The founder of Rekindle fondly reminisces about her early career with oilfield services company SLB. For five years she worked offshore in Canada, Venezuela and Egypt, as well as in insurgency-stricken areas, often as the only woman on the rig. It's not an experience everyone would enjoy, but Neeta Murthy says, "working on oil rigs was exhilarating!"
At Harvard Business School in pursuit of an MBA, Neeta worked on Wall Street as an investment banker. Wall Street and the oilfield were vastly different, yet somehow, exactly the same: she found herself with very few female peers, especially at higher levels.
In the coming years, Neeta would take on multiple leadership roles at SLB in various functions including Sales & Marketing, Operations & Planning and Line Management across Europe and Asia. Neeta relished every single challenge and strived to perform beyond expectations each time.
But the further she moved up the corporate rungs as a leader, the more Neeta noticed a stark, persistent problem. "Research shows that women face plenty of barriers in the workplace as a result of systemic bias. But what also struck me was how women were consistently so hard on themselves, even when they did outstanding work. As a leader, I watched so many really bright, talented women sell themselves short and hold themselves to impossible standards, sometimes even passing up promotion opportunities," she notes.
Mentors can be instrumental in helping women navigate these external biases and internal barriers. But Neeta also noticed that women often did not have access to the same level of mentoring as their male peers.
It's a double whammy. Not only do women face more challenges, they get little support in addressing them. "Every woman goes through these experiences on an everyday basis feeling like it's their lone battle. It can be hard," notes Neeta.
As an engineer and a business professional, Neeta naturally felt the urge to roll up her sleeves and do something about it. "I always try to focus on finding solutions rather than dwell on the problem. I also felt a sense of responsibility to use my privileged position to make a difference."
And so, Rekindle was born. Neeta Murthy left her prestigious, lucrative corporate job at SLB and went out on her own. She has built a platform that provides professional women with the training that she - and many other women - struggled to find years ago.
Rekindle is a professional development program that covers specific issues that women routinely face at the workplace, many of which are not even touched upon in traditional learning & development offerings.
Neeta and her team of subject-matter experts designed Rekindle to be a one-year program based on proven behavioral science principles. "Changing deep-seated thought patterns requires more than a couple of workshops. We wanted to use a scientific approach that delivers real results," notes Neeta. The lessons are structured so that women can internalize the learnings and translate them into positive behavior that can help them succeed.
Women who complete the program call it "eye opening," "enriching," "a practical handbook to improve your ability to contribute and be heard," "very powerful and practical," and "a life transforming experience."
Throughout her career, Neeta always pushed past barriers with steadfast determination and stayed focused on excelling at every challenge. At first, she tried to ignore how being a woman affected her experiences. But soon, she realized it was her superpower. Neeta took the barriers that had always been in her way and turned them into stairs for future women to climb. A path unchartered is now mapped with direction, and it's all thanks to her.
