Month: March 2021

On the occasion of International Women’s Day 2021, Yotta is proud to celebrate women power, by putting the spotlight on exceptional women who have made a mark for themselves, either as a Business or IT Leader.

Recognizing their effort of excelling in their chosen fields, converting every obstacle into opportunities, and assuming leadership roles in their respective organizations, we are delighted to feature some of the leading Women Leaders of India Inc. who chose to follow their passion and dreams and today, they have truly become an inspiration and mentors for many aspiring women professionals.

As these women leaders set examples before the society and the world at large, let’s get to know more about their growth journey.

“I don’t feel anyone else can influence your growth. It is up to us to make a mark for ourselves and not expect the society or anyone else to give you any special privileges. Only skillset, performance, and attitude should be the benchmark for hiring and not gender or diversity.”

Aneesha Pant
CTO, YES Securities

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“I do not believe women shy away from any challenge, let alone that of managing technology. With so many calls on their time, prioritising is logical and unfortunately, technology operations tend to be very demanding across a 24×7 cycle.”

Annie Mathew
CIO, Mother Dairy

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“While a female leader has to face a lot of challenges, there are numerous ways to overcome them. We need to focus on finding ways to eliminate obstacles rather than wasting time on reactions”

Binita Prasad
Head – IT, Sany Heavy Industry India Pvt. Ltd.

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“Culture of inclusiveness and diversity comes from a common goal. And every obstacle has an opportunity hidden in it. If you can overcome the obstacle by providing an acceptable solution that cannot be discarded easily, then your progress is assured.”

Deena Mehta
MD, Asit C. Mehta Investment Intermediates Ltd.

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“The secret sauce to success is a blend of passion and dedication. If women are passionate about their work, they can reach to any kind of leadership role.”

Glory Nelson
Chief People & Tech Strategy Officer, Xebia

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“Organisations with greater workplace diversity achieve better results, as women lead with empathy and make better and faster decisions that give companies a serious competitive edge.“

Jijy Oommen
BFSI Technology Leader

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“Women need to play to the strength of their own skillset, instead of matching the style of their male counterparts. If you are offered a new role or a challenge, do not underestimate your competencies or get tentative about your eligibility – see learning as part of the job.”

Mehjabeen Taj Aalam
Technology Head – Digital & Customer Engagements, Tata Capital

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“It is a well-known and accepted fact that women bring diversity in skills as well as higher Empathy and Ethics Quotient. We, as women, have been gifted with unique qualities that make our lives, workplace, and the world a better place. Go, use these qualities abundantly.”

Priti Rathi Gupta
MD, Anand Rathi Shares and Stock Brokers Ltd., and Founder, LXME

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“My success can be attributed to being passionate about what I do, attention to details, and proper planning. Women professionals need to work without expecting special treatment and deliver results like any other colleague. The recognition will be purely on merit basis.”

Ritu Madbhavi,
Group CIO, FCB Ulka Advertising

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Q. As a Woman Leader, how challenging has it been for you to succeed in your chosen field?

Surprisingly, I have never experienced gender bias of any kind. The challenges that I have faced are similar to any other male colleague. Given the dynamic nature and the speed at which technology has been evolving, one has to keep abreast with the latest developments in the IT field and identify ways to fit technology to your organisational needs.

Q. How have you been able to convert obstacles in your career path into opportunities?

My success can be attributed to being passionate about what I do, attention to details, and proper planning.

Q. Tech industry is dominated by male leaders. How women can excel, assume leadership roles, and make a mark for themselves?

Again, I would like to emphasise that I personally have never experienced gender bias. I do feel that women workforce has to stop thinking of the women versus men comparison. They just need to work without expecting special treatment and deliver results as any other colleague. The recognition will be purely on merit basis.

Q. How can we create a culture of inclusiveness and diversity at a workplace?

I think there is a need to develop a culture of tolerance and empathy. It is extremely important to make people comfortable at a workplace. As a leader, you should be approachable, and your team members should feel comfortable discuss anything with you.

