Social Impact Heroes: Why & How Balaji Ganapathy of Tata Consultancy Services Is Helping To Change Our World

Be the change — Whether in a company or in a startup, if you’re taking initiative and doing the right thing, it’s better to ask for forgiveness than for permission. Be courageous and do what YOU can do.

As part of my series about “individuals and organizations making an important social impact”, I had the pleasure of interviewing Balaji Ganapathy, Chief Social Responsibility Officer, and Global Head of CSR at TCS.

Balaji Ganapathy serves as the Chief Social Responsibility Officer and Global Head of Corporate Social Responsibility for Tata Consultancy Services (TCS), a Global Top 3 information technology leader.

His mission is to harness the power of purpose, people and technology to advance access, equity and inclusion across society. Since 2015, TCS has invested over $635M in its community initiatives and empowered over 32 million underserved students, minorities, youth, women and elders to be literate, healthy, educated, digitally skilled, mentored, become rural entrepreneurs and gain employment, enabling societal uplift and generational improvement.

A mission-driven leader, he served as Chair of STEMconnector’s STEM Innovation Task Force, Chair of NPower’s TCC Advisory Council, on the World Economic Forum’s Steering Committee, Vice-Chair of Million Women Mentors (MWM), IMPACT 2030’s Advisory Council, and Here2Here’s Business Council. He serves on the U.S. Chamber of Commerce Foundation’s Advisory Board and Education, Employment and Training Committee, and on the Board of Women Business Collaborative.

His paradigm ‘Purpose is the New Tech’ has been featured in Purpose 360, Purpose Inc, Common Impact, Brand on Purpose.

Thank you so much for joining us in this interview series! Can you tell us a story about what brought you to this specific career path?

It’s a pleasure to be here! Everything in my life has led me to where I am today. Growing up in a lower middle-class family shaped my upbringing and traveling across India by train in general compartments during my teens exposed me to people from all strata of society. On one of those trips, a middle-aged man approached me with a steel container in his hand. Initially, I thought he was a beggar asking for money, but then I noticed the resolve and dignity in his approach. He told me the story of how he was a daily wage laborer, but the construction project he was on was stopped suddenly and he now was trying to feed his family. He asked if I could buy him some oil and flour so that they could make their own meals. I didn’t have much money, being a student and all, but I went ahead and bought him what he needed with whatever little money I did have. This experience struck me hard because for him as a parent and the breadwinner, having to ask someone else to help sustain your family was a terrible position to be in. Several experiences like these early on in life, strengthened my conviction and resolve to create a difference and empower people. I’ve been blessed to be able to do that in life and at work.

Can you share the most interesting story that happened to you since you began leading your company or organization?

TCS is a fantastic place to be. I’ve been with the company for nearly 20 years, and we have grown 25x times since I started. Despite this tremendous growth, we’ve always stayed true to our values. Before TCS, I was an entrepreneur and that self-identity has continued even within this large multi-billion organization with more than 600,000 people. Over the past two decades, TCS has entrusted me with several leadership roles that were new and projects that had never been done before. I have been able to take my learnings from each of those roles and create something of value to TCS and my stakeholders. While the domains ranged from human resources to business, DEI to global transitions, sustainability to social impact, the autonomy and empowerment that I’ve been given remained as a constant. While every role has been a learning, I take special pride in contributing to TCS being recognized as America’s most community-minded technology company by Civic 50, a Top 50 Company for Diversity across sectors by DiversityInc, and as a Top Employer.

It has been said that our mistakes can be our greatest teachers. Can you share a story about the funniest mistake you made when you were first starting? Can you tell us what lesson you learned from that?

