Choosing HR with intention
For Pooja Madappa, HR was not just a career choice—it was a space she grew up understanding deeply. With her father as a senior HR professional, conversations about people, behaviour, and leadership were part of everyday life. She entered the field with intention: to shape organisations where people feel connected to purpose, empowered to perform, and supported to grow. Over the years, that intention has only strengthened.
Today, as SVP – human resources at Netradyne, Madappa leads with a philosophy forged through global experience and a high-trust, high-accountability culture.
Questioning the need for revalidation of expertise
A barrier that surprised Madappa early on was the implicit expectation that women leaders often need to repeatedly revalidate their expertise. “I’m empathetic but I’m also very results-driven and hold teams to high standards. That combination wasn’t always immediately recognised,” observes Madappa.
Instead of internalising it, she used it as a leadership accelerant. Her experience at Schneider, operating in a global environment, taught her to lead with clarity, confidence, and data-backed decision-making, whilst still staying deeply human in how she engages with people.
“At Netradyne, this mindset aligns naturally with our high-trust, high-accountability and execution-driven culture. It’s helped me shift the narrative not just for myself, but for my teams as well who now see what strong, authentic leadership can look like,” says Madappa.
“Supporting women is not just about mentorship—it’s about championing them in the rooms where decisions are made.”
Of clarity, empathy and collaboration
Madappa’s leadership style is grounded in clarity, empathy and collaboration. Early in her career, she leaned heavily on structure and operational excellence. Over time, she learnt to balance this with psychological safety, cross-functional partnership, and purpose-driven decision-making.
At Netradyne, “where we operate with intentional speed and deep customer orientation,” her leadership has evolved to focus on “enabling empowered teams, reducing ambiguity, and building alignment across fast-moving priorities.”
“My leadership style is grounded in clarity, empathy and collaboration.”
Leadership anchored in values
The mindset that HR’s primary role is reactive or transactional absolutely needs to retire. Today, HR is a strategic engine that shapes culture, capability, and organisational resilience. What deserves far more attention is building values-anchored leadership at every level—where decisions are transparent, ethical, data-driven and oriented towards long-term trust. Innovation, execution excellence, and the resulting customer impact should guide every decision.
“At Netradyne, preparing for the future of work is tightly linked to how we scale the business,” says Madappa. As a high-growth organisation, focus is on building agile teams, enabling continuous learning and creating strong cross-functional alignment so that innovation and customer impact don’t slow down as the organisation grows.
From shaping leadership and manager capability, to building talent, culture, and systems that support execution excellence at scale, HR plays a critical role in enabling this. “We partner closely with the business to ensure the right skills are in place, teams are structured for impact and performance expectations are clear,” reveals Madappa.
The outcome being driven is business-focused: to create an environment where high performance is sustainable, not exhausting; where people feel empowered, not overwhelmed.
Quick fire round
What’s the best career advice you’ve ever received?
Stay deeply curious, stay grounded, and always choose purpose over speed.
One thing you wish people understood about being a woman in HR leadership:
That the focus is always on enabling performance for long-term business value, setting clear expectations, and holding the organisation accountable to high standards—not just people programmes. And it often requires carrying the emotional weight of people’s experiences whilst still making decisions with fairness and clarity.
If not HR, what career path would you have pursued?
I can’t think of an alternate career. HR is my true calling and my passion. It’s where my strengths, values and purpose intersect.
What energises you most about your work?
Enabling people to grow, building leaders, and seeing teams move from uncertainty to clarity energise me every single day.
Best investment you’ve made in yourself?
Choosing growth over comfort. Saying yes to feedback and sometimes hard truths. It hasn’t always been easy, but it’s helped me show up more thoughtfully for others and for myself.
Championing women
Supporting women is not just about mentorship—it’s about championing them in the rooms where decisions are made, according to Madappa. She actively advocates for their visibility on high-impact work, creates intentional opportunities for capability building, and ensures they have equitable access to experiences that accelerate growth.
She is direct and thoughtful with feedback. Sponsorship, for her, is about preparing women with confidence and clarity for the room they’re stepping into. She makes sure their work and their voice are seen, heard and valued.
What energises her most about her work? “Enabling people to grow, building leaders, and seeing teams move from uncertainty to clarity energise me every single day.”
Her best investment in herself? “Choosing growth over comfort. Saying yes to feedback and sometimes hard truths. It hasn’t always been easy, but it’s helped me show up more thoughtfully for others and for myself.”