ISB Leadership Summit - Women in Business

WIB Club ILS Panel – Higher education & the India growth story

They came. They spoke. They conquered. Dr. Pronab Sen, the Principal Adviser to the Planning Commission of India, Dr. Indu Shahani, honorary Sherriff of Mumbai, recipient of “Women’s achievers award” and “Excellence in Education Award”, member of University Grants’ Commission, Dr. Shalini Sarin, Director of HR at Schneider Electric, India, Divya Ramachandran, CEO, Helios & Matheson Information Technology NA ., also an alumna from ISB’s founding batch. Four speakers. Four forces that came together and created a storm of ideas.

Organized by Women in Business (WIB) Club: Nandini Govindarajan, Saumya Joshi, Sneha Rajan, Sharon Ann Varghese, Shweta Sahjwani, Khushboo Pandey, Gunjan Paliwal, Sonali Saxena, Shruti Thakral. Moderated by Olivia Mukhopadhyay.

India is an emerging economy, at an inflection point, in need of talent. The WIB ILS discussion, thus, centred on the role and significance of higher education in India’s growth story. The issues addressed included the need for an innovation-based economy, brain drain, reverse brain drain, demand and supply in education sector, quality of education.

One of the highlights was the gap between the supply and demand of talent in the nation. Mr. Pronab Sen commented on how the economic system is churning out jobs our nations’ graduates don’t want to take up. Mr. Pronab Sen mentioned “According to statistics, the highest rate of unemployment in India is in graduate class”. Ms. Shalini Sarin emphasized that education is not being contextualized. She also added “Learning should not be offered in a tubular fashion in silos”.

Next, Dr. Indu Shahani threw some light on the issue of quality of education. She stressed upon the need for creative and independent thinkers, as well as, high-quality faculty. She emphasized the need of the hour to move from teaching institutions to research-oriented universities. She also commented “We need to be able to move from delivering knowledge to creating knowledge”. She insisted that the teachers be driven by the motto “teach from the head and inspire from the heart”.

Next, Divya Ramachandran indicated the mutual benefits corporates and academia could extract from a partnership to develop and nurture talent in the nation. Dr. Shalini Sarin added that more institutes should revise their curriculum regularly to keep up with the times, like ISB does. Divya also mentioned the recent trends in reverse brain drain, and mentioned this could be the perfect time to engage great talent.

All speakers agreed that India is at a tipping point. India has a lot of opportunities, but at the same time, there are issues staring it in the face. These issues must be addressed immediately, if the nation wishes to ride the approaching wave of success. Dr. Indu Shahani shared the following fortune cookie quote with the audience to signify the message to be left behind: “the world will accept best talent with open arms, no matter what”.

Shruti Thakral
Knowledge Initiatives Coordinator, Women In Business Club, ISB, Class of 2012

Facebook Directors’ Panel Discussion at the Indian School of Business – August 29th, 2011

The hustle-bustle died down; there was a sudden silence; their presence was being felt already. They exchanged a few modest looks amongst themselves, and seated themselves smiling all along! A quick round of introduction by the Vice President of the Women In Business Club at ISB, Ms. Saumya Joshi! And the discussion began! The moderator – Mr Salman Siddiqui, President of the Business Technology Club at ISB, started on a light note asking whether any of the three guests had a Google Plus account! The lecture theatre resonated with laughs for the next few moments! With three continents at the table, the guest panel included Ms. Kelly Graziadei, who looks after Brand Agency Strategy and Account Management at Facebook in Bay Area, California, Ms. Kirthiga Reddy, Director of Inline Operations and Head of Office at Facebook in India, and Ms. Gail Power, Director of Online Sales and Operations at Facebook in Europe.

The discussion warmed up with the Directors emphasizing that facebook is not just a social network, but a social graph of people’s online lives, resonating with Mark Zuckerberg’s description of facebook as a social utility. They also went on to stress how facebook is altering life, as we know it today, every single day. “Did you remember the Like button was introduced about a year ago?” noted Kirthiga. The audience was definitely surprised. After all, it feels like it’s the way of life now. I’ve even heard students on campus comment laughingly that Microsoft Outlook should also have a “Like” button.

Next, Kelly talked about how facebook is continually thriving to enhance users’ social experience, with efforts like Pandora that allow you to share your choice of music with friends, and how the use of sponsored stories is improving shopping experience for both, facebook users and advertisers.