My whole career journey has been a lesson from the University of Hard Knocks. You’ll make mistakes in anything new you take on, but you’ll learn from them. The funniest one I recall was in my early days in the social impact space my naivety led me to believe that all funds should go towards programs and none towards administrative aspects. When I finally started understanding how nonprofits and foundations function and how they create an impact, I greatly appreciated the need to allocate funds to put the right teams and skills together. Companies need the right resources and capacity to make a change, and today, if you look at our social impact efforts, a large portion of it is to empower our partners and allies to build the ability to do things together. I think that early lesson served me well. I learned that it takes different forms of strength, not exclusively finances directed towards one area, to make an impact.

Can you describe how you or your organization is making a significant social impact?

I’m very proud to be part of Tata Group, one of the world’s oldest purpose-driven enterprises. Established in 1868 with the unique ownership structure of Tata Trusts being the majority shareholder, this pioneering model is still in place today for this $100B+ conglomerate. For every dollar of dividend TCS makes, a portion goes back to charitable causes because of our ownership structure. Our purpose is to build better futures through innovation and collective impact. We do that for customers, employees, and the communities where we live and work. I firmly believe that digital transformation can create a more inclusive society, which is the model TCS is leading today by ‘connecting people and communities to opportunities in the digital economy’. We believe that for people to move from poverty to prosperity, you need to empower them with education, skills, employment, and entrepreneurship opportunities. Since 2015, we have empowered more than 32 million people and invested about $635 million dollars in social impact efforts. Whether it’s STEM/CS and 21st century skills for girls and minorities, creating pathways from college to careers for marginalized youth, or access to world-class front-line services for rural populations, our actions make a difference through societal uplift and generational improvement. For example, goIT, our digital innovation and career-readiness program, has empowered more than 100,000 students on a path to choosing technological areas across sectors; more than 50% of those students are girls, and 67% are from minorities. To transform education for the digital economy, the Ignite My Future program has inspired over 1.7 million students and 30 thousand educators to develop computational thinking, a foundational skill for the 21st century.

Can you tell us a story about a particular individual who was impacted or helped by your cause?

One story that inspired me is a young woman named Asha. Before the pandemic, I took my team on a social learning journey to a remote part of India, and there I met this young woman. She was born in a different state and did not know the language her husband’s family spoke — she was well-educated but without a job because the husband was the primary breadwinner. She joined our TCS BridgeIT entrepreneurship program, which supports marginalized rural youth on a 5-year journey to become successful digital entrepreneurs and grow their business by providing much needed front-live services to rural Indians. Though she faced many social barriers as a woman from a so-called lower caste, within 12–18 months she started her own business, opened a shop, employed other people and created enough income to match and exceed her husband’s income. And eventually her husband joined her company as a partner. Her family, who was once initially opposed to Asha staring the business, were proud of her success and encouraged others to use her digital services. The pride and dignity with which she carried herself renewed my belief that if every marginalized youth can be successful like Asha, the world will see true inclusive growth.

Are there three things the community/society/politicians can do to help you address the root of the problem you are trying to solve?

The world has moved from the agrarian and industrial economies of the past two centuries to a more digital economy. Companies across sectors must work closely with our education system, focusing on marginalized students and helping them gain holistic skills with relevance and context to the new economy.

Businesses are like a lighthouse and can see where the future of work is heading. We have to better define careers in the digital economy, make the general public aware of the new opportunities and create inclusive pathways for diverse talent to enter the workforce. It’s not just enough to ‘buy’ talent; it’s essential to invest and ‘build’ for the larger community needs.

Organizations must create more access to front-line services worldwide for the poorest in the hardest-to-reach areas. Helping non-consumers become consumers is the sustainable path to moving from poverty to prosperity as nations and society. We must innovate to disrupt our current business models and create this inclusive growth.

How do you define “Leadership”? Can you explain what you mean or give an example?

To me Leadership is all about building the best team against an aspirational vision, clearing obstacles in their path, and empowering them to succeed.

