Never a dull day in tax for IBM’s Kanthi Morrissey

Growing up in Bangalore, India, Kanthi and her younger sister were supported and encouraged by their parents to value their self-worth and independence. While they were raised in a conservative Hindu home, Kanthi recalls her parents went against convention, teaching their daughters that girls were no less than boys. Kanthi excelled academically.

Kanthi earned a degree in commerce from Bangalore University and remarkably scored in the top 50 of all those being certified as chartered accountants in India. Kanthi’s interest in tax law grew out of her chartered accountancy studies because it seemed complex.

In 2004, she joined a newly created team at IBM India focused on tax compliance and advising on tax issues. She impressed with her work, and a year later attained a role with a regional tax team in Singapore where she worked on a variety of tax issues in the Asia-Pacific region. This is where she realized that to play a strategic role in the tax department of a US HQ company, you need to be in the US.

Kanthi moved to the US two-and-a-half years later, where she started in an advisory role to IBM’s business units, before expanding to take on tax operations, including transfer pricing. Kanthi was eventually made head of the tax department in 2020.

Even though her success was recognized with many expanded opportunities over the years, the “Best of IBM” award she earned for her role in a cross-functional project still means the most to her. “I’ve not had anything else that has happened to me at IBM that made me so proud,” she says. “Being nominated for that was like a joy that has yet to be replicated professionally.”

Looking back on her love of learning and career accomplishments and what she wishes she’d known earlier, Kanthi shares three lessons for people looking to reach to the highest levels of leadership:

1. Actively seek opportunities and then outperform

Kanthi recognized that certain leadership opportunities and strategic roles were only available in the US, so she actively sought them out. She enthusiastically embraced curiosity and showed an interest in expanding her roles.

That willingness to take on new challenges, combined with the support she received from mentors and sponsors at IBM, fostered her career progression. Once in a new role, Kanthi drew from her love of learning, curiosity and talent to excel.

Success followed a pattern: “I worked hard to perform beyond expectations to earn the opportunity,” she recalls. “My goal was to show them I can do more, and so I focused on succeeding at any challenge they gave me. Basically, they saw that I could succeed with whatever they gave me, and it has consistently been me saying I can do more.”

She wants her team to think outside of their respective areas of expertise, to look at issues from a broader perspective, to try to ensure all angles are covered and delivering the best results for the company.

Today, Kanthi feels that she is a better leader, a better motivator and, crucially, someone who lets people know that it’s OK to make a mistake and own up to it.

“I want people to be able to make a mistake here and there, own up to it, learn from it and move on, instead of hiding it because they’re afraid of what the consequences will be.”

Corporate tax law is in flux. Artificial intelligence and technology are rapidly changing how people do their jobs.

In Kanthi’s experience, tax professionals tend to approach this sort of uncertainty with one of two views, either fearing it or embracing it.

Understanding what got her to where she is today, it’s easy to see where Kanthi stands.

“It’s all so interesting,” she says, adding that there is a lot that she and her peers in significant companies can do to influence an effective tax policy. “It’s an opportunity to leave a legacy.”

“I had the privilege of taking leadership of a world-class tax team at IBM. I want to leave behind a tax team that’s even more capable of operating effectively and innovatively — ahead of other tax teams, if I can.” And always learning.