While Great Manager Institute™ works towards building its lifetime digital coach and profiler for People Managers across the globe, the team behind its success is only growing. Suryanarayana Kodukulla, Director of Partnerships for Google India’s Next Billion Users project, now sits on their Advisory Board.

An alumnus of IIM Lucknow, Kodukalla, popularly known as Suri, has moved between managerial roles himself, and understands People Management like no one else. In the past, he has been the Director of People Operations and Sales at Google India. He has also headed the SMB vertical of Google India prior to the same. Having worked in the B2B Space, leading sales, human resources, products and marketing teams, his technical expertise in Product Management and People Operations is what makes him a great fit for the Great Manager Institute™ team.

Speaking about the startup ecosystem, Suri says, “Start-ups grow on ideas and try to solve for user needs. While money is critical to take an idea to the market, building a robust culture from Day 1 would help start-ups scale up and execute faster. I would love to get involved in start-up organizations”.

Prasenjit Bhattacharya, founder of Great Manager Insitute™, adds about the reason of association with Suri, “Suryanarayana brings with him a unique combination of customer experience and employee experience. Suri has successfully led Google India’s initiative in recent years to build and sustain a high-trust and high-performance culture. No wonder, he is leading the Next Billion Users project of Google India. Suri understands markets and customers and is an accomplished People Manager himself. There is no one who brings all these areas together as Suri does. I am delighted to welcome him into the Advisory Board of GMI.”

Mentioning further about this association, Suri adds, “Imagine if every manager were a great manager. We would have a culture of coaching where teams could maximize their potential and operate in a safe environment. Happy teams create happy customers. GMI’s vision of enabling People Managers to grow into Great Managers is critical for creating an inclusive workplace of tomorrow that brings in diversity of thought and fosters innovation.”

The association involves the transfer of options to the Advisor against a discounted rate from the current fair market value of Great Manager Institute™.

Next Billion Users by Google is one of its most prominent and ambitious projects globally, building products and services to onboard 1 billion new internet users.

Here’s what Great Manager Institute™ does. They recently launched the Great People Manager™ Study with a vision to give every individual the opportunity to work with a Great People Manager™. Through a survey administered to a manager’s team, feedback is captured to generate his People Manager Effectiveness Score. These results are further used to develop the manager via the Great Manager Certification App, an AI-backed platform with a library of learning modules and action planning templates. Through digital coaching and mentoring, the manager is developed to get certified as a Great People Manager™, and will feature in Forbes India among other such managers. More than 200 companies are already associated with Great Manager Institute™.