IT’S THE WAY FORWARD!

Have you ever wondered why, though women have proven their mettle time and again by making their presence felt on the boards of different organizations, their ability is often questioned? Some question their strength, some their commitment, while others question their ability to perform professionally vis-à-vis their male counterparts. Women have been facing the ‘glass ceiling’ effect ever since they tried venturing into the male dominated work arena.

Though higher educational levels and falling fertility rates have contributed to women’s increasing participation in the work force of India and the situation of women is changing with more and more women not just getting educated in general streams but also in technical and professional courses, yet this change is not wholesome as there are still innumerable barriers that women face when trying to climb the corporate ladder. Today although women’s entry into management profession has increased yet their climb to the top within various types of organizations has not been smooth. The number of women that actually reach the top shrinks. But why is this? What happens to women as they begin to climb the corporate ladder to success? Why are they not making it to the top? It is observed that women are graduating and entering management positions but there is a bottleneck at middle management levels. While entry is easier, progression slows. Progression is dependent on a number of factors. The factors can be categorized under individual, societal and organizational factors. The ‘glass ceiling’ can be felt in more ways than one. For instance, women’s under representation at the corporate hierarchy, gendered wage gap, discriminative corporate policies, lack of attention to the speci ic needs women have, or exclusion of women from informal networks. They also face another ceiling called the ‘hour glass ceiling’, which means they are discriminated based on the number of hours that they work for. All this contributes to women lacking the con idence and attitude that is needed to succeed in business or work.

The major barrier for promotion of women managers comes from insensitivity of the corporates towards women’s social roles and responsibilities. If companies are serious about bringing in greater diversity in their management and want to encourage competent women to overcome the hurdles that society places in their career path, they should implement the following changes - develop career planning policies including mentoring and leadership development programmes for women as part of a company’s overall corporate strategy. Mentoring plays an important role in the advancement of women into management positions. However, mentoring is often limited for women, which in turn results in a lack of access to training and career development activities. Mentoring inspires a sense of responsibility across levels. Companies should establish leadership training explicitly for newly recruited women managers. The leading global IT company, Zensar has an interactive forum called ‘WE’ – Women For Excellence. This is a forum for Zensar’s women employees to help foster leadership in women employees and encourage them to break the barrier and realize their true potential.

Companies should identify highpotential women early on in their careers, involve them in decisionmaking and provide them with opportunities to lead high pro ile projects so that they build their competencies and skill-sets to ascend to the upper levels of the company. Renault-Nissan CEO, Carlos Ghosn, said “ I have started now using more and more inputs from women employees while designing the cars. The needs of men and women are different and when women look at cars they go for design, color and comfort. We are increasingly looking at hiring more women.” Talking about women taking maternity leave, he said, “ In a career of let’s say 15 years, if a woman takes a year off, its perfectly ine. You can’t let go a good worker simply because she is giving birth to a child.

Organizations should accommodate women to enable them to strike the right work-family balance. Family support strongly contributes to the career aspirations of women. Companies should adopt best practices such as options to work in lexi-timings, work from home and transport facilities. Microsoft’s programme ‘Springboard’ provides women who have taken career breaks an opportunity to hone technical skills, besides offering attractive monthly compensation through the duration of the project and then join as a full-time employee at the end of the programme. The company tries to persuade women techies who have taken a career break for personal reasons such as marriage or childbirth to come back to work. The company offers reskilling and mentoring, lexible working hours, and an option to work from home or any other tailor-made solution that techie moms demand. A similar initiative is driven by PepsiCo India in a tie up with Job Street. It reaches out to career women who have taken a break in their careers. It provides access to talent that is not currently present in the active workforce. The initiative has not only worked well but has also helped win the con idence of potential female talent that adds to the richness of diverse work culture. To support such diversity, they also offer special provisions like sabbaticals, lexible timing and other support to women with young children or family responsibilities.

The success stories of few women making it to the top does give us a ‘feel good factor’ as it provides an impression that position and status of women is changing in Indian management sector. But in the real sense how many of these breakthroughs are really happening? Barring a handful like ICICI Bank, PepsiCo and Biocon, majority of Indian boardrooms are still ‘un touchable’ areas for women. Companies need to be more responsive and should create situation where men and women are treated with equal dignity. Corporates need to be more open to women leaders who have the ability to cut through a male dominated work place, and make their own mark. Yes, there are few companies who are trying to get the balance right. IBM has a policy of offering special incentives to recruitment consultants for getting capable women professionals into the organization. Motorola has increased its women workforce to 37%. The IT Company, CSC, offers incremental bonus to employees for referring women employees on board.

