In the decades to follow, women have time and again proved why their decision matters the most in the board room. Be it leading a great company to greater heights, or even the smallest step as starting a small company and making it big in the market; women everywhere have proven to be a beacon to all those girls out there dreaming of starting a business, of asking for what they deserve and simply being the ambitious selves.
CIO Women is proud to feature the story of Sonica Aron for this special edition.
Exploring new avenues is what keeps a curious mind busy and takes them to the path of success. Being the youngest of the three siblings, the drive to move out of the box was endearing and thrilling. What inspired her journey to launch Marching Sheep?
Coming from a family of doctors. The youngest of three siblings, no one in Sonica Aron’s family has studied or practiced business management. So, this was a completely new world for Sonica. From having medical discussions at the dinner table as a child to today where she and her family talk about social justice, gender expression, awareness about disabilities, and inclusion. Sonica is an HR professional with more than 2 decades of experience.
While working at PepsiCo, Sonica was exposed to diverse roles and geographies. She worked in sales and sales HR. She worked in a factory. She also worked in a city as well as in remote areas. This experience helped her realize, how diverse people viewed women workforce, worked with, and dealt with them. While she was heading the HR department for Philips Consumer Lifestyle Business in India, she decided to take a different path and reshape her career. In February 2013, Sonica Aron founded Marching Sheep with the vision of making a tangible difference to peoples’ lives and careers.
Marching Sheep, an HR advisory firm established in 2013, is focused on building long-term organizational capability and effectiveness for its clients through structured interventions and solutions in the areas of Diversity and Inclusion, HR Process Design and Implementation, Learning and Leadership Development and Talent Management. Sonica Aron work closely with clients to arrive at customized and effective HR interventions that support their strategy in the current lifecycle stage, as well as support them in realization of long-term business plans.
Sonica Aron offer holistic interventions in the area of People strategy, development, diversity and inclusion, starting from diagnostics, to policies and processes, and customized interventions that help organizations attract, engage, retain, develop and grow a diverse workforce. We understand the nuances of the situation along with the societal backdrop and the mindsets individuals and organizations struggle with.
We propose and implement multi-pronged solutions, thereby driving visible, long term, sustainable change. Our programs- Inclusion diagnostics, Women@work, Unleash the power of diversity, Diversity@Work, Inclusion boot camps and Leadership interventions have been very well received by the industry. Sonica Aron is seen as a thought leader in the area of diversity and inclusion, and progressive HR practices.
Our opinions have been published by leading publications including TOI, Hindustan Times, the Hindu, The Statesmen, The Chronical, DNA, Business World, to name a few. Sonica Aron have been adjudged as the top 25 HR consulting firms by business connect and top 10 HR firms by Silicon India, and nominated among the top 30 in India by UN Women for our work during the Covid pandemic towards the community and industry, especially in spreading awareness about emotional impact of the pandemic on women and the society and workforce at large.
And as quirky the name sounds, it’s a wonder what is Marching Sheep is all about. Well, here’s a glimpse of everything they do through this platform
The 4 main services are:
1. Diversity & Inclusion Strategies and interventions
Sonica Aron truly believe that inclusive organizations are more productive and we enable our client organizations to arrive at their Inclusion and diversity charter and strategy through an inclusion diagnostic, executable plans, and also partner with the execution, drive mindset change, and culture building.
2. Human Resource Consulting
Organizations need their HR strategy, process, and policies to enable employees to deliver on the business strategy and goals. We work closely with client organizations to streamline the Vision, mission, values, behavioral frameworks, HR strategy, policies, and practices, drive communication and socialization, the internal Leadership, and managerial capability to enable the same.
3. Bespoke learning interventions
The last two years of the pandemic, the world has changed significantly. As the socio-economic fabric is evolving, the competencies needed to succeed at work are evolving. Sonica Aron work with clients to enable individual contributors, managers, and leaders to succeed by building the right competencies. We curate each intervention to drive the right behaviours through the facilitation of insights, reflection, and practice.
4. Health & Wellness Portfolio
Wellness today includes emotional, mental, and physical well-being. While policies and insurance can take care of the physical aspect, there still needs to be awareness and life skill-building around dealing with issues like anxiety, stress, and burnout. With programs curated after research and with the help of clinical psychologists, we enable individuals to become emotionally resilient by identifying their own stress triggers, their own stress responses, and coping mechanisms and hence more productive, personally, and professionally.
“Marching Sheep was established with the purpose of making a tangible difference to people’s lives and careers and driving respect and equality for all. These two purpose statements cut through everything Sonica Aron do.
We do not offer canned off-the-shelf programs but work closely with the clients to design solutions, curate contextualized interventions that truly move the needle, and address real business and people needs.”
The one thing that makes everything count is when clients come up with positive feedback, after all, the customer is the real driving force!
“We have clients across industries and life stages.”
Sonica Aron have worked with global MNCs and Indian conglomerates, large giants and emerging organizations, and funded start-ups. We have worked with FMCG and FMCD sector, Power and infrastructure sector, manufacturing sector, IT and ITeS sector, Financial sector, Media, Health Care, and BPO/ KPO. We have delivered interventions for participants across India, the APAC region, Australia, the Americas, Europe, the Middle East, and Africa Regions.
We build long-term relationships with clients on the basis of the Quality of our delivery. Sonica Aron deliver what we commit and on time. We spend time understanding the real needs and pain points of our clients and offer solutions that will solve the real issues. We build authentic relationships.
“We are proud to say that all our clients come back to us for more work on the basis of trust and credibility.”
