2023 Women Leaders in Technology: Monika Orlowska

Monika is a Partner at Infosys Consulting working in the European Leadership Team of the Consumer, Retail, and Logistics Practice and is Head of Poland. She's based in Switzerland and is also part of our leadership team there. Before joining Infosys Consulting, Monika spent 14 years working at Ernst & Young / Arthur Andersen, leading consulting engagements for global clients in Aerospace and Defense, Utilities, Financial Services, Consumer Products and Commodity Trading.

She's an expert in digital transformation, having lead projects for Fortune 500 companies all over the globe. For seven years she was a member of the Global ERP and Platforms Leadership team, and is an expert in utilizing SAP and Oracle, as well as Intelligent Automation technologies to help clients realize value and drive growth.

Monika holds two master's degrees. The first in Finance, Banking, Management, and Marketing from the SCH Warsaw School of Economics. And the second in International Management from HEC Paris. She considers herself a global citizen, having three passports and family members situated all-around the world. She has always been active and was a competitive diver at school. Nowadays, she doesn't shy away from extreme sports, such as skydiving and loves to travel

What has been the biggest factor in your success so far?

Resilience. It's fostered a 'never give up' mindset, which has propelled my career and kept me true to my goals.

I've held several leadership roles at Infosys Consulting. From Senior Principal to Partner, then to Managing Partner and Country Head of France. I was in that role for six years, during which time I also lead the Digital Finance Transformation European Practice, was President and CEO of IC SAS, and was part of the Global ERP and Platforms European Leadership team.

Recently, I've become Head of our Poland Practice, and am a member of both our Consumer Goods, Retail, and Logistics Leadership and the Switzerland Leadership teams.

Resilience enables me to juggle these roles while driving teams to win and deliver significant business value transformation and innovation programs for key clients. I've lead projects for global clients with multidisciplinary international teams, comprising of 100+ consultants. The projects deliver successful digital ERP enabled transformations, leveraging AI, automation, data, and agile ways of working – resulting in 15% growth, on average, due to accelerated value realization, business adoption and change management.

I've also worked with top executives from Fortune 500 companies across eight industries. I've led global teams in digital transformation programs enabled by SAP S/4HANA. I ensure that every tool and strategy we implement fit with our clients' short-term targets and big picture goals. My efforts foster process improvement, increasing efficiency and compliance. As such, we're able to drive value for our clients and help them become futureproof in a fast-changing world.

What do you enjoy most about your career in the consulting industry?

Consultants must be ahead of the curve. Only then can you best prepare businesses for the future. This means that I'm constantly listening, learning, and working with those more talented than I am.

It challenges me and allows me to constantly reinvent myself, develop skills, and benefit from the lessons I learn. Having spent the first 14 years of my career at Ernst & Young / Arthur Andersen, I intended to make Partner and remain in the Big 4 of consulting. However, in 2012 I was approached by a headhunter from London who told me about an opportunity to create a consulting practice for Infosys.

At first, I was reluctant because I didn't know much about technology. But the headhunter explained that I'd be best placed to uncover the future of consulting in a company like Infosys. 11 years later, I can now call myself a technological and digital transformation expert, having delivered finance operating models and transformations enabled by SSC, BPO, ERP implementation (SAP and Oracle), end-to-end processes engineering, as well as Intelligent Automation.

I feel privileged to have been part of Infosys Consulting's growth and am so proud of our winning culture of collaboration and accountability. From nothing to now being valued at $600 million, it's incredible to see how far we've come – and realize the part I've played. We're now looking to become a firm with 1,000 consultants worldwide and reach a $3 billion target by 2030! I look forward to the challenges and lessons that brings.

What is your proudest achievement to date?

I'm very proud of having built high performance teams where people are happy, satisfied, motivated, and driven to reach best results. As a leader, I strive to adapt to current demands and promote new ways of working accordingly, while being a champion for DE&I.

I'm a member of the DE&I leadership team. Together with the team, we realized that our efforts for around seven years hadn't been very successful. To rectify this, we conducted reviews, employee surveys, and held focus groups throughout 2018 to 2020. This allowed us to develop a four-year plan.

In 2022, we successfully implemented leadership accountability in this area – releasing a mission statement, integrating DE&I metrics for all partners, which have become KPIs impacting promotions and general job performance. We've conducted over 15 recruitment campaigns across seven sectors in over four regions, leveraging gender neutral job ads, targeted minority senior hiring, and our new talent acquisition tool. As such, in our Talent and Organization practice alone we've increased the female team mix by 47%.

We've also conducted 18 authentic leadership trainings for senior leaders to date, with over 200 participants attending. Held CEO roundtables with our employee resource groups (which include LGBTQ+, iBelieve, as well as Black and people of color).

I'm incredibly proud of this achievement and am motivated to see us continue fulfilling our goals in 2023.

What's the best advice you've ever been given?

As a leader, the mantra that I carry with me is "walk the talk." I strive to be authentic, effective, and a good role model for my colleagues – to do that successfully I must lead by example. I have to put my words into action – leadership is not about what you do, but how you do it, and who you are. Earlier in my career, however, the advice that resonated with me the most – and that still holds true – is "learn how to say no." This skill is crucial for many reasons. It empowers your daily work life, allowing you to focus on priority tasks rather than feel derailed by someone else's priorities. And it strengthens relationships with colleagues and clients as you set realistic expectations.

In other words, it's an important communication tool, keeping you open and agile, while continuing to be involved on project delivery and working closely with clients. I believe that without this incredible advice I would have lost sight of the big picture very quickly and wouldn't be where I am today.

What does this recognition mean to you?

Eleven years ago, if you told me that I would be nominated for a Women Leaders in Technology award I would have been extremely surprised. I had limited technological knowledge and certainly would not have called it my specialty.

This award would be a recognition of how far I've come since then. It would acknowledge the work I've put into being the leader I am today, driving successful digital transformations for many incredible businesses around the globe, and being a mentor and spokesperson for women in consulting.

As such, it would be an incredible source of motivation, to keep my resilience and team focus going so that I can invest more of my energy and passion in all that I do. It would allow me to bolster the company I've helped grow – Infosys Consulting – as well as its amazing people, and empower me to continue making the work environment a better place for all.