How Ather Energy Built Sharper Decisions and Stronger Collaboration
Ather Energy’s project managers operate in a fast-moving engineering environment where projects must be delivered across tight timelines, complex dependencies, and multiple stakeholders. As the organization scales, project leaders are expected to navigate trade-offs, anticipate risks, and make decisions that support both customer expectations and business outcomes.
To strengthen these capabilities, Ather partnered with Siksha Consulting to deliver CELEMI Cayenne™, a simulation-based learning experience that mirrors the realities of complex projects and helps teams build clarity, alignment, and better decision-making habits.
Ather Energy’s capability need
Ather’s leaders saw recurring patterns within their project teams:
- inconsistent cross-functional collaboration
- delayed identification of risks and dependencies
- difficulty prioritizing competing demands
- reactive decision-making under pressure
- stakeholder misalignment
- limited visibility into business impact
These were not gaps in project knowledge but gaps in practical capability. Ather wanted their teams to think more broadly, anticipate risks earlier, and understand how decisions influence customer value and commercial outcomes.
This focus is strongly reinforced by global research. The PMI Pulse of the Profession 2025 report highlights that business acumen has become a critical skill for project professionals, and that those who understand the broader business context consistently achieve stronger results across both project performance and organizational impact. PMI notes that modern project managers must be able to connect decisions to customer value, financial implications, and long-term strategic outcomes. This perspective aligns directly with the capabilities Ather set out to strengthen among their project leaders.
As Jeetu from Siksha noted:
“The experience strongly reinforced the ability to connect the dots across functions, timelines, stakeholders, and business priorities. This strengthened perspective is at the heart of business acumen, seeing the larger picture, understanding consequences, and making decisions that move the business forward.”
Experiential learning in action: The CELEMI Cayenne™ Journey
Over one and a half days, Siksha facilitated the CELEMI Cayenne™ experience for Ather’s project managers. The simulation unfolded in two structured phases.
1. PROJECT FIT: Aligning before execution
Participants examined the project’s purpose, expected value, success criteria, and stakeholder expectations. They saw how early misalignment leads to downstream delays, cost overruns, and conflicting priorities.
2. PROJECT IT: Navigating complexity inside a troubled project
Teams stepped into a realistic high-pressure scenario where they had to:
- interpret limited information
- manage cross-functional demands
- balance time, cost, and value
- respond to disruptions
- make trade-offs with visible consequences
Throughout the experience, participants practiced the learning rhythm central to CELEMI Cayenne™:
Pause. Reflect. Proceed.
This guided them to slow down, align, assess, and act with clarity.
What participants experienced through CELEMI Cayenne™
- seeing the complete project lifecycle end to end
- balancing time, cost, and value under pressure
- identifying and mitigating risks early
- practicing conscious trade-offs
- managing stakeholder expectations effectively
- building a high-performing cross-functional team
Learning in the Flow of Work: Immediate Application
On Day 2, participants applied insights directly to their active Ather projects by reviewing alignment, risks, dependencies, stakeholder expectations, and resource constraints.
They identified immediate corrective actions and strengthened ongoing execution. This bridge between simulation and real work is a defining feature of Celemi experiences and a core driver of sustained behavior change.
Capabilities strengthened at Ather
The experience strengthened several essential capabilities:
- cross-functional alignment
- risk anticipation
- value-based decision-making
- stakeholder navigation
- reflective practice through Pause. Reflect. Proceed.
These capabilities help project managers create more predictable and value-focused outcomes.
Why CELEMI Cayenne™ stands apart
CELEMI Cayenne™ gives participants a realistic yet safe space to explore the consequences of their decisions. Compared to traditional training, it provides:
- real-time feedback
- visible business and customer impact
- realistic project tension
- safe-to-fail experimentation
- cross-functional collaboration
- immediate application to live work
This is why experiential learning drives stronger capability shifts than classroom-based formats.
Closing thoughts
Ather Energy’s experience with CELEMI Cayenne™ highlights a broader capability shift across engineering and technology organizations. Project managers need more than frameworks. They need the ability to think across functions, anticipate risks early, understand business impact, and make decisions that support both customer and commercial value.
By partnering with Siksha and engaging in a simulation that reflects real-world complexity, Ather’s project managers strengthened exactly these capabilities.
This is practical capability building in action.