Leadership and Values Term Paper

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Leadership and Values Term Paper

Table of Contents1.Ms. Roopa Kudva, MD & CEO, Crisil22.Ms. Chitra Ramakrishna, M.D & C.E.O, NSE63.Ms. Savita Mahajan Deputy Dean and CEO of ISB, Mohali Campus94.Ms. Shyamala Gopinath, Chairperson, Clearing Corporation of India & Former Dy. Governor of RBI125.Ms. Vinita Bali, MD, Britannia Industries146.Ms. Arundhati Bhattacharya, Chairperson SBI167.Ms. Mallika Sarabhai, Indian classical dancer, Author, Social Worker and Activist198.Ms. Meher Pudumjee, Chairperson, Thermax India229.Prof. Indira Parikh, Founder President, FLAME (Pune) & Former Dean, IIM Ahmedabad2510.Ms. Kiran Mazumdar Shaw, Chairperson & MD, Biocon Limited28

Ms. Roopa Kudva, MD & CEO, Crisil

Session OverviewEarly lifeMs. Roopa Kudva currently serves as the MD and CEO of Crisil. Ms. Kudva said her road to this position was simple. She did her schooling from a missionary school that produced toppers in CBSE. Ms. Kudva attributes much of her success today to the excellent education she received during her schooling. She used to spend a lot of her time during her schooling time listening to BBC radio to be able to communicate well. It was in 1983 that she applied for and joined IIMA to pursue the PGDM. Due to problems in the North East, she could not complete her exams in time to be able to join IIM that year. Subsequently she finished her exams, taught at primary school for a few months and successfully joined IIMA in 1984. After IIMA, she joined IDBI and worked for 6 years. Her experience at IDBI created a solid foundation for her to progress in her career. It was after IDBI due to a chance shift from one city to another that she joined Crisil in 1992.

Women in Leadership Positions - The facts

Ms. Kudva highlighted the following few facts through her talk on women in leadership positions: Less than 1% of CEOs and MDs in India are women. Women leadership is important and gender diversity brings in long term results. According to more than 140 studies, having women in leadership positions gives better financial with 47% higher ROI and 56% higher EBIT. A cause of concern for India is the low representation of women in senior management positions of less than 10%, which is very low as compared to the world average of 20%. This also strikes a contrast to the very high women representation in senior management positions in south East Asian countries ranging from 30% to 45%.

Why diversity matters?

Ms. Kudva spoke about how diversity helps create a positive working environment.

Different PerspectivesOne of the important factors is it brings in multiple perspectives. Ms. Kudva went on to explain that when Crisil started, they had a team of only IIM A graduates which led to a similar viewpoint for everything. It was later realized that even though a similar viewpoint leads to lesser conflicts it does not help look at a problem from different perspectives. Better Financial SuccessShe also went on to tell us how study has proved a positive linkage between number of women leaders in an organization and its financial success. Diverse Talent PoolThe diversity also adds to the leadership talent that exists within an organization giving rise to a better talent pool for future leaders to be selected from. Many leadership competencies come naturally to women Multi-tasking Empathetic communication Consultative approach to decision making

Why are women not duly represented in leadership positions?

This question highlights the essential reasons behind the low number of women leaders: Women have to manage the workplace as well as the home. This creates a work-life imbalance and more women tend to opt out of the workplace to give time to the family. Career interruptions in the form of family problems, pregnancy also lead to women taking a break from their work. This interruption seldom leads to women being able to resurrect their career on joining back. Lack of family friendly support services such as child care, in the companies add to the woes of the women. Women generally do not perceive themselves as leaders. They do not see their talents and strengths in the same light as men. Hence they do not ask for a seat at table. Men in management recruit people similar to themselves, which lead to creation of clones in management. Diversity in gender, background is necessary for bringing in different sets of ideas and views to create foolproof innovations.

Women at Crisil

Ms. Kudva mentioned that at Crisil it was realized very early that diversity is required in an organization for success. Hence, of the employees in crisil are women of the leadership team comprises of women The diversity is better than the industry average.

What can be done to improve the representation of women in leadership roles?

The society is slowly but surely changing and accepting women in leadership roles. It is becoming more supportive towards women in the work place. Women starting off their career or very early in their career should take inspiration from women who have succeeded Gender neutrality should exist in organizations. Women should be promoted/not promoted merely based on her performance and not gender.

Traits that make effective leaders

Ms. Kudva explained that in order to become a leader there are some essential skills required in both men and women. Go beyond the academics, gain experience and practical knowledge. Effective and good communication. An employee might never get to meet the client and communication is the only thing that they can use to impress the client. Team work. Have a long term view of ones career. Not to shift jobs easily, give the company time or speak to the company about the possibility of a different kind of a job before giving up. Understand the team. Socializing with members helps to gauge the individuals traits. Listen intently to everyone. Take as many inputs as possible. Do not go before a team (board or otherwise) with a fully baked decision. Leave room for discussion. People like to be consulted. Discuss and take the views of your boss and colleagues before going for a meeting. Get diverse experience. It helps to get the holistic idea of the business. Enjoy what you do. Deal with the person who is the most cynical and skeptical; if you can convince him/her, convincing others will be relatively easy. Be able and willing to communicate with the lowest rung of the organizational structure because sitting at top without a full view of the organization will not help a leader succeed in his/her target of improving the organization. Employees lower down the order need proper interaction from the leader to be able to deliver expected results.

Succession Planning and Mentoring

Ms. Roopa Kudva highlighted the following points on the importance of Succession Planning and Mentoring and how it is carried out at Crisil: Succession planning is very important for the future success of an organization. It ensures that the organization prepares the next line of leaders in advance so that they are prepared by the time they get the top job. At Crisil, Succession planning has improved over the last few years. It was widely accepted and everyone was prepared when Ms. Kudva became the CEO, but it was not the same when she was made the CRO. Firms like Crisil have very good analysts but they need proper mentoring to be able to convert them into effective business leaders Mentoring becomes important even from the context of women where they can be helped in their career growth and motivated to take up leadership positions Mentoring is also very important for the employees who feel they are in a rut and would like to leave the organization. All organizations have a rotation policy and when an employee wants to leave they tend to do so because they are bored of the current job. The mentor can explain to the employees the rotation policy, understand their expectations and subsequently help them rotate to the position they desire. For an employee to succeed and be able to work well it is very important that the boss is understanding and accommodating. Succession Planning and Mentoring together help an organization prepare a line of leaders for the future of the organization and at the same time help understand the problems faced by these employees;

Conclusion

In conclusion Ms. Kudva attributes her success to doing different things and being ready to take on challenges as different as they may be. Her leadership style lends a lot from her arsenal of skills that she has honed; such as effective communication skills, getting a variety of experience by choice and going above and beyond the call of duty as well as academics to work and lead in innovative ways. All this can be seen from the unique points that she quoted during her interaction.

