Feminine flavor

Zarin Daruwala and Tanya Dubash are the new entrants in the business today (BT) compilation of "30 at the top” — a selection of the 30 most powerful women in business in India. The magazine’s seventh listing, in its issue of November 28, 2010, includes Zarina Mehta, Zia Mody and Meher Pudumjee among India Incorporated’s foremost women leaders.

Lara Balsara and Nisa Godrej find a place in "The next 30.” "There is no dearth of power women waiting in the wings,” BT writes. Beroz Gazdar and Prochie Mukherji are featured in a group picture of senior women executives in the Mahindra and Mahindra Group in a continuation of the cover story of the most powerful women in business. Just 11 percent of 240 large companies in India have women CEOs (chief executive officers), according to a study by EMA Partners. Only 5.3 percent of board positions in India’s BSE-100 (the top companies listed on the Bombay Stock Exchange) are held by women, according to a report by Standard Chartered Bank, records the magazine.

Under the heading "The Complete Banker” BT profiles Daruwala who also finds a place on the magazine’s cover, alongside Mody and Leena Nair, executive director, human resources, Hindustan Unilever and the first woman to storm the boardroom bastion of the giant FMCG (fast-moving consumer goods) company.

Daruwala is group executive, wholesale banking, ICICI Bank. Her biggest achievement in 2010 was her elevation to the post of group executive where she manages more than 4,000 corporate clients in what is India’s biggest private bank with total assets of Rs 3,634 billion (as on March 31, 2010). "Today, Daruwala is a key member in CEO Chanda Kochar’s new top team, entrusted three months ago with a portfolio that accounts for a little over half of ICICI’s bottom line,” the magazine notes. Daruwala had started her career in the late 1980s, working with eminent chartered accountant Yezdi Malegam, who later advised her to join ICICI Limited (before it became a bank). At ICICI, her first boss was Lalita Gupte, one of the stalwarts of the ICICI group who is now chairperson, ICICI Venture Funds. "In a few years she (Daruwala) was working in the office of N. Vaghul, then chairman of the development financial institution,” BT adds.

Marriage meant a shift to Delhi in 1992 with ICICI Securities, handling a portfolio of bond and public issues and mergers and acquisitions. Five years later it was back to Bombay in corporate banking. In 2002 she was handed ICICI’s rural portfolio. Being in a position of power is important because "it brings a sense of responsibility towards people whose lives can be changed by your decisions,” she believes. "Prioritize, strategize, trust your people, sell your idea to your team and watch the difference,” is 45-year-old Daruwala’s philosophy for work-life balance, states the magazine.

Dubash’s biggest achievement in 2010 was "connecting to a new set of customers as businesses like realty, modern retail have gathered steam” in the 113-year-old Godrej Group whose turnover exceeds $ 2.6 billion. Dubash, 42, is Group chairman Adi Godrej’s daughter. As executive director and president, marketing, Godrej Group, Dubash was given the unenviable task of erasing the perception commonly held that Godrej as a brand belonged to one’s parents’ and grandparents’ generation! Several innovations later, the Group has a bright new logo and their products, according to Dubash, have gained market share by at least 10 percent across audited categories. Dubash also heads the Group’s marketing council which consists of the heads of marketing of all Group companies. "I enjoy communicating,” the magazine quotes Dubash, but "taking hard people decisions” is still something she is not comfortable with.

Widely tipped in the media and elsewhere as the likely successor to Adi Godrej, Dubash is silent on succession plans. She recalls her weekend visits to the Vikhroli campus as a six-year-old. "But that had little to do with the family business. It was more to enjoy the beauty of the campus. When you come from a family business, you are surrounded by talk of business,” she told the BT correspondent. "Have a happy family life” is her tip for work-life balance, adding that a workplace without women is like "a family without a mother.”

"Making UTV Bindass the No 1 youth channel” is Mehta’s biggest contribution in the last year. Mehta, 48, is chief creative officer, UTV Broadcasting and UTV Interactive. "She has been pushing the envelope of creativity — some would argue that she is also pushing the boundaries of decency — with radical programming. Shows like Emotional Atyachaar, which spies on a partner and attempts to bring infidelity out into the open, have been raking in the rating points…” BT analyses. UTV Broadcasting includes channels like UTV Movies, UTV Action and UTV World Movies. "UTV Broadcasting contributed close to a fourth of the total turnover of flagship company UTV Communications,” states the write-up.

Mehta and her team have also focused on creating content for mobiles. "We have created two-to-four-minute long movies and TV shows exclusively for mobiles,” she says. "Content is king and the queen is content,” the magazine summarizes.

Half of those who work at AZB and Partners are women. "We try and nurture young women lawyers in their careers through the difficult patches of marriage and bringing up children with sensitivity and understanding,” Mody told BT. AZB handled some of the biggest transactions last year — Bharti-Zain, Fortis-Parkway as well as Vedanta-Cairn… "We have become one of the first points of call in any major merger and acquisition transaction,” said the managing partner of what is one of India’s leading law firms. A workplace without women is like "a bird with one wing,” she describes.

(Mody was accorded the "Business Woman of the Year” honor at the ET Awards for Corporate Excellence 2009-10 on January 8, 2011. "I come from the Baha’I faith. Our prophet told us that if you can educate only one child in the family, educate the girl because she will be the mother,” Mody is quoted in The Economic Times, January 10, 2011. Mody is the daughter of Soli Sorabjee, former Attorney-General of India and Zena, a leader of the Baha’Is.)

"She isn’t your regular corporate CEO. Pudumjee, chairperson of Thermax Limited, eschews management jargon and does not think it is a big deal to be ‘powerful,’” BT writes. "I do not like the word,” Pudumjee is quoted as saying. "Powerful to me is being a good human being and making a difference.” When it comes to strategy and execution, however, "she is bang on the money,” the magazine assesses. A workplace without women is like "missing out on 50 percent of the world’s population,” Pudumjee noted.

Balsara is petite, pretty and a sharpshooter, BT describes. As business development and diversification manager, she identifies new opportunities for her father Sam Balsara’s communications group, Madison World. She is on the board of a new 50:50 joint venture with UK ad agency Beattie McGuinness Bungay which launched the latter in India.

Nisaba (Nisa) Godrej, president, human capital and innovation, Godrej Industries, is the second daughter of Group chairman Adi Godrej and one of only two Indian women to have made it to the Forbes annual list of 10 billionaire heiresses to watch for in the near future, according to BT. With an MBA (Master of Business Administration) from Harvard Business School to her name, 32-year-old Nisa’s role includes the selection and development of top management. She has also been involved in setting up a strategy cell for Godrej, the magazine enumerates.

[Sisters Tanya and Nisa along with their sibling 29-year-old Pirojsha (who is executive director, Godrej Properties) and their cousin 27-year-old Navroze Godrej (manager, special projects, Godrej and Boyce, who is the son of Jamshyd), are the fourth generation ‘young inheritors’ at the Godrej Group.]

Life without women in the workplace would indeed be — in the words of the powerful people — like food without spice, a garden without flowers, a sky without stars!