Ashima Kapur
SVP, Human Resources & Chief Diversity Officer
Allied Solutions LLC
Episode 217
Unlocking Growth: Shared Accountability Fuels Employee & Company Success
Current chapter: Built by People podcast features insights from world's top HR leaders
Built By PeopleApril 25, 2025 · 9:51
Thesis
“Individual employee growth and organizational success are mutually inclusive and driven by shared accountability between the company and its employees, underpinned by clear values and proactive development.”
Show notes
Development that lands only on the shoulders of the employee is development that stalls. The organizations that grow people fastest are those that treat development as a shared accountability — a two-way contract between the individual and the company, with active investment flowing in both directions. That's the philosophy Ashima Kapur has built her career around at Allied Solutions.
As SVP of HR and Chief Diversity Officer, Ashima has designed succession planning with a different starting premise than most: it's not about identifying replacements for executives who might retire. It's about growing everybody. When succession planning becomes the mechanism for developing a deep bench at every level — not just the top — it reshapes who gets access to stretch assignments, coaching, and visibility. Her community engagement programs took the same philosophy: structured, employee-driven, and formally tied to organizational values in a way that turned goodwill activities into employer brand assets.
On culture, she's equally clear-eyed. Culture isn't what you say it is — it's what you tolerate, reward, and model every day. At a scaling organization, the risk isn't that culture disappears overnight. The risk is that it drifts incrementally as new people join who never experienced the original. Living the values explicitly, visibly, and consistently — with clients, employees, and partners — is what prevents that drift.
- Succession planning as growth strategy — how to build a deep bench by developing everyone, not just executive replacements
- Shared accountability for development — why employees who wait for their company to grow them usually wait too long
- Formalizing community engagement — how structured programs build employer brand while reflecting genuine organizational values
- Preserving culture through rapid scaling — the daily, visible behaviors that prevent cultural drift as organizations grow
- Taking initiative in your career — Ashima's direct advice for HR professionals who want to move fast
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What you'll take away
- 1People development requires shared accountability, with both employees and organizations contributing to growth.
- 2Formalizing community engagement through employee surveys and aligned funding priorities significantly strengthens employer brand.
- 3Effective leadership development and succession planning starts early, focusing on building a deep bench strength for growth rather than just replacement.
- 4Maintaining company culture while scaling is achieved by consistently living and exemplifying core values across all interactions and people programs.
- 5Employees should take initiative and own their career journey, actively seeking growth opportunities and expanding their responsibilities.
What most organizations get wrong
- •Succession planning should not be viewed as an approach to replacing someone, but rather as an opportunity to grow everyone within the organization.
In Ashima's words
“At the end of the day, though, there is a shared accountability. An employee cannot look at development and say, it's all of company's responsibility.”
This quote highlights the critical role of personal initiative in employee development, emphasizing that growth is a joint effort.
“We've always thought of succession planning as an approach that comes from wanting to grow everybody.”
This reframes succession planning from a purely replacement-focused task to a strategy for comprehensive employee growth and organizational strength.
“For us, culture is about living those values, behaving in ways that, that exemplify those values with our clients, our employees, everybody.”
This provides a clear, actionable definition of company culture, tying it directly to the consistent embodiment of core values.
“I think my biggest advice is take initiative, own what you're doing. It's a two-way street.”
This concise advice powerfully reinforces the guest's recurring theme of shared responsibility and employee empowerment in their career trajectory.
The problems this episode addresses
- •Employees feeling disconnected from organizational objectives and overall company mission.
- •Maintaining consistent and high employee engagement in community initiatives without a formalized strategy.
- •The challenge of ensuring a strong internal pipeline of leaders for future executive roles and retirement replacements.
- •Overcoming the perception that employee development is solely the company's responsibility, leading to passive participation.
- •Defining and consistently embedding company culture across a growing organization to ensure unified behavior and values.
In this episode
Built by People podcast features insights from world's top HR leaders
Built by People
My career journey started with doing a master's in psychology
What is your Career Journey?
Ashma says people development ensures both individual growth and organizational success
Ashma's Take on People Development
What strategies have you found most effective in building a strong employer brand through community engagement
What strategies have you found most effective in building and maintaining a strong
How do you measure success of your community engagement initiatives on your employer brand
What is the impact of your community engagement initiatives on your employer brand
Leadership development and succession planning can lead to successful company management
What are the key elements of a successful leadership development and succession planning
How do you balance maintaining company culture while scaling people development programs
Ashima Patel on Company Culture and People Development
Topics covered
Organizations and entities mentioned
Full transcript
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