Q. Any interesting anecdote that you would like to share that has inspired or kept you motivated in your career?

Many moons ago, after my son was born, I was freelancing and doing corporate IT training. Almost 2 decades after that, a CIO walked up to me in a conference and said that he had attended my training sessions, basis on which he was promoted to the position of the CIO. It was a very special moment for me.

Q. Which is one woman personality you admire the most and why? Your message to the aspiring Women Leaders?

Rather than naming a famous personality, I want to give an example of a friend. She lost her father at a young age and was brought up by her mother who did odd catering jobs to make ends meet. Unfortunately, soon after marriage she lost her husband and found herself in a difficult position of supporting her old mother and young daughter.

Leveraging her mother’s contacts and cooking skills, she started a catering business, gave her daughter a good education, and sent her abroad for higher studies. Today, she runs a flourishing business and has a team under her. She is a living example of a woman who beat all odds and succeeded in life.

My message to aspiring women leaders is that please look ahead calmly and plan meticulously. Do not get discouraged by the difficulty that life throws at you. Carve your own path.

“My success can be attributed to being passionate about what I do, attention to details, and proper planning. Women professionals need to work without expecting special treatment and deliver results like any other colleague. The recognition will be purely on merit basis.”

“I do not believe women shy away from any challenge, let alone that of managing technology. With so many calls on their time, prioritising is logical and unfortunately, technology operations tend to be very demanding across a 24×7 cycle.  

For women to succeed in any field, a support ecosystem that recognises their unique challenges is essential. When women work against subconscious conditioning and believe that their careers are as critical, they will co-opt their family and extended network into being their partners in this journey.

Traditionally, women tend to be more self-sacrificing and likely to give up their aspirations for the perceived larger good. Millennials seem to be challenging these mindsets and it is only a matter of time before women step up to claim their right not only to education but also to a fulfilling career.”

Q. As a Woman Leader, how challenging has it been for you to succeed in your chosen field?

Financial services is a male-dominated field, where the incumbent service providers and large majority of the users are men. Amongst the businesses, that I set up and led, Commodity Futures, was a “men-only” and largely unorganised sector. This has been by far my biggest challenge, as going to Agricultural Mandis by a woman was quite an exception.

Professional success can be achieved by passion, hard work, building the right skills, and self-belief. And women need a double dose of all these to succeed professionally. Shattering a glass ceiling is not just a phrase.

Q. How have you been able to convert obstacles in your career path into opportunities?

“Obstacles do not block the path; they create the Path”.

I believe all successful businesses are built on the back of a unique problem that they solve. When you see the world through this lens, then obstacles look like opportunities. Being a woman in this domain gave me the advantage of designing products and services for the underserved category. Lxme, a financial platform for women, was born out of the latent need that a woman could only identify.

As a woman, I have also got the opportunity to represent my organisation on various business boards, councils, and associations. It is now a well-known and accepted fact that women bring diversity in skills and higher Empathy and Ethics Quotient.

Q. Tech industry is dominated by male leaders. How women can excel, assume leadership roles, and make a mark for themselves?

Women in Tech is now a rising phenomenon. To further propel it, these are a few steps that should be taken:

1. Women should mentor and create diversity in the teams they lead.
2. Gender equality in any field is a conversation that must include men too. The fact that women bring along with the required aptitudes, emotional intelligence even in the products that we build is a marked differentiator. Men in leadership positions should strive for gender diversity to enhance quality as well as productivity.
3. Women in this field need to constantly work on two areas, Upskilling and Networking. Finding time for these is a must.

Q. How can we create a culture of inclusiveness and diversity at a workplace?

The following has worked for me while building organisations:

The first step is for organisations to recognise the enormous benefits that inclusivity and diversity bring to the business. Innovation, holistic customer service, and product designing are some outcomes that add to the bottom line of the company.

The cultural ethos of any organisation flows from the top and should percolate right to the bottom rung of the organisation. Leadership and executive teams should be created with diversity in gender, religious, race, and age.

Honouring and acknowledging varied employee needs, cultural and religious practices are effective HR tools that any business can incorporate. Respect and equality are non-negotiable protocols.

Building effective and clear communication channels to make the workplace safe and harmonious have always helped.