Innovation needs fostering from top management

Never do things because other are doing it, ask yourself you are enjoy doing it

Biggest barrier to women leaders are women themselves. They tend to undervalue their own talent and hesitate to ask to be included in the top circle. Women tend to lack the self-belief

Ms. Chitra Ramakrishna, M.D & C.E.O, NSE

Session overviewThe first speaker of the Leadership Lecture series 2014, and the only speaker we listened to before Ms. Kudva, was Ms. Chitra Ramakrishna, Managing Director and CEO of National Stock Exchange of India (NSE). Ms. Chitra was a chartered accountant by profession and was associated with the NSE since its inception in 1991. In this session, she talked about her journey in which she saw NSE grow from just an idea into a company that has a market capitalization of around US$989 billion in 2013 and brought about a paradigm shift in the Indian financial market. She gave insights as to what got her to the position she was in today and what she believed were the qualities required to succeed as a leader.

Dream and dream BIG

Ms. Chitra started the session by saying that the future only belongs to those who dream big. People should have the hunger for success and set high standards for themselves. However, dreaming big doesnt guarantee success; people should have the willingness, sincerity and dedication to chase these dreams and never give up until they turn these dreams into reality. Professional and personal sacrifice is inevitable in such cases and one should have the grit to make these sacrifices in order to achieve success. The direction is set by where one wants to be in life.

She says commitment is very important to achieve these goals or dreams. Commitment is not just doing things to the best of ones abilities but doing everything that is takes for the task to be completed. However, one should never compromise on ethics or integrity. She then adds leaders also do simple things but this commitment to chase dreams is what makes them different.

Traits of a leader

Ms. Chitra says that leaders are normal human beings with the only difference being they make their lives count. No opportunity comes knocking on the door. Every challenge has an opportunity hidden behind it and leaders should seek them proactively and be ready as an opportunity once missed is missed forever. Nobody can fathom initially which opportunities will become big someday and which wont. However, if one wants to be counted, he has to be a part of something large; large not in terms of size or money, but large in terms of impact.

It is important not to have position, compensation etc. as goals. These types of short term benefits do not count in the long run and will not really be considered as achievements. Instead, it is more important to concentrate on what one can do, how one can contribute and impact a company, a nation or even the society.

Difference between Men and Women Leaders

Coming to the specific topic of women leadership, Ms. Chitra says that the most striking and perhaps the only difference between men and women leaders is the humility to ask questions. One, irrespective of his or her gender, should not hesitate to ask questions when he doesnt know something. The fact that no one, irrespective of his background, position etc. , knows everything and it does not really matter if you do not know things should be accepted. It is not essential to be extremely intelligent to succeed as a leader when one has the drive, determination and commitment to make it big.

How external expectations affect performance

External expectations sometimes put people under pressure and they will not be able to perform to the best of their abilities. Having no external expectations is a great advantage and Ms. Chitra accedes that she had this advantage when she started NSE. However, she says that not having external expectations is not always possible. When one starts, he starts with an advantage as there are no expectations. But with time, there are a lot of externalities that play a major role in what one becomes and achieves. Ms. Chitra emphasizes that one should not waste time and energy on these.

Tips for leaders of tomorrow

When you decide to do something, do it at any cost Never be constrained by assumptions Designation and Compensation does not matter; mindset and attitude does Always have an owners mindset in everything you do There is nothing called work life balance

Ms. Chitra gave list of four questions that one has to ask oneself before setting goals for future. 1. What do YOU want to do?2. What does YOUR TEAM want to do?3. What does YOUR COMPANY want to do?4. What does YOUR COUNTRY need?

Ms. Chitra wrapped up the session with the following quote from Howard Therman.

Do not ask yourself what the world needs. Ask yourself what makes you come alive and go do it; because what the world needs is people like you.

Comparison with Ms. Roopa Kudva

One thing that both Ms. Kudva and Ms. Ramakrishna had in common was that they believed in concentrating on the long term view of ones career rather than on short term material benefits. This is evident in the way both of them stuck to their respective companies for a long period of time and have seen their companies grow exponentially in the process. They have learnt, grown and matured along with their respective companies and this has led to where they are today. Both of them also agree on the fact that one has to find out what he enjoys doing and what inspires him and then, work towards it with sincerity and dedication. Though it was not mentioned by either of them explicitly, it can be inferred from their speech that both of them believe that leaders can be made and do not necessarily have to be born. Leaders just have to understand that they need to have the right mindset and attitude and be ready and committed to grab their opportunities with both hands. Both the leaders believed in asking questions and listening to people especially during the formative years of ones career. While both of them agree that attitude matters to be successful as a leader and one should grab opportunities, Ms. Kudva was one who would not think twice before going and asking for more responsibilities. In this regard, Ms. Chitra was more subtle and believed that if one has the right mindset and attitude and works hard, he will get his opportunity and every challenge has an opportunity hidden inside it. Unlike Ms. Kudva, who emphasized the importance of having gender diversity in organizations, Ms. Chitra did not believe there was any difference between men and women leaders except for that women showed more humility in asking questions when they did not know something.

Barring a few small dissimilarities, the leadership styles of both Ms. Roopa Kudva and Ms. Chitra Ramakrishna are almost the same. Broadly, the following are the traits both of them believed were essential for a leader to be successful:

Grab opportunities with both hands Have a long term view of ones career Do not give importance to material benefits Be humble in asking questions and listen intently to everyone Team work and communication Be committed to work Do what one enjoys doing

Ms. Savita Mahajan Deputy Dean and CEO of ISB, Mohali CampusSession overview The third session of the Leadership Lecture Series saw the participation of Ms. Savita Mahajan, Deputy Dean and CEO (Mohali Campus), Indian School of Business. Ms. Savita stressed on the fact that how current economic environment has become ambiguous and challenging. One has to come out of comfort zone to face these challenges. She also said that one of the important leadership traits is the desire to succeed. She then talked about how her family life helped her to become what she is today. Her professional journey started with Maruti Udyog she was the 5th employee to join Maruti after its nationalization as an executive assistant to the then Chairman. She then joined Bharat Technologies, Karvy Consultants and Intergraph India. She has always found herself working in startup-like environments and dealing with a lot of challenging situations. At Karvy and Intergraph, she was Head of Strategy and Organization Development. Savita has carried out consulting and training assignments for corporations and development organizations, including GE Capital, the Planning Commission, the World Bank, and the Tibetan Government in exile of His Holiness, the Dalai Lama. She is a member of the GMAT School Advisory Group, which is responsible for providing practical insights into strategic decisions that the Graduate Management Admission Council (GMAC) makes regarding the examination. Savita is widely travelled, and spent a year at the Woodrow Wilson School of Public Policy and International Affairs, at Princeton University, USA, as part of a mid-career fellowship program. Her professional interests include Strategic Management, Institutional Values, Leadership and Organizational Change. She moved to ISB in 2001 when the founders plan finally came to fruition, again at its inception. When the idea of the Mohali campus was put forth, she jumped at the opportunity of building something totally from scratch. She said taking charge of situation is very important trait of leaders. Ms. Savita talked about her husband, Mr. Prakash Mahajan, who himself is a big personality in India, who is very supportive of her throughout her career. She said a woman who want to progress through different ranks of management have to face many hurdles and one such biggest hurdle is managing home. She said her husband was very supportive in this case and he ensured that Ms. savita did not worry too much about her home environment. Talking about women leaders, one of biggest concern is asking for the additional roles. They generally shy away from situation and make way for male counterparts. She said current environment is good for woman leaders and women are given top positions is they prove themselves. It is about taking charge of your career and not allowing hurdle such as home to slow you down. Modern work culture has changed so much that people are very supportive in encouraging female leaders when they realize that she is a high performerShe further digs into her life and delved through various topics during her speech. She said small challenges prepare us for big battle in life. Therefore one should feel insecure when they are in difficulty. Individual employee should not be title conscious and perform to whatever extent possible to contribute. We should take help from others when required and leave our inhibitions behind which are one of biggest obstacle in growth. A collaborative effort leads to increased efficiency in organization. Leadership Traits from her session

