Above: Dhivya Suryadevara (MBA 2003) at GM World in Detroit’s Renaissance Center (photo by Brian Kelly)

Who you are is the sum total of your experiences. Growing up in Chennai, India, the importance of education and working incredibly hard were drilled into my mind as the price of entry to be successful.

Mary Barra is an incredible CEO. What we have is a management team that values meritocracy and diversity of thought. To me, it’s less about gender or where I’m from; it’s about bringing in diverse perspectives to make better decisions that add value to the company and to our shareholders.

I took Nitin Nohria’s Power and Influence course my second year, and it really stuck with me. The importance of understanding people and organizational dynamics has never been so clear, especially as you move into more senior roles.

I love to drive. At home in New York, it’s a burnt orange Cadillac XT4; and in Michigan, I drive a red Chevrolet Camaro.

The auto industry has a reputation for being stodgy and bureaucratic, but that perception is outdated. I think the professional opportunities are unmatched when it comes to working on large, complicated issues in an industry that is changing incredibly fast and is at the forefront of technology.

GM’s vision is zero crashes, zero emissions, and zero congestion. Close to 40,000 people die in US traffic accidents each year, and more than 94 percent of those crashes are caused by human error. Putting a meaningful dent in that statistic with autonomous-driving technology obviously could have incredible societal benefits.

Building a safe, self-driving car is the greatest engineering challenge of our lifetime. I think we’re going to get there sooner than we think, especially in a rideshare environment. We’ve made remarkable progress so far; I wouldn’t trade our position with anyone else.

Post a Comment