'Stand by ethics and resilience in the face of challenges'

Upasana Poudel holds a MBA degree from the Faculty of Management Studies, Delhi University. With over a decade of working experience in the insurance and telecom industries in Nepal and the Indian market, Poudel is at present the Chief Executive Officer of Himalayan Reinsurance Company. She had joined as the Deputy CEO in November 2022.

As a child, Poudel dreamt of becoming a doctor. Despite passing the medical examination, destiny had other plans for her. She began her career in India as a summer intern with Cummins India Ltd, a leading manufacturer of diesel and natural gas engines. She then held various leadership roles across marketing and strategy, product development, underwriting, and the technology department with Indian market insurance and telecom giants such as Vodafone, ICICI Lombard and Bharti AXA General Insurance.

On returning to Nepal, she briefly worked with Sanima General Insurance as the Assistant General Manager. She then led a non-life insurance company, United Insurance, as its CEO. 

Today, she is considered a role model among peers and business students for her business calibre. She is also one of the highest paid professionals in the country and the first woman CEO in Nepal’s insurance industry. 

In this edition of Business 360, Poudel shares the five things that have impacted her life and work. 

Nothing is rocket science

As a child, I was very shy and introvert. I was even scared to speak at events like sharing the thought of the day during school days. I did not have many friends and did not talk to many people. But my transformation happened when I joined Cummins as a summer intern. When they were hiring me for Cummins, I asked my boss one question. There were a lot of engineers and I was from a BBA background, doing my MBA in marketing. I asked him, ‘Why are you hiring me? Why did you shortlist my CV?’ That was a very open question because Cummins was all about manufacturing generators and engines. I believed that my engineer friends would understand it better than me. Then my boss told me that nothing is rocket science and I could learn and do it. That motivated me because I went from manufacturing to non-life insurance, then to telecom, then back to non-life insurance. Now, I am doing reinsurance. I learned that one can always learn.

If you do not have the knowledge, then you should have the ability to say ‘I don’t know.’ When you are a CEO, the culture here is that you feel like you should know everything. But you can learn from your team and they will teach you something new while you teach them something new. So, nothing is rocket science. Learn to say so if you do not know and explore your learning horizons. Now, I am not scared and shy. Cummins unleashed my potential as I got to learn at every step. I have learned to say ‘I don’t know’ at times. This has always expanded my learning horizons. And this is the best advice I have always followed.

Fall to Fly Higher

When you fly, you fall, and when you fall, you fly high again. This is the life philosophy I live by. I do not regret any of my decisions but there have been ups and downs. Everything has turned into a path that has led me somewhere or the other. However, my best life decision was not backing out. When I fall, I always make sure to crawl and get back on my feet.

Let me elaborate with an example. Imagine a tree: as you climb, the branches get thinner, increasing the probability of one falling. At the top, you will always be alone. The branches are thicker below, indicating that more people will be with you, but as the branches get thinner, you start losing people. Now, I believe there are two kinds of people. Some climb the tree and do not want to come down; they stand there, feeling that sense of success and pride. They never figure out a way to come down, but eventually, the branches will get thin, and they will have to fall. I would not say fall in a bad way, but it is inevitable, right? You have to climb down.

Then there are others who climb different trees. They reach the top, enjoy the view, and then descend. They always figure out a way to come down and even if they fall, they know they can climb another tree and see the view. That is my philosophy of life: climb, achieve success, and leave when it is time.

So, do not be scared of changes. Adapting to change and not fearing failure have worked in my life because I have worked in many sectors. Even by the age of 26-27, I was not sure what I wanted to do. But change is constant, and I was never afraid to embrace it if it came knocking on my door. So, I am the other kind of person. I climb to see what it looks like but I have learned to figure out a way to come down and climb another dream. I would not be ashamed to come down if I ever have to. That strength has brought me to where I am today.

Family is the backbone

Without my family, I would not be where I am today. When I was working as the AGM of Sanima Insurance, I had my baby, and I started working after one month of my delivery. I had to leave my daughter home and my parents took care of her. This was a striking moment for me. That is when I realised that I would not be successful if my parents were not there. I live with my parents because it would have been very difficult for me to leave my kid behind with somebody else. If I had to leave her alone, as a single mom, I would have been worried and wondering about her all day. So, without my family, I would be nowhere. I would not be leading this company. I would be working somewhere, doing some minimal job, running around my kid’s school, trying to manage the school fees and household.