Risk takingOften leaders will face ambiguous situations and newer challenges. They need to show courage during difficult times. This courage taking ability builds up through the way we deal with small challenges that we face every day. Ms. Savita could easily handle challenge of setting up new campus of Mohali because of her nature which built up is startup environment she has worked.Asking for helpOne may not be expert in everything but he can always ask for help. Leaders should keep inhibition back and ask for help from expert which is in best interest of organization. Leaders have to get rid of their title consciousness.Taking charge of careerIndividual needs to take charge of their own career. Things are not available readymade (there are exceptions though). You need to help yourself by finding what is good for you and stick to it. Ms. Savita took decision of doing PGDM early in her career which has shaped her professional and personal life.

Comparison with Ms. Roopa Kudva

In following sections we will compare both the leader on various factors such as background, career growth, work life balance etc.Family Background: Parents of Ms. Savita Mahajan passed away early in her life which made her to take responsibility of family, made her stronger and imbibed ability to adept at handling tough situation. On the other hand Ms. Roopa had very stable family but she lived in a community where working women were treated differently than women not working. This had major impact on what Ms. Roopa could become today. She gave utmost importance to education and was amongst top rankers in CBSE.

Early Career: Ms. Savita Mahajan started her career in most of startup like environments. She has always found herself working in startup-like environments and dealing with a lot of challenging situations. This enabled Ms. Savita to take on challenges and handle ambiguous situation. Ms. Roopa Kudva had started her career with IDBI which was very big institution in India at that time. She worked in IDBI for 6 years and build up complete foundation on analysis of companies. She attributes her smooth adoption in CRISIL and later success to IDBI. It can be said that her career path in initial years was very much structured.

Family and Views on Work life balance: Both the leaders said that for success of women in their professional career, it is utmost important that their life partner is supportive, considerate. Ms. Savita advised girls to choose their life partner very carefully.

Views on Scarcity of Women Leaders: According to Ms. Savita Mahajan, the key reasons for very low percentage of women leaders are lack of networking skills, inability to project them in order to get additional roles and negotiation skills.Ms. Roopa Kudva insisted on the fact that women do not ask for the seat at the table. Family problems, pregnancy lead to women taking break from their work, but they are not able to resurrect their career on joining back. Sometimes management is also responsible for these problems since they promote their clones but this is not good as far as foolproof innovations are concerned.Opportunities for women leaders in current corporate environment: Ms. Savita Mahajan said that in the modern work environment, the culture has changed so much that people are very supportive in encouraging female leaders when they realize that she is a high performer. Ms. Roopa Kudva said that the society is slowly but surely changing and accepting women in leadership roles. It is becoming more supportive towards women in the work place. Women starting off their career or very early in their career should take inspiration from women who have succeeded. Gender neutrality should exist in organizations. A woman should be promoted/not promoted merely based on her performance and not gender.

So overall we found Ms. Roopa Kudva to be very aggressive leader who believes in doing a job efficiently. We found her to be very commanding and take responsibility of whatever she does. She innovates, creates new opportunities and she certainly demands reward for hard work. But Ms. Savita Mahajan is very different leader to Ms. Roopa. We found her to be coaching and affiliative. She is risk taker and has ability to lead in ambiguous situations. She is not scared to take charge and is decisive. These qualities can be attributed too much of her early life and the way she has grown up. She believes in a fact that adversity makes you strong and one cannot learn unless he goes out of comfort zone and address issue in hand. She is not title conscious and work to whatever extent she can contribute to the organization. When it comes to seeking help from others, she pointed out that though we step back, it is advisable to leave the inhibitions behind and try to ask for help and contribute to increased efficiency in getting the work done.

Ms. Shyamala Gopinath, Chairperson, Clearing Corporation of India & Former Dy. Governor of RBI

The fourth session of the Leadership Lecture Series - in itself a part of the academic course Leadership and Vision at SJMSOM, IIT Bombay saw the participation of Ms. Shyamala Gopinath, Chairperson of The Clearing Corporation of India. Ms. Gopinath is also the former Deputy Governor of RBI.

Session overviewCareer at RBI

Ms. Gopinath started her career by joining RBI as a Management Trainee. This was the only year when RBI had taken new hires at a level higher than the previous batch and it was done only for once. This posed some problem to them in getting along well with their subordinated from senior batches. But on the contrary this taught them that one should possess humility and have the courage to ask.She joined RBI in the Foreign Exchange department. She took it as a challenge as being a new department it was a new opportunity, which very few people were ready to join. She now thinks that to be lucky to join in that department, as that department immediately got a lot of challenges because of FERA which was introduced at around the same time. She was part of the initial discussions and negotiations which was a learning opportunity for her.The quality that she could point out to get through that situation was the openness to new ideas, innovative solutions to the Indian situation on foreign exchange. She also told that appearing thick-skinned, clarity of thought, integrity were some of the qualities which helped her through the learning stage where she was part of negotiations, with very less knowledge about handling foreign exchange.Ms. Gopinath was of the view that one needs to be more sensitive to a better work life balance. She in her career had a choice of either to remain with RBI or join IMF. She chose the former and she never repents that she took that decision.Leadership qualitiesMs. Gopinath focused on several leadership traits which one need to have. A leader should be persuasive and assertive so as to get better results. Other qualities which she pointed out are being creative, clarity of thought and integrity. She views challenges as a ladder to success. She feels possessing humility, empowering people, inspiring and not being self-ideated are some of the behavioral traits which helped her lot in withstanding through her career.

Comparison with Ms. Roopa Kudva

Leadership and Career Path: Ms. Roopa Kudva had started her career with IDBI which was very big institution in India at that time. She worked in IDBI for 6 years and build up complete foundation on analysis of companies. She attributes her smooth adoption in CRISIL and later success to IDBI. Ms. Gopinath who even though joined a well-established bank, still got to work in a relatively new department which no one knew would someday become so big.

Family and Views on Work life balance: Both focused on better work life balance. Ms. Gopinath favored better work life balance and taking career decisions in accordance to that whereas Ms. Roopa kudva said that for success of women in their professional career life partner should be supportive and considerate.

