Rupesh Ahluwalia has built a career managing complexity on a global scale. The secret, he'll tell you, has nothing to do with systems.
"A lot of people wouldn't think I'm as competitive as I am."
It's an unexpected thing to say for someone who oversees HR systems for a company serving 70 countries. But Ahluwalia, vice president of global HR information systems and transformation at Concentrix, has risen to this level because he competes quietly. Underneath the calm demeanor there is, as he puts it, "a big fire burning inside."
That fire was lit early, on a sports field. Ahluwalia grew up playing team sports, learning the way individual effort contributes to collective success. Later, he turned to tennis—a solo sport, with its own valuable lessons.
"You find yourself in places when you're lonely," he says. "It could be really tough when you're losing, when you're not playing well on a certain day." In team sports, there's always someone to lift you. In individual sports, Ahluwalia learned, you figure out how to lift yourself.
He never stopped playing and carried those lessons right into his career.