Lakshman Thavani

Sharpshooter
DISC Type : DC

Head Global Payroll at Thoughtworks

Pune, Maharashtra, India

Overview

Lakshman is a global payroll and HR shared services leader with over 16 years of experience managing complex operations for large multinational corporations, including Thoughtworks, TIAA, and Amazon. He specializes in large-scale transformations, compliance, and strategic process improvement for workforces exceeding 100, 000 employees. A colleague praised his intrinsic motivation and relentless drive for results.

He has mentored teams participating in hackathons, showing an interest in fostering innovation and new solutions. He is a certified Project Management Professional (PMP), underscoring his commitment to structured and effective operational leadership.

Unique fact: While at Amazon, he led a team managing in-house payroll for 200, 000 employees across the EMEA region.

Personality Overview

Thorough Evaluator

Precise But Practical

ROI Driven

They are less concerned about the product and more about its potential impact.  They respond well to strong and respectful communication. They like to stay in control of the negotiation or defining of the terms.

Topics They Care About

Global Payroll Transformation
He has extensive experience leading transformations, which includes centralizing operations, consolidating vendors, and migrating payroll and HCM systems across multiple global companies.
Large-Scale Operations
His career is defined by managing payroll and HR services for massive workforces, notably overseeing processes for 200, 000 employees at Amazon.
Process Improvement
This is a core part of his professional identity and headline, with a stated belief in mistake-proofing and robust contingency planning for business stability.

Media Appearances

Lakshman has no verified media appearances

Work History

6-2023
Head Global Payroll at Thoughtworks
12-2020 - 5-2023
Director Global Payroll at TIAA
3-2018 - 11-2020
Operations Manager - Amazon Payroll at Amazon
8-2014 - 3-2018
Manager Operations at Tata Consultancy Services
1-2009 - 8-2014
Asst Manager at ADP

Education

Postgraduate Degree from Academy Of Professional Studies. London.
Bachelor’s Degree from Savitribai Phule Pune University

More Information

Social Presence :

Prographics :

Exp : 16 Location : Pune, Maharashtra, India Job Level : N/A Designation : Head Global Payroll at Thoughtworks
URL has been copied!

Insights For Selling To Lakshman

During A Call Or A Meeting

DO's

  • Be respectful but crisp
  • Speak about competitive differentiation that your product offers
  • When negotiating terms, help them build an impression that they are the ones calling the shots

DONT's

  • Avoid being too verbose
  • Do not hesitate from asking counter questions, just avoid challenging their authority
  • Don’t take too much time in sending them information if they ask for any

When Cold Calling

When Writing An Email

While Negotiating & Closing

    The secret to closing fast with Lakshman is

  • Confidence in impact is paramount to them, followed by a sense of achievement and ROI.
  • Will you ever get a clear answer from Lakshman

  • If they are not convinced, they will have no hesitation in telling you the same.

Insights For Deal Planning

    How fast (or slow) will Lakshman move?

  • If convinced, they can reach decisions quite fast.
  • Can Lakshman take some risk or not?

  • They do not shy away from taking risks, but can be quite binary about them.

You And Lakshman

Personality Compatibility


Other Thoughtworks Employees

Explore more public profiles from related professionals at the same organization.

More Profiles

Discover additional public profiles from our index.

Search more profiles

Looking for someone else? Search here for anyone.

Or visit Humantic AI to know more.