In this episode, I spoke to Anushia Kandasamy, the CEO of Samanea Asia Consulting in Malaysia.
Anushia is an independent adviser focusing on socio-economic development, change management and transformational leadership since 2016. She particularly enjoys supporting the public sector to be more effective in enabling the private sector as catalysts for economic growth.
As an independent consultant, Anushia is in her element when she conducts capacity-building for clients, including end-to-end problem-solving, leadership and communication skills. She facilitates organisation strategy and goal-setting processes for top management teams, combining empathy with the courage to ask difficult questions and push for impactful outcomes.
She is also deeply committed to developing women leaders and female social entrepreneurs and as such, she contributes pro bono hours advising governments on how to advance women leaders and mentors social enterprises. In 2019, she ran a pro bono leadership development programme for 27 women leaders in Penang, such is her passion and commitment!
But her path to where she is now is a little unconventional.
She was formerly a junior partner with McKinsey & Company in Southeast Asia and was at the company for 11 years as a management consultant and senior leadership facilitator before setting up her own consulting business.
This interview was delightful as we spoke about life as she experienced it and Anushia is such an optimistic person. She counts herself lucky at every turn even though some things didn’t initially work in her favour.
Anushia says that whatever plan you have, it may not necessarily work out and that’s not such a bad thing. As long as you’re doing what’s right, it will work out great and you’ll just need to be flexible and adapt.
Anushia holds a Masters in Development Administration and Planning (Distinction) from University College London, and a BSc in Accounting and Finance awarded by the University of London. She is fluent in English and Bahasa Malaysia, and speaks basic Japanese.
And having experienced her expert facilitation, I can say that this is one woman who truly loves her business.
Listen to discover more about this fascinating woman who believes that doing something for humanity and saving the world is of the utmost importance.