This Women’s day, MediaNews4U.Com is acknowledging women leaders of the Media, Marketing, Broadcast and Advertising fraternity who have given more than expected.
In this segment, Aditi Handa, Sathya Ramaganapathy, Vaishnavi Rangarajan, Sylvia Hii, Sonica Aron, Meghna Mittal, Malika Kamboj, Ankur Dahiya share their experiences as Entrepreneurs and breaking the gender stereotypes and how she continues to inspire many other women who are true leaders in the making.
Aditi Handa – Founder – Bakers Dozen
Journey
My journey with The Baker’s Dozen has been a very exciting one full of drama. It began with me falling in love with bread and wanting to make an honest, humble loaf of bread for my fellow Mumbai Kars. We have always been blessed with customer love for our product and service. However my role goes so much beyond just baking bread but all other aspects of running a business. This entails operational stability, hiring and training staff, concentrating heavily on business development. The most difficult part has been to ensure profitability and sustainability since we are self-funded and boot strapped. After almost being 9 years into the business today we have a presence across 25 cities in India, a very dearly loved product and sustainable path to growth.
Inspiration & Inspiring the team
My father has always been my mentor, my guide, my inspiration when it comes to the principles of business and my own time management. However, today I feel The Baker’s Dozen success is on the back of the product. The quality and perfection of the product right from the choice of selecting the ingredient to the SOP’s we follow regarding manufacturing and hygiene are driven by my mother. As time has passed by and I have evolved with added responsibilities of being a baker, being an entrepreneur, a wife and most importantly a mother. My inspiration to do justice to these roles comes from the100+ female employees we have in our team. Their dedication to their work and families inspires me to do better myself every day.
Empowerment of Women
I have been raised in a family surrounded by brothers and am an only girl child. Whilst growing up I was never made to feel any different than my brothers. We were all treated equally in terms of the good and the bad. There were equal expectations from all including when it came to building our careers. Nothing was handed on a silver platter and we had to carve our own path and grab the opportunities we had. I feel women don’t need any special treatment, treat us the same as our counterparts and we will flourish and outshine most others. This is the philosophy we follow at The Baker’s Dozen too. We have female employees across all departments and different skills sets. They are not slotted only in packaging or sales, you will find them doing the heavylifting in production, in business development, in finance, supply chain, etc.
Sathya Ramaganapathy- Vice President Marketing – Shoptimize
Journey
Every individual’s journey is unique to them. Some follow linear paths, while others meander; each is interesting in its own way. As long as you are learning, evolving and growing, it’s all good. My journey has been incredible and rewarding. And it feels so good to see that I’ve managed to carve out a considerable niche for myself in this highly competitive market.
Inspiration & Inspiring the team
My greatest inspiration comes from the women leaders who have paved the way for us all. Also, the younger generation is so inspiring in their clarity of thought and the bold and fearless way they chase their dreams. Above all, my team is my most valuable asset and greatest strength, and our relationship is based on trust that inspires my employees. Apart from that, I ensure they get an opportunity to learn and progress.
Empowerment of Women
Former US President Barack Obama once said, “Empowering women isn’t just the right thing to do—it’s the smart thing to do.” Empowering women will make them feel confident and remove their hesitations, allowing them to do whatever they desire. Thus, I believe the equal opportunity for women in the workforce, inclusive workplace policies, cultural shift in mind-set will result in a more supportive and encouraging family/society.
Vaishnavi Rangarajan – Co-Founder & CEO – The Nestery
Journey
My own journey is quite astounding and actually quite full of learnings. I’m a first-generation entrepreneur. I’ve always had wonderful, strong female role models, even while growing up. My moms, my aunt, also in my extended family, people have been working women, but nobody in entrepreneurship. So that was one journey that I had to make on my own. And after becoming an entrepreneur I realized what, you know, I’ve always heard statistics like, you know, nearly 2% of VC money goes towards female-founded startups, consumer tech startups being the like of consumer tech startups that actually raise funding are female-led. I never really believe that because I was always surrounded by strong women as I said, and I was working in a business where the majority of the brands that we work with are female. But the absolute stark reality which I am more recently agreeing with is that it is a huge gap. I have been in rooms and mixers where there were 60 startups of which they were exactly 2 women in the room. I have been part of conversations where being part of an accelerator program that supports women founders was looked at by a VC as they perform CSR activities. So I have basically seen all of that by the majority of the ecosystem is very supportive, but I’ve also seen the other side. So that’s the sum of it but my entrepreneurial journey itself has been quite long. It’s been highs, lows. It’s just been wonderful. I wouldn’t trade it for anything else
Inspiration & Inspiring the team
Like I said, the women in my life including my mom, my aunt, my grandmothers were like the epitome of willpower, my co-founder Aparna inspires me every single day, I aspire to be like her in terms of everything that she does. So we also I basically draw inspiration from the women around me and from the women on whose shoulders that I stand on. I seek to inspire my team by being honest and authentic, I feel like that’s very underrated in today’s world. It’s not about actively trying to be motivating or inspiring, but sometimes being honest and authentic and being vulnerable is how I choose to inspire my team.