Views on Scarcity of Women Leaders: According to Ms. Gopinath, reasons for very low percentage of women leaders comprise of lack of networking skills which she thinks is one of the key skills to succeed in a professional life. Also women have to work twice as hard as their male counterparts to get the same level of recognition. Ms. Roopa Kudva reasoned that we have lower proportion of women since women have to manage the workplace as well as the home. This creates a work-life imbalance and more women tend to opt out of the workplace to give time to the family. Career interruptions in the form of family problems, pregnancy also lead to women taking a break from their work. This interruption seldom leads to women being able to resurrect their career on joining back. Women generally do not perceive themselves as leaders. They do not see their talents and strengths in the same light as men. Men in management recruit people like themselves which create clones in management. Diversity in gender, background is necessary for bringing in different sets of ideas and views to create foolproof innovations.

Opportunities for women leaders in current corporate environment: Both had similar viewpoint that women just ask for a gender neutral treatment. They should be promoted for their performance. Ms. Gopinath told that RBI in itself is gender neutral and provides equal opportunities irrespective of gender. She also focused that leader and specifically women leader need to be more assertive. On the same note Ms. Roopa Kudva said that the society is slowly but surely changing and accepting women in leadership roles. It is becoming more supportive towards women in the work place. Women starting off their career or very early in their career should take inspiration from women who have succeeded.

Overall style and conclusionOverall we found Ms. Roopa kudva to have shaped her career path. She was more authoritative and commanding in terms of taking challenges and also asking for a seat at the table as a reward for the hard work she has put in. On the other hand if we compare her to Ms. Gopinath, the latter was much more considerate and supported work life balance over unending career demands. Ms. Gopinath has been handling the task whichever she is assigned in the best possible manner. She is not title conscious and work to whatever extent she can contribute to the organization. She also maintained that the decision making be it a male leader or female leader in a financial sector need to be centralized but the main stakeholders should be consulted wherever necessary. She is not scared to take challenging assignments and is decisive. She believes in a fact that one needs to work in ambiguous situations and chart out the solution to the problem at hand to be a better decision maker and in turn a better leader.

Ms. Vinita Bali, MD, Britannia Industries

The sixth session of the Leadership Lecture Series saw the participation of Ms. Vinita Bali, MD, Britannia Industries. She had some very insightful thoughts on leadership - The Everyday LeaderJust being in a leadership role does not make one a leader. Ms. Bali introduced the concept of everyday leaders people like Saalumarada Thimmaka , a nondescript woman in a nondescript village, an everyday human who transformed into a leader. Similar to Thimmaka there are numerous ordinary people around us who are leaders, but they seldom get written about and very seldom get famous. A very relevant example she gave was that of on field sales staff. They were the true leaders of any brand, the face that customers interacted with, as the end user almost never gets to speak to the MD/CEO of the company.The difference between good and great

Great leaders are those can creative an environment in which each and every individual excels and can work to the best of his/her ability. A great leader is one who first learns to lead himself and sets an example for others to follow. Under the leadership of a great leader, even an average person can become a great performer. She narrated an anecdote of two friends in an African jungle. On encountering a tiger, one has to run faster than other and not the tiger. Thus, in order to go from good to great one has to give ones best and also keep benchmarking themselves against their peers. If the constant benchmarking is not done, then one tends to lose touch with reality.Embrace the unexpected

The example that MS. Bali shared with us was the best case study one could have in the area of management of change. She narrated her experience with Cadbury Nigeria and how embracing the unexpected was the only way out of the situation. Her stint in Nigeria taught her 3 very valuable lessons: Be responsive to change when the Nigerian Naira was devalued overnight and the price of Cadburys raw materials touched the roof, they had two choices , either fight it, or adapt to the change. They chose the latter and the result was the best profits in both Naira and Pound. Dont get too comfortable in your own shoes-Nigeria was inherently a very warm country and chocolates were sold on the street, which meant no refrigeration for them. This resulted in spoilage and melting of the chocolate which adversely affected the companies brand. Therefore Cadbury decided to completely discontinue the sale of chocolates in Nigeria and focus only on chocolate drinks. The importance of effective communication When the decision of discontinuing the chocolates was formalized, communicating the idea to each and every member of the organization right to the very bottom was very important. Without that the company could have never successfully implemented the strategy.The joy of giving

Ms. Bali created the Britannia Nutrition Foundation in partnership with the UNWFP (United National World Food Program). Through this program Britannia supplied war stricken areas and countries suffering high level of malnourishment with fortified biscuits. Ms. Bali taught us the importance of taking up social issues and building a business around that.Comparison with Ms. Roopa Kudva

Leadership traits: Both Ms. Kudva and Ms. Bali whole heartedly supported the idea that leadership traits are essentially gender neutral. Ms. Kudva thought that many traits like multi-tasking, empathetic communication, consultative approach for decision making etc. were inherent in woman. Ms. Bali was of the opinion that most leadership traits could be acquired and that leaders are made and not born.Sharing the journey: Ms. Kudva shared her entire life story and journey with us starting right from her childhood in a small town in Guwahati to becoming the MD of Crisil. She shared her leadership lessons through her personal experiences as well as professional experiences in life. Ms.. Bali chose to share her experiences from a professional standpoint, giving extremely insightful examples from her glorious career spanning across four major FMCG majors.Career Paths: Ms. Kudva started as an analyst at Crisil and rose up the ranks to become the MD of the company. She gave us a perspective on how it is like to be completely home grown I a company and spend ones entire career in the company, nurturing it from the inside out. She also pointed out that the youth today did not understand the importance of having long careers in one company and were too quick to jump companies. Ms. Bali worked in 4 major FMCG companies and a lot of international diverse projects, she stressed that diversity and adapting to change were very necessary in a dynamic world.View on work life balance: Ms. Bali believed the question of work life balance should never arise, as work was just a part of her a life, and her life had many parts. She stressed it was very important for people to have interests outside of work and to be overall a well-developed personality. Ms. Kudva was of the opinion that life is full of choices one makes, sometimes work will need you and sometimes family will need you, the discretion is entirely up to the person.View on reservation for women: While both women were very clear that meritocracy was an extremely important factor while selecting woman in an organization. That women did not need preferential treatment but want dot be treated as equals instead. Ms. Kudva favored reservation of women in areas like the Panchayat and politics while citing a very interesting example of a female Sarpanch of Rajasthan. She believed that in certain completely male dominated areas like politics etc. woman did need a little push which would help boost their confidence.

Ms. Arundhati Bhattacharya, Chairperson SBI

Session overviewEarly LifeMs. Bhattacharya joined SBI as a direct recruit officer in 1977 and in her extensive service, she has served in metro, urban and rural areas, crises-crossing the length and breadth of the country. With over three decades of experience, she has held various assignments spanning credit, forex, treasury and retail operations. As corporate development officer and deputy managing director, she has handled large corporate credit as well as initiatives like financial inclusion and financing of self-help groups. She was involved in setting up several new units of the bank, including SBI General Insurance, SBI Macquarie Infrastructure Fund, SBI SG Securities Ltd, etc., as well as the launch of new IT platforms such as mobile banking and financial planning in the Bank.

