Deepa Vijayaraghavan has spent nearly a decade in the Chennai office and is an active contributor to many PayPal Chennai Center initiatives. She took over as the office’s Unity affinity group lead in 2017 and is deeply involved in the Recharge and Girls in Tech programs that looks to groom and guide talented women at work and in the greater community.
Tell us about what you do.
I manage the Program Management Office (PMO) from Chennai, supporting the Global Operations Technology teams across the globe. My team is responsible for managing the programs within the Customer Service front office and back office tools as well as Credit Operations. We aim to support our Business and Technology partners to accomplish their goals and KPIs.
You’ve worked at PayPal for almost a decade in many roles. What have you learned? What inspires you?
Every person I work with has taught me something important. Whether it’s been around leadership or business skills, I try to look at the positive aspects of my peers and see what I can learn from them.
My inspiration is the people here [at PayPal]. I also love being part of the Chennai center. The moment you enter the office, you feel a great vibrant, positive energy and the people are so amazing.
What would you tell someone who is just starting out at PayPal?
Don’t restrict yourself, always dream big. PayPal has plenty of opportunities, you need to know what you want, and chase towards your goal. There are many opportunities here if you have the time and energy to invest.
You played a key role in Agile transformation, which involves communication with global teams across PayPal. How do you communicate with everyone effectively, and how did you move this team into Agile?
As I was driving the Agile transformation, what really worked well was to break down the challenges into smaller pieces, while staying aligned with our end vision. I really enjoyed leading PayPal’s Agile Transformation program, where I got to implement a lot of new ideas. Many large companies can’t make such large transformations, but PayPal has done this successfully.
We took an approach where we identified our short-term and long-term goals clearly – a strategy of Focus first, Focus next – for champions to drive the goals at each site level. Active leadership engagement played a key role to make this transformation journey successful.
You have been very involved in PayPal’s Unity affinity group and recently became the site lead. Why are you so passionate about this group?
Unity – a women’s affinity group at PayPal – is a great forum to network, grow, build leadership skills and find mentorship. It’s a group where women can come, talk and bounce ideas, both formally and informally. I have been part of the core team from the day I joined PayPal, and it’s important for me personally because I had a tough journey in my childhood. I lost my mother at a young age, and had limited guidance growing up. I am fortunate that I have a great spouse. He has been very supportive in my personal and professional growth. He played a key role in helping me complete my MBA and PMP (Project Management Professional) after my marriage, along with having kids. I know that women need a support system both at work and at home. I really want to help women in the community because of this experience.
You’re a leader in Diversity & Inclusion efforts for PayPal Chennai – why is it important to have diversity in your office and on your team?
You need to be focused on diversity and inclusion, if you are running a global business, to be able to address the needs of your different customers. There is no question about that. On your team, you don’t really want to have someone who is just like you. You want to have different kinds of people who are asking different kinds of questions to make the team better, which is better for your business and your customers. This is a huge benefit.