internal selling. This helps in making sure stakeholders know the ROI. Secondly, building external connections and networking within the startup ecosystem is crucial. Establishing your own brand within this ecosystem is vital for credibility. 

Thirdly, there's the network effect. How many founders are part of the Microsoft ecosystem, and how they influence others is significant. It's a close-knit community, often just three degrees of separation. Learning to manage this community of influencers was another valuable lesson for me. 

HS: What are your current roles and responsibilities?

SB: Currently, I oversee the entire digital native’s business unit. Previously, I managed a startup business, focusing on early-stage startups. Now, my responsibilities span from early-stage ventures to those aiming for IPOs. Broadly, we have three programmes: early-stage, growth, and unicorn ventures, which include over 100 unicorns in India. I'm accountable for the P&L of this entire business unit for India and South Asia. 

HS: Statistics point out that while the presence of women at the entry level is quite impressive, not many women reach leadership positions in tech. What do you think are the reasons for this?

SB: If you look at the career cycle of a woman, by the time you start hitting the right levels of getting promoted and getting more responsibilities, you get married and have children. All those personal aspects also continue to play a role in whether you want to take a break.

Today, if you see the mix of the Microsoft India leadership team, women are in the majority compared to men. Credit goes to the kind of tone at the top that we set in Microsoft. Right from Satya and Puneet (Chandok) to everybody in the organisation in terms of diversity and inclusion - inclusion is one of the cultural pillars of Microsoft. But diversity is not just gender; it pivots across various things yet when you look at it in India, gender is the first sort of thing to “fix”. 

How intentional and deliberate the organisation is really matters. Are you doing this as a checklist or are you really walking the talk? And the mix of women leaders that we now have in India--it's just very refreshing.  

So that is one: growing up, do you have adequate role models to look up to? If a woman leader has reached this position despite having to manage her personal life beautifully, that also sort of gives you that feeling, that you can also do it.

Second, if the organisation or the core team that you are part of makes it convenient for you to have an adequate work-life balance. There are some programmes again in Microsoft and a bunch of other organisations also do it.  

HS: Can you elaborate on these programmes?

SB: We encourage Microsoft women leaders who have taken a break due to motherhood or various reasons. We engage with them; we just meet up with them over coffee just to understand what are they thinking in terms of their career? We have a programme where we engage very deeply with Microsoft alumnae, women who have taken a break, and also other women leaders who are on a break, who basically want to come back into corporate lives.  

HS: How can women overcome feelings of self-doubt?

SB: I think elf-doubt exists, even for men. But the thing is–I think men are a lot more aggressive in terms of positioning confidence. What I can tell you from my personal experience, even now, is that I am too much of a risk-taker for some new opportunities. I believe that I can do it because I've seen it. But early in my career, a lot of support, assurance, and a fair amount of conditioning or mentorship helped.

Getting the right mentorship from your network is important to minimise the self-doubts. We don't do enough in terms of reaching out to people, asking if we should be doing this. At least I didn’t initially. It is important to ask if I do this, what do you think my strengths are and where do you think my blind spots could be in taking up some of these challenges.