Gunjan Gupta

As an immigrant in this country for many years, I believe that my success primarily first came from my own idea of being resilient and not accepting failure, or failing fast and falling forward. I was fearless, and I just took every opportunity and grabbed it with both my hands, and that's the one way that I kind of progressed. The other thing was, I had no shame in my game. I did not wait for someone to come and put a tiara on my head. I became my own cheerleader, and I basically observed great leaders and great doers around me, and that's basically what propelled me to move forward and be the best version of myself. I am a forever learner, and I'm constantly learning from people, not just the leaders I report into, but also the people that report into me. At all levels, I'm constantly open to ideas, so having a very open mindset is another thing that truly helped me in my journey. A combination of resilience, being my own cheerleader, and being a forever learner - those were the three things that I would attribute my success to.

I received two pieces of advice that still stick with me. The first was early on in my career when I was new to corporate America. I thought I was doing a great job and people should be appreciative of the work, but as I was handing my two weeks notice, an executive leader reached out to me and said, 'You are too quiet, and you just sit and wait for accolades and recognition to come. Sometimes you have to raise your hand a little bit higher. Speak up for yourself.' That advice about being my own cheerleader I still hold very close to my heart. The second was from my dad after I had a very debilitating career news - I was expecting a promotion that I didn't end up getting. It felt very debilitating at the moment, and my dad said, 'Listen, what wasn't yours, what you didn't receive wasn't yours to begin with. Don't lament a loss for something that wasn't meant for you or wasn't there for you. It is a loss of your energy, and you need to move on.' That advice on how to move on from a loss and look forward to the future really changed how I see both success and failure. Those two pieces of advice from both family as well as coworkers still stick with me.

The best career advice that I give to women - and I do mentor a lot of women - is to be extremely courageous and never lean into fear of any sorts. If you know what you're doing, have that kind of resilience and courage to express yourself in the most authentic way, and never doubt yourself. Basically, courage, acting without fear, not doubting yourself, and being the most authentic version of yourself every single day - I think that is the prime recipe for success. That's what I tell all the women that I mentor to kind of follow through. My door is always open, so I always am a sounding board to them for any personal or professional thing that they want to take advice on.

Supply chain has been a very interesting field, especially since COVID. Everyone now knows what supply chain is and how COVID had all these issues in terms of getting the product delivered in North America on time. We recently had the tariff war last year and this year, and we actually had the actual war that led to shipping hormones closing and all of that. Every macroeconomic or geopolitical turbulence leads to a disruption of movement of goods across various continents, and that leads to the impact on the availability of supply, which leads to inflation. Keeping a pulse on all of those things and predicting what the future looks like so that we can be, or the organizations can be, as profitable as possible - that's what makes my job very, very challenging, but very interesting. It's very unnerving because I'm presenting the risks and opportunities to the organization, but it also makes for a very interesting and fulfilling career for myself.

At work, I would say trust is something that I truly seek and inculcate, even within myself and my teams and the teams that I work with. When you have trust, it leads to some really fantastic results, it leads to success, it leads to camaraderie, it leads to teamwork. You feel good about coming to work, and everything is transparent, and everyone can work in a psychologically safe environment. That is a foundational element or value that I put a lot of emphasis on at work. For home and personal - and it actually applies to both home as well as work - I would say authenticity. I'm big on being authentic. I don't like performative behavior, toxic positivity or negativity. I'm all for being the truest version of yourself and coming into both your personal life and your professional life in your truest form. That is what will make you successful - you get rid of imposter syndrome, and you're not tiring your brain constantly by putting on this mask. That is what makes you the most congruent and eventually satisfied and successful in the long run. I would say trust and authenticity are the two things that I operate with, and then a little bit of kindness and empathy. When you lace everything with love, kindness, and empathy, that just makes this whole combination - that makes you a true leader, and a good person, and a good professional as well. Those three things would be top of my list in terms of values.