The Hindu Business Line : Women mean business

Celebrating their success is Karmic Divas, a book on eight Indian businesswomen — Kiran Mazumdar Shaw, Kalpana Morparia, Naina Lal Kidwai, Neelam Dhawan, Ritu Kumar, Swati A Piramal, Vinita Bali and Vandana Luthra.

Prerna Kaul Mishra, the Kashmiri author of the book, says it took her one-and-a-half-years to complete the book. It was difficult to select the women.

So, she decided to focus on the mid-1950s and 1960s, an era during which it was difficult for women to attend school, when they had to settle for a limited role in the social milieu.

Her book, in the author’s words, is “an endeavour to tell the stories of eight path-breaking Indian women who joined the corporate world in an era when women were thought to be cut out for a more conventional role. They not just participated in the business world, but also excelled in their respective pursuits.

"Today, they stand as role models for thousands of Indian women who are waiting to go mainstream, both in urban and rural India.”

Scientific formula

Swati A Piramal, Director, Strategic Alliances and Communications, Nicholas Piramal India Ltd, is a qualified doctor. She loves to experiment with new ideas so her projects have a scientific sense of purpose. She teamed up with Mrinalini and Mallika Sarabhai to present stories of ancient science in the form of a dance opera to flag off the new Nicholas Piramal Research Centre in Mumbai.

One day, while driving, she saw a four-year-old girl paralysed in all four limbs. She was shaken by the sight, and her husband Ajay Piramal urged her to set up a rehabilitation centre. Her biggest victory was when she saw the same girl walk out of the centre unaided and upright.

She had the honour of being selected to speak on women and healthcare as the Harvard University’s Commencement speaker at the 1992 graduation ceremony.

Look your best

Vandana Luthra has made her mark in the beauty business. Vandana did beauty courses and pursued education in nutrition and cosmetology from Germany. She did a series of specialised courses in beauty care, fitness, food and nutrition and skin care from London, Munich and Paris. Her father’s friend, Professor Jorgen Huchel, who ran his health centre in Germany, influenced her greatly.

Her marriage with Mukesh Luthra turned out to be a turning point in her career as her husband helped her realise her dreams. She set up her first beauty and slimming services centre in 1989 when few in India had heard of transformation centres. That marked the humble beginning for Vandana Luthra Curls and Curves (VLCC).

She started small and was assisted by three girls and started sharing her profits with them from day one.

An organised approach and professionalism did wonders for the VLCC brand, which has since become the umbrella brand for various sub-brands and has spread its wings in the international market.

Vandana has been inspired by JRD Tata’s philosophy: “if you make lots of money, you must give it back to society as you have received so much love from it.” She has set up the VLCC Foundation to serve society.

All the world's her stage

Vinita Bali, Managing Director of Britannia Industries, was born into a Punjabi family. She graduated from Delhi’s Lady Shriram College and pursued Masters in Economics from Jawaharlal Nehru University. Her professional journey started when she joined Voltas in Mumbai as a management trainee. Soon destiny took her to the US for further studies on a scholarship.

There she joined Cadbury’s as its first woman executive. She was part of UNDP and one of the two students selected by the University to participate in the Global Leadership programme in Washington. In 1986, after she came back from the US, she joined as Head Marketing and became the youngest General Manager in Cadbury India.

Vinita subsequently shifted to Coca Cola as a worldwide Marketing Director, became Vice-President of Marketing for Latin America and relocated in Chile as President of the Andean Division with consumer sales in excess of $1 billion. In 2001, she was appointed as a Vice-President and Head of Strategy, reporting to the Chairman.

Brewing her own success

Kiran Mazumdar Shaw, Chairman-cum-Managing Director of Biocon Ltd, set out to fulfil her father’s desire that one of his children take up his profession of brewing beer, which he had done all his life while working for United Breweries.

Destiny took her on a long arduous route; she started Biocon in a small garage in Bangalore with a team of two people. She emerged the richest woman in India when Biocon went public in 2004. In 2005, she was awarded the Padma Bhushan for her pioneering efforts in industrial biotechnology. While she is not comfortable with the ‘rich’ tag and does not show off her wealth, she is aware of her social responsibility. The Biocon Foundation promotes rural healthcare through a micro-health insurance system. ‘Live simple and think big’ is her credo.

By design

Ritu Kumar is an established fashion designer who has had clients such as Princess Diana and Jemima Khan.

She started her journey by travelling to places such as Varanasi and Kashmir for inspiration and her fascination for traditional ethnic designs has helped infuse life into the dying cult of tens of thousands of craftspeople living in sleepy hamlets all across India. The magic in their fingers has once again started to create a well-deserved fan-following.

She was the first to introduce boutiques in India about 35 years ago. “I believe if you have basic intelligence and are ready to take up a task diligently, you can do just about anything. It might not be as enjoyable as your favourite pursuit but it’s equally enriching and doable,” she says.

No mean feat, by all accounts

Naina Lal Kidwai, CEO, HSBC Bank, got her early education in Mumbai. Having noted golfer and Arjuna Award winner Nonita Lal Kidwai Qureshi for a sister inspired her to make her own mark.

Vinita Bali (Britannia Industries) was among her seniors at college. She came across Mira Nair (film maker) at Harvard and they became close friends. It was while studying in the US that Naina realised that there was a life worth exploring on the other side of the ocean. At 33 she was heading the investment banking operations for Grindlays. There was neither the time nor the compulsion to get married. Then she met Rashid Kidwai, who matched her idea of an ideal life-partner, and married him.

She joined the HSBC Bank as its deputy CEO in India with the understanding that the top job was hers if she delivered. She did, and became the country head for India in 2006. In the same year she became a group General Manager — one of the top 40 people in the bank globally.

She was awarded Padma Shri in 2007 for her work in the field of Trade and Industry. Today, she is a role model for thousands of young Indian women.

A resounding click

Neelam Dhawan, Managing Director, Microsoft India, was an early entrant into the Web world. She felt surprised that corporate India, which was comfortable with women engineers, was still not at ease with having women in the sales and marketing divisions when she joined HCL, an upcoming information technology company then.

In 1995, she moved on to IBM, became Head of the PC business and, later, head of sales and marketing for the PC division of Compaq. By now, Neelam had proved her credentials enough to catch the attention of the big daddy in IT world — Microsoft.

In Neelam’s own words: “I would call myself more of an executor of strategies.” Her aim is to make the benefits of IT available to the common man at an affordable price.

To her credit

Kalpana Morparia was born in a conservative Gujarati family. Her father died when she was young, and her mother ensured her education.

She worked for 37 years at ICICI Bank, where she held many top positions, and has now moved on to head JP Morgan in India.

The incident that changed her life forever happened when she was travelling in a local Mumbai bus. One sentence in a magazine she was reading, “Do not leave for tomorrow what you need to do today” caught her eye and became the motto of her life.

Her ability to handle crucial assignments helped her make it to the board of directors at ICICI Bank without any formal management training.

She also made it to the Forbes list of hundred most-powerful women in the world.

Kalpana says, “My life is an ode to Indian womanhood, whether a woman is married or not, a mother or not, she is an individual in her own right.”

More Stories on : Gender | Entrepreneurship | Books

Article E-Mail :: Comment :: Syndication :: Printer Friendly Page

Stories in this Section
Grey matters

Southern comfort food

Living in the now

Some ‘cool’ connection

Safety net for Internet

Women mean business

After the mela

1,000 Years, 1,000 People