Every woman is capable of reaching the top of her organization. What sets women such as Indra Nooyi, Kiran Mazumdar Shaw, Monica Oswal and Chanda Kochchar apart from the rest of the similarly talented women? They went ahead and shattered the glass ceiling with a high level of sustained self con idence and emotional quotient, persistence and patience, an extremely supportive family and the most important thing - right mentors at various stages of their career. They had the courage and the determination to shatter the glass ceiling and create a mark for them. Each one of them, a pioneer and innovator in her own right, has not only nurtured families but also met deadlines with a desirable spirit. Each one of them has a unique story to share – a success story that is aweinspiring and tells us the way forward as I elaborated earlier.

‘Face’ of the family business is changing indeed.

Cheers to the real Indian Power Women ! The world of women in entrepreneurial roles !!

Yes women are entering the world of business ownership at an extraordinary pace ! Thankfully the male dominated Indian society no more believes women should sit back at home instead of entering businesses, at least when it comes to their daughters or wives. From being considered delicate, less challenging, being offered less risky jobs, and women in family businesses being mostly unrecognized, the situation has surely changed with the advancement of womens education and the growing role of government in women’s empowerment. It has not only made women aware about their rights and responsibilities but enlightened families and society towards the positive impact, that women could make in businesses in particular and in society in general.

The rate of women in family businesses has increased in recent years. Husbands and fathers now understand that to take charge of their company, their wives and daughters needs more than just good education, thus they are providing her with all the support by nurturing their strengths and talents ! This along with more independent minded and educated women are surely making it great times for power women !

Ofcourse, many women have proved the same in the past, that they can be great inspirations by the aura that they have created for themselves. From Indira Gandhi who inspired an entire generation of women to examples from the corporate like Indu Jain, who is also known by many different identities such as that of spiritualist, humanist, entrepreneur, an educationalist but most prominently who plays the role of the Chairman of Times Group, examples of awe inspiring Indian women is unmissable ! Not to miss on names like Simone Tata, who has been instrumental in changing a small subsidiary of Tata Oil Mills into the largest cosmetic brand in India – LAKME, synonymous today with Indian Fashion. Love them or hate them, you just cannot ignore Balaji serials and Ekta Kapoor is the woman who single-handedly founded and made Balaji Telefilms, the household name it is today. Known to be fiercely protective of her company and brand, Ekta is also very professional and has strong business acumen. Megha Mittal, the daughterin- law of the steel tycoon Lakshmi Mittal, is the Executive Director of Escada, the German fashion luxury brand. She has taken some valuable lessons in turning around business from her father-in-law. She has retained the management and has empowered them in decision-making and she has set strict revenue targets and is all set to achieve the same.

Everywhere you look, there is a woman in the pursuit of the entrepreneurial dream. From being involved in small, usually home based businesses now they are more visible, they are more ambitious and mind you its not just about earning an income. They clearly want to venture out and want to take their businesses to greater heights. They want to be recognized as credible and marketable themselves so that they can create and establish their own identity apart from their family. They are all ready to take over the jobs with absolute different expectations, ideas and solutions. They value open communication and teamwork. For them people are assets and communication is the driving and motivational force. The new generation of power women in India is all set to create astounding benchmark through diversification specially if you were to consider the following examples we cover in Power Women this time !!

This young lady is someone who constantly strives to push the artistic boundaries. Belonging to a family whose roots no where was connected to jjewelry making, it comes surprise that Preeti Jain discovered her true calling and sheer joy in making art through jewels. She discovered her penchant for jewelry while working with her father. This made her realized her instinctive creative abilities and artistic temperament. She thinks that part of her creativity comes from her genes. She also owe her love for jewels and jewelry design to her mother who herself is an experienced designer She has been an in- finite and constant source of inspiration and has always helped her strive for perfection in every piece of jewelry she designs.

For this gen next woman her father has had a huge influence on her life. The mission & aim for her is to take the 115-year-old family business to youngsters across India in a big way through her new ventures. The group realized few years back that Gen-Y was no longer identifying itself with the brand name ‘Godrej’. Tanya Dubash, Adi Godrej’s eldest daughter, was given the task of fixing that perception. Tanya spearheaded the launch of a 3-D Internet portal, the first such initiative in India. She heads the Strategic Marketing Group (SMG) that guides the Godrej Masterbrand and portfolio strategy, and chairs Marketing Council comprising of Group Marketing Heads. She also heads Corporate Communications and Media for the Group and oversees Godrej Nature’s Basket, a gourmet food retailing chain.

She has been ranked in the International list of “50 Most Powerful Women in Business”, by Fortune. Works with industry bodies and the Government of India to advance policy decisions on important healthcare issues. Was invited by Dr. Manmohan Singh, to join the Indo-U.S. and Indo-Malaysia CEOs Forum, think tanks created to strengthen bilateral cooperation and trade. She is one of the pioneer businesswoman of India in the segment of Health Care Industry. Dr. Preetha Reddy has innumerable credentials attached to her. Inspired and guided by her father, Dr. Prathap C. Reddy, the pioneer of corporatized healthcare in India, Preetha formally joined Apollo Hospitals as Joint Managing Director and five years later; she became the Managing Director of the Group, which is now one of the largest healthcare conglomerates of India.