Empowerment of Women
Women can change the world. They need financial independence and the knowledge and the wherewithal to manage that money if they have that they can teach the world.
Sylvia Hii – Founder & CEO- DAP Group of Companies.
JourneyFor the past 10 years, it has been very fulfilling and living in my dream each day. Lots of learning and enjoyed every bit of the ups and downs throughout the journey of achieving my dream. It is my dream to build a business and nurture a group of entrepreneurs and give them the confidence to co-create and grow the business together. You need to have discipline, perseverance, compassion and conviction to drive a successful business.
Inspiration & Inspiring the team
Since young, I have always wanted to be independent and dream to create something new and unique. When I came to India, back in 2005, I met with Madam Uma Reddy and Madam Madhura C and saw how they created various activities and empowered women to self-sustain and provide them with skills and knowledge to run a business. It really inspired me and expand my thought of not just being a businesswoman but a social entrepreneur that will give back to society. My team is my strength; they have given me the power to strive every day. I believe in walking the talk so, my team have seen that I am always in action and leading by example.
Empowerment of Women
I am a strong supporter of Women’s Empowerment and I do my bit right from the people surrounding me. In my family, I encourage and support my siblings for achieving their dreams and in my office, I always ensure that the female staffs are comfortable with the working environment, provide equal opportunities for hike and promotion, provide them career guidance and encourage them to try something challenging and have confidence. I used to participate in public forums organised by colleges or associations that aim for women’s empowerment in Bangalore. In Malaysia, I am part of the women’s’ Institute of Management for the past 4 years and being invited to be their advisory board to their Millennial Chapter.
Sonica Aron- Founder and Managing Partner, Marching Sheep
Journey
Hailing from a family of doctors, an alumna of XLRI Jamshedpur, I was heading HR for Philips Consumer Life Style Business in India in 2012. I had an excellent corporate stint and had worked across industries and geographies in diverse roles and verticals. It seemed like the right time to evaluate the next steps and chart out what I wanted to do next.
Marching Sheep was born in 2013 with an intent to make a tangible difference in peoples’ lives and careers and to drive respect and equality for all. I wanted to explore my passion for Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion and apply my expertise in HR processes and practices, addressing business issues through people solutions holistically. I knew my craft as an HR professional but very little about running a consulting business. I had to learn that from scratch. From setting a business entity to creating my website to finding clients and making a pitch, all of this was new to me. It took time, but I did learn. While I genuinely enjoyed the delivery part of my work, the other elements were just as essential and took quite a bit of my time and effort.
Initially, we grew by word of mouth marketing. Happy clients referred me to others, and slowly the client base grew. I reached a stage where I could start hiring team members, and today we are a team of passionate HR professionals committed to making a difference each day. We are considered thought leaders, and our opinions get published in several publications- offline and online. We get invited to speak at various forums. We have received several awards, and we are proud to say that we have clients not just in India but across the globe as of today. The journey has been exhilarating, from starting as a solopreneur to building an award-winning HR advisory firm. And we are just getting started!
Inspiration & Inspiring the team
I cannot put my finger on a single source of inspiration. Stories are a salient and sacred part of my life. Passionate people from all parts of our community who make a difference motivate me. People have displayed immense perseverance and grit, be they an entrepreneur or student, an artist or an author. I find stories of change inspiring because these stories highlight the effort that is required to do something valuable. These champions of education, social justice, and other meaningful causes each have unique and valuable stories to tell. They drive me to explore the philosophical and personal reasons people give back to their communities.
The best stories in life contain four simple ingredients: good characters, a complex problem or challenge, attempts to beat that problem and a powerful conclusion. When people with no entitlement reach such great heights of success, personally sky is the limit for me. Ordinary people doing extraordinary things inspire me.