Kirthiga, then, went on to stress facebook’s matra of user engagement, and pointed out the impact of applications built around this mantra, quoting Zynga (the online game developer with games on facebook) as an example. Next, she commented on the importance of mobile applications, especially for emerging markets like India, and the shift of advertising from traditional media like TV to social networking media. She stressed Kelly’s example of sponsored stories, where recommendations come from known contacts, as powerful tools of brand-building.

Next, Gail discussed the difference between facebook’s approach to advertising, in comparison to Google. She took the example of sponsored story forward, and mentioned Neilson’s survey that indicates four-fold purchase intent when recommendations come from friends.

In the end, all the three speakers addressed the Women in Business club members, and took turns to highlight the importance of cultural fit in organizations, pursuing career aspirations fearlessly and belief in own capabilities. The guests were then applauded by an audience that left the venue intellectually satiated and stimulated. With the same humble smiles over their faces, the guests then proceeded for a cup of coffee with the club members.

The journey begins - the Women In Business Club - ISB, CO2012

A quick routine, a careless smother of jelly on a partially toasted slice of bread, and an unbeaten hastily-stirred evening coffee, shoved down the throat, and off she is for another busy evening! Wait! Is it a Monday or a Thursday, a Friday or a Sunday? Does it even matter? There’s so many places to go to and not enough time in the world – LRC, classes, speaker session, tutorials, alum-on-campus sessions, peer-leaning sessions, event launches, CAS office, administrative lost-and-found department, and the list goes on and on.

But, this time she was off for a special cause – the ice-breaker event for the Women in Business Club, CO2012. She was striding fast to the Lecture Theater to meet the two accomplished women on campus. She had been looking forward to it all day. She had heard so much about them, and was keen on drawing inspiration to make it big in life. She got there just in time to find a seat in the front row, exchanged a smile with one of the speakers from a distance, and settled in.

The first speaker was Ms. Savita Mahajan, who was currently serving as the Deputy Dean and CEO of ISB’s Mohali campus. She completed her MBA in 1981 from IIM-Ahmedabad and got married to an IIM batch-mate. She has over 30 years of work experience with organizations like GE Capital, the Planning Commission of India, the World Bank, and the Tibetan government in exile of the Dalai Lama. She has two children – a son and a daughter, who are both studying away from home. This gives her the mobility and flexibility her current job calls for.

Ms. Mahajan started by gauging which stage in life each of the WIB members was at – single, married, motherhood. She, then, expressed how vital it is, as a working woman and a mother, to have a supporting husband - something she’s been extremely lucky about. She went on to share some lessons she has learnt by looking at her life in hindsight. The most important ones being:
• Let go of the desire to excel at everything, and prove capabilities to self and others
• Acknowledge changes in trade-offs at different stages in life
• Decide trade-offs based on what’s acceptable to you
• Be at peace with yourself
• Don’t negotiate less at work because you’re a woman – know your strengths
• Be persistent at work – express your expectations well. In other words, make no assumptions, that people around you would understand

The next speaker was Ms. Jayanti Rajgopalan, who has 13 years of experience, working in sales and marketing in organizations like Titan and Bill and Melinda Gates foundation, before she founded her theme-based travel tours venture “Detours” in Hyderabad in 2008. Ms. Rajgopalan completed her MBA from XLRI, Jamshedpur in 1995.

Ms. Rajgopalan started off by pointing out that some jobs suit women better than men, for the simple reason that women draw feelings from the world around them. But, she also mentioned a caveat – often times, the world assumes a woman’s assertion to be aggression. She mentioned that successful women are still seen as an exception, and we all need to change that perception over the coming years.

Ms. Rajgopalan also shared a few lessons she has learnt by drawing experiences from her own life, as well as, the lives of women around her. The most important ones being:
• Never let your confidence drop because of criticism
• Follow your natural instinct
• Deal with internal pressure first
• Let go of the fear of being judged
• Don’t just get caught in your ideas – execute them
• Stop making excuses for not doing things you want to do, and do them already
• Be prepared for handling physical danger, if your job calls for it; but, don’t let it stop you

What a fruitful day it turned out to be! After all, who wouldn’t be inspired by these two influential women, and who wouldn’t want to learn from their life experiences. But, some things we all learn from our own mistakes. Off she goes, smiling out on the way home from the speaker session to make her own mistakes in life – determined, yet aware of the hurdles life might have to offer, but nonetheless, ready to fight them all.