Mansi Tripathy, Country Head, Shell Lubricants India, busts boardroom blues by running

The Country Head of Shell Lubricants India is a busy woman with a love for sports. Mansi Madan Tripathy has participated in over 30 marathons and has no plans of stopping.

When she is not leading the Lubricants business in India, Bangladesh, Sri Lanka and Nepal, this sports enthusiast makes time to run marathons across the globe.

We spoke to her about work-life balance and how the discipline required for running is similar to that needed at work.

Here are excerpts from the interview:

Q. Can you tell us a little about your journey? How did you fall in love with running?

Mansi Tripathy: In 2000, when we shifted to Singapore there was no escape from running. The culture of the city was infectious. Almost everyone was so health conscious, you could see people running at all hours of the day. Both amenities and company for running, in the form of colleagues & friends training for their next run, were easily accessible.

Q. You've been an avid runner. Tell us a little about the marathons that you have been a part of.

Mansi Tripathy: I have run 30 plus (full and half marathons) across the world till date and no two runs are the same. The training schedule one has to follow, the challenges one goes through, the experience are all so different that one can distinctly remember each one of them.

Q. How is running in India different from running in other countries?

Mansi Tripathy: Each location has its own advantages and disadvantage. When I'm running the Boston marathon, what helps is energy of the place, the company of senior and accomplished runners around you, but at the same time what pulls you down are the five very severe winter months just preceding the run.

Singapore provides great facilities and amenities, but humidity of the place can make it so much tough when you are trying to shave few minutes.

India meanwhile provides a great circle of camaraderie amongst runners but one has to deal with dust, eve teasing, safety concerns, vehicles and stray dogs on the road while preparing.

Q. How do you manage a work-life balance, with your busy schedule and running?

Mansi Tripathy: The only way to handle this is to intrinsically integrate fitness into your lifestyle. Being ready with your pair of shoes, working around the agenda so that there is time for a morning run, planning your travel schedule so that you have time either before catching you flight or after landing, planning your mornings in a manner that there is backend support who can take care of chores at home - having it intrinsically built in your calendar is the only way to make it happen.


Tripathy has ​run in over 30 marathons across the globe.

Q. What, according to you, is the best thing about running?

Mansi Tripathy: The most fascinating part of running is that it is like life. "Its not the end result that is important… enjoyment is enjoying the journey itself".

Q. How does running help you deal with boardroom blues?

Mansi Tripathy: Running indeed is a great "training ground" to fight boardroom blues. Some ways in which I have found it useful are:

a. Goal Setting:
'There are days when you target to run 10Km, but even at 7Km you start thinking of how tough it will be to do next 3 Km. But then there are days you set your goal for 30Km. The trick is to stretch it, so that 26Km look very doable. Similarly, in business it is important that we have challenging goals. You need to push yourself. It is important to get into an uncomfortable zone to achieve the targets.

b. Planning, Training, Discipline:
'Depending on the target, it is very important that one has strategic plan both for training and the race day. Likewise success will not come if one does not have a strong training calendar. Day by day -exercise, diet, hydration and sleeping plan. Discipline is the key. You need to sleep on time so that you can wake up in the morning. Again, pushing yourself to exercise and choosing it over other conflicting priorities, saying No, are other important traits which are equally important in business.

c. Overcoming challenges:
'Unexpected and unanticipated challenges have a way of cropping up in life. An ailing child, business, travel, maid not turning up, falling sick, relatives at home, the list of things that come up as one is training can be endless.

Likewise in businesses, there are challenges with competitive actions, global economy, supply issues, natural calamity which derails one from the targets.

Hence, it is important to plan better. If you have a speed run as per schedule someday but need to catch an early flight that day, then either do your speed run on the day before or wake up earlier than usual and complete the run before the flight.

Likewise if you know that a festival is falling on last working week of a month, you plan better and don't let that be an excuse for missing targets.

d. Celebrating:
It is also important that to take time to celebrate an achievement and reward yourself for all the hard work done. Similarly at work, it is extremely critical that success, hard work and results are rewarded and celebrated.

e. Together is easier that being alone:
Running may look like an individual event, but the importance of having a support group, people you can run together with makes it much easier to be motivated. Having a support system at the backend so that you can focus on running is very important. In businesses too, collaborating with people who can help, working in teams and being inspired at work is very critical.

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