Building a multi-generational workforce keeps the organisation agile and evolving, particularly in creating diversity. The young are always more idealistic. For the millennials and the Gen Z, equality is a given norm.

Q. Which is one woman personality you admire the most and why? Your message to the aspiring Women Leaders?

Sheryl Sandberg is on top of the list. A woman in Tech, with an innate sense of empathy, who has created a woman-to-woman peer organisation.

To aspiring women leaders, I would like to say that nothing is perfect, but imperfection is an opportunity. We, as women, have been gifted with unique qualities that make our lives, workplace, and world a better place. Go, use these qualities abundantly.

“It is a well-known and accepted fact that women bring diversity in skills as well as higher Empathy and Ethics Quotient. We, as women, have been gifted with unique qualities that make our lives, workplace, and the world a better place. Go, use these qualities abundantly.”

Q. As a Woman Leader, how challenging has it been for you to succeed in your chosen field?

For a working woman, career challenges are manifold. While some are gender driven, some are gender agnostic. We face many stereotypes and unconscious biases which tend to overlook our true potential and talent. Be it the Glass Ceiling, the Sticky Floor, the wage gap at work, or the leisure gap at home – you name it, we have lived it. Our success lies in how we deal with any situation. We can either fight it or make the limitations work for us.

Taking personal responsibility of my dreams and aspirations have always served me well. I operate from the belief that my dreams are no one else’s obligation but mine. When you process things that way, you work in a far more constructive manner. Instead of getting defensive and emotional, staying calm and focused will help you achieve more. I have always found it more beneficial to a create a common ground with challenging people and situation, rather than allowing them to hold me back. And this has repeatedly helped me in creating a cohesive and nurturing ecosystem for myself and others.

Q. How have you been able to convert obstacles in your career path into opportunities?

Before Alice got to wonderland, she had to fall. Tough things will happen. Don’t crib, work out a solution. And seek help wherever necessary. I have always believed that there is no lack of support out there, just a shortage of asking for help.

One of my greatest professional challenges has been to break out of the boxes people naturally want to place you in. Whenever I took upon new challenges or entered new domains, I surrounded myself with subject matter experts, creating a personal network of advisors or mentors. Depending upon where I was in the learning continuum, I connected at different levels, may it be with my colleagues, bosses, cross-functional peers, or even juniors. This ensured that I had the appropriate context and understanding of my job.

Getting comfortable with change is another important lesson I have learnt over the years. Being in the ever so dynamic and fast paced IT industry, the only constant we deal with is change. You can never afford to rest on your laurels. Just because you did something well in the past does not mean the future owes you anything. You need to work hard and prove yourself at all stages of your career.

Through my work I try to position myself as reliable and trustworthy. For women, given their family and social dynamics, this is the most important attribute that an organisation looks for before it can entrust you with additional responsibility. Stick around, become dependable, manage ambiguity. When employers start relying on you, they tend to discriminate less.

Q. Tech industry is dominated by male leaders. How women can excel, assume leadership roles, and make a mark for themselves?

As a technologist in the finance domain, I have noticed a smaller number of women representation and women leadership. Women employees represent a fair share of the overall workforce but there is a serious dearth of leadership opportunities for them. There are many factors at play for this shrinking women population as we go up the hierarchies, and the gap only becomes starker as we move into the STEM fields. This under representation of women in the technical fields is attributable to our social conditioning and stereotyping that provides a very non-conducive environment for growth.

Women need to play to the strength of their own skillset instead of matching the style of their male counterparts. If you are offered a new role or a challenge, do not underestimate your competencies or get tentative about your eligibility – see learning as part of the job.

Network. Perhaps the most destructive result of the work/family balancing act is that it leaves very little time for socialising and building professional networks. However, daunting it may seem, you need to make time for it as you grow in your career.

Give back. We rise by lifting others. Support people, encourage them, and celebrate their success. Real leadership comes when people like you and want to work with you.

Q. How can we create a culture of inclusiveness and diversity at a workplace?

While explicit gender bias has largely disappeared from the workplace due to tougher legislation and increased focus on diversity issues, implicit biases are still rampant. To tackle these, an organisation needs to integrate inclusivity in its core values starting right from inclusive recruitment strategies.

