From the Kargil war to making a difference with entrepreneurship, a salute to Major Vandana's untiring spirit
On Kargil Diwas, here's the story of Major Vandana Sharma, who played an important backend role in the Indian Army. She is now a successful entrepreneur helping others find their feet in entrepreneurship.
Major Vandana Sharma
On Kargil Diwas, we look back with pride at the men and women in uniform who unflinchingly served their country during this difficult period.
Major Vandana Sharma served the Indian Army for a decade, and played an important backend role in the Indian Army during the Kargil war in 1999. Today, after having made a mark in the corporate sector, Vandana is helping entrepreneurs succeed with StartupPeoopleConsulting.
The Kargil war impacted Vandana as she was very young at the time.
She recollects,
"The artillery shelling in Kargil-Drass region was a usual affair; no one had expected a full-fledged war. We had one of the ammunition dumps at Kargil blow up during the War. The entire mountain seemed to be on fire. There was destruction and devastation all over Kargil town. There was blasting less than 200 metres. away. The splinters have a wide range and cause lethal injuries. The whole town shook."
"There was a lot of pain and sadness whenever we lost colleagues but it was necessary to stay strong and calm to provide logistic support to colleagues in active combat. We worked night and day and that was also not enough," she ads.
Vandana promised herself that if she were to survive the war and live beyond, she would make her life worthwhile. It was an important lesson in life. "After that moment, I got used to it; the fear of life and death was beyond me," she says.
After serving in the Army for 10 years, Vandana wanted to explore life outside the uniform. She made the transition to corporate life, learnt new skills, the business vocabulary, working with technology, and life in big cities, including managing traffic and infrastructural menace. She was determined to make it work and relentlessly pursued her career across various sectors like IT, infrastructure, logistics, e-commerce and tech startups.
She founded StartupPeopleConsulting in August 2017 to help entrepreneurs from the start: from the time of searching for co-founders and early employees to find the right talent as per not just the skill or sector but also the values and vision of the organisations.
Today, as a successful entrepreneur, Vandana lives by the lessons she learnt during the stint in the Army.
"There are a lot of common factors between the armed forces and the corporate world. As a soldier, one learns to operate with almost no resources, tight deadlines, ambiguity, and very effective leadership. So, that helped me learn and adapt real quickly, and perform effectively and consistently," she says.
On Kargil Diwas, we salute Major Vandana for her untiring efforts in the uniform and as an entrepreneur.
(Edited by Evelyn Ratnakumar)
