Aruna Krishnan: An Emphatic Business Strategist

1 Spiritual background and en route to developing empathy

Aruna dates her first step of transition toward a new life around the age of 35. Realizing her life is not going in the right direction, she read spiritual texts to find out that waiting for any miracle to happen is the worst decision she can make. Controlling the thoughts instead of flying off the handle and wait for something to happen. 

This approach led to her first book, called Stop, Wait, Go – Rules for a Busy Mind, in which she explains how to think outside of the box and boundaries and look at stressful situations from multiple angles. According to Aruna, we don’t have full control in most life situations; however, we affect how we react to them.

‘Imagine a busy traffic intersection without traffic lights,’ starts Aruna to elaborate her thoughts, ‘it can lead to chaos and destruction.’ That intersection is similar to a busy mind thanks to our parallel thoughts of to-dos, challenges, and anxieties, leading to identical chaos in our brain. 

Through her 10-year journey of self-exploration, Aruna identified empathy as a key element for success. Understanding other people’s behavior through putting herself in the same perspective opened up the world for her, eventually leading to Aruna providing support to people around her. 

The first book’s impact helped Aruna recognize that she can make a difference, and her project can become so much more than crossing an item on her bucket list. The trilogy has become complete with the books Unpuzzled: Problem Solving for a Busy Mind and Lead that thing: Leadership for a Busy Mind. The Busy Mind book series takes the reader on a wonderful journey and offers excellent tools for both personal and business use.

2 Life of a successful business strategist

As the founder of OPTIM, Aruna is an experienced Management Consultant and with over 15 years of leading change and strategy. She has a proven record of helping organizations identify their needs, assess their capabilities, goals, and challenges to layout plans that produce significant outcomes and growth.

She has successfully led many projects related to organizational development, where she partnered with senior management to develop strategies for the organization’s future direction. Besides, Aruna has experience developing innovative solutions for complex problems, including leadership training programs and designing customized processes to improve performance on key metrics such as sales revenue growth or cost savings.

Based on the book trilogy’s significant impact and her experience supporting both SMBs and large enterprises, Aruna launched her podcast during the COVID19 pandemic called Lead That Thing to offer insight into developing leadership skills and competencies through interviews with successful women in business. 

Although Aruna’s path is not yet complete, she is a wonderful and strong role model for all of us, showing that anything is possible with the right mindset.