She joined the family business towards the end of her teens, as Assistant Product Manager and moved her way up the ladder to be the Executive Director of the group, through her hard work and determination. She launched Parker brand in India in the year 1996, which was a huge success. Pooja Jain’s contribution to the growth of the Group has been phenomenal. She introduced Amitabh Bachchan as the ambassador to boost the brand value. She was always in awe of her father’s position among the best in the world and she knew that it would be the pinnacle or nothing else for her. She was single- minded in her determination to get there. She heads the Writing Instruments business for both Indian and International markets. Her strong foothold over her business and her passion for social service makes her an inspiration for the youth.

With the increasing number of women taking over the reigns, the ‘face’ of family businesses is changing and it’s definitely becoming more feminine. So here is an issue dedicated to the next generation of women leaders of business companies who have not only groomed themselves to be the top notch names but from being the typical home maker and daddy’s little girl, they are all set to storm the business world and are all ready to succeed the throne. Cheers to these new age power women from the world of family businesses !!

Taking the centre stage

There is an old saying that behind every successful man there is a woman. By the time we reach the end of this edit the saying might change!

Behind the successful men, there are women who still choose to stay at home and raise the children, run the household, entertain sophisticatedly and do everything possible to support their spouses’ career goals. They provide moral support to their husbands by supporting their decisions and taking household responsibility off their shoulders. Indian culture reflects a strong bond between family members. Wives support husbands by taking care of all their needs in every possible way to make them win in their business or job. But with changing times, more and more couples seem to be agreeing that independent identities and separate careers or outside interests are better.

There were a lot of sacrifices that the past generation of women made in order to get ahead, and those sacrifices were often marriage and children. But that is changing. The new age women want to develop independent personalities of their own and not to look to their spouse’s company and title for an identity. These women are not only taking care of their families but are playing multiple roles as a wives, mothers, presidents, CEOs et al.

I strongly believe that behind every success story of a woman there must be some support from everyone. No one can achieve anything without someone’s support. It could be direct, indirect or moral support. I doubt if any successful woman exists who hasn’t had a mentor at some point in her career. Role models are essential to exhibit to women the value and attractiveness of a career. Mentors can prevent the feeling of isolation for women and also help them steer the path to promotion. Women should not only be encouraged to find their own mentor but they also should throw a challenge to themselves by becoming a mentor to someone else. Today’s female entrepreneurs are figuring out new ways to combine their careers with family. But how do they do it?

For this superwoman, life is all about her kids, the kitchen menu, her brainchild – the Dhirubhai Ambani International School and her IPL cricket team’s agenda. Yes, we are talking about Nita Ambani who is a businesswoman, actively involved in various philanthropic activities in the fields of education, human resources and disaster relief. She is actively involved in Project Drishti, a social initiative taken by Reliance Industries (RIL) and National Association for the Blind. To her, power is responeditorial Role models are essential to exhibit to women, the value and attractiveness of a career Taking the centre stage power women 5 june-august 2012 sibility. And she derives it from her family, her work, her passion and her very middle-class values. She always wanted to be a teacher, and she has surely converted her passion and dream into reality.

Women should always feel the need to be involved in something and to know that she is creating value. For one’s own self worth, its very important.

Richa Agarwal is one such name who has carved a name for herself in a field that is far apart from her husband Aditya Agarwal’s Emami Group. She manages the group’s foray into art auctions and related infrastructure under the Emami Chisel Art (ECA) banner. It is a collaborative effort between the reputed Emami group and Chisel Crafts, a parent company of the Kolkata based Aakriti Art Gallery. Richa always believes that the world is its stage and she feels confident that their participation in various exchange programmes will make the combined influence incredibly far reaching and the combined expertise immensely valuable in taking art to tomorrow’s connoisseurs.

Another super role model was at the peak of her career as a leading actor when she gave up a successful career to marry one of the heirs to the Reliance empire. Tina Ambani is among the first ladies of business in India—a role she does complete justice to. Today she is involved in a number of charity, arts, and talent endeavours. From taking care of certain aspects of the business to being involved in various works and promoting the arts, she has her hands full. She is involved in Harmony Foundation - For Senior citizens, Harmony Art Foundation - For Promotion of Art. In addition to that she looks after Kokilaben Dhirubhai Ambani Hospital & Medical Research Institute and Kokilaben Dhirubhai Ambani Nursing College. Tina is a complete woman in so many ways.

It is now more important than ever that women have successful female role models. This issue is dedicated to such women who have created an identity for themselves apart from being a celebrity/CEO’s spouse. These women from various fields inspire in many ways. Also, now as there is a big change in society where women are coming out and proving themselves in various fields, a lot of credit goes to their mentors. And in majority of the cases, behind all their success there are men – that could be a father, a brother, a husband or a teacher. So can we say that behind every successful woman there is a man?

Only if the old saying goes like this, “Behind every successful man is an even stronger successful woman”.