I cascade the same philosophy in my team. As a team, we are on a real mission to positively make a tangible difference in people’s lives. And as a leader, I lead by example and authenticity. Every interaction of mine, be it with a client or my team members, promises quality and commitment. I rely on storytelling as a powerful tool of communication with my team. The best stories make us think: what would I have done in that situation? How could I do that? What would it be like here if we could achieve that? If they can do it, then why can’t I? My mantra is pushing limits, not people. When I give my team the space to visualise the message, ideate and lead bravely, we weave the fabric of Marching Sheep with strength and sanctity.
Empowerment of Women
In my last two decades in the industry, I have seen the narrative around gender inclusion evolve. When I had joined the industry, there was no active, intentional conversation around it. While women were working in the workforce and getting hired, even in the best organisations and multinationals, there was no strategy, plan, policies, or processes to drive the agenda. POSH was non-existent with no awareness sessions like we have now.
Then, slowly came the realisation that having women in the workforce makes business sense and many companies received top-down targets to recruit women. Seen as an HR target, recruitment teams got into action, and there was no effort to establish an inclusive culture, a culture where a diverse workforce could thrive and grow. And that’s why; despite all the steps, you still find that there are few women at the leadership levels.
However, this agenda, which should have been a business agenda, got slotted as an HR agenda and was seen as something good to do, with female employees often typecast as ‘diversity candidates’. It took time, many conversations, research, dialogue for organisations to realise the need for Inclusion and equity and a more holistic approach toward driving gender inclusion.
Today many organisations have DEI embedded in their business strategy. They address it from a cultural and mind-set perspective, policy and process perspective, and several women in the workforce are not in typecast roles. Today, women are in diverse industries and functions- sales, manufacturing, infrastructure, finance, operations, and other traditionally male-dominated roles. The progress has been slow, and there have been setbacks. The pandemic, the lockdown, and the burden of managing the household and working from home saw many women take a back seat. This added responsibility is an eye-opener that all onuses do not lie with the organisations. A lot has to be done at the societal end as well. We need to change the societal expectations of a woman and empower our employees to handle both ends of the world.So the journey of empowerment needs to continue, dialogue conversations for change need to continue. Every step forward is progress. We can lament how little has changed or switch gears and accelerate change where we can.
Meghna Mittal – Co-founder and CMO of Songfest &Hoopr
Journey
My professional journey has nothing been short of an adventure. Starting my career from cancer research to being a music-tech entrepreneur, life has been a fun ride with loads of failures, learnings and success.
To start in the music business wasn’t an easy decision. Leaving a high-paying job was tough, but I’ve always liked to do things that are out of the box. Solving problems is something I love, which is a major part of my job. However, at the end of a long day at work, I can rest easy with the awareness that I am one step closer to attaining vision. I am doing what I love and I feel that’s most important.
Inspiration & Inspiring the team.
There are multiple inspiring qualities I have picked up from various people. I’ve learnt to have a strong work ethic from my father, a meticulous approach to things from one of my mentors and to have a larger vision in life by seeing so many successful entrepreneurs.
The only way to inspire others is when you make them aspire to be like yourself. And for that you have to not only lead by example but every now and then, guide them in the right direction, both professionally and personally.
Empowerment of Women
I have been very lucky to be surrounded by women and specially men who have always supported me and pushed me to pursue higher goals and vision. It was my husband who didn’t let me settle with a cushy job and believed that I could do much more. Later, when I joined GSharp, it was my co-founder, Gaurav Dagaonkar, who always pushed me to strive for excellence and have a larger vision. Women have that fire in them; it just needs the right surrounding to dazzle you!
Malika Kamboj -Founder Of Perceive Differently Marketing Agency – PD Group
Journey
In the beginning, it was just a dream for me to build a women dominated agency. An idea to disrupt the market and kill it with a holistic and ingenious approach. Now it’s a unique cross-disciplinary platform for companies—in content, strategy, communication, design, technology, and data—that trust in the power of perception.
As humans, we’ve got our glasses on- we base our realities on perceptions. While some are rooted, others come with “Viewer discretion advised”. At PD Group, the team and I believe in perceiving things differently to provide you with tailor-made solutions that are original and relevant.
We don’t just talk the talk; we walk it too!
Inspiration & Inspiring the team
It is 2022 and Women are breaking stereotypes. Advertisements earlier focused more upon women being limited to household chores or few specific professions. But here we are now with Advertisements which are portraying different shades of an Indian Woman. Ariel’s Share the load campaign was the first among the few others that broke gender stereotypes. Another great example is Titan Raga’s #HerlifeHerChoices.