It’s not just the responsibility of men to help women overcome these roadblocks, but also of other women. Especially women at the top need to extend their hand and help pull up other women too. It makes a big difference when there are women at the top.

Q. Any interesting anecdote that you would like to share that has inspired or kept you motivated in your career?

I once read this life maxim in a book and it got etched in my memory forever – “People will forget what you did for them or gave them, but they will never forget how you made them feel.” Much later in life I realised that this quote was based on a famous quote from the civil right activist Maya Angelou whose own quote apparently was a close paraphrase of a quote attributed to Carl Beuhner – both however focusing primarily on one idea that people can forget a lot of things, but they cannot and will not forget how you make them feel.

Though the relevance of this idea extends to all the people with whom we interact, but in my own experience, I have seen the phenomenal constructive effect it has on relationships with our teams, professional counterparts, and seniors. We may not always agree with each other and from time to time, we are bound to have sub-optimal experiences, but we can always make those around us feel that we understand and respect them. And not just during people’s lows, but even during their highs – supporting and encouraging them, celebrating their success, goes a long way. We rise by lifting others.

Q. Which is one woman personality you admire the most and why? Your message to the aspiring Women Leaders?

I get exhilarated when I see a woman standing up and doing her thing. As I live and continue to get inspired from such women, I dream of a world where more women would be celebrated for their success and leadership.

Remember, your dreams are no one else’s obligation. If you want it, you are responsible for getting it. Assume that responsibility. The world won’t always be fair, and many won’t play by the rules.  But that’s part of the deal. Whatever will make you uncomfortable will be your biggest opportunity for growth.

“Women need to play to the strength of their own skillset, instead of matching the style of their male counterparts. If you are offered a new role or a challenge, do not underestimate your competencies or get tentative about your eligibility – see learning as part of the job.”

Q. As a Woman Leader, how challenging has it been for you to succeed in your chosen field? 

The technology leadership role, especially in the financial services industry, is extremely demanding, regardless of gender. You are thrown with new challenges every single day and it is up to you to either get bogged down or leverage them as stepping-stones that help you grow stronger. I chose the second path. This needs a lot of courage and resilience, which one should consciously work on building as a personal strength.

Q. Tech industry is dominated by male leaders. How women can excel, assume leadership roles, and make a mark for themselves?

True. The absolute number of women in the technology leadership space is very few. It is mainly for two reasons – one being very few women take up technology as their mainstream career choice; and secondly, many couldn’t stick to it and grow beyond certain stage.

Unlike many other professions, this is a 24×7 role as the technology being a key enabler for most businesses. And since it is constantly evolving, one has to learn, unlearn and again learn endlessly. Women by nature come with many family responsibilities that can become a lot tougher when you are at the peak of your career, where you got to juggle between personal priorities and professional aspirations.

Here, you need to work on building a strong support system around you consciously. Frankly speaking, it wasn’t easy for me too to navigate through that phase of life.

Q. How can we create a culture of inclusiveness and diversity at a workplace?

According to statistics, the women workforce participation in India is less than 20% whilst the women count is 48% of our country’s overall population. However, we see a huge surge in gender diversity in the IT workforce and a recent survey reported that 34% of the tech workforce in India is women, and most are below 30 years of age.

Retaining and growing the talents require the organisations to build the right environment for women to work and grow so that they can reach middle and senior management roles.

Time and again, it has been proved that organisations with greater workplace diversity achieve better results, as women lead with empathy and make better decisions faster, which gives organisations a serious competitive edge. As a result, companies with diversity in the workplace achieve better business results.

Q. Which is one woman personality you admire the most and why? Your message to the aspiring Women Leaders?

I admire all women who walked the path that many haven’t been before and some of the names coming top of my mind are Ms. Sudha Murti, Ms. Kamala Harris and Ms. Indra Nooyi who have created unique identities for themselves.

My message to the aspiring Women Leaders – Decide for yourself who you are and what you want to do in life. Don’t give up in the mid-way. Your passion and endurance will help you achieve your goals and realise all your dreams.

Happy Women’s Day!

