Subramanian Chidambaran

Subramanian leads strategy and sustainability for Cummins in India. In this role, he is responsible for identifying and driving strategic opportunities that help achieve the vision for Cummins in India and steer the company’s future roadmap, with a focus on Cummins’ ‘Destination Zero’ strategy that aims for net-zero carbon emissions by 2050. He spearheads the sustainability initiatives for the company in India. He sponsors Cummins' community initiatives on Water (providing access to water for drinking and other purposes) and supports initiatives on Education. At the Cummins global level, as the Director of Global Corporate Strategy, he supports the Cummins leaders and leadership teams across Cummins Inc. to address strategic challenges at a global level including global ESG strategy through leading strategic projects. Subramanian has a passion for leadership building and training leaders on strategic thinking. He is an active member of the CII-CSO Forum and drives strategy-capability-building for leaders both inside and outside Cummins. Prior to joining Cummins, Subramanian led strategy and digitalization for the Distribution Business of Siemens Ltd . for nearly five years, and took care of global strategic projects, cost reduction programs, portfolio digitalization, process excellence, and more. Before that, he worked at McKinsey and Siemens Management Consulting for over six years, where he spearheaded transformation programs and developed business and corporate strategies for players across sectors (Logistics, Cement, Oil and Gas Conglomerates, Engineering) and across functions, primarily in Strategy, Operations and Sales & Marketing. He was also part of the team that developed the McKinsey report on “India: From Poverty to Empowerment”. Subramanian holds a post graduate diploma in Management from IIM Lucknow (Operations and Strategy specialization) and a bachelor’s degree in Electrical Engineering from VJTI, Mumbai. He has several national and international papers to his credit, along with articles on Operations and Strategy. Beyond work, Subramanian has been pursuing study of Sanskrit language and Carnatic music (since age of 13) as his two key passions. He completed his Masters in Sanskrit (MA Sanskrit specialized in Vedanta) in 2017 and is currently pursuing his PhD in 'Indic leadership' from Chinmaya Vishwa Vidyapeeth. As a passionate Indic scholar, he has authored several articles on various subjects and also gives performances combining Indian music, Sanskrit, Indic philosophy, Indic tradition etc. making it a delight for the listeners.