It is beautiful to see how advertising has acted as a catalyst in bringing women the recognition they truly believe in and want to be seen. This Woman’s day, my team and I decided to feature women who have broken norms in their personal or professional life for the sake of self-love and happiness. #iperceiveitdifferently gave over ten women a platform to share their stories and become an inspiration for others. Women belonging to different backgrounds and industries featured them in the campaign by PD Group, like Richa Pallod, Mansi Verma, Team Of Papa Don’t Preach, Deepali Kothari (aka @kaChingit), Devanshi Shah(Founder: Supernatural Cold Pressed Oil), Pooja Doshi (Founder: Elusive dreams). I am grateful to everyone who supported the campaign and believes in the idea of women supporting women
Empowerment of Women
This women’s day campaign launched by Perceive differently is all about bold women who went against the well-established stereotypes of the society to achieve great heights in their industry. #iperceiveditdifferently is a beautiful ode to womanhood. It aims to inspire women to perceive it differently by showcasing women who are soaring high without caring about the society norms.
From a homemaker to being an entrepreneur, women today are unstoppable. Be it science & technology, pharmaceuticals, cosmetics, or the high-end fashion industry, women today know how to leave a mark wherever they set foot. Today’s women can do whatever they set their minds to. Perceiving differently is one such perfect celebration of the power and diligence of women across the globe. With a dream of empowering women, Malika Kamboj (founder), Khushi Bokadia (Social Media Manager) and the entire PD team started the campaign #iperceiveditdifferently this Women’s Day to celebrate ‘Independent’ women who constantly challenge and question their boundaries by breaking barriers.
This Women’s Day campaign launched by The PD Group portrays unity and strength, giving wings to the dreams of thousands of women across the globe to fly higher and higher. The campaign is all about nurturing womanhood which extends way beyond their boundaries by combining dreams, perseverance, and dedication which is bound to strike a chord. After all, it is all about ‘Them’.
Ankur Dahiya – Co-founder of Rozana.in
Journey
My journey has been close to that of Dangal, I started my journey as a Taekwondo player and represented India at the U19 World Tournaments and secured medals for the country. Due to some health issues I had to give up the sport.
I pursued my engineering and started my first venture which was acquired by a business and thereafter pursued PhD in AI and Data Science from IIM Lucknow. In 2017 I started Routier, a B2B trucking app for corporate customers. We worked with Coke, Pepsi, Reliance, Somany Tiles, Mother Dairy and many other renowned customers. Routier was acquired by a US based NASDAQ listed company.
During covid we started Rozana after taking exit from Routier. Rozana is a peer commerce platform, looking to foster a network of entrepreneurs using technology. Rozana is built for the 90% Indians outside the horizon of India’s tech world.
Rozana.in is in the business of making a network of micro-entrepreneurs and generating livelihood for these families in rural and urban India. Our endeavour is to empower millions of entrepreneurs through our background in AI based technology and logistics to create millions of entrepreneurs who can onboard customers in rural India and also in the urban sector. With a clear distinction in the rural and urban strategy; Rozana is aiming to connect India’s population living in the rural part of the country to online rural commerce through a network of micro entrepreneurs.
We help women (and men) become entrepreneurs in the villages. Through Smartphones we connect them to thousands of new companies which want access to rural customers. These companies put their offerings to the Rural Entrepreneur who further forwards it to villagers.
Inspiration & Inspiring the team
I have been inspired by many people but if you ask who the first to inspire me was, I would say women in rural Haryana. I have grown up seeing women in rural Haryana, and have seen their grit to work 16-18 hours a day. Their hard work has led many girls from Haryana to perform in the fields of sports, modelling, corporate and other places. I get an immense amount of strength from a Haryanvi woman. But in general I have been deeply inspired by women in rural India. Changing their lives through economic empowerment can be something which will change India. We are changing the way India imagined the countryside through technology and women empowerment.
Empowerment of Women
I don’t think my thoughts will be very different from that of our country. India cannot progress without women playing an equally important role as men. In my opinion women should be in leadership from a village level to corporate board rooms to ensure better results. Rozana is built on this premise, we are building a network of women entrepreneurs across India who are creating wealth leveraging technology. We believe that through technology we can change the ecosystem of a village with the woman in command. On this mission we are working on expanding to every village of India.
