Anusha Raghunandan, Vice President, Analytics, Research & Data, Fidelity Investments India, reflects on her career and how she has been able to succeed in multiple roles across the organization.

Describe your journey so far.

I completed my studies in a small town near Mangalore on the west coast of Karnataka. My first job was in mortgage banking in Ocwen Financial Solutions. After a brief stint there, I moved to Fidelity. 

I started out as a requirements analyst in the Health Care Group 17 years ago. Since then, I have worked across the Workplace Investing, Fidelity Institutional, Asset Management, and Fund and Investment Operations groups. I have been in roles across operations and technology in the past, and my current role is in the analytics vertical. During my career here, I have switched between both individual contributor and people management roles. I have also been an active participant in women’s networking groups and learning-related initiatives.

In summary, I have thoroughly enjoyed my 17 years at Fidelity, experimenting, learning, building relationships, and amassing lasting memories!

How did Fidelity happen? What was your reason to choose Fidelity?

I have a not-so-logical answer to this question. I was only six months into my career when I heard about Fidelity. I didn’t have a ‘plan’ for my career, and joining Fidelity was not a calculated move.

I met my husband when I was working in Ocwen. When he joined Fidelity, I followed him. We got married when we both were working at Fidelity. He quit in a year’s time while I stayed back.

Looking back, I am grateful to the universal forces which made Fidelity happen for me. When today I get questions such as, “What makes you stay at Fidelity? 17 years is a long time,” I tend to give long answers because I have so many reasons as to what makes Fidelity special for me. A few examples:

• I was in the U.S. on a business trip when I lost my father. The calls I got from colleagues included such statements as: “Shall I go to your house in Bangalore and help your husband out?” “Shall I book your flight ticket to your hometown?” “You must be alone there. Do you want to talk?” It made me wonder… where will I ever find colleagues like these?
• In 2018, I received a note from Fidelity Cares, the company’s community relations program. about donating to the flood relief fund of a state in India. Fidelity had donated a large amount already. I was ashamed as I hadn’t done anything until then for the people in that state. However, the company had already done so. Fidelity teaches me values. I like the person I am becoming each day I am at Fidelity.

I have so many more stories about great managers, wonderful friends, challenging projects, and Fidelity’s inspiring culture. They are only a few of the reasons for why I am committed to my Fidelity family.

Tell us more about your journey with Fidelity so far.

I have moved across multiple business units in Fidelity thanks to the firm’s commitment to promoting career vitality among its employees. Some of the highlights of my roles and work I have been able to accomplish include the following:

• My team works with data and visualization tools and applies statistical approaches and data science techniques to reap insights which aid in key business decision-making in two business units. Our business partners value our work and trust us with more all the time, owing to our deep domain knowledge, strong analytical skills, and ability to blend our technical skills into our work.
• I once co-led the creation of a full-stack engineering learning framework for one of Fidelity’s business groups in India. This was a large-scale, pioneering effort as part of our journey towards building a workforce of the future. Apart from creating the framework, we also defined the stacks and maturity levels as well as the mechanism for on-the-job assessments of progress, curated several interventions to nudge and inspire team members to accelerate their learning journeys, and worked with global partners to seek their support. The results, as shown by data, were heartening. The framework was not only adopted at the global level for that business unit but also across other business units as well.
• At another time, my team had a major role to play in building platforms used to create investment portfolios. These portfolios decided where our customers’ retirement money would be invested. Our global technology partners were highly appreciative of our sense of ownership, our ability to connect and influence business partners, and the strong culture of innovation we brought to everything we did.
• Women in Excellence (WE) is a flagship program at Fidelity to build women leaders of the future. I co-led this program in India for six years. We were given complete autonomy to revise the program’s structure and mechanics each year to suit the requirements and asks of program participants, include Fidelity’s Leadership Principles, and be cognizant of industry trends and research in terms of nurturing women leaders. Several WE graduates have come back to us with success stories of how the program has helped them unleash their full potential at work.
• At one point, I was trusted with the role of Operations Project Manager – a global role. I also had the privilege of leading a team of business analysts who engaged in client-facing work from India. This came with tall expectations on our domain expertise and professional skills, which the team very gracefully lived up to.

What are the attributes and aspects that define you as a successful leader at Fidelity?

Fidelity values the ‘what’ and the ‘how’ of outcomes that employees produce.

Under the ‘what’, leaders look for outcomes which:

• Are designed to produce best-in-class customer experiences
• Enhance employee experience and efficiency
• Uphold the innovative spirit of Fidelity as an industry leader
• Are key building blocks for future products

Under the ‘how’, I feel there’s a strong cultural foundation which comes alive through:

• Fidelity’s Leadership Principles, which put customers at the forefront, encourage pace over perfection, enable candid conversations, and believe in coaching others to achieve their full potential.
• As Dan Pink would put it, autonomy, mastery and purpose, which were key driving factors in most of the projects I was a part of.
• Respect for individuals, no matter what the circumstances are.
• People who are genuinely willing to help one another.

What has been your most memorable moment at Fidelity so far?

I mentioned that I have had several role changes at Fidelity. Most of them came about when I was tapped on the shoulder by someone I had worked with in the past.

I feel most proud when I see that someone wants to work with me again. These are people who know me well beyond my skills –my drawbacks, hot buttons, and vulnerable moments. I feel blessed to receive such acceptance from people I look up to.

What is the best advice you have received as a professional?

Here are a few nuggets I have received during my career:

• Nobody can look into your heart to understand what you are thinking. Speak up. Many people are as well-intentioned and talented as you are. Or even more. Listen.
• Success and competence are absolutes. Learn like your life depends on it.

What are some of the attributes you look for in a person you would want to hire for your team?

Besides knowledge and skills, I look for:

• A proven ability to learn. -It’s important that candidates are able to set themselves up to remain relevant in the future as well
• Evidence of having an innovative mindset and the courage to experiment and persist in overcoming challenges towards achieving successful outcomes
• The ability to be a supportive and compassionate team player, – especially when things are not going too well
• The willingness to work on one’s self improvement and growth all the time by receiving and acting upon feedback.

Describe a hurdle that you were proud of crossing.

Besides the usual challenges of working through tight deadlines and demanding projects, moving into a people management role was a key milestone in my career. One key part of this transition was building coaching skills.

The International Coaching Federation has defined a set of competencies that a coach is supposed to demonstrate. Building those competencies as part of my transition into my new role demanded that I constantly challenged my preconceived notions and introspected on who I was and what I saw or expected from others. This journey has substantially improved the quality of my relationships at work and outside.

What is your favorite quote/saying?

“The only thing that I see that is distinctly different about me is I’m not afraid to die on a treadmill. I will not be out-worked, period. You might have more talent than me, you might be smarter than me, you might be sexier than me, you might be all those things you got it on me in nine categories. But if we get on the treadmill together, there’s two things: You’re getting off first, or I’m going to die. It’s really that simple, right?”

– Will Smith, an American film personality.

Views expressed are as of the date indicated and may change. Unless otherwise noted, the opinions provided are those of the author, and not necessarily those of Fidelity Investments.

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