It will arguably go down as a night to recollect showcasing a real company solidarity and oneness of goal in supporting ladies entrepreneurship.
The Express Awards for Women Entrepreneurs (or ExpressAWE) introduced on Friday noticed a tidal wave of entrepreneurial success. But what additionally added glitter and weight to the memorable night have been wealthy and insightful conversations between business veterans with takeaways for all times for the various main and budding ladies entrepreneurs.
The night started with a keynote interview of Sheryl Sandberg, COO, Meta, by Anant Goenka, government director, The Indian Express Group, which lined the whole altering panorama of ladies entrepreneurship.
The creator of ‘Lean In’, a milestone e book for working ladies, Sandberg urged the rising variety of ladies in Indian schools to not “leave before you leave”.
Congratulating The Indian Express Group for instituting ExpressAWE and for participating in conversations that matter, Sandberg reminded that whereas the proverbial glass ceiling nonetheless must be shattered by extra ladies, there was additionally a damaged rung that wanted fixing.
Or to cite a snippet from the interview: “Even before we get to that glass ceiling there is a broken rung and it is that first promotion to manager… men are promoted and hired based on their potential, women have to prove it… So the inequity starts few years after college.”
This was adopted by a free flowing and interesting dialogue between business veterans and the members of the jury who selected the awards within the organisation/established enterprise phase.
Each of them a lodestar for a lot of budding entrepreneurs (each ladies and men) — Deepak Parekh, chairman of HDFC and likewise the jury chair; Arundhati Bhattacharya, CEO and chairperson, Salesforce India; Kiran Mazumdar-Shaw, government chairperson, Biocon and Biocon Biologics; Preetha Reddy, government vice chairperson, Apollo Hospitals; and Zia Mody, co-founder and managing companion, AZB & Partners.
They mentioned what was enabling and hindering the ‘power of Her’ and tried to deal with some essential questions across the altering panorama of ladies entrepreneurship in India, their recommendation to budding ladies entrepreneurs, what business might do to allow this, what authorities and policymakers might do to facilitate it much more. They additionally spared a couple of minutes pondering on what they’d do in a different way in the event that they have been to start out another time at present. The message that stood out within the dialogue was that it was crucial for ladies entrepreneurs to remain the course, not to surrender and to do not forget that their time has come.
A spotlight of the night was a pleasant and interesting dialog between the Newsmaker of the yr award winner Falguni Nayar, founder and CEO, Nykaa, and the lifetime achievement award winner Anu Aga, former chairperson, Thermax. Looking at a spread of points ladies leaders grapple with and the way they type them out and carve out a distinct segment. From the nurturing substances that they construct on to the function that spouses and households play, the best way inheritance is seen and the way advantage actually counts. This and much more emerged from the dialogue between the 2 — one, a pacesetter who emerged as an icon of entrepreneurship and management in adversity after which go to institution-building whereas the opposite made information and impressed others with a deep entrepreneurial capacity to identify a possibility and guarantee wealth creation for the stakeholders whereas staying focussed on model constructing.
Watching the night unfold, one couldn’t assist however agree with Deepak Parekh who within the identify of Harry Belafonte stated, “Let us conclude that women of today are smarter than men in every way!” FE
