Business Czarinas features some of the most successful businesswomen in India. Each of their stories is greatly inspiring: their journey to the top; the troubles and obstacles on the way; the opportunities they made the most of; the values they hold dear and the lessons they learnt.
Management consultant S.N. Chary interviews nine remarkable women leaders, giving us insight into their work and life. In Business Czarinas these women tell us how they foughtat times for space, in a male-dominated environmentagainst all odds, with courage and strength.
Candid, enlightening and full of practical, first-hand wisdom, these powerful stories make this book a fascinating read.
S.N. Chary was Professor, Indian Institute of Management Bangalore, where he taught for nearly three decades. He is a management consultant and has been on the Board of Directors of a large public sector corporation for several years.
Among his many publications are Production and Operations Management and Business Gurus Speak. He writes a column for the editorial page of an English daily.
Free up your mind of all inhibitions and say that you are willing to learn everything from scratch and set new rules of the game which may not have been there in the past, but you believe that you can make them happen.
Chanda Kochhar,Managing Director and CEO, ICICI Bank Limited
We (women) dont want equality, we dont want sympathy, and we dont want work-life balance. We dont want anything other than respect. That is the key.
Devita Saraf,CEO, Vu Telepresence; Executive Director, Zenith Computers
I would say leadership is the ability to make a difference. For me, therefore, the power as a leader is the power to make it happen. How will I make it happen? How can I make a difference? That is my quest as a leader.
Kalpana Morparia,CEO, J.P. Morgan India Private Limited
Seeing a critically ill patient turn the corner and recover makes my day.
Preetha Reddy,Managing Director, Apollo Hospitals
My message to every aspiring businessperson is that they should bear in mind that entrepreneurship is a need to make an impactful difference, but entrepreneurship should be based on sound learning experience.
Suneeta Reddy,Joint Managing Director, Apollo Hospitals
I didnt try to be like anybody else. I worked and I played to my strengths. I brought the strengths which I felt are unique to me.
Roopa Kudva,Managing Director & CEO, CRISIL Limited
There is no formula for success; it is hard work, very hard work. It is being open minded and ceasing an opportunity when you get it. You should not fear anything.
Sharan Apparao,Founder, Apparao Galleries
I always ask myself three questions whenever an opportunity comes up and those are: Will I learn something out of it? Will I be able to contribute and will I have fun in the process? If the answer to all three is yes, then I just do it.
Vinita Bali,Managing Director, Britannia Industries Limited
People are much more willing to give women a chance today and wait for them to perform. But it is a lot of hard work and there are no shortcuts.
Zia Mody,Founding Partner, AZB & Partners
Business Czarinas
Business Czarinas
S.N. Chary
Copyright 2013 S.N. Chary
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This Book
is
Dedicated
to
Gurudev
Contents
Preface
A woman heading a business corporation is a rare event across the world and rarer still in the Indian business world. Gender equality is a burning issue that is now being discussed and hotly debated worldwide. The Indian society is yet to face the gender issue squarely; it has been brushing the issue under the carpet for long.
Being a woman in India is not easy. Her arduous journey starts from the mothers womb; a female fetus is still undesirable in many Indian families. As a young girl, she might be denied good food and even a basic education and be made to feel inferior to the males in the family while growing up, at every step. As a grown up woman she might be a victim of bodily violence and be subjected to humiliation. Throughout her adult years, she may have never experienced independenceeconomic, social and psychological. These constricting and wounding experiences end up making the Indian woman feel weak, insecure, uncertain and lacking in power of any kind. It may just be a mere apology that in India, women are portrayed as divine goddesses in the folklore and also a few women are appointed to high offices in the political field.
In such a social milieu, for a woman to rise up the corporate ladder and go on to become the chief of a business organization or to set up a thriving business venture, is a stupendous achievement. It is no easy task keeping oneself empowered in a setting where every social and/or business encounter conspires to erode power off the woman leader. A womans battle is two sided: the external and the internal fight. The male-dominant patriarchal Indian society keeps hurling obstacles of all kinds at this aspiring woman. There are some hurdles that are rather overt and obvious to the eye. Some other barriers are not conspicuous; as though a glass ceiling existed. An even bigger barricade to tackle is ones own minda mind that is encumbered, conditioned and incapacitated by generations of preaching about being the so called weaker sex.
But, despite all such crippling problems, some Indian women have shown the gumption to succeed tremendously in the countrys big business world. Their achievements are mammoth; some are chiefs of large financial services institutions, some are an integral part of traditional consumer goods industry and there are also some who have set up the technology-intensive goods business. There are some managing huge law firms, some operate giant health-care conglomerates, while some are into creative business like running art galleries and promoting art works. This book aims to capture the magnetizing journey of some of these women.
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