Leaders

In a world rapidly redefining leadership and innovation, there is a growing need for business consultants rooted in empathy, insight, and transformation. These new-age consultants don't just offer advice; but help in shifting paradigms with a blend of unique strategic acumen and emotional intelligence. Shivangi Page Auty is one such name. Her professional journey is a testament to the power of conviction, clarity of purpose, and a deep passion for people transformation. 

Born and raised in Mumbai, Shivangi pursued her postgraduate studies in Personnel Management from Pune University. When most of her peers were gravitating toward IT, she committed herself to a career in industrial relations within the manufacturing sector.

With over two decades of experience across various industry stalwarts, including Thermax and Endurance Technologies, Shivangi sharpened her professional expertise. In 2017, she channeled her love for helping individuals and organizations into her consulting practice, North Star People Solutions. The firm specializes in business transformation through organizational development. 

Whether enabling mindset shifts, improving performance, or mentoring promoter-led businesses, Shivangi thrives on seeing transformation in motion.

Outside of work, Shivangi is a nature lover, an avid cook, and devoted family person, bringing the same mindfulness to life as she does to leadership.

Take us through professional journey as an HR professional? Highlight your key areas of expertise?

My professional journey began with Thermax in industrial relations, involved in worker welfare and training. Working with unionized workmen, shaped my perspective on employee relations, teaching me to see each person as a human being first. I then transitioned into corporate HR, which exposed me to other competencies such as employee engagement, job evaluation, and assessment centers.

I also had a consulting stint with Purple HR Consulting, focusing on SMEs. Further, my corporate stint at Endurance Technologies marked a cultural transformation and prepared the organization for its public listing. We implemented a robust competency matrix, leadership assessments, and succession planning at the highest levels. I even led a detailed job evaluation exercise that the company uses till date.

What motivated you to establish North Star People Solutions? What's the underlying idea behind the venture?

My partner, Makarand Deshpande, and I both came from working with large organizations. Initially, we weren’t very familiar with the SME mindset, but once we stepped out of those big corporations and began engaging with a few smaller businesses, we quickly realized the sheer potential. These companies are hungry to grow, eager to learn, but often lack access to strong HR expertise. They need someone who speaks their language and can walk with them through transformation, and eventually, this was our calling.

During the time 'Make in India' gained momentum, we thought of contributing by helping SMEs scale up and go global. For us, pride comes when a small company from a tier-2 town starts talking IPOs, exploring exports, and making it onto the global map.  

The North Star approach prioritizes performance, starting with planning, monitoring, and review, then aligning appraisals with engagement, learning, compensation, and HR ops to support the performance journey.

As the founder, what responsibilities do you shoulder at North Star People Solutions?

North Star is a small, boutique consulting firm, and that’s very intentional. We realized early on that consulting is a deeply relationship-driven business. Unlike large firms where one team pitches and another delivers, we stay with the client end-to-end. That’s why we focus on long-term retainership assignments. You can’t transform an organization’s culture in two or three months. True transformation involves understanding benefits, training  promoters, and committing to long-term interventions, especially for first- or second-generation entrepreneurs, to bridge the gap between theory and practice.

My role is extremely hands-on. I work directly with promoters and across all levels, right from department heads to operations, to make processes like performance management or employee engagement feel natural, useful, and less overwhelming. The same goes for my partner and our third team member. We don’t just advise from a distance; we sit with our clients, co-create templates, solve real-time problems, and stay available whenever they need us. That’s the kind of support SMEs truly value.

What challenges do you encounter as an HR leader? How do you overcome said roadblocks?

In context of the Indian SMEs, we face significant challenges, including a limited talent pool. Most qualified professionals prefer metro cities, MNCs, or larger organizations. Indian SMEs starve for talent across all domains, not just HR. Due to the shrinking average tenure, people don't stay long enough to mature with the organization, putting strain on onboarding, induction, and recruitment processes.

Labor availability is another significant challenge for regions like Maharashtra, where many SME promoters face limited skilled labor and financial constraints due to slow migration. Despite this, many promoters are forwardthinking and drive culture change. To ensure successful transformation, strong internal HR anchors are needed, who may not come from top colleges but possess native intelligence and a hunger for growth. Sometimes we have to go beyond consulting; we need to embed ourselves and help these initiatives take root within the organization.

How is the Indian HR landscape evolving? Which industry trends will create the most significant impact?

I am still unsure how much AI disruption will impact SMEs in the short term. However, in manufacturing, AI might change some machine-level functions. SMEs are still quite far from even understanding how digital technologies will affect them.

Most SMEs have not yet seriously considered succession planning, talent management, and leadership assessments. As they move from 'small' to 'medium', some of these things will start making sense to them. While a few visionary promoters are ready to think ahead, most are still focused on solving today’s problems.

AI and digital transformation will take time to implement, while IT startups and product companies face immediate challenges due to high employee costs, niche skill requirements, and a tough initial sales cycle. Both sectors, manufacturing SMEs and IT startups, are navigating very different kinds of pressure right now. 

Shivangi Page Auty,  Founder,  North Star People Solutions

Shivangi Page Auty is the Founder of North Star People Solutions, a boutique HR and organizational development firm that partners deeply with promoter-led SMEs to drive longterm, performance-led transformation. With over two decades of experience in industrial relations, corporate HR leadership, and strategic consulting, Shivangi brings a rare blend of empathy, ethics, and hands-on execution to the evolving world of people practices. She mentors SMEs through multi-year engagements, helping them transition from reactive operations to performance-driven cultures.