Last week, Salesforce was making its way through Southeast Asia on an Agentforce world tour. With it came Arundhati Bhattacharya, Salesforce’s South Asia CEO.
Bhattacharya ranked No. 83 on the Fortune Most Powerful Women Asia list last year. Salesforce hired her in 2020 to lead its India business. She was already well known as the first woman to serve as chair of the State Bank of India.
After retiring from the SBI in 2017, Bhattacharya rotated through a series of part-time consulting roles, but found them largely unsatisfactory. The gap between busy days during board meeting season and light days at other times—she found it “not very comfortable,” she told me.
Marc Benioff convinced her to come on board full-time with Salesforce in South Asia. She had to take charge as a leader right away; during the pandemic the U.S. leadership team wasn’t “able to offer us much support in India,” she remembers.
She increased the size of Salesforce’s South Asia team by more than 600%, growing from 2,500 to more than 18,000 today. The region remains one of the company’s fastest-growing markets. The business she’s leading is about $1.8 billion, according to a November company filing to India’s corporate register.
Bhattacharya became one of the most successful women in finance in India, and has since transitioned to a new career in tech. “I suppose hurdles are there in all careers, not only for women, but also men,” Bhattacharya says. “But for women, the issue is that you have to always try and strive to prove yourself. You have to be better than the best in order to be noticed…and keep negotiating throughout your life to ensure that you’re getting the opportunities you should rightfully get.”
Angelica Ang
angelica.ang@fortune.com
The Most Powerful Women Daily newsletter is Fortune’s daily briefing for and about the women leading the business world. Today’s edition was curated by Emma Hinchliffe. Subscribe here.
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