She has also played a pivotal role in setting up three of the latest subsidiaries of the Bank viz. the General Insurance Subsidiary, the Custodial Subsidiary and the SBI Macquarie Infrastructure Fund. Ms. Bhattacharya has also had a stint in the SBI's New York office where she was in charge of monitoring branch performance, overseeing external audit and correspondent relations.

During her 36-year tenure at the bank she has held a number of important positions, including those of deputy managing director and corporate development officer, chief general manager (Bangalore circle) and chief general manager (new businesses).

Ms. Bhattacharya is known as a bit of a task master and takes tough calls. State Bank officials who work closely with Bhattacharya cite her successful negotiations with the officers federation when unions planned a major strike against the managements plan to move to a seven days working arrangement in 2012 (this meant keeping banking operations on all seven days of the week, not making everyone work seven days a week).

Ms Bhattacharyas session was interaction oriented. She spoke how she learnt about professionalism from her father. From him, she learnt the first step to become a leader was through a deep dedication to work and a positive mind-set. Ms Bhattacharya pointed out that success is impossible without hard-work. She learnt from her mistakes but the level of hard work and commitment that she displayed from the very ground level saw her go up the ladder. She stressed on the fact that Crisis and Conflict management are essential parts of the leadership. She also spoke about how agility is crucial in todays world for employees and organizations.

Leadership Style of Ms. Arundhati BhattacharyaMs. Bhattacharyas leadership approach is a good mix of Affiliative and Democratic styles. She considers SBI as big family wherein people care for each other. She described incidents where the emotional connectivity between SBI employees prompted them to help each other. Her messages were simple, lucid, and anecdotal but surely unforgettable, least to say priceless.

An early lesson on professionalism During her school days in Bokaro, she had her first lessons in professionalism where she saw a Father (priest) in her school to be extremely devoted to his work in spite of having experienced a number of travails in his life. As she observed him over a period of time, she learnt the first step to become a leader was through a deep dedication to work and a positive mind-set (something that can make one smile even in the face of extreme difficulties).Key Leadership learnings from the journey of Ms. Arundhati Bhattacharya

1) Ownership Attitude Taking responsibility Ms. Bhattacharya spoke about crisis management to be a part and parcel of a leaders work life and it is during such crucial situations that one establishes oneself as a leader in front of others.

2) Agility Open to changeShe explained how under the leadership of Mr. O.P. Bhatt the Parivartan program was designed and how fast it was carried out to avert extinction of the nations largest bank in the face of competition from other tech-savvy private banks that came along with a basket of offerings. Hence, it is evident that to bring change in an organization the leader has to be the agent of change.

3) Delegation Empowering sub-ordinatesGiving the sub-ordinates the courage to speak the truth, criticize decisions genuinely creates a transparent environment for an organization.

4) High EthicsThough the work culture in West Bengal is considered not to be the best, the Foreign exchange department in Kolkata held a high work standard throughout in her presence.

5) Commitment and PassionShe gave us a simple and effective advice, enjoy your job and have a passion for it, if you dont then youre probably in the wrong job or worse not putting in enough

Comparison with Ms. Roopa KudvaThere are quite a few differences & similarities in the leadership styles of the two leaders:People Management: Both leaders stressed on that fact that people in the organization are the biggest assets of any organization. Ms. Bhattacharya is a leader who wants to create emotional attachment amongst people in the organization. She narrated incidences where employees in SBI helped each other in the personal crisis situations. Ms. Kudva is more oriented towards participative leadership styles wherein she mentions that understanding different traits of every team member helps a leader to manage the team. She thinks socializing and engaging with team helps to gauge the individual.Communication: In any organization, knowledge is power, and great leaders ensure that every employee, from the very top to the very bottom of the org chart, is provided with complete and up-to-date information about the organizations goals, performance, successes and failures. Miscommunication creates conflict, misconceptions and can prove fatal to a business. Ms. Kudva spoke about how she conducts general meeting once in every 3 months with her employees to communicate her vision, the organizations goals and performance. Ms. Bhattacharya admits that SBI is a big public organization and hence conveying her message to each and every employee is little difficult. She conducts meeting on regular interval to send out a message as early as possible to her people.Commitment and Passion: Both leaders mentioned that a good leader can be a great leader if he/she is passionate about and committed to the work. Both leaders gave advice to enjoy job and have a passion for it, if you dont then youre probably in the wrong job or worse not putting in enough.Work Culture: Culture is the environment that surrounds you at work all of the time. Culture is a powerful element that shapes your work enjoyment, your work relationships, and your work processes. Ms. Kudva pointed out that people like to be consulted. It creates environment where people are more open to sharing ideas. Ms. Bhattacharya think that giving the sub-ordinates the courage to speak the truth, criticize decisions genuinely creates a transparent environment for an organization. The opposite creates a pool of sycophants and blurs the vision of a leader.Role of Life Partner: Both Ms. Roopa Kudva and Ms. Arundhati Bhattacharya agreed that for a women to be a successful leader, it is utmost important that the life partner is supportive Attribution of Success: Ms. Kudva attributes her success to the superior education she had, whereas Ms. Arundhati Bhattacharya attributes her success to lessons she learnt during her stints at IDBI and SBI.Overall, we found Ms. Roopa Kudva to be very aggressive leader who believes in doing a job efficiently. We found her to be very commanding and take responsibility of whatever she does. She innovates, creates new opportunities and she certainly demands reward for hard work. On the other hand Ms. Bhattacharya has a participatory attitude towards people around her and thus engages everyone to contribute for an objective. She showed how people around a leader can be engaged best through communicating. Her vision is to transform SBI to adapt to the competitive and dynamic environment.

Ms. Mallika Sarabhai, Indian classical dancer, Author, Social Worker and Activist

Session Overview:I. Indian Education systemAccording to her, our education mostly concentrates on developing skills to earn decent living, but this is not in line with the whole purpose of life. According to her earning a living is just a step in life, but our society has made it the sole purpose of life. She has explained this with simple analogy of salt in food, were we add salt to add taste to food, so food is the purpose not the salt.

II. Lie of our life

Ms. Mallika Sarabhai is living and leading a life which is scripted by her own self and not like most of the people in the audience whos life are scripted by their parents and society. Almost every single major decision in the life of a man is taken by his or her parents; from which school to go to which girl to marry till when should they have children. And suddenly one day the person who has never made any decision for himself has to start making decisions for his newborn child. We do show ignorance to this fact and constantly in denial of it. We live this lie and our society makes us believe that what we believe is the truth.

III. Who we are?

We are so much into the materialistic things that we portray ourselves with respect to the car we own, the college we go, the caste we belong to. We never ask ourselves who we are. We think that these brands are the source of our happiness and our society makes us believe that to be a gain importance these are the parameters. The individual is lost and leading somebody elses life earning these this and that without asking self whether we need or want it. The inner voices we ignore because it disturbs us, shakes up our basis of belief. The journey inward is the most difficult journey and the ignorance is biggest hurdle. Asking the fundamental questions and then having the courage to see them through is extremely difficult, but that makes life worth living than living somebody else life.