But since my support system is there, I can totally focus on my work. My family has always been my greatest strength. My father always gave me that strength. He was the person whom I knew would be there wherever or whenever I fell. He would not say it in words but his actions would speak. I have always looked up to him as my biggest source of inspiration. And so is my mother. What if she was not there alongside my father? It would not be an intact family to look upon. I used to complain to my mother for not giving us enough time. But if she was not working, my dad would not have the strength to sustain the business. She gave the strength to look after the family because my father knew that his wife is working and there is a backup if something falls. She was also running the show equally. So that gave me a different perspective of looking at my mother. And whatever I was complaining to her was not right, because now when reality hits, it is different. Now even my daughter could say the same thing. So, wherever you want to reach, remember that your family should be with you.

Transformational leadership

Leadership, for me, is all about bringing transformation. A leader is not a manager but a person who delegates responsibility. A leader is someone who grants authority and is not afraid to relinquish their position because the team is always the focal point. You are already a leader, and you are the one who will cultivate other leaders, as leaders are the ones who empower others. The most important thing is to grant authority to people and make them aware of their responsibilities. If they do lack in their responsibility, you can reclaim authority, but continue to nurture and allow individuals to learn from their experiences. When they learn, you can guide them on how to rectify things and succeed, rather than scolding them. It is about fostering a culture of transformation. There have been instances when my superiors have criticised me. In public, they would support me, but would correct me once the audience had dispersed. This is how you should approach them to rectify yourself, and this is how I was moulded by my leaders. This is also how I plan to lead my team.

Teamwork is crucial; nothing is accomplished within a company without a team. Therefore, I believe in empowering my team. Our work culture is highly centralised and bureaucratic, and I do not see much mobility within it. I believe that by delegating tasks and making others responsible, they will develop, and I will have the opportunity to grow as well. I was groomed in such a culture and my superiors flourished because they taught me, allowing me to handle their responsibilities while they progressed.

My leadership philosophy revolves around uplifting each other. As an entire team, we climb the ladder, with each member pushing the other to reach new heights. I constantly remind my team of this during our Monday meetings. I emphasise that if there is a problem in one department, it is our problem, not just theirs. I have attempted to eliminate the phrase ‘my department’. When we are bound together as a team, I feel confident that we are unified. Without a good team, a leader will never succeed; they will merely become a manager or a boss, serve their term, and depart without accomplishing anything new.

However, the leadership journey to bring about transformation was not easy. After returning to Nepal, United Insurance was one of the most challenging tasks for me. The company was struggling but within two years, I was able to elevate the company from the bottom to the top six and even increase the team’s satisfaction. It was the same team but the team that was generating X revenue began generating three times as much. The team that previously yielded X profit now yielded 16 times as much. Achieving this was one of my successes as a leader but it was not easy. There were numerous disagreements. When you start making people work who were previously inactive, they issue threats. However, you must endure and remain persistent in order to make them work and effect transformation. An interesting fact is that after I left United Insurance, I received calls expressing that they missed me and the work culture that I had implemented.

That is how I would like to be remembered. I want to be remembered as a person who helped others develop and brought about transformation. As a leader, I want to contribute to the growth of my team, groom a worthy successor and then relinquish my position. I would be proud and content if someone else were to run this company after me and take it to even greater heights than I have reached.

Integrity and ethics are vital

One trait that has helped me both professionally and personally is my integrity. Integrity is of utmost importance to me. You can be a charmer or anything in the world but if you do not have integrity, then I do not think it really works. Then comes loyalty to the company one works with. Whichever company I have worked with, I have treated it like my own. Everything I do feels like I am the promoter myself. It feels like I need to take care of things as long as I am there. Whichever company I am working with, I am very loyal and I put all my hard work into it. I even work without going home for three days continuously. I think my integrity stands tall and bright, building everything.

Ethical work culture is also very important to me. When it comes to ethics, I do not think I can work beyond that. There are times when you have to put your foot down and stand your ground. When I became a CEO, I remember somebody told me that as the CEO, I should always be like an iron rod and not a glass rod. Because when you heat a glass rod, it breaks, but when you heat an iron rod, it bends slightly. But don’t bend so much that you end up hurting yourself. So, stand by your ethics even if you have to face backlash. Both ethics and integrity give you peace at the end of the day. You know, you have to leave the glory someday. But if you stand by your ethics, you will go beyond glory. Over these years, I might have transformed from a shy person to a social person, changed my perceptions and opinions about things, but my integrity has always remained intact.