As a service leader, my philosophy is to focus on the growth and well-being of people and help them thrive — their success and the outcomes we create for our stakeholders defines my success. I’ve enjoyed building diverse, high-impact teams that make a difference. As an entrepreneur, it was to create better operational efficiencies and leadership capabilities for the precision manufacturing industry. As a business leader, it was to create win-win-win for our customers, our company and employees. As a HR leader, it was to build the foundation for a culture of innovation, and to move from representation to diversity, inclusion and belonging. I’m very proud that today, TCS’ CSR & social impact team is among the most diverse and talented and one-of-a-kind worldwide.

That’s the beauty of leadership, surrounding yourself with people that are more talented than you and helping enable aspirational outcomes. That’s the secret to achieving what is seemingly impossible. Let me take you back to the early 2000s, when STEM used to mean STEM cells! For a few years I had the opportunity to lead the STEM Innovation Taskforce, a group of 36 cross-industry cross-sector leaders. These were CEOs, presidents of companies, colleges, research, policy and civic institutions. We all came together to create better STEM education and career opportunities for people in the country. There was transformative impact in terms of a new model for a new economy, making STEM a Board/CXO level priority, companies adopting new policies and practices, innovative cross-sector partnerships to help reach millions of young people in the country, influencing public policy for funding and access to resources skills for educators and students.

To be a small part of this was a blessing, and one that I will fondly remember lifelong. Recently my daughter told me that she took STEM as an elective in her summer camp. When I asked her what STEM was and she explained it with lucid clarity, the world came full circle for me.

What are your “5 things I wish someone told me when I first started” and why. Please share a story or example for each.

Find your purpose — no matter what you do in life, this existential question will bring you back to the crossroads of ‘why you’re doing what you’re doing’.

Be the change — Whether in a company or in a startup, if you’re taking initiative and doing the right thing, it’s better to ask for forgiveness than for permission. Be courageous and do what YOU can do.

Dream big — You don’t have to pay taxes on dreams, and there’s no limit on how much you can aspire to achieve. Let the world be your oyster.

Find harmony — The lines between what you do for work and what you do in life are often blurred. Who you want to be, what you wish for your family and your legacy; finding harmony on the personal and professional front is paramount.

Be grateful — I use a photo of the Milky Way in some of my presentations, just to have perspective that we are just a tiny speck within a larger universe. Be grateful for who you are, your friends, colleagues, and team, and share your success with others. Own your failures but share your accomplishments.

You are a person of enormous influence. If you could inspire a movement that would bring the most amount of good to the most amount of people, what would that be? You never know what your idea can trigger. :-)

I believe that the most significant impact can come from a fundamental shift in how businesses conduct themselves. As we rebuild from the COVID19 pandemic, companies have the unique opportunity to be more purpose driven while creating inclusive growth. The single call to action I have is for businesses to be carbon negative and social positive. There’s so much economic opportunity in the world. If you shape your organization to positively impact the environment and community; so many of the world’s problems can be solved, while economic value will also be gained. The new age of stakeholder capitalism can be brought to life within this model.

Can you please give us your favorite “Life Lesson Quote”? Can you share how that was relevant to you in your life?

Growing up, I was inspired by Robert Frost’s ‘The Road Not Taken’ and Rudyard Kipling’s ‘If’. My favorite life lesson quote is “courage is the shoe for the road less traveled”. At the end of the day, if you think you can, you’re right; if you think you can’t, you’re right. It takes courage to take on something new. Every day if you dare to leave your successes behind and start on a new journey, looking back, I believe you’ll be happier and more fulfilled in life.

Is there a person in the world, or in the US with whom you would like to have a private breakfast or lunch with, and why? He or she might just see this, especially if we tag them. :-)

I think what I would enjoy the most is to break bread with my wonderful team who inspire me and keep me grounded. I would invite Adam Grant, an organizational psychologist bestselling author to join the team lunch. His work on how we can find motivation and meaning, rethink assumptions, and live more generous and creative lives, has lot of relevance and meaning for me and my social impact team.

How can our readers further follow your work online?

You can find me on LinkedIn and Twitter, follow our work on social media through #tcsempowers or visit our website.

This was very meaningful, thank you so much. We wish you only continued success on your great work!