How do the most powerful women in business actually rise? It's not by mimicking the men, nor by just following the advice to Lean In.
In this episode, Simi Shah unlocks the new playbook for powerful, ambitious women.
Simi speaks with Aparna Bawa — EVP and Chief Legal & People Officer at Intel, and the COO who saw Zoom scale from 10 million to 300 million users — alongside Kamini Ramani, Author of Lotus Leadership: A Modern Playbook of Ancient Wisdom. Together, they share fresh takes on female ambition, success, and leadership through the lens of this pioneering book.
Lotus Leadership is the first book to tell the story of the surging force of Indian women (and women of color) in American business: how they got to the top and the wisdom they drew on to get there.
Kamini spent a year interviewing 33 of the most powerful women in the world — PepsiCo CEO Indra Nooyi, HubSpot CEO Yamini Rangan, investors, operators, and c-suite leaders at Amazon, Google, PayPal, and Waymo. She distills their lessons into a five-petal framework she calls "yoga for business" that any ambitious young leader can follow.
Profiled in the first chapter of Lotus Leadership, Aparna Bawa embodies the Shiva-Shakti principle. She shares the deeply personal story of losing her mother in a car crash at age 11, and how it shaped her into the C-suite leader she is today.
Disclosure: Kamini Ramani is a client of The Trailblazers Agency. Trailblazers only backs projects we truly believe in — this book is one of them.
IN THIS EPISODE:
Kamini Ramani on the inspiration behind her book Lotus Leadership
The five principles of leadership inspired by Indian mythology
Aparna Bawa's personal journey, from childhood adversity to leading Zoom through the pandemic — and what Shiva-Shakti had to do with it
The untold challenges and sacrifices behind powerful women's success
How women are redefining success beyond traditional career paths
What women supporting each other looks like in action
What makes these 33 women different in how they lead — and why they win
Why stepping back from your career doesn't mean giving up on ambition
How to build harmonious romantic partnerships
How cultural expectations, relationships, and family influence women's leadership journeys
The power of authenticity and wisdom in the age of AI
ABOUT KAMINI RAMANI — Author, Lotus Leadership
Kamini Ramani is the author of Lotus Leadership: A Modern Playbook of Ancient Wisdom — a USA Today bestseller. A Silicon Valley tech executive for 40+ years, she served as CMO at Mayfield, one of the Valley's top-tier venture capital firms, and has helped narrate the stories of iconic companies including Lyft, Poshmark, HashiCorp, and Genentech. She advised Steve Jobs during his exile from Apple, and delivered the book on her 63rd birthday.
FOLLOW: Website · Instagram · LinkedIn · Buy the Book
ABOUT APARNA BAWA — EVP & Chief Legal & People Officer, Intel
Aparna Bawa is Executive Vice President and Chief Legal and People Officer at Intel. Previously, she served as COO of Zoom through the company's COVID-era inflection, when daily users surged from 10M to 300M. Her extensive career also includes leadership roles at Magento Commerce and Nimble Storage. A Harvard Law grad, she began her career in investment banking at Lehman Brothers and Deutsche Bank before pivoting to tech. Raised in Nigeria, India, and the US, she lost her mother at age 11 — a story she shares for the first time in Lotus Leadership.
FOLLOW: LinkedIn
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