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Aligning Passions with Service: Innovation at the Center of Preethi's Drive to Serve the Community
Preethi N. | Product and Solutions Sales Specialist | Bangalore, India
Originally Published: July 26, 2023
My name is Preethi Nair, and I will complete two decades with Dell Technologies this December! It’s been the journey of a lifetime! I have had the opportunity to work in multiple roles in the sales function. Currently, I work as a Services Sales professional. I help solve unique customer problems through our services offerings.
How I went from a mid-life crisis to getting awarded by the Global VP for Environmental, Social and Governance (ESG), Cassandra Garber, for my contribution to ESG Sales Enablement is an interesting story. This is what happened...
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A culinary start to the urge to give back:
I am truly grateful for the career I have had. It’s been a very fulfilling journey so far. But as I grew professionally, I started having this nagging feeling of needing to do more. The feeling that I could be doing so much more to give back to society became stronger and stronger and reached peak intensity during COVID. I like to think that was when I had my midlife crisis.
But I found a solution very soon. I have always derived a lot of joy from cooking and sharing food. In my quest for meaning, I reached out to an ex-colleague of mine who had started "Food Warriors, a team of 40 women dedicated to providing home-cooked meals to COVID-affected families five days a week. I got immense support from my family, and I can proudly say that I served 100+ meals during this time.
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From food on the table to food in the bin:
With the second wave behind us, the worst of COVID was over, and so was my stint with Food Warriors. I continued to find ways to spread joy through my food. But I was feeling pumped and knew I wanted to do more.
The desire to give back has always been there in me. I have always been involved through my association with Women in Action (WIA) Employee Resource Group (ERG) and the Services Women’s Network, a community of women and allies in services brought together to share and develop with one another. Dell has a partnership with the Foundation for Excellence, and I have been mentoring young engineering graduates as part of this. I am also a gold-tier #IAmRemarkable facilitator and have partnered with the Learning and Development (L&D) team to deliver workshops to career restart professionals.
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But the experience during COVID boosted this innate drive. I decided to leverage my association with WIA’s community pillar. Very soon, I drove some of their initiatives at a site level and encouraged as many colleagues as I could to participate.
There were also winds of change blowing at my apartment complex. There was an urgent need to educate nearly 5,000 residents about the importance of waste segregation and introduce new norms to enhance sustainability in my society. The resident’s committee decided to invest in a compost-making machine. My husband, I, and 30 other volunteers went door-to-door to educate people about segregation, explain the process, and understand objections.
Today, my apartment complex not only makes enough compost for not only the residents but also for distribution to other neighborhoods.
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From neighbors to customers - how I used my voice:
Around the same time as the awakening of my apartment complex, I got an interesting email at work. Dell was seeking volunteers to build awareness about ESG, sustainability, and the work being done in this space to make a real impact.
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With confidence earned from a previous stint as a trainer and coach, I signed up to have sustainability conversations with customers. It’s been two years since I did this!
In the time that has followed, I have worked on some incredible stuff. I have partnered closely with sales teams to include sustainability in our customer conversations. And the response has been immense. Our customers have been thrilled to hear about our material innovation, sustainable packaging, asset recovery services, drive to reduce ocean-bound plastics, Concept Luna, and more!
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Progress does take sustainability; progress definitely takes innovation. I have seen this happen:
- Back in 2021, there were around two calls from customers about ESG matters.
- Today, there are 4 to 5 calls every single month from customers about ESG!
- Tripling our customer engagements - giving presentations about Dell’s point of view to 2 to 3 unique customers every month!
I was awarded the ESG Customer Champion in Q1 of FY24 by Cassandra Garber, Global VP ESG, for my contribution to ESG Sales Enablement. It was a huge honor, and I was grateful to be recognized for my effort. I am so proud of the work we have been able to do in just a couple of years. I am so glad I responded to that email two years ago.
I am so thankful for receiving all the support I have ever needed from Dell. Our Global Sustainability, Product Engineering, and ESG Sales Enablement teams are doing their bit to make an impact, and I am thrilled that I get to contribute.
At Dell, progress takes innovation. To learn more about life at Dell, please visit our stories.
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