IV. The story of a little girl named Mallika

She described an incident of the time when she was 5 years old. How she was disappointed and was crying when a classmate of her called her a donkey because in one drawing she drew ears at wrong place. At that point Mr. Vikram Sarabhai (her father) asked her what happened and she described the incidence, so he asked her who are you? she replied I am a little girl so he said if that boy cant find the difference between a donkey and a girl than he a is a fool. From this story she explained that we should realize that others actions to insult us to humiliate us is the stupidity of that person, but instead we are the ones who get hurt. The society that surrounds us breeds fear in us and we take the position of weakness not the position of strength and take onus of the stupidity of others on to our self. Our reaction to these situations inculcates more fear and insecurity amongst us.V. Living others life

The parents try to live their unfulfilled life through their children by making them do what they were not able to fulfill in their life but sometimes they dont consider whether the child wants to pursue the same. She considers herself lucky to find parents who were so deeply fulfilled with what they did that they never forced any decision on her. And she scripted her own life, became an actor at the age of 15 and followed her own desires to reach this stage. She explained the breeding of the child with another analogy of a flower in the garden. Where parents are gardeners and the children are flowers. Now what flower will bloom will depend on the seed and not the Gardner. According to her, one need to compete with one self and not with anyone else, you are an individual and not a factory made things that the whole purpose of the word. People decide the goal and starts running towards it but once they start achieving them, they never look back.

Comparison with Ms. Roopa Kudva

Family Background: Mallika Sarabhais father was a scientist whereas her mother was a classical dancer. So, her parents were from different backgrounds. The important quality of her parents was that they never imposed anything on her and gave her full liberty to pursue any career she wanted. On the other hand Ms. Roopa had very stable family but she lived in a community where working women were treated differently than women not working. This had major impact on what Ms. Roopa could become today. She gave utmost importance to education and was amongst top rankers in CBSE.Views on Work life balance: Ms. Mallika Sarabhai constantly focused upon listening to your inner voice and taking the decisions accordingly. She was of the opinion that if you prioritize your time properly and give equal importance to your hobbies other than your work, you will become happy. She also said that one should keep some space for the conversation with our beloved ones which can help us to maintain the work life balance. On the other hand, Ms. Roopa Kudva said that for the success of women in their professional career, it is utmost important that their life partner is supportive, considerate. While giving the importance to work-life balance, she gave more importance to commitment towards the work.

Take on Leadership: Ms. Mallika Sarabhai talked mostly about leading our own life. She did not discuss much about the corporate leadership. She explained that people get successful in their various domains but they never introspect about what they are doing is right or wrong and when they become old, that time they realize that they have committed many mistakes. She said that you should have the courage to listen to your inner voice even if that is shaking your basis of belief or is disturbing you. In her opinion, when you live your life on your own terms, then only you can be called as a true leader of your life. On the other hand, Ms. Roopa Kudva mainly talked about the corporate leadership of women and the hurdles women have to face while climbing up the corporate ladder. She said that Women generally do not perceive themselves as leaders. They do not see their talents and strengths in the same light as men. Hence they do not ask for a seat at table. Ms. Roopa Kudva said that the society is slowly but surely changing and accepting women in leadership roles. She also said that there is positive correlation between the women leaders in the top management and companies success. Thats why she appealed to everybody that women should be encouraged to take the positions in the top management. She also talked about the need of reservation for the women in government as well as private sector. She feels that reservation will definitely have the long term benefits. Overall Style and Conclusion: Ms. Mallika Sarabhai was very aggressive while giving her speech and answering the questions. She had very open thoughts and it was continuously reflected through her speech. When she emphasized upon leading ourselves, she looked quite sensitive towards the society as well. She has made the difference in the lives of many people through her art and political activities. I think, this contribution itself talks about how big and successful leader she is. On the other hand, Ms. Roopa Kudva was not aggressive like Ms. Mallika Sarabhai but throughout her session, she looked very calm and composed. Like Mallika Sarabhai Ms. Roopa Kudva does not have that that much contribution in social life but her contribution in corporate sector and mainly in financial sector is immense. She has continuously encouraged and supported the women to work in the top leadership positions. This shows that she is true leader and icon for many women in this country. Thus, both the leaders were very much inspiring in their own styles and I am very much sure that they have successfully inspired not only the women but also the men who listened to them.

Ms. Meher Pudumjee, Chairperson, Thermax India

Session Overview

Meher Pudumjee, current chairperson of Thermax India shared an interesting talk with the students. She started off with three questions: Who is a leader? What is a leader? Are leaders born or made? From there on she shared her lifes journey in a very lucid manner and gave the leadership learnings she got from her journey. Following is a brief about the talk she gave:Early stages of life

Born in a business family, daughter of Anu Aga and Rohinton Aga, Meher Pudumjees childhood was full of learning from the parents. The family never differentiated between Meher and her brother, from that point only the concept of gender equality was imbibed in her. The learnings from her grandfather also helped make her the leader that she is today. Even in the presentation she began with her grandfathers message to the employees of the company. She was sent abroad for higher education.Joining Thermax at entry level in 1990

As opposed to other business families, Meher Pudamjee joined Thermax at an entry level similar to normal recruits. Training in business with 100 entry level employees was a tremendous learning experience wherein she shared that she became more humble and down to earth. These learning have helped her throughout her life and she made a very close bond with the people she worked with.Learnings in handling faltering business in UKIn 1992, Meher Pudumjee and her husband Mr. Pudumjee were sent to UK to handle a company that Thermax acquired in the past. The company was making losses and needed a complete overhaul. In UK, she was a part of only 5 member team and had to handle multiple responsibilities from HR to Operations to Marketing to Finance. She was also dealing with banks and other stakeholders in the business on her own. Hence from being an Engineer Trainee, she became a leader in 2 years time. Her key learnings in UK were multitasking and managing time, understanding cash flows and prioritizing responsibility. Assuming the role of Director Post family emergency

Meher Pudamjees father suffered heart attack in 1996 and she had to return from UK to take bigger responsibility in Thermax. Her mother took the company in her hands and Meher Pudumjee took the role of Director. She was distanced from her peers as she took on the position of Director. Late 90s was a turbulent time as market was very bad. Share price of Thermax dropped from 420 to 36 Rs but the company was happy as all the companies were suffering. The company then took a hard decision of arresting the decline and get back to old ways. Under the guidance of Anu Aga and Meher Pudumjee, Thermax approached BCG Consulting to do an internal audit. Post the audit, the need was felt to revamp the senior leadership and board of the company. This was a very hard decision to take but was taken for the greater good. Thermax also underwent organizational restructuring and left all the non-core businesses. The vision of the company was also changed.Also a decision was taken to separate ownership from management, all family members left executive positions in Thermax and took non-executive positions. This was a very hard decision to let go of the daily operations of the business. The learning here regarding leadership is, Leaders have to change with the situations, they cant be Leaders should be able to take tough decisions if they are for greater good for the company Organizational restructuring is an on-going process and required vision of leadersBecoming Chairperson of Thermax

After Anu Aga retired, Meher Pudamjee took on the position of Chairperson. As a Chairperson and a non-executive, she started seeing the larger view of the organization. She shared that being outside the daily operations of she was able to see the issues in the company more clearly and was able to act on it. The key learning here was that she always let the MD of the company be the boss and did not speak on day to day issues, this way she was able to avoid a lot of confusion. Also, all the decision she now takes are only at board level, i.e. the bigger issues only. She now helps the company in succession planning and execution. She is now heading another organizational transformation. This time they took help of McKinsey. The key things this time are leadership building, reviving innovation engine, having domestic market dominance, growing service business and selective internationalism. The company is also trying to be greener and environment friendly.

