With more than 19 years of experience working with technology, Nisarg J. joined Kimberly-Clark more than four years ago. Currently, he's heading the Global Digital Sales Portal Platform at Kimberly-Clark Professional with a big responsibility and impact. Nisarg's team manages the entire development of operations for the B2B business. We sat down with him as he shared his story and talked about change and transformation around the world.
Nisarg, tell us about your career path at Kimberly-Clark.
Most interactions I had during the latter part of my career but prior to Kimberly-Clark were not monotonous or stagnant because I kept switching technologies, profiles and jobs within the organization. This is just my third organization in 19 years – so I haven’t been hopping jobs. I’ve been changing profiles within the company, and that's what I think my mantra is for success.
If you stick to an organization for long time, and are exceptional in what you do, you can have multiple gateways opened for you internally. Your reputation and recognition helps further your ability to receive new opportunities.
If you stick to an organization for long time and are exceptional in what you do,
you can have multiple gateways opened for you internally.
Sounds like Kimberly-Clark really encourages cross-functional development. What advice would you give to others who want to explore other aspects of the business?
Yes, it certainly does. If there are opportunities that you are seeking – then Kimberly-Clark is literally looking out for people like you. Just make sure you have that zeal, that you have that kick in you of what you want to do next in your organization. Kimberly-Clark will give you the opportunity, they will give you the platform, they will give you the trainings to make sure you get all the support to live up to team expectations.
How does your work enhance your future goals?
I've always been a firm believer in sticking to one place/position so you can be the master of that particular art – but that's not going to take you places. If you really want to be successful in terms of leadership or being an entrepreneur or being the kind of person who people can trust and relate to, you must be multi-dimensional.
So there comes the mantra of splitting and changing your dimensions and picking up new challenges to prove yourself in terms of adopting and coping with it. That's what I have been doing at Kimberly-Clark in my last two capacities.
Even though I was working as a solution architect with digital workplace, I was heavily involved with enterprise architecture and other business solutions, all while maintaining my focus and commitment to my core responsibilities – I’d learn, grow and keep moving forward.
How do you manage life-work balance?
When my now 12-year-old son was born, I was working for another organization. I was continuously traveling and there were huge performance pressures and hard-coded deliverable timelines. I did not realize during those days how time flew by and what I missed from a personal-life perspective. I didn't see him doing a lot of things in school and growing up in those early stages. That's where I made the commitment – there must be a split between these two key aspects of my life – professional and personal.
Being at Kimberly-Clark helped me a lot. I'm not saying there are no time pressures, there are no stringent things to take care of – but the most important thing I learned is Kimberly-Clark gives you the opportunity to build up your own work culture and your personal work culture and ethics as long as is it within our way of doing work – giving you the flexibility to split out work on your own time.
So, I have been truly blessed in that sense. I have ample time now in terms of managing my work hours while people are not at home, free to schedule my meetings, appointments times and deliverables, and equally spend time with my family.
What do you think of our Digital Technology Solutions (DTS) team’s ability to innovate?
Innovation is bread-and-butter for DTS, so if you’re already experienced with industry knowledge, have an engaging network of experts who talks NextGen solutions, Kimberly-Clark DTS is the place to apply.
Kimberly-Clark is inclined to invest and adopt new technologies to make use of best-in-class tools to stay ahead of the trends. This model also helps get your hands onto the latest evolution of products.
Despite being a consumer product company, Kimberly-Clark depends on numerous global DTS technologists who bring modern idea and ways of working into the field of marketing, sales, finance, HR, supply chain and manufacturing.
What advice would you give to young professionals looking for employment at Kimberly-Clark?
For recent graduates, let's talk about the great internship programs Kimberly-Clark offers. If somebody is joining Kimberly-Clark, I think they can expect the best mentors within the industry.
Employees here are experienced, but Kimberly-Clark also has cultured their leaders and people, they believe in the mantra of sharing what they know. It’s a real-life experience where they can leverage the learning of their education within the organization with a mentor and coach who can monitor and guide them on best practices based on years of experience.
So probably what took leaders 10 years to learn, the interns and new people joining, with lesser experience, will learn in the next 3 years.
“No one knows your limits better than you. So set your goals and milestones,
because the day you stop challenging yourself, the world starts dictating your next steps.”
Nisarg J.