“Organisations with greater workplace diversity achieve better results, as women lead with empathy and make better and faster decisions that give companies a serious competitive edge. We need to build the right environment for women to work and grow in their professional lives.”

Q. As a Woman Leader, how challenging has it been for you to succeed in your chosen field?

Challenges are part of your life. If you never fail in tough situation, you will never learn to be resilient. Women face many challenges while climbing corporate ladder – juggling between professional and personal lives, and sometimes personal aspects take precedence over professional aspirations.

In a nutshell, a woman in a leadership position is at the fulcrum of multiple see-saw and wears multiple hats, which sometimes become a very difficult balancing act. I have been fortunate enough to have very strong support of family and friends around me, who have immensely helped me in walking this tight rope.

Q. How have you been able to convert obstacles in your career path into opportunities?

In my experience, obstacles in your path are the medium to explore multiple solutions of a problem and help you in choosing the right and best one. Being in corporate world for last so many years, I have learnt the art of converting challenges into opportunities by following a simple mantra.

Whenever I am in a tough situation, I never lose focus of the end goal, and try to be calm. I always analyse the situation with bottom-up approach and think of ways to resolve it. Sometimes, I have also involved people around me, as many times they bring in different perspective to the problem.

Once you transform obstacles into opportunities you emerge out stronger, positive, and become a solution-oriented person.

Q. Tech industry is dominated by male leaders. How women can excel, assume leadership roles, and make a mark for themselves?

If you are passionate about your work, you can excel in anything you do. The secret sauce to success is a blend of passion and dedication. If women are passionate about their work, they can reach to any kind of leadership role. If we have more women role models, it will break the stereotype of dominance of male leaders in the tech industry.

However, workplaces are becoming more diverse and inclusive and organisations are trying to build the gender gap at leadership positions. More the number of females at leadership positions, the company policies will become more accommodating towards the need of women which will provide them the right kind of leverage considering multiple responsibilities they juggle at home in addition to those in the office.

Q. How can we create a culture of inclusiveness and diversity at a workplace?

To create a diverse and inclusive culture, we need to believe in the philosophy of diversity and inclusiveness. We should respect and celebrate differences in age, gender, background, and experience. The diverse workplace helps us in getting different and fresh perspectives, better teamwork, and different types of problem-solving techniques. It also helps the team to take a balanced approach in handling various situations in current hyper competitive environment.

At workplace, we should educate our people and spread awareness so that everyone understands its importance and creates a healthy work environment. The benefits of diversity and inclusiveness should be percolated amongst people through various capacity building campaigns via various channels such as digital media, print media, and through people-to-people interactions.

Also, another factor that is instrumental in creating a diverse and inclusive team is to have a set target for each year. This goal will help us in building an equilibrium and create a meaningful and diverse ecosystem.

Q. Any interesting anecdote that you would like to share that has inspired or kept you motivated in your career?

I have had a long career and have seen ups and downs in my professional journey. There have been many instances where the situation was tough and unclear, and I was in a desperate position to make things work. The story of David and Goliath has always inspired me in such situations. David was a small boy in the eyes of Goliath but he had the courage, conviction, and that he will be able to overcome Goliath. With the same conviction and quick action, he was able to win the battle. This has always inspired to stay motivated and remain calm and fearless while taking the right decisions to move further in my career and achieve goals.

Q. Which is the one-woman personality you admire the most and why? Your message to the aspiring Women Leaders?

I have been lucky to have met a lot of inspiring people in my personal and professional lives. But one person who stands tallest amongst all has been my Mother. She is a science teacher in a government school and has worked tirelessly and selflessly for so many years. She has tremendous respect for her job and worked extremely hard to ensure her students pass exams with flying colors.

As there were no target or rewards prevalent in those days, she had set her own targets to get more students pass on her subjects. She has always worked to devise innovative ways, such as giving rewards and constructing frameworks to encourage students so that they are motivated to work hard. Even today, I meet a lot of her students or parents who tell anecdotes about my mother’s passion for teaching which has helped shape life of so many kids including those from underprivileged background.