Key Leadership learnings from the journey of Meher Pudamjee

Change is inevitable and leaders have to start welcoming change Leader should have an open mind and have humility. Courage to take tough decisions Constant communications Ask for help without much hesitation Learning to manage self before others Learning to keep balance between family & businessKey Quote: Do things to express rather than impress

Comparison with Ms. Roopa Kudva

There are quite a few differences & similarities between Meher Pudamjee in the leadership style, learnings, support structure and upbringing. The key points of comparison are:Upbringing: The biggest difference between the two is the early life stages and learnings at that stage. Meher Pudamjee was born in a business family and she had her learnings mainly from her grandfather and father, whereas Roopa Kudva was born in a simple family without any business acumen.Attribution of Success: Roopa Kudva attributes her success to the superior education she had, whereas Meher Pudamjee attributes her success to the familyRole of Life Partner: Both Roopa Kudva and Meher Pudamjee agreed that for a women to be a successful leader, it is utmost important that the life partner is supportive Being a Women Leader: Roopa Kudva feels that women have to work harder than men to become successful in life due to various factors like family issues and managing home. Meher Pudamjee in her talk said that she never felt a difference between men and women in the rise to leadership. This can be attributed to her being from a business familyGender Diversity: Both the leaders however agreed that diversity in an organization matters a lot as it brings different perspective. Meher Pudamjee said that the percentage of women in Thermax is around 6% and she wants a higher number of women in the company. Roopa Kudva realized at a very early stage this point and hence the 1/3rd of the employees in Crisil are womenWomen Empowerment: In general, Roopa Kudva laid a lot of emphasis on women empowerment and women leadership in her talk. Meher Pudamjees talk was more of her lifes journey, but she also did say that women empowerment is very crucialTeam Work: Both the leaders emphasized the importance of team work, managing time and prioritizing responsibilities in shaping a leaderSuccession Planning: Thermax under the leadership of Meher Pudamjee is shaping its succession planning program currently after audit from McKinsey. Whereas, Crisil under the guidance of Roopa Kudva has been fortunate to have done the succession planning done much earlier to stay ahead of the competitionHard Decisions: We found that both the leaders have taken hard decision in their careers and feel that tough decisions shape the path to success for a leaderRoles Held: Meher Pudamjee has taken up several roles in Thermax, mainly because the situation demanded and she had to step in. Whereas, Roopa Kudva went for a role when she saw an opportunity. Though Meher Padamjee has done justice to all the roles she has been in, Roopa Kudva shows that to become a successful leader you have to seek opportunities and grab them

Prof. Indira Parikh, Founder President, FLAME (Pune) & Former Dean, IIM Ahmedabad

Opportunities will come your way; its about how you respond to it and are you prepared for itSession OverviewIntroductionProf. Indira Parikh is a well-known name amongst the academicians and students alike. She is the founding member of FLAME, which is a maverick education institute in India. She has been an esteemed faculty at IIM-A for over 30 years and was Dean of IIM-A form 2002-2005. She has specialized in organization development and design, and institution building. Journey:Prof. Indira Parikh belongs to a family which emphasizes on girl education and freedom. She is a very intelligent person, always securing 1st rank in the class. She is a kind of person who is passionate about accepting challenges and considers every challenge as an opportunity and her simple philosophy is anything you learn is important. She accepted almost all the opportunities presented to her during her journey and worked hard to achieve success. There were a few situations where she did not completely agree with her familys decisions, like jumping class from 7th to metric or getting married at an early age, but she accepted her familys wishes. After her marriage to a scientist, she moved to Chicago with her husband. There she joined college for higher studies. After her first enrolment in college Prof. Parikh never looked back. Wherever she went - be it USA, Denmark etc. she continued with her learning. Education/learning has been an integral part of her life and in a way, she has dedicated her life to it. She constantly received support and motivation from her husband for the same.Once back to India she enrolled herself as a research associate at IIM-A. Life at IIM-A as a research associate was not easy as she remembered it. At IIM-A, she fought for her rights and her arrogant but just attitude helped her going forward. After her stint at IIM-A, Prof. Parikh went to INSEAD to take up higher education. But, based on her capabilities, instead of offering courses INSEAD offered her an opportunity to teach. Without thinking twice she grabbed the opportunity and thus started her career in teaching. When Prof. Indira returned to India she joined IIM-A as a faculty member. During her stint at IIM she took up many challenging roles. She became the chairman of the PHD program at IIM-A and took up the challenging task of redefining PHD program, though she was not the first choice for the job. She also had the honor of being selected as the Dean of the most esteemed management institute IIM-A from year 2002-2005. After her retirement from IIM-A, an another very big opportunity - to start a pioneering educational institute in India- came her way, to which, of course, she said Yes. Prof. Indira took up the challenge and built the first ever liberal education institute in India FLAME (Foundation for Liberal and Management Education). Based on her experience in Education (Abroad and India), she designed the whole program with emphasis on individual learning.During her whole journey Prof. Indira Parikh was always very close to her family. She took all the challenges positively and had respect for what she did and what she stood for. During her international stints she always held her country in high regards and never let go off her roots, the roots which had helped her scale to the position she deserved. About her personal life she thinks that she could have given more time to her child but she says that her family members, friends and her husband helped her immensely in her journey of life.View on Indian Education System: She believes that the Indian pedagogy is much better in a sense that we are more connected with mathematics and science than the western world. But, the western world is much better at presentation, documentation and implementation. She feels that Indians need to learn the art of documentation. She emphasizes on the sensitive subjects of politics in education and how it has withheld Indian researchers. Her attitude is positive towards the situation and she is sure that we will march ahead if all of us have a modest amount of self-respect in each one of us.She also explains how culturally we are bound to with-hold education as it is a scarce resource in India. Having said that, she sees a ray of hope in attitude amongst all Indians who respect and worship education more than anything else. Conclusion: It is a very enlightening and inspiring journey of Prof. Parikh which gives us a perspective about how we can be the masters of our life and lead it the way which will satisfy us. You must know your culture, you must know your country, and you will be respected more in foreign land if you will respect your country instead of criticizing.

Comparison with Ms. Roopa KudvaFamily Background: Both Ms. Roopa and Prof. Indira came from families that strongly support education and that made a strong foundation for them and helped them to become what they are today. Both of them have life partners who completely support them and motivate them to achieve whatever they want.Career: Both Ms. Roopa and Prof. Indira have excellent educational background but chose two different paths to develop their career. One is helping building a talent pool of leaders and other is working with them to groom and develop them as future leaders.After completing her graduation, Ms. Roopa joined IIM A to pursue the PGDM. After completing her PGDM, she started her career with IDBI. Since then she has been associated with banking sector. It can be said that her career path in initial years was very much structured.On the other hand, Prof. Indira chose to be associated with education sector, be it graduating from different colleges across the world or teaching across different platforms or redefining the PHD program of one of the best colleges in the country or starting a new pioneer institution itself.

Leadership Style: As many other similarities between the two leaders, their leadership styles too have many similarities. Both of them strongly believe in more women participation in all the fields and fighting for their rights. Both of them believe in grabbing the opportunities that come their way and they have taken up challenging jobs that not many wanted to take up, and probably that has defined their career path so far.Apart from the similarities, they also have differences in shaping their career. Ms. Roopa kudva has shaped her career path since very beginning. She is more authoritative and commanding in terms of taking challenges and also asking for a seat at the table as a reward for the hard work she has put in. On the other hand Prof. Indira is much more considerate and gets satisfied with whatever opportunity comes her way. She never says NO to a challenge and accepts it as an opportunity. She is not title conscious and work to whatever extent she can contribute to the institution.

Ms. Kiran Mazumdar Shaw, Chairperson & MD, Biocon Limited

The last formal session of the Leadership Lecture Series, a part of the academic course Leadership and Vision at SJMSOM, IIT Bombay saw the participation of Ms. Kiran Mazumdar Shaw, Chairperson and Managing Director of Biocon Limited. Being one of the first women entrepreneurs in the country, her session enlightened us on the issues, challenges and opportunities for an entrepreneur in India. She also highlighted the eternal dilemma faced by every entrepreneur of being a pioneer or a follower.Session Overview

Education

Ms. Kiran Mazumdar Shaw has a Masters degree in malting and brewing from Ballarat College of Advanced Education, Australia. She started her career as a trainee brewer in Carlton & United Beverages, Melbourne in 1974. Later on, she worked as a trainee manager with Biocon Biochemicals Ltd. in Ireland. Her education led to her fascination with fermentation science and gave her the idea of using it for enzyme making. Hence, in 1978, she started Biocon and led its evolution from an industrial enzymes manufacturing company to a fully integrated bio-pharmaceutical company with a well-balanced business portfolio of products and a research focus on diabetes, oncology and auto-immune diseases.She also established two subsidiaries: Syngene (1994) to provide development support services as an outsourcing firm for discovery research and Clinigene (2000) to cater to clinical development services.The Biocon journey: She spoke about her initial struggles of being a woman entrepreneur. The funds were scarce and she started her first office in Bangalore in a garage. The banks were reluctant to give her a loan as they considered her to be high risk. But her drive to leverage her knowledge of science to create social impact kept her going through these tough times. She answered the dilemma of being a pioneer or a follower by saying that most of the startups today are pioneers as they are trading an uncharted territory. Being a pioneer or a follower is also dependent on ones risk appetite. In the initial years, Biocon developed a series of innovative enzymes catering to a wide spectrum of industries ranging from textiles to fruit and vegetables to alcohol for twenty years. The new technology was more expensive but lesser polluting than the other technologies. Indian environmental laws, however, were really lax in those days. It, thus, proved to be an uphill task to convince the companies to adapt to these new technologies and hence business growth was relatively slow. For a long time, she ran a small but profitable business.

Shift to Biopharmaceuticals:

Ms. Shaw got a chance to reinvent herself in 1999 when she decided to shift focus from enzyme to biopharmaceuticals. This shift allowed her to become a differentiator in Insulin making technology. This shift was not easy as enzymes were considered to be low risk with low regulatory hurdles. Biopharma, on the other hand, was considered to be high risk marred with many regulatory hurdles. The company went public after some time and the next step was focused on developing the skill sets. In 2007, she was faced with the difficult decision of divesting the enzyme business. She advised the audience to be unemotional while making hard business decisions and check if the business was adding value to the organization overall. She used the money from divesting the enzyme business in growing the biopharma business more robustly.Key Leadership takeaways from the journey Her leadership motto has always been leading with a social conscience. This is clearly bought out in the innovations by Biocon that have significantly lowered the cost of healthcare treatment in the country. She believes in the power of disruptive technology and advises that businesses should use it as a differentiator to get a competitive edge. One important piece of advice given by her to the future managers was to become unemotional while making hard decisions. Her leadership style has been focusing on leading and differentiating that brings her satisfaction, fulfillment and happiness. She considers herself to be an ordinary woman who had a passion and a dream. She also believes that there is a leader in all of us and True leaders can come from any walk of lifethey are visionary individuals with purpose, perseverance, and a plan for change. They know that leadership is not about control but about being able to inspire people with values and vision. They know that leadership is all about making a difference to society.

Key Quote: Leading with a social conscience

Comparison with Ms. Roopa KudvaThe following section will illustrate a detailed comparison of both the leaders based on a number of diverse factors such as their leadership styles, sources of motivation and challenges of being one of the few women at the top in the corporate world.Upbringing and education: Ms. Roopa Kudva attributed her hard working nature to her small town upbringing. Her formal business education at IIM A exposed her to various tools that changed her thought process. She also got to learn a lot from peer exposure. She worked in IDBI for 6 years and build up complete foundation on analysis of companies before joining CRISIL. Ms. Roopa Kudva with her small town upbringing and a formal degree in business thus contrasts Ms. Shaw who was born and brought up in Bangalore but had no formal education about business. Challenges: Ms. Kudvas journey had comparatively lesser number of challenges as compared to Ms. Kiran Mazumdar Shaw. Attribution of Success: Both women, however, contribute hard work and having a sense of purpose as the major causes behind their success in life. Views on innovation and entrepreneurship: Ms. Shaw believes that entrepreneurs are job creators and not job seekers which is very critical to reduce the unemployment in the country. She also highlighted the multiplier effect that Biocon has had on creation of employment opportunities and thus has managed to touch a number of lives in the country. She advises Indian entrepreneurs to see challenges as opportunities for innovation. She gave the example of Tata Nano in this respect. She stated that India has a large number of opportunities in form of major challenges in the field of healthcare, education etc. She saw the major unmet demand for a green technology for enzyme production as an opportunity to use fermentation processes which would be less polluting. Ms. Roopa kudva also highlighted the growing importance of innovation in the world. The nature of innovation however has changed, she stated. She said a lot of innovation in the world in happening because of increased emphasis on teamwork.Being a Women Leader: Ms. Kiran Mazumdar Shaw had to face challenges early in her life when Biocon was just starting up as nobody wanted to work under a woman. Ms. Roopa Kudva also feels that women leaders have more challenges due to various factors like family issues and managing home.

Women Empowerment: Ms. Kiran Mazumdar Shaw spoke of SEWA, which is an organization of poor, self-employed women workers. Ms. Roopa Kudva too believed in the women empowerment at workplace by providing them essential mentors and sponsors.

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