My message to all aspiring women leaders is that passion and respect for your work is key ingredient for success for a sustained period of time. Life is a marathon and not a sprint. It is critical to have above attributes to complete the marathon successfully. We operate in a very competitive and uncertain environment and without passion, it will be very difficult to sustain as we women do the difficult task of juggling between personal and professional responsibilities.

“The secret sauce to success is a blend of passion and dedication. If women are passionate about their work, they can reach to any kind of leadership role. If we have more women role models, it will break the stereotype of dominance of male leaders in the tech industry.”

Q. As a Woman Leader, how challenging has it been for you to succeed in your chosen field?

While there are plenty of challenges one has to face as a female leader, there are numerous ways to overcome them. For a leadership role, one has to have a mix of strong traits, ambitions, and skills, which I believe any man or woman can hold.

Q. How have you been able to convert obstacles in your career path into opportunities?

One needs to focus on finding ways to eliminate obstacles rather than wasting time on reactions. Our response and reactions in the form of actions can only create opportunities. And it gets applied across gender.

Q. Tech industry is dominated by male leaders. How women can excel, assume leadership roles, and make a mark for themselves?

Competency & Emotional Intelligence, which I believe are in-built in women, help us create a mark for ourselves.

Q. How can we create a culture of inclusiveness and diversity at a workplace?

We should appoint more and more female workforce. I am sure the best of the lot will one day assume a leadership role in the organisation.

Q. Any interesting anecdote that you would like to share that has inspired or kept you motivated in your career?

‘To Work under equal Evaluation Parameters & Skill Competency of any Male Leader – is my career motivation.

Q. Which is one woman personality you admire the most and why? Your message to the aspiring Women Leaders?

Sudha Murthy is the one-woman personality that inspires me to lead a simple life and listen to my conscience. My message is that the beauty of a person lies in simplicity and serving mankind.

“While a female leader has to face a lot of challenges, there are numerous ways to overcome them. We need to focus on finding ways to eliminate obstacles rather than wasting time on reactions. Our response and reactions in the form of actions can only create opportunities.”

Q. As a Woman Leader, how challenging has it been for you to succeed in your chosen field?

I have been blessed, right from my first job where I got to work in a small subsidiary, which was part of a large organisation with just 2 of us managing the IT setup. Co-incidentally, both of us were females in an otherwise male dominated field. During this period of late 90’s, we witnessed a lot of developments in the IT field, and with emails and internet being new concepts, I learnt a lot and had an exciting 10 years in that organisation.

Q. How have you been able to convert obstacles in your career path into opportunities?

The exposure of starting from a small setup and getting hands dirty in all aspects of technology really helped. There were days where we struggled with performance issues, migrations, and had to spend days and nights in the office to get things right and ensure no impact on business. I have always strived to identify the issues and make sure they are permanently fixed. Setting up IT infra from scratch, getting involved in new business units, and managing ups and downs of IT infra setup – all these have been a great learning bed and opportunity for me to grow.

Q. Tech industry is dominated by male leaders. How women can excel, assume leadership roles, and make a mark for themselves?

I have never really thought about it since it’s not been an impediment in my growth. There have been situations where I may have not pushed for growth due to personal or family priorities, but I don’t feel anyone else can influence your growth. It is up to us to make a mark for ourselves and not expect the society or anyone else to give you any special privileges.

Q. How can we create a culture of inclusiveness and diversity at a workplace?

Only skillset, performance, and attitude should be the benchmark for hiring and not gender or diversity.

Q. Any interesting anecdote that you would like to share that has inspired or kept you motivated in your career?

I get a lot of cold calls and marketing emails addressed as Aneesh. I believe people still have a conception that since it is a CTO position, a male would be holding this position. Hence, most of the time, I automatically get addressed as Mr. Aneesh or Mr. Pant.

Q. Which is one woman personality you admire the most and why? Your message to the aspiring Women Leaders?

Well, I admire a lot of women personalities. Having said that, my first reporting manager was a female and I learnt a lot from her.

“I don’t feel anyone else can influence your growth. It is up to us to make a mark for ourselves and not expect the society or anyone else to give you any special privileges. Only skillset, performance, and attitude should be the benchmark for hiring and not gender or diversity.”